Specimen Days and Collect. By Walt Whitman. Annals of the Early Caliphate; from Original Sources. Glasgow: Wilson & By Sir William Muir, K.C.S.I., etc., etc. Map. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1883. Italian Byways. By J. A. Symonds. Same Publishers, 1883. A Commentary on St. Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians. By J. A. Beet. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1883. Health Lectures for the People. 3rd Series. Edinburgh: Macniven & Wallace, 1883. The Supernatural in Nature: a Verification by Free Use of Science. By. J. W. Reynolds, M.A. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co, 1883. The Mystery of Miracles: a Scientific and Philosophical Investigation. Author and Publishers, 1881. Same The Man of the Woods, and other Poems. By W. M'Dowall. Edinburgh: A. & C. Black, 1882. Burns in Dumfriesshire. Same Author and Publishers, 1881. The Mind in the Face. By W. M'Dowall. London: L. N. Fowler. The Kingdom of All-Israel: its History, Literature, and Worship. By James Sime, M. A., &c. London: J. Nisbet & Co., 1883. Ensilage in America; its Prospects in English Agriculture. By J. E. Thorold Roger, M.P. London W. Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1883. The Musician. By Ridley Prentice. Grade 1. Same Publishers. Select Poems of Goethe. Edited with Life, Introduction, and Notes, by E. A. Revelation and Modern Theology Contrasted; or the Simplicity of the Apostolic A Visit to Ceylon. By Ernst Haeckel. Translated by Clara Bell. London: Copyright and Patents for Inventions. By R. A. Macfie. Edinburgh : T. & T. Clark, 1883. The Plough and the Dollar. By F. Barham Zineke. Co., 1883. Legal Status of Licensed Victuallers. Sons, 1883. Kegan Paul, Trench & By F. G. Hindle. London: Stevens & John Pringle, Printer and Heretic. London and Paisley: A. Gardner, 1883. The Free Church Principle: its Character and History. By Sir Henry W. Moncreiff, Bart., D.D., etc. Macniven & Wallace, 1883. Journal of East India Association. London, 1883. Outlines of the Philosophy of Aristotle. By Edwin Wallace, M.A. London and Cambridge: C. J. Clay, M.A., & Son, 1883. The Bantoffs of Cherryton. By Arthur Kean. 2 vols. London : Smith, Elder, & Co., 1883. No New Thing. By W. E. Norris. 3 vols. Same Publishers, 1883. Predigten aus der Gegenwart. Von D. C. Schwarz. Achte Sammlung. Leipzig: 1883. The Temple. By George Herbert. Introduction by J. H. Shorthouse. simile Reprint. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1883. Fac The Epic of Kings from Firdusi. By Helen Zimmern. Illustrated. Same Publisher, 1883. Life of Christ. By Dr. Bernhard Weiss. Translated by J. W. Hope, M.A. Vol. I. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1883. Aldersyde. By A. S. Swan. Edinburgh: Oliphant and Co., 1883. THE SCOTTISH REVIEW. SEPTEMBER, 1883. ART I.—THE EDUCATIONAL WRONGS OF THE HE greatest, if severest, critic of English education, says of the Englishman: 'He abhors simplicity, and therefore his governments do not often give it to him.' The true Briton might urge in self-defence that he is essentially simple, that he does one thing at a time, that he asks one thing at a time from his government. But in the widest and deepest sense the stricture is undeniably just. With a quick eye for what is immediately necessary, the Englishman does not care to exhaust a political problem, or to work out a social question to its logical consequences. He does not demand the simplicity of principle, of principle wrought into detail, and expressing itself in symmetry of organisation: he is indifferent, if not averse to completeness or consistency. No better illustration of this national feature can be found. than the history of education in Britain. The great doctrine that the education of a nation is essentially a concern of the State has only been forced by degrees upon the English mind. Accepted shortly after the French Revolution by the great nations of Europe, it was long rejected in Britain; nor can we say that it has even yet been fully recognised in this country. It has first established itself in the sphere of elementary education, and vast progress has been made since the time, not so far remote, when small grants were doled out to elementary schools as a sort of poor relief. English education is not yet altogether emancipated from the ominous patronage and control of the Charity Commission; but for elementary education we need have no fears: it is provided for on a scale of liberality at least equal to that of any other nation. Here, however, the inconsistency of the national genius comes in. We shut our eyes to the fact that a system of education made for the benefit of one class at the expense of all classes of the community gives to all classes a claim for something in return for their contributions. The greatest sufferers by this one-sided policy are the middle classes. They along with the higher classes contribute the greater part of the cost of national education; but in return they receive no public support for their own education. The result, is that the provision for middle-class education, both in England and Scotland, is the most meagre, irregularly distributed, and unsatisfactory to be found in any great European state. Their claim to such assistance is not so much seriously denied; it is only generally ignored, or now and then derided by the Philistine democrat. But it must ere long be fully considered, and it may be worth while to enquire at some length on what grounds it is based. We need not at present show the disastrous effects of this inconsistency upon the quality of secondary education. We shall confine ourselves to demonstrating the absolute injustice of the exclusion of the middle classes from the benefit of State aid to their own schools. Great Britain as a whole suffers from this injustice, but we will only take the case of Scotland, giving some illustrations drawn from the south-west district, in the full assurance that those who have a similar local knowledge of other districts will be able to draw the same conclusions from like premises. If we consider the public school system of Scotland as managed by the School Boards, we find that the total cost of the education given in these schools during the year 1880 was £668,774. About a fourth of this sum (£187,445), is contributed by the parents of scholars in the shape of fees. A further sum of £7,275 is paid by Parochial Boards on behalf of scholars whose parents are unable to pay fees. On the other hand the local rates supply £205,011, and the government grants amount contribute £458,738, or two-thirds of the total cost of the education of children whose parents are able to pay school fees. From whose pockets are these funds derived? The School Board of Glasgow received from the rating authorities for the year 1880-81, the sum of £43,861. It is estimated that as much of this sum is raised from houses above £12 rental as from those below that limit; but a large portion of the rate is levied upon other than household property, owned as a general rule by classes who do not send their children to the elementary schools. In rural parishes a much larger part of the rate falls upon landed proprietors and farmers who are not availing them-selves of the public schools.* The incidence of imperial taxes may be somewhat more favourable to the wealthy class. But on the whole it may be safely asserted that throughout Scotland ratepayers who are deriving no benefit from the public schools contribute from a half to two-thirds of the total cost of their maintenance. At the same time there is a marked deficiency, in some cases, a total absence of public secondary education which the middle classes require; and where such schools do exist, the means of their support are lamentably defective. The whole revenue from public sources enjoyed by Secondary Schools in Scotland is estimated at £3,400 a year. This is the quid pro quo which the upper classes receive for a contribution of, say, £300,000 to elementary education. Schools is most conspicuous The deficiency of Secondary in the south-west of Scotland. public higher school in Greenock, a town with a population of 60,000. The School Board of that town have lately assumed the management of a Secondary School; but they have no We heard the other day of a rural parish in the Lothians in which the villagers believed, with or without reason, that their School Board was too lavish in its expenditure. They summoned a public meeting to advocate a reduction of teachers' salaries in order to lighten the rates. They were not a little surprised when a member of the Board informed them that the rate-payers whose children attended school contributed, to a total annual emancipated from the ominous patronage and control of the Charity Commission; but for elementary education we need have no fears: it is provided for on a scale of liberality at least equal to that of any other nation. Here, however, the inconsistency of the national genius comes in. We shut our eyes to the fact that a system of education made for the benefit of one class at the expense of all classes of the community gives to all classes a claim for something in return for their contributions. The greatest sufferers by this one-sided policy are the middle classes. They along with the higher classes contribute the greater part of the cost of national education; but in return they receive no public support for their own education. The result, is that the provision for middle-class education, both in England and Scotland, is the most meagre, irregularly distributed, and unsatisfactory to be found in any great European state. Their claim to such assistance is not so much seriously denied; it is only generally ignored, or now and then derided by the Philistine democrat. But it must ere long be fully considered, and it may be worth while to enquire at some length on what grounds it is based. We need not at present show the disastrous effects of this inconsistency upon the quality of secondary education. We shall confine ourselves to demonstrating the absolute injustice of the exclusion of the middle classes from the benefit of State aid to their own schools. Great Britain as a whole suffers from this injustice, but we will only take the case of Scotland, giving some illustrations drawn from the south-west district, in the full assurance that those who have a similar local knowledge of other districts will be able to draw the same conclusions from like premises. If we consider the public school system of Scotland as managed by the School Boards, we find that the total cost of the education given in these schools during the year 1880 was £668,774. About a fourth of this sum (£187,445), is contributed by the parents of scholars in the shape of fees. A further sum of £7,275 is paid by Parochial Boards on behalf of scholars whose parents are unable to pay fees. On the other hand the local rates supply £205,011, and the government grants amount |