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Schools ; ( 2 ) The private Commercial Academies ; and ( 3 ) The Parochial Schools , improved and supported by Government and the Religious Societies . To these perhaps I should add ( 4 ) The Oxford and Cambridge Middle-Class Examinations . " We next arrive at the reasons which are supposed to militate against the plan , and , according to our author , divided into three separate interests ; they

are" 1 . —The old County Grammar Schools have , of late years , languished , owing to the absorption of so many of the sons of the gentry and upper middle-class , once frequenting them , into a few great public schools , which have almost monopolized the higher education of the country . And at the same time the commercial classes , not finding in the classical course to which these grammar Schools have clung , the preparation they desired for an early entrance into practical life , have had recourse to private tuition ,

or , in the case of many of the farmers , have almost neglected education altogether . The decay or revival of these schools will he only indirectly affected by the deveiopement of a ' county system . ' If that system should , ever grow to the completeness of a county college and county degrees , then an influence , such as that formerly exercised by the universities on these grammar schools Avould te revived , viz . the influence of a higher grade upon the subordinate . Then many of the professional members of the count

y , would find in the grammar school and the county college and degree , a classical education far cheaper and not much inferior to that of Harrow and Rugby , Cambridge and Oxford ; Avhereas the neAV county school in ivhich the classics would only hold a subordinate position , would not offer to them any serious competition . I think , therefore , that the grammar schools have far more to hope than to fear from this system . " 2 .- —The effect of the public countschools on the private

y commercial academies may be other than I anticipate , but certainly it would seem that any great stimulus , encouragement , and honour applied to the education of the middle classes , must , by increasing the demand , benefit those ivho undertake the supply . And that whicli is found to be the case in the higher classes , will be found also in the middle , —that a public school system promotes and maintains an extensive apparatus of private tuition

, in which the qualifications of individual masters are adjusted to the special requirements of individual boys . It would be difficult to estimate too boldly the funds that may yet be forthcoming for the purposes of education , when its value is as extensively appreciated among all ranks as it is at at present among the higher . And it is reasonable to expect that the distribution of those funds , being left to the free option of parents , will affect public and private

• enterprise m about the same proportion as is now found to be the case in the education of the gentry ; a proportion of which the private tutors have no reason to complain . The general improvement in the standard of tuition , which would be likely to result from a public system , would , of course , be injurious to inferior schools aud inefficient teachers , a result which has , no doubt , generally followed the improvements introduced b y Dr . Arnold into the higher public schools . But the private loss is here so

clearly the public gain , that it would be a very false kindness , for the sake of the few who may , not undeservedly , suffer , to hinder the improvement from which the public generally , and all good schoolmasters will derive advantage . " 3 . —There is one view under which the establishment of a self-supporting system of education for the middle classes , and adapted specially for those immediatelabove the class of labourers

y , ought to be looked upon with favour by those engaged in the business and profession of schoolmasters . Eor such a system alone is likely to check the tendency to the spread of that other most mischevious public system which substitutes the state for the parent , and by artificially lowering the price to the parent , though in reality , enhancing to the nation the cost of education , not only treats every labourer in the country as a pauper , unable and unfit

to educate his own child , but , by the bribe of cheapness , degrades the farmer or tradesman who are tempted to avail themselves of the _ government schools . For no private master can compete against these schools in price , and few in quality : and I call it degradation in this country , when the independent classes look to government support ( or in other ivords to their neighbour ' s pocket ) , for the education of their own children . And there is good authorit

y for believing that this degradation is still so keenly felt by a large proportion of the farmers ancl tradesmen , that where no other schools exist , they prefer to keep their children at home to sending them to a government-aided school ; but that wherever a self-supporting public school is started they will thankfully pay the fair price . It remains onl y to show that such public schools can so compete with the government schools in quality , as to justify the higher price which their condition of independence must require them to charge . The improved quality of the Government Schools depends on the training of the instructors , a

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training complete in the case of the masters ; in progress among the pupil teachers . In this training is to be found the chief merit , but at the same time , the great cost of the government system . The merit is simply that the best educational resources of the . country have been turned to the object of producing skilled and scientific instruction . I need not say that Government has not created those reseources , but merely adopted them . To the universities and public schools it has looked for its agents , its :

inspectors , ancl principals of colleges ; and , what is more , the very idea of a training system , with the noble liberality , effort , ancl example that started it , were the peculiar merits of individuals , Shy J . Kay Shuttieworth and Mr . E . Tufihell . "

It is against this view that we contend . Our public schools have been perverted from their ori ginal design by making such places of learning as Eton , Harrow , Winchester , St . Paul ' s , Charterhouse , Christ ' s Hospital , and Westminster to be the rightful inheritance of the rich and noble , instead of the places of education for the poor . Our grammar schools , too , are open to the same objection . The

exhibitions founded in many of them , take Oakham for example , a richly endowed school , where the benefits aro chiefly confined to the boarders , those who can pay the masters , whilst the pupils for whom it was intended get but a minor education and little or no benefit . The way to popularise education would be to adhere to the original foundation deeds and the intentions of the founders ; then

the middle classes might have a chance to educate their children in something more than they can afford at present , and if this was acted on throughout the country , there would be no need of county or private colleges , for it is to the public schools of the country that the nation owes so much . If the reverend prebendary would turn his attention to these points he would be " doing the state some

service , " and furthering the great principle of national and superior education ; but whilst he , and other friends of that , good cause , seek only to palliate the abuses that have overspread the land by founding fresh schools ivhich must in time dwindle into mere proprietary establishments , the root of the evil remains untouched , and education for the rich will always be at the expense of the birthriht of the

g poor . We can heartily commend the pamphlet to all interested in the great cause of the proper education of youth , with one reservation , that for a public system , such as that indicated in the Eev . Mr . Brereton ' s fDamphlet , there are as good schools already belonging to the nation , though wofully misapplied .

Mr. Beeton's Publications.

Mr . Beeton ' s Publications .

Mr . S . 0 . Beeton seems destined to hold a hi gh place amongst the publishers of periodical literature , the Avhole of his works being in the best style of workmanship , and their tone of a nature to make them acceptable in every family . We have already spoken in terms of warm commendation of the Illustrated Family Bible , and need only say that the numbers now before us fully equal their

predecessors . The Fnglislncoman ' s Domestic Magazine for December is rich in illustrations of fashions and patterns for ladies work , ivhich we are assured are excellent ; and we should like to see the nimble figures that could execute within the month all the work which this Magazine so liberally provides . The literary portion of the work is light , cheerful , and well chosenand the domestic recipes

, good and useful . The Log ' s Ov ; n Library— "Wild Sports of the World "—goes merrily on , the last number treating of the Boar , the Bear , and the Ostrich . It is illustrated ivith tAvo excellent coloured plates , and a number of woodcuts , one of Avhich , the Morning after the Battle of Melville , is admirably executed , being quite a gem of the art of Avood engraving . The Boy ' s Oicn Magazine is as excellent as it

is cheap . The " Legend of Davy Jones , " with which the number ofthe past month opens , is excellent—full of excitement , and , above all , not too long . Then we have gymnastics , the continuation of " The Normans and Saxons , " " Four Tales told in a Forest , " with the nature of which ive shall not acquaint our readers , as ive wish them to buy the book ; " The Reminiscences of a Baven , " and much more ivhich cvei-y boy ought to read . Birds are at all times favourites , and more especially with the poor , through