quarters, the moment a law so salutary had made the work to be done compulsory; but in any case where other means failed a parochial rate in aid would be levied.

The Government expenses for management, inspection, registration, officers, etc., would be met easily and equitably thus :-Let a fee of 7s. a head be charged for the examination of every child who was not educated by the aid of charity schools, or of schools aided by Government rewards. This capitation tax for examination would bring in a yearly income of £80,000 to £90,000 at least, and would amply provide for double or treble the present number of inspectors, etc., and give the benefit of the machinery to the elementary schools for the poor, free of all expense.

The whole result therefore of this plan as regards expense to the public purse would be, that for machinery it would be nothing, for building schools nothing, but that the whole outlay would be gathered into serviceable rewards for good results. Supposing that at this moment there are 4,000,000 children from 7 to 14 to educate and train, and that half the number belong to poor people who require aided schools, there would then be, say, making allowance for sickness, etc., about 200,000 of these children every year of a suitable age to examine, and if these children passed an average of three of the parts of the ex

amination, the rewards due to the different schools that educated them would amount to £600,000 per annum. The outlay for the results of training teachers in the normal schools of different denominations would probably equal another £100,000 per annum. But mark the difference in the results gained by the proposed new system over the old. The latter exhibits as the sole result the number of 664,005 children, educated in a very imperfect degree, and not specifically trained.

The new system, under very little more public expense, maintains 2,000,000 under education and training, and at each annual examination, at the 14th year, sends into the world 200,000 children, educated and trained in a way much more complete and practical for the requirements of daily life. Moreover, as the work of education goes on, the number of children sent to aided schools will steadily diminish.

The method and mechanism, and the education and training would consist of three parts-registration, inspection, and examination.

(a) Registration: it should be required that every child be registered for education at 6 years of age, stating school adopted. At 14 years of age a second registration should be required, stating the result of the examination by the Government Inspector. If passed, a certificate would be given to the child which would be useful to his or her

future prospects, and honourable to the school which educated the child.

And here might be introduced another valuable reform-let the Registrar of Education be like the Registrar-General, and place him at the head of the department as a permanent, responsible, and skilful manager. In this way we might hope to see education become as effective a department as that of the Post-office or the RegistrarGeneral's, under a Rowland Hill or a Farr.

(b) The inspection would consist in the visit once a year of a Government Inspector, whose duty would be to examine the hygienic conditions of the school and of the scholars, to inspect the registers of attendance and progress of the scholars, and to examine those scholars who had attained the 14th year, in his report attaching the amount of premium to the names of those who passed his examination.

(c) The examination at the 14th year might consist of four parts. The first would take in all that the provisions of the Revised Code include up to the sixth standard. This would insure a competent knowledge of the instruments of learning-reading, writing, and arithmetic.

A second part would be constituted of questions calculated to test the thinking and intelligent functions of the mind, and which would enable the examiner to ascertain if pains had

been bestowed in giving the child a practical notion of the duties of life as a human being and a Christian (where the candidate was a Christian). For example, he might be asked the difference between cause and effect, evidence and opinion or judgment, of thought and memory. The evidence of a Creator, of immortality, of the Saviour (if a Christian). The reasons for preferring truth to falsehood, honesty to dishonesty, selfdenial to indulgence, self-dependency to dependency, courage to moral weakness and cowardice. The authority of the Scriptures (if a Christian). The first and second parts would be much interwoven to save time; thus the writing might be tested by replying in writing to one or more of the moral or religious questions.

A third part might include examination in the first elements of chemistry, mechanics, and natural philosophy, or any technical knowledge likely to be useful to the candidate.

A fourth might consist in the elements of music.

This course of education expresses the minimum that any child should have.

For each of these parts of the examination successfully passed, the school would be paid the Government premium of 20s., so that well-taught children would bring in £4 to the school, and none that passed less, probably, than £2.

The elementary schools for educating the children of the labouring classes would be of various kinds.

1. Endowed schools. These derive their income from property inalienably appropriated, and the premium on passing the successful scholars would enable the managers to extend the boundaries of their schools.

2. Denominational schools, or schools raised by the various religious communities.-The means for doing this would consist partly in the schoolfees of the children educated by them, and which should be levied in degrees proportioned to the earnings and the size of the family of the parents. It is proposed, as before stated, that all cases of dispute on this point should be referrible to an arbitrator commissioned by the Government, but accessible to every religious denomination, the action of his office dealing only with the earnings or income of a family, and not with the religion.

The second means of support would be voluntary subscriptions. And

The third, the premium bestowed by the State on every successful pass.

3. Self-supporting, or partly self-supporting, schools. These schools would, in addition to the means of support possessed by the last-named, get an additional source of income from the labour of their scholars. Many of these schools would be