won by individual scholars.

The real weakness of the present system is that it does not examine the schools as a whole, but only the picked boys; and that notwithstanding the great services it has rendered to education, the examinations do not yet perform the highest service they are capable of, that is, for affording a trustworthy test of the efficiency of the schools from which the candidates come. The public hear of the successes, but not of the failures. Unless some pressure is put on schools by the universities, it will be a very long time before schoolmasters will be able to resist the temptation of sending in their "prize boys" for public examination. This is not merely a negative evil, for it not only thwarts the intention of the examination, which was to improve the general teaching of schools, and to furnish a public test of its quality; but it is liable to become a positive evil also, for it presents a strong temptation to devote an unfair share of teaching power to those who were likely to do well, and to bestow less attention on those who are not likely to become promising candidates. The fact that the success of a few boys is referred to as an indication of the excellence of a school, when, in fact, it only proves that boys of a given ability can be trained into first or second classes at certain schools, is evident from scholastic advertisements. The supplementary tables might contain information as to the number of pupils in each school from which candidates presented themselves, and the number of failures. This would give security for the more equal cultivation of all the pupils, and it would prepare the public mind for what would perhaps be the best plan for all-viz., that universities should examine schools only, and not picked scholars. He also suggested that schools should be examined in their own subjects; the non-enforcement of set subjects, which would allow of that elasticity which is necessary in a higher education; and that it might be well for those who manage the examinations to consider the propriety of trying to secure the services of more men who have had experience of school work for the carrying on the examinations which already exist, and those which they hope are to be.

A paper, on "The Public Elementary Act of 1870, and the Codes," was read by Mr. ROWLAND HAMILTON. He said that before endeavouring to form any estimate of the working of the Primary Education Act of 1870, the question arises, what part of this great work can or ought to be attempted by legislation at all? what should be left to the growth of public opinion and morality, stimulating private exertions? and what points are so much in dispute that they must of necessity be eliminated from the field to render any conjoint action possible? However much such differences are to be lamented, it is not the less true that the limits of common agreement are the absolute limits of united action. If the field of action is unduly narrowed, it is not the fault of the Legislature, which does no more than recognise an indisputable fact; and whatever apparent uniformity might be gained in some respects by coercion, the higher powers of the

mind which are required especially for such a work as the present have never been called forth by any such means. Experience and a more enlightened sense of common responsibility only can enlarge the sphere of common action. Not only is far too much often expected from legislation, but the way in which a law can operate is much misapprehended. Its requirements cannot be vague and expansive; they must be specific and definite. Default cannot even be alleged against those who act up to a recognised average standard, and the penalties which give force to law can only be exacted from those who can be proved to fall below such a standard. It is obvious, therefore, that the minimum only of the requirements which the Legislature desires to impose can be enforced by legal or quasi-legal expedients, while if the attempt be made to advance the action of law too far in advance of public opinion, that minimum will be stereotyped, and be taken as the limits of the enforced duty, and of the line beyond which the aggression of Government cannot justly be extended. There is, moreover, a large capacity for individual action, though lying too much dormant, in the country. The mass of detail which would crush and overwhelm a central office, will, when divided among many local authorities, afford a healthy stimulus to personal exertion, and responsible local self-government be thus developed in co-ordination with the more regular official departments in a way from which the best results may be anticipated in the long run, though at first some difficulties will have to be encountered. Hitherto the proceedings under the Act, directly and indirectly, have been voluntary. The compulsory powers will shortly come into effect, and not till then can any opinion be formed as to the way in which its more formal provisions will shape themselves in practice, and a just idea formed from experience of the proportions of the whole scheme. The necessity for the formation of school boards for carrying out the full provisions of the Act, must vary much according to the circumstances of different places. In most cases it will be the first step required in towns to enable them to set to work at all, and the last in rural districts to extend school organization and frame bye-laws, after the preliminary work of providing schools shall have been completed by the existing parish machinery or by personal efforts. The training of teachers is one of the most important parts of the work, and there could be no greater error than to suppose that those who fail in teaching elder children are therefore good enough for infants. As things now are, especially the judicious and skilful instruction of infants must be the basis of the whole system. Taught in their own homes they rarely can be; and in all classes the intelligent association of school learning, with all objects of interest in daily life, is one of the most important ends of true education.

A paper was read by Mrs. AMELIA LEWIS, on "The Objects of Female Education." She maintained that the preparation for the object of female life should be based on such a sound and general basis

as will enable a woman either to procure some remunerative occupation if necessary, or to fulfil the law of nature in a rational manner by becoming a wife and mother. She deemed the higher, artistic, intellectual, and professional education for women just now below that of the general fitness for life's duties in importance; to her the question of the broad, sound education for girls appears one of the most important of the day, as its realization will determine the status of the next generation in civilization. What are then the evident necessities to obtain this true object of female life? Large public schools, in which a plan of education is followed, based on the necessities and realities of life. The knowledge of our own tonguethat means the acquisition of the best ways to express ourselves in written or oral signs; the thorough knowledge of computing numbers and quantities, that is, arithmetic; an acquaintance with the globe we inhabit; the laws that direct its existence, the produce of its various zones, and the peoples that have inhabited it, and are inhabiting it, with their historical and industrial development. Some knowledge of our own body, upon which women and girls should by this time be receiving instruction from women capable of giving it; and such a thorough knowledge of our three great wants, viz., food, housing, and clothing, as will fit a woman, in whatever station, to comprehend the immense importance of these requirements, and have the power of supplying them beneficially and agreeably. The cultivation of the voice for singing, and that of the hand and eye for drawing should follow.

Miss PAULL read a paper on "The Education and Employment of the Blind." As no special provision had been made in the recent Education Act with regard to the instruction of the blind, their culture had been left, as hitherto, very much to individual effort, or to the combined action of the benevolent by charitable institutions. For the blind belonging to the upper and middle classes of society, a sufficient number of good schools might surely be established, which should employ, as far as practicable, highly educated blind teachers, who are far more able to estimate the capabilities and possibilities of their pupils than seeing teachers could be. One or more schools have been set on foot. It would be quite possible to go farther than this with the blind children of parents in easy circumstances, and establish colleges for young men and women, where they might attain degrees for proficiency in certain accomplishments, notably music, and to which there might also be presentations for especially clever pupils of a different class from institutions, who had raised themselves to deserve such a reward. Much was left to be done in the physical education of the blind; and if some modes could be devised to give them active exercise-games that should necessitate a freer use of limbs-they would be a great boon. Though the popular belief that the blind have such learning, and such a keen sense of touch as almost to make up to them for their loss of sight, is true to a limited extent, and more especially of those

who have been born blind; yet it must be remembered that a very large number of the blind have become so through disease or accident when past their youth. Music was the art which was most available to the blind, and for which they have the keenest appreciation and delight. Many employments should by its means be open to them, and ministers should be induced to give the preference to a blind person for the situation of organist, all other things being equal.

Mr. WILLIAM BEER read a paper on "The Training System in Use in the Royal Navy." Having entered fully into the particulars of the system since its establishment, he declared that we cannot but contemplate in this training system a vast moral, physical, and professional improvement on the hap-hazard usages which it superseded. We have, however, another service which is suffering from the want of a similar system. Our mercantile navy is becoming annually more largely manned by foreigners. Eighteen thousand men are required annually to supply the waste, for which only 6,000 lads are entered. A movement, commenced by Mr. Moore, of Plymouth, and receiving the cordial support of the Associated Chambers of Commerce, will in a short time bring this question into great prominence. Those of the House of Commons who are interested in shipping, and who press this matter on the attention of the Government, are told that the country cannot educate sailors for the benefit of great shipowners. Granted, but surely we can devise some system which shall turn into a profession open to receive them some of that surplus population of ours which must either emigrate or starve on shore? Surely some plan is to be discovered by which some of the thousands who will be educated at the new board schools can be converted into skilled sailors?

HEALTH.

SEWAGE POISONING.

What Steps should be taken to guard against Sewage Poisoning? By P. H. HOLLAND.

SOME

OME persons are inclined to answer this question by simply advising us to keep all poisonous matter out of the sewers, forgetting apparently that safety requires filth to be got rid of and removed to a prudent distance before it becomes poisonous, as rapidly and as economically as possible, and that no other way has been, or is likely to be, discovered so quick, so effectual, and so economical as conveyance through the sewers by water. To those who contend that because it is possible to retain filth near dwellings without its being a source of annoyance or danger, by disinfecting it with earth or otherwise, therefore it should not be mixed with sewage to increase the difficulty of its disposal, the reply is simple. It is quite as possible to keep a pigsty inoffensive as a privy, and not very difficult; but it is so difficult as to be practically impossible to enforce regulations by which all pigsties shall always be inoffensive, that in most towns it is found necessary, in self-defence, to insist that there shall be no pigsties at all, and for the like reason it ought to be insisted that no collection of filth shall be under any circumstances allowed. It is neither just nor prudent that the safety of any should be dependent upon the carefulness of all, as it must be if collections of "the filthiest of all filth " be allowed near dwellings, which can only be prevented from becoming actively injurious by the constant carefulness of every family, and the untiring vigilance of the officers appointed to enforce such care. The only safe course is, therefore, to provide for the immediate removal of that which is disgusting and dangerous, and to take care that none of it lodges by the way; for it is less the sewage itself than deposit from sewage from which danger and annoyance proceed. It is when a sewer is allowed to become what is, in fact, a cesspool, that it does harm as a cesspool does. If there be no deposit in sewers, little danger from them is to be feared.

"Little danger;" but is there any danger? Perhaps not, if stagnation of sewage could be absolutely prevented; but that is difficult to ensure, nor is it certain that sewage gives off nothing