language-French, from a date which, roughly speaking, might be fixed as about coincident with the accession of Louis XIV.-having, with growing success, substituted itself for Latin. The final triumph of French might be said to have been accomplished after the French Revolution, and the final abandonment of Latin as the language of diplomacy might, perhaps, be dated from the fall of the Holy Roman Empire. English treaties had ceased to be entered in Latin since 1668 in the Chancery French Rolls, as the series was called; and in 1731, Walpole's Act dispensed with Latin for use in legal and official instruments. In England, after 1731, Latin was only used for diplomatic documents, as an archaic practice, which gradually died out and, he supposed, came to an end with the reorganization of the Chancery offices in the last century. Since Canning's time statesmen had generally used their national languages in written and spoken communications, although there again French still largely maintained its ground. Attempts to vindicate the use of the vernacular sometimes met with unexpected difficulties; but, notwithstanding this, they could foresee that, just as the predominance of Spain in the early part of the sixteenth century made the language of Spain for a time one of the recognized vehicles of international intercourse, the great position now acquired by Germany in Europe must naturally lead to the occasional vindication by Germany of the rights of her language in diplomacy, while the increasing spread of the British Empire, and the position acquired by the United States of America, must more and more introduce the use of the tongue of Shakespeare and of Milton as an international language. It should be their duty to see that the language continued to be drawn from the well of English pure and undefiled.

Voltaire's "Letters on England."

In the afternoon Prof. LANSON, of the University of Paris, speaking in French, delivered an address on the subject of "How Voltaire wrote his Letters on England." He said if England in the eighteenth century had exercised an influence on the development of the thought and literature of France, no one had contributed more to it than Voltaire. The "Letters on the English People" marked a date in the intellectual relations between the two peoples. Prof. Lanson thought it would be interesting to learn how Voltaire had composed this book, with what assistance, and what guides. What English books did Voltaire read? What conversation did he listen to? What were the actual conditions in 1727 or 1728 on which his attention was fixed? In what spirit did he look at them? What method did he employ to make people talk? It was not easy to answer these questions, and to some of them they could find no reply even to-day. However, they knew enough, he believed, to assert that Voltaire's book was closer to English life than had hitherto been supposed, and that many remarks which were supposed to be merely sallies of Voltairian humour were suggested to him by what he heard in London. Besides the mistakes which a foreigner would be sure to commit, Voltaire transformed in the most curious way the documents and the observations which he employed. Prof. Lanson held that the "Letters on the English People work of the imagination rather than an exact record of what Voltaire had seen and heard, and that Voltaire's peculiar genius was shown in forming into a small and compact recital the results of his observation. After an interval for tea, Dr. FIEDLER gave an address in German on "Goethe's 'Faust.""

was a

The annual dinner took place in the hall of Magdalen College. A number of distinguished guests were present, including the German Ambassador and a member of the French Embassy, in the unavoidable absence of the French Ambassador.

The following day the meeting settled down to the discussion of questions relating to the teaching of modern foreign languages in schools.

The German Gymnasium.

We

Mr. SIEPMANN, of Clifton College, read a paper on "Some Aspects of German Schools." In spite of the large number of autonomous States, the administration of the schools was marvellously uniform. There was considerable rigidity in the system, perhaps more than was good. The result of the general system and of the leaving examination was that the clever and quick boys, to whom the work was easy, marked time while the dullards were being brought up to the necessary standard. Mr. Siepmann contrasted this unfavourably with what he deemed to be the English system, under which the bright boys were pushed forward and the dullards left to themselves. On the whole, Mr. Siepmann thought that English schools had the advantage, and that we need not go to Germany to learn how to manage education. probably hear too much of the German system of education in disparagement of our own. English visitors are naturally given an opportunity of seeing the best schools in Germany. The rank and file are probably no better nor worse than our own. But Mr. Siepmann spoke only from a knowledge of the big public-school system of England. He may be right in saying that in those institutions it is considered a waste of time to teach the (apparently) stupid boy; but this is not the general point of view in English schools. We are, on the contrary, inclined to give the greatest care to the dullard, and to let the clever boy look after himself-witness the provision that is now made for backward and feeble-minded children in our national system of education. Subsequent

speakers, who had recently been to Germany and had seen the show schools, took exception to Mr. Siepmann's criticism and pointed out that much experiment was now being carried on in German schools.

The New Method in Higher Forms.

The next subject on the program was "The Teaching of French and German to Middle and Higher Forms." The anxious inquirer who expected to be informed how the New Methodists proposed to continue teaching after the first two years would go away disappointed. The speakers had not time to develop their themes thoroughly and were not at one among themselves.

The discussion was opened by Mr. CHAYTOR, who said that the main object of teaching modern languages was to arouse literary curiosity and taste. He objected to free composition, because it necessitated, if the best were to be got out of it, individual correction, and the school hours were not long enough for this. Of the two languages, he would prefer to begin with German.

Miss PARTINGTON gave an illuminating address on the teaching of literature to higher forms. If she were to read a play of Molière with a form she would give a preliminary talk and then read the play straight through in French. Afterwards there would be discussion and analysis, mainly in French, and essays would be written. She approved of free composition, and thought that the best way to begin set composition was the retranslation method. Occasionally, too, a small portion of the reading book would be translated into English with the same care and thoroughness that was given to compositions in the foreign language. Mr. VON GLEHN said that, in their first enthusiasms, the New Methodists had been inclined to neglect grammar. Mr. Siepmann had

set them right. Grammar must be taught, even in the elementary stages. But it was in the intermediate stages that the study of grammar becomes more serious. He considered it rather a dull grind, but it had to be done. He advocated the use of the short story; first in skeleton form and then expanded.

Subsequent speakers in the discussion urged the use of free composition. Prof. RIPPMANN thought that a little sincere work was more valuable than much rapid work. It was important to prevent mistakes from being made rather than to correct them when they had been made. He advised that boys dull at language study should learn only one foreign language. In the afternoon Mr. H. A. L. FISHER, Fellow of New College, Oxford, attracted a large audience to listen to an address which he entitled, "Our Insularity.' He said that a good deal too much had been made of our insularity. England, indeed, was an island, but of all islands the least insular. She had been a province of the Roman Empire, a province of medieval France, her sovereigns had ruled a German electorate, and now controlled dominions widely scattered over the surface of the globe. It could not be claimed that we had kept our blood undefiled by foreign admixture, for we had, willingly or unwillingly, afforded hospitality to every description of immigrant. We had sown colonies in every clime, and ever since the days of Queen Bess, when Roger Ascham protested against the Italianate Englishman, the Continent of Europe had been familiar with the bearing of our grand tourists and our Cook's tourists. It was hardly an exaggeration to say that ever since the Reformation our national monarchy had been the most cosmopolitan of our institutions. Was it not of some significance that an English King was mentioned in the "Divine Comedy," that one of the chief sources for the history of the greatest of the medieval emperors should be a chronicle written in the monastery at St. Albans, that in the Middle Ages English scholars flocked to Paris and Continental scholars came to Oxford, or that a Milanese Ambassador visiting the Court of Henry VII. should have declared his astonishment at the King's profound knowledge of Italian politics?

The Study of European Literature.

The history of the study of European literature in this country would not, upon close examination, seem to disprove this contention. Englishmen had often neglected obvious sources of enlightenment, but of such negligence England had had no monopoly. Prince Bismarck used to observe that you could always distinguish the French Ambassador, because he knew no language but his own. It was not, of course, true at the present that the French knew no language but their own. The names of Taine and Jusserand, Angellier and Texte, Legouis and Thomas were sufficient to recall the solid and distinguished contributions which our neighbours across the Channel had made to the study and interpretation of English literature, contributions which our own scholars had not yet repaid in kind, though it was to be hoped that the newly established School of Modern Languages in Oxford might enable them to do so. But there was a time when France was profoundly ignorant of our language and literature and when we, on the contrary, were following the literary movement in France with close attention. Our literature then was insular, but chiefly in the sense that the enjoyment of its beauties was confined to the inhabitants of this island. In other respects English literature was not insular, but full of splendid echoes from Greece and Rome, from Italy, Spain, and France. Of French in particular this country was never permitted to be ignorant ever since the day when the "Chanson de Roland" was chanted on the

field of Hastings. Buckle remarked, in his History, that the union of the French with the English intellect was by far the most important fact of the eighteenth century. The intellectual communion of the two races gave to each an element which it would otherwise have lacked; to the English an ideal of formal polish and precise workmanship which informed our literature for three generations; to the French an insight into comparative law, a detachment from clerical authority, and a standard of political and social criticism by which the antiquated feudal structure of France might be appraised and condemned. Compared with this secular interest in French literature and the fructifying connexion which subsisted between the French and English intellects from 1660 to 1789, the literary relations between England and Germany were of recent growth. Here and again a few choice minds came under the influence of the beautiful literature of German mysticism; but such instances were rare and not to be counted as evidence of any steady communion between the English and the German intellect. But the intellectual revival which began in the latter half of the eighteenth century with the great German masters in poetry and criticism, and which had been continued up to our own days by a dynasty of giants in every department of exact knowledge, made it an essential of intellectual progress to know what was thought and written in Germany; and the study of German in this country was further assisted by the sympathy springing from the joint resistance to Napoleon and by the growth of a reaction common to both nations against the formal canons of classical taste. In time something of the full range, depth, and beauty of German literature was revealed by Thomas Carlyle, while the profound learning of Niebuhr was brought to the notice of Thomas Arnold before he left Oxford for Laleham, and through Arnold German was introduced into the curriculum of Rugby School.

Patriotic Philology.

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In a naive and characteristic outburst belonging to his early life, Cecil Rhodes deplored the study of modern languages, urging that, if Englishmen would only give up learning foreign tongues, foreigners would be compelled to learn English, which would thus become, what it deserved to be, the universal medium of communication between human beings. In our own days the prospect that any one European language would ever obtain the ascendancy which belonged to French in the seventeenth century was extremely remote. Cosmopolitanism had gone out of fashion and nationalities had come into fashion; and, with the growth of nationalities, a new comet had swum into the sky, ominous of strife, which might, perhaps, be compendiously described as patriotic philology. We had seen new literary language given to Greece, to Bohemia, and to Hungary; the study of Erse was being revived in Ireland; a beautiful epic had been written in modern Provençal. And, even where no political motive was involved, the mere growth of comfort and knowledge had sown the plant of literary expression in soils where it had never grown before or where its flowering had been sparing and unnoticed. Norway, after many dumb centuries, had become a power in European literature; to Russia Europe owed its greatest school of modern fiction. The intellectual movement of Europe was becoming more complicated, more difficult to follow. Despite the levelling forces of human imitativeness and convention, it became harder to know and appreciate the best work of one's age. And yet, if the intellect of a nation was to keep alive, this task must be performed. The improvement in the teaching of modern languages implied no disrespect to the "worthy wits of Athens." "Greek," as Dr. Johnson remarked, "is like lace-that is to say, it is the luxury of the few"; but some knowledge of the contemporary languages and literatures of Europe was essential to the intelligent conduct of ordinary life and to the sane apprehension of the world in which we live. England had reason to be proud of her literature of translation; but the genius of great translators, however effective in revealing new beauties, must be supported by the collective work of accurate scholarship, by the enterprise of stage managers, and by a general spirit of alertness and curiosity in the country, if any substantial improvement was to be made in our estimate of intellectual movements abroad. The teaching of modern languages was still a very subordinate part of scholastic education, and the distinction between the modern and the classical school which was established in Germany in the middle of the eighteenth century was only beginning to make its way with us. That the average Englishman knew more than the average Frenchman or German would be a boast safe, vainglorious, and improbable; but that it was the business of the Modern Language Association to see to it that he should not know less was one of the most certain facts in modern history.

Mr. Fisher's lecture was listened to with evident enjoyment. It is not always that a man of wide reading and retentive memory possesses also the gift of humour and a good delivery. The proceedings closed with a vote of thanks on the part of the visitors, moved by Prof. RIPPMANN in a happy speech, to the various hosts who had combined to make the visit most enjoyable. It was felt that the meeting had been a success. Perhaps on no previous occasion had the addresses been so scholarly and the discussions maintained on so high a level.

CONFERENCE OF ASSISTANT MASTERS.

THE

HE Eighteenth Annual General Meeting of the Incorporated Association of Assistant Masters in Secondary Schools was held at St. Paul's School, West Kensington, on Friday, January 8. The adoption of the Report for 1908 was moved by the outgoing Chairman, Mr. R. F. Cholmeley. There had been during the past year a considerable increase in numbers, and membership now stands at close upon 2,500. The Endowed Schools (Masters) Act, passed last July, had turned their double defeat in the Law Courts into a partial victory-partial, for the Act needs amendment so as to extend its provisions beyond the Endowed Schools and to define the functions of governing bodies.

The Federal Council.

One of our favourite projects was the federation, for common purposes, of the organizations representing secondary education; and in the formation of the Federal Council that project once seemed to be in a measure realized. The timid exclusiveness of those whose leadership was almost necessary to the success of such a movement compelled the Council to be content with a precarious and caterpillar-like existence; yet it promised to live, and the action of the Head Masters' Conference last month when, perceiving this still swaddled and faintly crying babe upon its threshold, it nerved itself to utter the final word of repudiation and cast it into the street, deserves to be counted among the cases of heartless infanticide. It remains to be seen whether the Head Masters' Association will be sufficiently callous or complaisant to complete the murder; if it does that, and if in consequence it proves impossible to unite for common action and discussion even societies so naturally sympathetic as those which the Federal Council was designed to represent, it must be admitted that the unity of the profession is a phrase of extraordinarily little meaning. Yet though we may not be able to rescue this particular infant from the jealous machinations of its wicked uncles, it is not for us to be content with giving the body a decent funeral. Surely we are committed to the cause of co-operation; and if one method fails we must try another, and yet another, until we have built success out of failure.

The Register.

The necessity for a method of co-operation needs no better illustration than the state of the registration question. I have never professed to see much practical advantage in any scheme of registration that has been yet propounded. The old two-column Register was at least ingenious, and the attempt to master its complications was an interesting exercise. With the abolition of the distinguishing columns much of its seductiveness disappeared, and I have never been able to watch with much enthusiasm for the appearance of the one-legged Phoenix which is to rise from its ashes. But, in the formation of the Council, representative of the teaching profession, which is to compose and have charge of the new Register, there did seem to be a chance for the profession to show what its capacity for organization was worth. At the present moment everybody is anxiously expecting somebody else to do something, and unless, by some stroke of real constructive statesmanship, the scattered and disorganized forces can be brought together with a definite mandate and an intelligible purpose, the constitution of the new Registration Council is likely to have to wait till February 29 comes round again.

In conclusion, Mr. Cholmeley referred to the work the Association had done in pressing forward a general pension scheme-more im portant, in his opinion, even than the question of salaries-and to the loss sustained in the death of Mr. Pruen, of Cheltenham. Mr. SOMERVILLE (Eton) seconded, and the report was adopted. Tenure.

Mr. SOMERVILLE moved the following resolution:

"That, in the opinion of this Association, no assistant master should sign an agreement (a) if it provides for the possibility of his dismissal at any time other than at the end of a school term, except after at least two months' notice has been given him, save in cases of grave misconduct; (b) or if it does not provide that before the dismissal takes effect, the assistant master concerned shall be given the opportunity of appearing, with or without the help of a friend, before the governing body in his own defence."

He said that Section I of the Endowed Schools (Masters) Act gave them that for which they had long striven-they became the servants of the schools; while Section 3 gave them a right to fair notice before dismissal. There was some doubt as to whether governing bodies could not contract out of the Act, but in any case they could not delegate their authority to the Head Master. This resolution put on record what they considered to be really the meaning of the Act. On that point they were in full agreement with the Head Masters, whose spirit in this matter was excellent. In fact, the position as between Head Masters and assistants in the educational world was very much that existing between masters and men, as illustrated by the co-partnership scheme in the Hartlepools initiated by Sir Christopher Furness, in the industrial world. The future depended on themselves, and

they should therefore strengthen themselves, and strength lay in numbers. They now had two thousand five hundred members, but they should have seven thousand.

Mr. WATSON (Enfield Grammar School) seconded the resolution, which was agreed to.

Pensions.

Mr. WHITEHEAD (Berkhamsted) moved :

"That, in the best interests of secondary education, it is imperative that the Board of Education should take all necessary steps for the early establishment of a superannuation fund for teachers in recognized secondary schools. Such a scheme should provide for (a) contributions to the fund from the teacher and the governing body; (b) the expenses of management being borne by the State; (c) the provision by the State of a disablement allowance; (d) the possibility of the teacher migrating from school to school without loss of pension rights."

He declared that, whatever might be the value of school buildings and other things, the real thing of importance in education was the teacher. All openings in the Civil Service had many applicants, but in the educational world, owing to lack of prospects, poor pay, and insecurity of tenure, good men were not always forthcoming. Therefore, whatever could be done to attract such men should be done with all speed. One thing which might go some way in that direction was the provision of a proper pension scheme. Their scheme was of the nature of a deferred annuity fund made up of 5 per cent. of salaries contributed by masters and an equal amount contributed by governing bodies. It would not depend on the school in which the master was serving. They did not ask the State to contribute, but only to undertake the management of the fund.

Mr. MILNER BARRY (Mill Hill) seconded the resolution, which was agreed to, with one dissentient.

Federal Council.

Mr. CHOLMELEY moved :

"That this Association deeply regrets the withdrawal of the Head Masters' Conference from the Federal Council." The instant that it became probable that the Federal Council would be something worth having in the cause of secondary education the Head Masters' Conference withdrew. Never was there a body, the component parts of which excited so much sympathy and esteem, while its totality excited so little, as the Head Masters' Conference. The creation of it made the unity of the profession impossible for years, and stereotyped the isolation of the head masters. It had taken a year and a half to discover that the head masters did not belong to their Council. They had sent delegates who had criticized their action and shown extreme alarm at the prospect of any action and had actually paid a subscription, and now they discovered that the delegates had been sent " only to watch." They must not allow the withdrawal of that body to damage the Federal Council.

Mr. PAGE (Charterhouse) seconded. He had not intended to speak, but a motion of that sort would rouse the dead, and, as one whose days as a master were numbered, he desired to pronounce a final word of blessing over the Head Masters' Conference. Only he should like to substitute for " deeply regrets" in the motion "warmly welcomes." He had prophesied that the Head Masters would do their best to wreck the Federal Council. Their retirement was the best proof that the Council was doing some good. The hardest task that had ever been set him was to propose, in an after-dinner speech, the health of the Head Masters' Conference. He had been for thirty-five years an assistant master in a public school, and had never once been allowed to have a voice in its management. The reason was that the eight or ten gentlemen who govern the Head Masters' Conference think themselves, each, infallible. The only raison d'être, so it seemed to him, was to supply the Times with a leader on Christmas day to temper our other enjoyments.

Mr. SOMERVILLE hoped that nothing that had been said would be construed as a reflection on the Head Masters.

The motion was then put and carried unanimously.

The Registration Council.

Mr. GREENE (Berkhamsted) moved :

"That this Association instructs the Executive Committee to move the Federal Council to take such further steps as may seem good to them to bring about the formation of a Registration Council in concert with duly accredited representatives of other bodies desirous and qualified to co-operate.

They must endeavour, he said, to work with teachers of music, of drawing, and in Kindergartens-with teachers of all kinds, in fact, to obtain a satisfactory Registration Council.

Mr. CHOLMELEY supported the motion as the nearest approach to a practical policy. Dr. Gow's seemed to him a futile policy-to wash his hands of the business in order to force the hand of the Board of Education.

The resolution was agreed to.

At the afternoon sitting members of the Assistant Mistresses' Association were admitted to hear the reading of papers.

Dr. ROUSE (Perse School, Cambridge) read a paper entitled "A Dream." This was an allegory, modelled on the "Pilgrim's Progress,' portraying the vanities and iniquities of the educational world of to-day.

Mr. J. E. WINBOLT (Christ's Hospital) asked the Association to approve the scheme of Greek pronunciation formulated by the Classical Association.

Mr. L. R. STRANGEWAYS moved, as an amendment, to add "With preference for the pronunciation of e and ʼn as close and open e respectively, for that of the aspirates o, e, x as p, t, k followed by a strong breath, and for v as the German .”

The amendment was supported by Prof. RIPPMANN, Dr. ROUSE, and others, and accepted by Mr. Winbolt. The amended resolution was carried unanimously.

ASSOCIATION OF ASSISTANT MISTRESSES

IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS.

THE

HE Twenty-fifth Annual General Meeting of the Association was held at Dr. Williams's Library, Gordon Square, London, W.C., on Saturday, January 9, 1909. The chair was taken by the President, Miss E. M. BANCROFT (Redland High School, Bristol), who was declared to have been re-elected President of the Association for 1909. Other officers were Miss K. Andrews, Honorary Treasurer, and Miss M. A. Haig Brown, Secretary. The

Miss BANCROFT then delivered her presidential address. Association had completed its twenty-fifth year of work and had now gained an assured position as the medium whereby the views of assistant mistresses in public secondary schools throughout the kingdom could be ascertained. In reviewing the work of the year, she commented on the passing of the Endowed Schools (Masters) Bill, which was of importance to the Association, seeing that she had received an assurance from Mr. Runciman that women teachers were included in

the scope of the Bill. An important subject dealt with by the Federal Council was that of the formation of a Registration Council. A scheme drawn up by a conference convened for the purpose by the Federal Council had been submitted to the Board of Education, but not accepted. Upon a small Sub-Committee appointed to carry on negotiations in reference to this subject, Miss Lawrie had sat as their representative. In the actual work of teaching, division of labour was becoming more and more emphasized, and teachers were tending more and more to become a body of specialists. This had revised the standard of efficiency, and they all hailed the change. But there was danger even in the gain if they, as specialists, did not remember that their work must be co-operant to one end, that each teacher must be not a mere skilful instructor in a subject, but a sympathetic sharer in the whole work of developing the child's faculties. The question of curricula was still a pressing one. In the over weighted curriculum often the subject with the first claim to consideration-the mother tongue-was the one to be neglected. The alternative to the over burdened curriculum was often a thing of shreds and patches.

Miss JoWITT (Training College, Bristol) opened a discussion on the subject of superannuation schemes for teachers, by bringing before the Association pension schemes of the Central Welsh Board, of the various Local Education Authorities in England, and of individual governing bodies. She drew attention to the fact that there was no general Government scheme applying to secondary schools in England. It was for the Association to consider what features it considered essential in any general pension scheme. Miss Jowitt suggested that any pension scheme for women teachers ought to fulfil the following conditions:In most cases the retiring age should be 55; the pension should be adequate; where the pension was calculated on the average salary the teachers' contribution should be on a sliding scale, increasing automatically with the increase of salary; and, lastly, pension schemes should be so devised that no penalty should follow transference to another school.

No formal resolutions were put, but the sense of the meeting was taken on important points with a view to facilitate discussion in the Branches of the Association, such discussion to be followed by decisive resolutions at a future General Meeting. Accordingly, the following points were brought forward: the possibility of a compulsory national scheme, the conditions as to retiring age, scale and return of contributions, and the desirability of a minimum pension.

Hearty votes of thanks were accorded to Miss Jowitt for her paper and to the Hon. Treasurer, Miss K. Andrews, for her services during the year.

At the afternoon meeting Miss LAWRIE (Ladies' College, Cheltenham) read a paper on "The Principles which should Underlie the Planning of the Science Curriculum in Girls' Secondary Schools." She laid stress on the fact that knowledge of scientific fact, but, still more, training in scientific method was part of our necessary equipment for life. Observation, the first stage of such a training, must be fol

lowed by experimental courses graduated so as to require longer chains of reasoning, and resulting in the power to generalize on accurate observation. Such a scheme, which should also include an historical science course, would counteract any danger of providing technical instruction without scientific foundation.

Miss WOOD (Leeds High School) read a paper on a school course which attempted to carry out the ideas of Prof. Smithells, by connecting domestic science with the science teaching of the school and applying the scientific method to common things. She gave the details of an ideal scheme of theoretical and practical work in a "kitchen laboratory," which should extend from eleven to sixteen, and by which the girls were to acquire both the training in scientific method and the most important facts of domestic hygiene, and be ready to take up preparation for University work in some branch of science. An animated discussion followed, in which Miss Wood was questioned on many details as to time allotted to the scheme, size of classes, and nature of lessons and home tasks. Many of the speakers, while expressing great interest in Miss Wood's suggestive paper, feared lest the difficulty both of imparting and digesting so many facts should lead to a sacrifice of mental training in scientific method.

The Function of Science in Education.

Sir CLIFFORD ALLBUTT said that in science the boy began to apprehend that the laws of his country were the fallible forerunners of the invariable sequences called laws in science, and to perceive that freedom consisted in knowing and following them, that servare est regnare. But what was meant by science? It was clear that, even in the common use of the schools, not experimental science only was contemplated; that would be to dismiss not only biology, which in boys' schools could not be experimental, but also natural history, which, in his opinion, was for most boys the best foundation of scientific training. In science must be included the pristine idea of all orderly knowledge, of analysis of concepts, whatever their origin, for the construction of systems of affirmative propositions. Sciencethat was to say, scientific method-penetrated into all the studies of the modern school, as it penetrated into all life. No doubt action might be "sicklied o'er " by too much thought analysis. Herein was engendered that distrust, reasonable and unreasonable, which the humanist had always felt of the scientist. The humanist winced to see the flower of literature stiffened into a diagram; not only did he deny creative power to science, and with reason, but he suspected it of corrosive properties and so was tempted to denounce all compact with it. Yet it could not be said that even the fine arts were, or ever had been, independent of scientific activity. As in their date and degree all human things faded, science was the organ by which we recovered from them the principles of strength and beauty, and learnt to adapt the newly won principles to new creations. This point of view was quite consistent with the pursuit of "classical" culture, and indeed commanded it, not as in itself education, but as a constituent of education.

Imagination was a precious endowment for which the Olympian schoolmaster professed himself peculiarly jealous. Yet surely to literature, in the sense of food for the imagination, few boys attained: but for their Homer this few would be a very few indeed, and it must be confessed that abstract science, like abstract grammar, was not a rich food for the imagination, though it imparted to the imagination a scope and virility that saved it from rhetoric and sentiment. He was not convinced that the schoolboy was, or ought to be, a predominantly imaginative animal. The British boy seemed to him, generically speaking, a very matter-of-fact little person, very serious, very curious, very handy. Did we, in our educational methods, obey the signal that Nature gave to foster his seriousness, his curiosity, his handiness? All masters must learn, what the science master can teach them, that, if by his own hands the boy could contrive no great art, yet it was immediately by promoting the activity and precision of his nervo-muscular system that Nature was building up not his practical brain only, but also much of the hive of his mind, not to mention the congruities of bodily sanity. The boy should not avoid altogether the discipline of drudgery, but, since he was not of an age even in congenial subjects to bear the strain of prolonged attention, axiomatic and authoritative rote should be administered to him sparingly, and blended, so far as possible,

with matter not only more congenial, but such as might engage his own personal quest and adventure. Above all, our eyes should be opened to that besetting sin of the schoolmaster and its devastating consequences, whereby the ingenious and ardent curiosity and receptivity of the boy were quenched and deadened, so that too often in ideas he remained impoverished for the rest of his life. There was a tendency in school, in spite of science, to forget that there were boys and boys. A few had gifts that transcended all schemes of instruction. Some of the older ones got no inconsiderable grip on universals, which, however, for the many were axioms nearly as dry as grammar. For most boys natural history and mechanics would prove more congenial than chemistry. In the upper forms there should be a more extensive differentiation than there was at present, according to the bents, and possibly even the vocations, of the pupils. In conclusion, Sir Clifford Allbutt mentioned that the University of Cambridge and its Board of Medicine had recently opened the first M.B. examination to candidates on admission. This they had done chiefly in order that the student might be liberated for stages of education more proper to a University. But they had also an oblique regard for the internal economy of the public schools, and his oration would be in vain if he had not halfpersuaded even the head masters that no boy's education was broad or even symmetrical which had contained less natural science than was required, say, for that examination.

On the motion of Mr. L. CUMMING (Rugby), seconded by Dr. W. GARNETT (London County Council Education Department), Sir Clifford Allbutt was cordially thanked for his address.

The PRESIDENT, in responding, said it was a profound error to have modern and classical sides in a school; there was no good reason for the division, for all education ought to be modern. The classics and science ought to be taught together.

The discussion was continued by Mr. O. H. LATTER (Charterhouse), Mr. D. J. P. BERRIDGE (Malvern), Mr. J. R. ECCLES (Gresham's School, Holt), Mr. R. E. THWAITES (Leicester), the Rev. A. L. CORTIE (Stonyhurst), and Mr. C. J. GARDINER (Cheltenham). The opinion was general that in schools when the leaving age was under eighteen the distinction of modern side and classical side ought to be abolished.

Anthropometry.

Mr. M. D. HILL (Eton) read a paper on "Anthropometry in Schools." He stated that at Eton anthropometric measurements had been taken for the last fifteen months, the anatomical characteristics of the boys being noted upon their admission and preserved with a view to their comparison with similar measurements when the boys came to leave the school. Only about four hundred boys had been measured anatomically so far, and it was impossible to generalize from the data. But measurements on a more limited scale had been going on at Marlborough for the last twenty-five years, and a slight improvement had been observed over that period in the stature of the boys. In Scotland 500,000 children in primary schools had been examined anthropometrically, and several interesting generalizations had been arrived at, such as that fair hair (Scandinavian characteristic) predominated among the boys and dark hair (Pictish characteristic) among the girls.

How to Teach Science.

In the afternoon there was a discussion upon "Science Curricula in Public Schools." Mr. G. F. DANIELI. drew attention to the report of the British Association on "The Sequence of Science Studies in Boys' Schools," and said that there was general agreement as to the subjects to be taught and as to their sequence, but great diversity of opinion and practice existed in regard to methods. It seemed desirable to discuss the advisability of adopting a heuristic manner of class teaching within a welldefined logical syllabus, particularly in connexion with discipline and teaching to think. The aim was to cultivate boys who should be observant and reflective in the laboratory, and to train them so that they would habitually cause those habits of observation and reflection to overflow into their pursuits after leaving school.

Mr. W. D. EGGAR (Eton) spoke of "Geography considered as a Science Subject," and Mr. R. G. DURRANT (Marlborough) read a short paper on "To what Extent and at what Stage should Prevalent Views on the Nature of Solution be taught in Schools?" Mr. G. H. MARTIN (Bradford) contributed a paper on "Science for the Classical Side."

Medical Education.

Mr. C. J. GARDINER (Cheltenham) moved a resolution protesting against the refusal of the General Medical Council to recognize public schools as institutions at which medical education may be begun. This was carried. The SECRETARY OF ST. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL, however, explained that this non-recognition on the part of the General Medical Council mattered very little, as the General Medical Council was bound to register all men who had qualified to practise medicine. The registration of medical students, to which the public schools appeared to think that some importance attached, was immaterial, and St. Thomas's Hospital did not register three-fourths of

its students as such.

The meeting closed shortly afterwards.

THE ENGLISH ASSOCIATION.

HIS Association, founded two years ago, held its general annual

Tmeeting, un January to and 16, at University College, Gower

Street. Dr. T. GREGORY FOSTER, Chairman of the Executive Committee, presided.

Prof. F. S. BOAS, Hon. General Secretary, read the report, which shows a steady growth of the Association in all directions. There are at present 881 full members and 410 associates, an increase of 313 on the numbers of last year. Local branches have increased from three to six. There has been a large demand for the five leaflets published during the year, and that by Mr. J. H. Fowler, "English Literature in Secondary Schools," has had to be reprinted. Four quarterly bulletins have likewise been issued. Arrangements are in progress for cooperation with the Royal Society of Literature for the issue of a joint publication, and Mr. A. C. Bradley has consented to represent the Association as one of the two joint editors.

Mr. E. S. VALENTINE, Hon. Treasurer, presented the year's accounts, which showed a balance in hand of £49. 6s. 8d.

Prof. G. SAINTSBURY was elected President for the ensuing year, and Mr. A. H. D. Acland, Lord Curzon, and Dr. T. G. Foster were added to the list of vice-presidents.

The chair was then taken by Mr. A. H. D. ACLAND, and Prof. W. P. KER read a paper on "Romance.

It was often said the eighteenth century was dead to romance; but the statement needed qualification. Hurd, in his "Letters on Chivalry and Romance in 1672," spoke of a revolution which had taken place in taste and wit and poetry, and said: "What we have gotten by this revolution is a great deal of good sense; what we have lost is a world of fine fabling.' The difference between the period before and that after that change might be described as that between Spenser and Pope. There was, however, a strong romantic influence in the eighteenth century, though it was not the main influence and did not give character to the literature of the time. Hurd meant that the change of taste had expelled romance from poetry. Wordsworth, who had nothing but gratitude for the old romances, writing early in the nineteenth century, found that, whatever might be the fortune of poetry, English children were being deprived of their inheritance of ballads and fairy tales. The eighteenth century, which generally did without romance in its literature, kept up the supply of romance for its children, and at least allowed the reading of it to adults. The nineteenth century, which came in with a great romantic revolution in literature, cut off the supply. Children now learned nothing in the way that previous generations learned their ballads and fairy stories. Annotated text-books had been the death of them. These things might come to them by way of the books of Grimm and Hans Andersen they did not come to them from the mouths of their nurses and grandmothers. The child was turned into an abstract educational product, owing the contents of his mind to his schoolmaster. We had not been without revivals of romance; but every revival was followed by impostors. Sham romance seemed easy and had often proved profitable. Romance was often near its best in the works of authors who were not thinking about it-in Homer, for example, and in Dante, who, like Dr. Johnson, was a reader of books of chivalry. Was the magic world anywhere to be found? The best way to it avoided the organizers of traffic as much as possible and led to the great poets, the anonymous authors of ballads, and the telling of folklore stories.

ANNUAL DINNER.

Mr. ACLAND presided, and Mr. W. C. Courthope was the guest of the evening.

The CHAIRMAN, in proposing the toast of "The Association," noted the advance of recent years in the study of English that had been made in English schools and colleges. Snippets and extracts had given place to complete works of standard authors. He deprecated the multiplication of examinations and certificates. They were grateful to specialists who had helped to give English its proper place in school studies, but their enthusiasm was difficult to repress and might become a danger.

Mr. COURTHOPE, in replying to his health, dwelt upon the increasing vulgarity, or worse, of modern publications. They must look to sounder education and to bodies like the English Association to save the historic standard of pure literature from being submerged by vice and vulgarity.

SECOND DAY.

Saturday morning was devoted to "English in Elementary Schools." Miss GILL, Head Mistress of the L.C.C. School in Laxton Street, described the method whereby she sought to inspire in her school (girls from seven and a half to fourteen) a taste for literature-reading by the teacher, followed by conversation. Then the girls were taught first to listen with appreciation of the beauty of sound and rhythm, and then to form the habit of visualizing all they heard or read.

In the discussion that followed, the prevalence of the Cockney idiom -spread, as one speaker asserted, by Cockneyized training collegeswas generally deplored.

The subject of the afternoon was "Examinations in English." Mr. W. JENKYN THOMAS (Hackney Downs) held examiners to be mainly responsible for the low and perverted standard of English teaching.. The conviction was forced on him that examiners were, in the true sense of the word, illiterate persons. They were learned in philology, grammar, and archæology, but literature was either above or beneath them.

Mr. COXHEAD (Hinckley Grammar School) said that English literature should not be made a subject of written examination for pupils under thirteen. The test, if any, should be oral. The centre of English teaching should be composition.

Mr. ACLAND, in summing up, looked in the future to a combination of inspection with oral examination, conducted, in part at least, by the teachers themselves.

THE

L.C.C. TEACHERS' CONFERENCE.

HE Conference was held on January 7, 8, 9-on the first two day at the King's Hall, Holborn Restaurant; on the third day the London Day Training College.

Miss

The first morning was devoted to the subject of "Open-air Education," which was introduced by Mr. ERNEST GRAY. As an ex-teacher he called attention to the large percentage of children in London schools who, by means of defective physique, were a burden to the teachers and to themselves. Mr. G. G. LEWIS, Head Master of the Kentish Town Road Boys' School, spoke of the gain both physical and moral from half a day in the week given to lessons in the open air. The subjects grouped themselves mostly round trees and geography. BEEN, late Head Mistress of Birley House School, gave an account of the experiment tried in 1907 by the L.C.C. of three open-air schools in the neighbourhood of London. In all, two hundred and seventy children were admitted and the hours were from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., about equally divided between lesson and play or not. Eventually Nature study became with the children a spontaneous activity, not a time table lesson. Other speakers were Dr. FREDERICK ROSE, Mr. TURNER, of Shrewsbury House School, and Dr. F. H. HAYWARD.

At the afternoon session Sir WALTER PARRATT ran a tilt against the weak, washy hymn-tunes usually heard in church and chapel and against music written for schools, nine-tenths of which he should like to burn. Dr. MCNAUGHT advocated part-singing as against unison singing.

On Friday morning DR. KERR read an admirable paper on "The Physical Training of Children under Five "-too full of matter for us to attempt to summarize. One dictum we may quote: "The educational results attainable in the years from three to five are greater than would be obtained in equal times at any subsequent age.'

Saturday's meetings were devoted to discussion of "Educational Experiments in Schools."

Miss POCKLINGHORNE, discussing English composition oral and written, said the real difficulty lay not in giving the child ideas, but in teaching him to express his ideas. She advocated as the best method the retelling of a story read or told.

Miss GILL gave her experience of taking children to picture galleries. She insisted that the object of these visits must be simply enjoyment and comprehension, and that they were debased and vitiated if the children were made to record their impressions or reproduce what they had been told.

At the afternoon sitting Mr. CYRIL S. COBE, who presided, entered a caveat against the establishment of special experimental schools. These would be under the official thumb of the Board of Education or some other Authority and tend to stop the free initiative of individual teachers in making experiments. He put in a plea to head masters to allow their assistants a freer hand.

THE renewed interest in the management and future of Gresham College recalls an incident that happened not so many years ago. Two London professors determined to investigate on the spot, so they presented themselves at the College one afternoon at three o'clock, when a Latin lecture by the Professor of Mathematics was announced. The porter informed them that they had mistaken the hour; but they persisted and were admitted to the lecture room, while the porter went in search of the lecturer. At length he appeared and read to them from 3.30 to 4 from a Latin Euclid. As chance would have it, one of the friends took into dinner the same week a young lady, who began the conversation with: "Such a disagreeable thing happened the other day to papa. Two young fellows came to Gresham College and insisted on his lecturing to them. Such a thing had never been known in the twenty years he has held the lectureship. Most ungentlemanly-was it not?" The professor's answer is not recorded.