of a very difficult problem." It will perhaps be felt to be a peculiar confirmation of this approval that after fifteen years the successor both of Dr. Arnold and Dr. Philpotts should have felt justified in expressing the following public opinion of the religious results of the experiment:

"As far as I have observed in speaking to a great many people of very different opinions, and very different parties, on this question, there is no school in the country which conciliates to itself a larger amount of favourable opinion, and at once disarms hostility more entirely, than this school at West Buckland. I believe that the course here pursued has, at any rate, succeeded in this respect, that it is confessed on all hands that the religious instruction given is really religious, and, on the other hand, I never yet heard of any one who could complain that there was any interference with the rights of conscience whatever."

CHAPTER V.

A COUNTY COLLEGE.

FEW educational experiments would be more important and interesting than that which should

determine whether, by means of self-supporting third-grade schools, the wants of the lower middle-class can be effectually supplied without their being drawn downwards into a State-aided system. Perhaps, however, it is of even prior importance to decide where the centres are to be found round which the whole of an independent system, consisting of first, second, and third-grade schools, may revolve with adequate local distribution, and under energetic academical and provincial administration. I have long felt that county colleges, as superior institutions to county schools, were needed, both to draw to a higher stage the more advanced schoolboys, and to assist those willing and competent to become teachers to prepare themselves for the growing requirements of public tuition. I have also seen that such colleges ought themselves to be more or less connected with universities, new or old. I do not know, however, that I should have ventured to propose the actual experiment of a county college within a university, if a private object had not led me to become a temporary resident in Cambridge, and if I had not become aware that serious proposals were being entertained

for establishing one or more training colleges for the middle-class schools, by a combination of endowments. I felt that it was of the. greatest importance that one at least of such institutions should, if possible, be placed within the precincts of an old university. Though exceptionally fortunate in securing very able head-masters for the Devon and Norfolk County Schools, I had come to know how very difficult indeed it is to find teachers who can be relied upon to teach what they profess, and still more to sustain a high, as distinct from a sentimental, tone of honour in schools where there is much admixture of rank, and the social standard is necessarily at a moderate level. I was induced, therefore, in spite of the magnitude of the undertaking and my own incompetence to deal with many of the difficulties involved, to issue the following proposal in 1872:

"The County College: An Educational Proposal addressed to the Town of Cambridge, with the surrounding counties, and to Members of the University," by the Rev. J. L. Brereton. Macmillan & Co. 1872.

Y

"THE COUNTY COLLEGE.

"The object of the following proposal is to combine various efforts recently made to promote middle-class Education, especially those connected with the Universities and the endowed and proprietary schools in the counties: -to increase the value of the local examinations by connecting them with collegiate residence; to give facilities for obtaining an early and inexpensive degree; to raise the standard and increase the supply of masters; to give special preparation for various branches of professional and practical life; and especially to provide one or more institutions through which many wasted and worthless endowments may be made available for modern requirements, and combined into an effective system.

"With these ends in view it is proposed that 'the County College' shall be an association of shareholders, registered under the Joint Stock Companies Acts, with a capital of 24,000l. in 107. shares; that the management be through a body of trustees and directors, to be elected under such conditions as would