IF

F travellers are pre-eminently those who see strange sights, others, too, have an occasional glimpse of odd things. I, an Examiner, have occasionally relieved the monotony of my work by jotting down a few of the singular specimens of imperfect instruction and training which come under my censorship, and I propose here to make from my notes a few random extracts of recent date. I shall not be expected to say in what particular service I am engaged, where I acknowledge my head-quarters, or to what distant centres' I may have occasionally to travel in search of duly qualified candidates, the results of such search being usually followed by considerable dissatisfaction among the more promising pupils of various select academies and preparatory colleges, and of proportionable indignation among the principals of those flourishing and ill-appreciated establishments. Frequently, however, these outlying examinations are held under district examiners selected for the occasion, and in one department the papers are handed to the candidate by an officer of the department whose task closes with the remittance to London of the papers and the answers, one of whom, the story goes, stated with simple honesty that he had given the papers to the (nominated) candidate to take home. It is only fair to say that competitive examinations are never held in this way; a nominee receives an appointment of comparatively humble grade, provided he satisfies the authorities of his possession of some rudimentary knowledge in certain subjects and to add that the officer whose letter became an immediate subject of enquiry had made a case against himself withThe paper (not papers) given to the candidate to be filled

out reason.

up at home was a form for certificate of birthplace and age.

If the schoolmasters and tutors who prepare boys or 'men' (in the university phrase) for competitive examinations could see the masses of rubbish written upon elementary subjects in test examinations by candidates from whom (and often with reason) they expect fair results in the higher competitions which follow the Tests,' they would apply the same ordeal of a test more frequently than they do, before sending up their candidates. Nothing is more usual than to find, especially in candidates from the public schools (many of whom are capable of writing fair Latin, good translation, and even tolerable explanations of syntax in dead languages) the most deplorable ignorance of the very accidence of English, and the most ridiculous and whimsical disregard of such laws of spelling as our composite and erratic language presents. There is a paper set in a certain large class of examinations, known as the orthographical paper, to which, by the bye, many men of good judgment object (Sir John Pakington, if I remember well, among the number), the objection being that the arrangement of letters in the words disturbs the picture which the words should present, and unsettle the mental perception of their form. This orthographical paper is one in which the majority of the words are deliberately misprinted, the 'catch ' being rendered the more severe by the not infrequent introduction of correct spelling; and I have no hesitation in saying that from the 'dictations' of so-called well-educated candidates, it would be very possible in many examinations to construct a paper as absurd in appearance as one of these orthogra

phical tests. And the Massacre of the Innocents proceeds quite as ruthlessly in arithmetic as in spelling. In March last the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in reply to a question of Mr. Cubitt respecting the Civil Service Examinations, stated that great defects in the education of the candidates for the higher class of appointments had been discovered. 'Out of about 180 candidates,' said Mr. Lowe, 'who came up, I think 120 were plucked in the elementary subjects of reading, orthography, and arithmetic.' To which statement, a parenthetic laughter' is not unnaturally annexed.

6

If schoolmasters, then, and anxious parents and guardians are wise, they will do well enough to think much of the -logies (or -ologies as they are called) and the higher curriculum,' as it is the affectation to name the more advanced course of instruction: but they will do better to think more of the humbler elements, the three R's of which we talk so much for the poor, and think so little, till too late, for the children of the richer classes of society. This neglect of a solid foundation is so remarkable, that, as an Examiner, I have no hesitation in saying that in a competition between an average number of boys fresh from Eton and Harrow, and an equal number from national or other schools well supported by the class of artisans and operatives of large towns, the former would be absolutely beaten in the subjects mentioned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The candidate of the latter class would probably not be able to detect the absurdity of translating Iron still buried in the ground' by 'le fer accouchant dans la terre;' or a sense of humour' by'une idée de tumeur;' or that of the Times correspondent who a few days since wrote quelque soit, as qu'elleque, twice or thrice; of the version of Sunbeams' by 'Phoebi

trabes' (an old joke I believe); or of the attempt to render the name of Leonardo da Vinci into the Lion of Venice:' but I think he would be the less likely to write about 'atrocious breeches (breaches) of public faith,' or call himself a candidate for a senses (census) clerkship. Beyond question, the intelligence of the class of gentlemen who go in for commissions in the army is much higher than it was in the days when candidates were questioned about their confirmation, and when it was not unusual for them to do their addition right, their subtraction work right but wrongly copied out, while their multiplication was a series of laborious efforts ending in nothing. But of all our public examinations those for the army are still those which present the weakest competitors, and I think it was one of these who not long since gravely penned an 'Annunciation' of Euclid, and another who wrote of a triangle, whose sides shall be respectable and equal to three given straight lines.'

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If, however, Public Examiners are sorely tried by the correction of papers from which good results might à priori have reasonably been expected, they have of late years been placed under the harrow by a class of candidates whom the growth of the competitive system in humbler services has brought forward. There are now open competitions for places of very moderate but certain salaries frequently advertised, and for these any shop or warehouse boy of creditable character and on payment of a few shillings' fee, may present himself at the great Omnium Gather'em shop in Combustible Row. Very creditable results of examination in such cases are not infrequent; but perhaps the majority of the candidates know little or nothing of any subject whatever, and the simple papers set are answered in such a way that a

headache is no unusual result of the attempt to decipher the answers, rendered the more puzzling by smears and blots to which even Kit Nubbles' copybook would no doubt have presented a page fair by comparison. It is very common, I believe, in the arithmetic examination of such candidates, to find the subtraction added, and the addition worked from tens to units, i.e. from left to right. I might, from my own experience, give examples of work which may fairly claim rank with the worst of these; but I acknowledge my specimens of composition surpassed by one which has been put into my hands, the production of a worthy fellow seeking promotion to a higher grade of his service, and which I append below (though the Editor of this Magazine cannot allow it to be lithographed for the exercise of the reader's ingenuity). I made it out with some difficulty, and think it in its way quite equal to that version of a bit of catechism where the girl wrote off all that are put in authority under her,' deciphered with difficulty as all that are pet in a forty.'

As it is my object to render this little paper useful as well as perhaps amusing, I shall abstain from the illustration of such learned errors as that of the candidate rejected by the Department into which he had passed by competition, and who translated naturaliter cauta est,' 'is caught in a state of nature;' or such renderings as 'on ne peut être plus sensible que vous,' 'your nephew is more sensible than you are.' The following illustrations of defective elementary education may perhaps help to render some candidates more careful in preparation, and some teachers more particular in grounding rather than grinding.

The specimen of spelling which follows is carefully copied from the original, and if my readers find it difficult I am at liberty to inform them that of the last four words

from a town which I will call East Here is the copy of a letter sent Deerwater:

Sir, -You will think it very unbecomeing of me to address you this. circular, with all information requred in After you been so kind as to send the but if I am tres

conection with the

pasing on your time I hope you will forgive me. my reson for addressing you this leter to you is this I have a very great desire to get a situation were I shall be able to have full scope for m energes.

My pertision to you is that you will be good enoug to inform me wether maried men are excluded from all parts of the

If so, I should be very thankfull if you can recomend me to any place were I might bee of service. I am thurely aquainted with all kinds of weights and measureme nts (new line) & a thurrey accountent having studed all branches of mathematical sceinces that is (meneration) (geometery) (trigonometry) (Algebra) and (Euclid)

I can give references as to my abilites and sobrity, having being a total abstainer for the last 10 years. I am imployed as a clark in a very large factory, but all gose I have no chance to get promoted for the by favour here I have been 2 years but simple reson that I know to much for them.

Your anseer will very much oblig your obedent

Alexandra Street.

The correction' of the orthographical papers above referred to not unfrequently introduces as many errors as are contained in the test. I take a sentence at random, by no means the worst at my command, to illustrate this: The neglected cavillier, the persecuted prespiterian had each his greivance. These discontents were heightened by the private conduct of Charles-if the life of a king can be private-by a disalluteness which a nation still in