inspector inserts the results on his list. All the written work passes through his hands and through those of two other members of the board before judgment is given. The names of the candidates are not asked; they are only numbered until the result of the examination is made known. They are then called into the room again, their names are taken down, and the certificate granted or refused, as the case may be. When refused, the reasons are stated at length by the inspector; the written work, with all its faults marked, is shown to the candidate; and he is invited, as soon as all the examinations are over, to apply to the district inspector for further particulars and for advice how to continue his studies in future.

The examinations of the assistants and for the foreign languages, &c., are conducted in the same manner, and the public has free access to them. Only at the examinations of the female teachers, otherwise on exactly the same footing, no strangers are admitted.

For the certificates of head-masters ten guilders are paid-about 178.; assistants half that sum; pay and 58. are paid for branch certificates. These small sums go to the Government, that bears the whole expense of the examinations. In the eleven Provinces they cost the country in 1868 not more than 200l. The sum-total of the Government expenses for primary instruction was in that year close upon 492,000 guilders-about 42,000l., whilst the communes themselves expended no less than 4,320,000 guilders, or 360,000l. Half of this latter sum went in salaries. New school buildings cost about 60,000l.; books and other requirements 30,000l. The amount of school money for primary instruction levied throughout the whole kingdom was about 70,000l.

The comparatively small sum expended by the Government went for about one-third in subsidies;

about 16,000l. was spent on the training classes; the other expenses annually recurring are the salaries of the inspectors and other officials, pensions, examinations, &c.

The costs of the private schools cannot be calculated with anything like precision, as, of course, this is a matter solely regarding the founders of these establishments, and no indiscreet queries are put on that score.

These private schools are of various descriptions. Firstly, free schools, established by different religious sects. They are, as a rule, with regard to the Roman Catholic schools, fine buildings, and the less said about the instruction given the better. They are entirely in the hands of the priests, who often oblige the parents, against their will, to remove their children from the public schools and to send them to their establishments. Everything at these schools is made subservient to the interests of the Church, and the children are taught reading and writing in a mechanical method, but with little development of their intelligence.

The Protestant sectarian schools are scarcely ever so well endowed as the Roman Catholic establishments. The want of funds in many instances causes a want of teaching power. The buildings are, in some cases, far from satisfactory. A great deal of time is lost in psalm singing and dogmatical explanation of the Scriptures, far above the comprehension of the pupils, and, like the Roman Catholic schools, they inculcate a great deal of intolerance and very little learning.

A third sort of private schools is of a higher description: these are either day or boarding schools, with more or less of a sectarian tint, according to the views of the headmaster. They are naturally only considered by him as the means of getting a decent livelihood, or, in the case of some fashionable board

ing schools, particularly for young ladies, of making a fortune. They are frequented by scholars of the wealthier class, and are generally defective in some respect or other. For instance, too much time is devoted to the master or mistress's favourite branch of instruction, or to whatever may happen to be the fashion of the day, whilst other branches of education are neglected. Thus, in most girls' schools the pupils will be found far advanced in foreign languages, but backward in their mother tongue, bad arithmeticians, very imperfectly acquainted with geography, knowing little or nothing of natural history, but wasting a great part of their time on flower-drawing and embroidery.

Private schoolmasters and mistresses are in general too much dependent on the whims and fancies of their patrons to keep on the right path they would gladly follow of their own free will. There are thus but very few really good private schools in Holland, and these are almost without an exception nondenominational.

The want of higher instruction than is to be obtained at the primary schools made itself very painfully felt a few years ago; it has been remedied by the law on middle class instruction, promulgated in 1863.

As we have previously etated, the educational question has become one of party politics in Holland, and the efforts of all factions opposed to the Liberals are combined against the public non-denominational school. There is, however, no fear of their succeeding, though the greatest vigilance is required to guard against their persevering hostility. The danger does not come so much from the better classes of society as from the priest-ridden lower classes, who blindly follow the dictates of ignorance and superstition.

We have still a few hints to give with regard to some subjects to

which experience has taught us particular attention ought to be paid at public schools.

The larger the school the better it is likely to turn out in every respect. There is greater emulation among the teachers themselves, as well as among the pupils; and there is, of course, some saving in expenditure. Fuel and lighting will cost comparatively less at a large than at a small school; the same number of charts, maps, &c., are requisite for the smaller as for the larger establishment, and all building repairs will be comparatively reduced. This is the case, too, with physical and musical instruments, models for drawing classes, and so forth.

Another very great advantage is the better employment of the teaching power. Very few masters indeed are to be found, particularly among the clever ones, who have not a decided and marked predilection for one or another branch of instruction, either literary or mathematical; and in large schools an assistant or head master can be most advantageously employed in the work he prefers. This is impossible in small schools, and, of course, to the detriment of the instruction.

As a rule, the head master of a public school ought to be left free in the appointment of his assistants.

He is then answerable for them in a much higher degree than otherwise, and will take more interest in their doings. In Holland, the district inspector, the burgomaster, and assessors of the commune, with the head master, consult together on the choice of candidates, and a nomination list, with three names, is sent in to the town council, who appoint. In nine cases out of ten the head master is allowed to have his own way, and the control of the district inspector and the other authorities merely counteracts undue or unjustifiable favouritism.

The subdivision of labour at the school ought likewise to be left entirely to the head master, and all complaints about the pupils or the school addressed exclusively to him. Local boards, which arrogate too much authority to themselves, will do well to remember the trite saying that 'too many cooks spoil the broth.' Prizes are generally to be condemned. In large schools it is almost impossible to act with perfect fairness. The quick and clever boy carries off the prize, which a less talented but more painstaking pupil has better deserved. In nine cases out of ten this will be found to be the case, and the children themselves are invariably quick in finding out where an injustice has been committed.

The expense, too, of prizes in large schools is very considerable indeed. A far better system is that of printed testimonials, given at a public examination to all scholars who have deserved them, for good conduct and regular attendance at school. Both parents and children attach great value to these testimonials, and the fear of not obtaining one produces good effects on the worst scholars. Even those of the lowest capacity know they may acquire the distinction, and do not feel hopelessly excluded, as in the case of costly prizes awarded to the cleverest pupils.

We conclude with some few remarks on the state of educational affairs in general, with regard to primary instruction. The Government has adopted the system, as we have already stated, of only granting subsidies to schools which are partly supported by the schoolmoney paid by the pupils.

This was a concession granted some years ago to the opponents of the non-denominational school, who complained that public free schools were ruining their own establishments. It was scarcely wise at the time, and has had a bad effect in

two respects. Firstly, where needy communes wanted a subsidy, it is very clear that the greater number of the inhabitants belonged to the indigent classes, and could ill afford to pay for their children's education; and even the lowest rate of school-money, eightpence a month, drove a good many children from the school. A clause in the law especially provides, however, that the local authorities must exempt all indigent parents from paying the school-money; and where those authorities themselves belonged to the opposition, they were and are niggardly in these exemptions, and will employ all sorts of subterfuges in order to keep down or reduce the number of pupils, and thus to save the expenses of an additional teacher at the school. There was, too, in many cases great difficulty in not allowing an exorbitant amount of school-money to be levied, which would have entirely ruined some of the public schools.

On the other hand, where the Liberals in the town council are in the majority, and school-money must be raised in order to obtain a subsidy, a most trifling rate is levied, and many who could well afford it are exempted from payment. The intentions of Government are thus eluded on both sides, and the clamour against the public school has not diminished.

One great defect in the law, in our opinion, is the very little influence it exercises on the private schools. They are open, as We have stated, to all local Government authorities: if, however, the masters are duly certificated, and their schoolrooms be but tolerably decent, there ends all control. They may teach as much or as little as they please; they may have as many or as few assistants as they choose-in many of these schools, perhaps, a hundred and fifty children are found with only one master and a pupil

teacher, fifteen or sixteen years of age-and they may employ obsolete and worthless school books, always to be had cheaper than more modern publications.

The lower classes are the chief sufferers from these very serious evils. Cheap sectarian schools are, scarcely with a single exception, of the very worst description. Of the private schools for the higher classes we have already spoken. The good ones are invariably and necessarily expensive, and one of their greatest defects is, that as soon as a school has acquired a reputation a number of scholars accrue; the teaching power is seldom augmented in the requisite degree, and in a few years the instruction and the surveillance of the pupils are anything but satisfactory. The only existing bridle on these establishments is the con

currence with the public school. The sectarians among the wealthier classes know the value of a good education for their children, and many of them who begin by patronising the private, end by sending their children to the public nondenominational school.

Twelve years have now elapsed since the present law on primary instruction was introduced, and there need be no hesitation in saying that its effects have even exceeded what its most ardent promoters expected, and that beyond all question the public non-denominational instruction has proved one of the greatest benefits ever conferred upon Holland.

In a following paper we propose giving a sketch of Middle Class or Secondary Instruction in that country.

THE

THE LOSS OF

HE foundering of H.M.S. Captain, off Cape Finisterre, on the night of September 6-7 last, is one of those appalling calamities which would inevitably be felt as a national misfortune from the magnitude of the interests involved, the awful loss of life, and the sensational suddenness of the catastrophe, even if the Captain had been a passenger ship. Here, a great inventor, who has devoted the best years of his life to developing the maritime power of our seagirt isle; a gallant captain and crew zealous in their country's service; the finest fighting machine in the British Navy, all go to the bottom together; along with a sum in money of 400,000l. sterling literally thrown into the sea. Of Captain Cowper Coles we will not now speak at length whether he has perished in the hour of victory for his turretsystem, or whether he has in his own person paid the penalty of failure, are questions which will be eagerly debated for some time to come. We leave the settlement of these points to the verdict of public opinion, assisted by further experience; it is sufficient now to insist that he had all the true features of inventive genius-energy, impulsiveness, fertility of resource; and if on the other hand he appeared occasionally impracticable or inclined to go too fast, have not these, too, been traits in the character of all those who since the world began have shed the light of their intellect in advance of their fellow-men?

Burgoyne, the son of the veteran Field-Marshal, was a man of another mould, essentially a sailor, of whom it may be said, as of the gallant Admiral Sir Thomas Trowbridge, who foundered in the Blenheim, 74, in 1807, on his return from the East Indies, that 'he commanded more resources in his ship than any officer

H.M.S. CAPTAIN.

of his time:' decorated with the Victoria Cross, zealous, and popular with both officers and men, it is felt by the Navy that he has not left his equal behind him.

We worship success in these days, and there are those who would depreciate Captain Burgoyne by urging that he lost his ship by 'want of seamanship,' in carrying too much sail. In reply to this allegation we have the emphatic evidence of Admiral Sir A. Milne, at the Court-Martial, to his character as a sailor and an officer, if such warrant were required; but to the Navy, such a charge as applied to Burgoyne is simply absurd. That his thorough knowledge of seamanship and his confidence in his own resources may have made him overbold, is probable; but this' is a fault we could gladly pardon in a sailor; and we may quote the saying attributed to Nelson as applicable to his case, that 'no captain was worth anything who had never lost a ship.' We wish to do justice to Burgoyne's character, for he was the type of what a naval officer should be. We were at Portsmouth the day the Captain was commissioned, and we will describe him as we then saw him, for the last time: Only thirty-seven years of age, active, intelligent, and fond of

the service; of about the middle height; his firm, slightly weather-beaten features beaming with that cheery smile which was all his own, and which SO endeared him to all who knew him. In the words of Cowper Coles to the author, he was one of those who lead, but who do not drive their men.' One example will show how truly he understood his profession, and was enabled to perform that most difficult task of combining the suaviter in modo with the fortiter in re. When only