an historical account of the Massacres of September, commencing

"Les nouvelles de la guerre vinrent porter à son comble l'exaspération du parti révolutionnaire."

The lesson was read, passage by passage, by individual boys, and then translated into German.

The boys I heard were distinctly slow but accurate. Relatively unknown words were, at the teacher's order, written down by the pupils in small note books and the German translation appended.

I was allowed at this point to look at the boys' books of grammatical exercises and essays. The books, as is usual in Germany, were most carefully marked, but I thought the mistakes were rather numerous. I enquired as to the teaching of grammar. This teacher said it was necessary, because the time was so short, and that one could not possibly dispense with it.

Then followed rapid grammatical questions on the parts of the verbs and the grammatical constructions in the lesson just read, the constructions being further illustrated by new sentences given by the pupils. This part of the work was extremely well done.

Berlin.-Secondary Modern School. Class I. Twenty

boys were present, averaging sixteen years of age. French had been studied for four years; for the first and second years for eight hours weekly, and for the third and fourth for six hours weekly.

The first section of the lesson consisted of a vivâ

voce correction of the exercise which had been written at home. The explanations were in German, the teacher stating that this was his usual practice, as otherwise he would be explaining the unknown by the still more unknown.

Next the boys read, one by one, from Gabriel Ferry's Contes Choisis. The teacher stopped all mistakes in pronunciation and called on other boys for corrections. Then, on each section, there were questions in French, which selected pupils answered in French. This was good but rather slow, as the boys did not know the story by rote and many of the sentences required a real exercise in construction. The teacher, who did not think highly of the new method, pointed out that by that method the answers were too often mere repetitions, and that he wished to give an actual exercise in thought in each case.

The boys translated exercises at home, but did not attempt original compositions; what they did rather was to give short summarised accounts of what they had read. The teacher was kind enough to give me some pages of such work which had been done, he said, by typical scholars. I reproduce one of these exactly as written, prior to correction :

Le 26 Mars 1811 le général Rayon se mit en marche du Saltillo à Lacatecas. Ruperto Castaños se trouvait parmi les partisans dévoués à ce général. Pendant quatre jours il fallut que les soldants combattissent sans cesse contre les Espagnols. Après une de ces escarmouches les outres des Mexicains avaient été éventrées, les barils défoncés et ils se trouvaient

Tout étaient couché sur

dans un désert sans sources. le sol haletants de soif et de fatigue. Les sentinelles n'avaient presque plus la force de tenir leurs fusils. Ruperto etait aussi trés anéanti, mais un soldat nommé Valdivia lui apportait un peu d'eau. Ils me dit qu'il faut monter à cheval aussitôt pour prendre l'endroit où se trouvait l'eau. C'etait une hacienda. Alors il s'éloigna en emportant l'outre avec lui. Lorsque la nuit était venue Valdivia venait et me passa une outre pleine et rebondie, et cent cavaliers prêts à partir m'attendaient. Je demandai à Valdivia pourquoi nous n'avertîmes le général qu'il nous donna un millier d'hommes. Il répondit, que le général n'était plus maître de ses troupes et continua-t-il, si nous n'enlevons pas tout de suite l'hacienda, demain le général n'aura plus un soldat. A peine avait-il fini qu'un grand tumulte se fit entendre.

À la lueur de beaucoup de torches qui allaient et venaient, nous vîmes le général s'avancer seul vers les soldats les plus furieux, mais ils ne lui obéissaient pas. Valdivia dit: Il n'y a pas de temps à perdre, encore cette nuit il faut que nous puissions annoncer au général que ses troupes auraient de l'eau demain. Nous partîmes à cheval mais Valdivia me porta un soldat en costume des lanciers espagnols. Pendant l'absence du soldat le tumulte s'etait calmé. Nous rejoignîmes des cavaliers qui nous attendaient dans la plaine et nous chevauchâmes vers l'hacienda.

II.-ENGLISH

Hamburg.-Primary School. Selecta. Nine boys were thirteen, twenty-three boys were fourteen years old.

It will be remembered that foreign languages are not usually taught in the primary schools of Germany. In Hamburg, however, English is taught for four hours a week, and is begun, according to the Lehrplan, in the third class, which corresponds to our Standard V. In this class the children were staying somewhat beyond the ordinary school age, namely, fourteen, and this was, as we should say, a class beyond the standards, or Ex-VII., and is called by the Germans Selecta.

The lesson began with translation from English into German from the "Two Goats," a passage familiar to teachers who use the New Royal Readers.

"Two goats had left a valley and climbed far up a mountain. At length they met on the banks of a wild rushing stream.”

Another passage dealt with was :—

"Soon she met a poor man who said to her, 'Give me something to eat, for I am hungry.' Next she met a little girl crying very much.”

I give the above passages, partly to illustrate the stage of difficulty reached in the English itself, and partly, for those who know German, to see the difficulties or lack of them in the translation into German. The teacher spoke English well, but the pronuncia

tion of the boys was not very good. None of them, however, seemed to have difficulty in translating the English orally into German.

The teacher asked a few questions during the translation, such as, "Give another English way of saying 'a little girl crying very much,'" and was answered, "A little girl who cried very much."

The next section of the lesson was a composition. The outline was in the English book, thus :—

A Balloon

"1. A balloon, a large, spherical bag of silk, filled with gas. 2. To rise and float in the air. 3. The man who ascends in it, the balloonist." And so on.

The children were then required to ask a question on each section. "Who can give the first question ?" said the teacher. One boy said, "What is a balloon?" and was answered, "A balloon is a large, spherical bag of silk, filled with gas." Another boy gave the second question, "What is a balloon for?" But the teacher preferred the question, "What can it do?” to which the answer was given, "It can rise and float in the air." The third question was given, "What is the man called who ascends in it?" and the answer was, "The man who ascends in it is called the balloonist."

Doubtless this exercise has value, but it is certainly not a composition in any sense; it is really dictation, each complete sentence being written down in the words of the book with the addition of a few connective words.

The teacher was kind enough to allow me to ask