The Express.
London, England, 1864-01-08 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS,_

chum, more numerous in Englund
country, except perhaps the col

than in any other

wish their children to hive a better education than

" theyhad themselves. And they are willing to give
"a good price, but they are liable to be duped by
"any confident pretenders, and they want some
" test by which to know a good school from a bad
" one." It is no less true, as Lord STANLIY points
out, that the system of University Local Examine-
tions is a most effective remedy for this cardinal
defect of middle-claim education. The Oxford
Local Examinations,which inaugurated the system
six years ago, first laid bare to the public the I
seriously defective quality of the prevalent
teaching in private schools, only about a third of
the candidates who came up from these schools
having succeeded in passing an elementary exami-
nation. Ever since that time the local examinations
undertaken by the Universities have been specially
directed towards the correction of this defect, the
whole scheme both of questions and marks having
been carefully framed to test and reward the
sound quality instead of the superficial quantity of ,
the candidate's professed knowledge. Examiners
have in their annual reports repeatedly insisted on
accuracy and thoroughness of knowledge as the
indispensable conditions of a candidate's success. '
Many candidates, especially in the earlier exami-
nations, dabbled with many subjects, in
the hope of scrambling through by answer-
ing a few questions in each. But this practice
is very properly condemned and discouraged by
the examiners. In the last report it is remarked
on this point :—" More marks would be gained,
" and the process would be more beneficial to the
"candidates, were they to confine their reading
" within narrower limits, selecting one or more of
" the optional subjects, and learning them tho-
" roughly, instead of endeavouring to obtain a
" less acquaintance with the whole." An exami-
nation of this sort, conducted on the principle
of testing the candidate's power of applying the
knowledge he has professedly acquired, and of
rejecting all answers that are not distinct and
accurate, as far as they go, offers very little en-
couragement indeed to the process of "cramming," '
and would probably, in the great majority of in-
stances, prove fatal to the candidates who ven-
tured to depend on that process for success.
On the other hand, it directly tends to
raise the character of the teaching in
the schools from which the candidates come.
By supplying a sound test to the systems of
teaching pursued in these schools, the masters
are naturally stimulated to correct what is de-
fective, supply what is wanting, and improve to
the best of their ability the quality of the instruc-
tion afforded to their pupils. If these efforts are'
successful tie keel examinations give a public re-
cognition of that success, and the master has his
appropriate reward in the higher character and
position thus awarded to his school. In this way,
as the statistics of recent years show, the local
examinations have already effected a very salutary
reform in the teaching of private schools, and, so
far as their influence extends, have undoubtedly
raised the character of middle-class education. In
its wider bearings, such a reform may even-
tually become a national service. The expe-
rience of every day shows the necessity
of insisting on accuracy and thoroughness in every
department of intellectual activity and public life.
The whole tendency of the age, and even the rapid
diffusion of cheap literature, are in some respects
hostile to the habits of dispassionate inquiry and
independent judgment which must ever constitute
the glory and moral strength of a free people.
While we are inundated with superficial informa-
-1 tion, hearsay judgments, and second-hand opi-
nions, the number of educated men who are
willing to go through the labour of forming opi-
nions for themselves appears almost to diminish as
1 the materials for sound judgment increase. Lord
STANLEY has adverted to this aspect of our social
and political state in a passage which well deserves
to be weighed by all who have the permanent
welfare of the country at heart. " The habit of
" verifying facts before we accept them, with that
"which necessarily follows upon it, the habit of
" suspending our judgment when facts are not
" precisely known, and utterly distrusting the
" first vague impressions we form, is not very
" common, even amongst educated men ; and
" upon that habit, perhaps more than we think,
" both our social comfort and our political well-
" being depends. Where every wild report finds
" easy belief, where people rush to conclusions
" from hearing one aide of a story without wait-
' " ing to hear the other, where there is a general
" impatience to believe or disbelieve without
" sufficient grounds for either, there one security is
" wanting both against political exaggeration and
"against individual injustice. I look on cultivation
" of what I may call our judging faculties' as one
" of the very first duties which civilization imposes
" on the members of a community."

WEATHER RIPORT.-(THIS DAY.)

FRID,
Int Court.
(=OP" Jen. 7.
The Queen, soecenpanied by Princess Helens,
drove oat yertorday.

Earl GMDAVID.* aMead at Osborne.
Prince Arthur, attended by Major Elphivatone, hu re-
turned to Greenwich-park.
The Queen held a annuli to-day, which was attended by
Earl Greaville (Lord President), the Right Honourable
Sir George Grey, and the Right Honourable C. P. Villiera
Kr. Helps, the Clerk of the Osancil, attended.
At the Connell Parliament wee ordered to be further pro-
raved him Wednesday, the 13th of January, to Thursday,
the 4th of February, when h is to assemble for the des-
patch of business.
Earl Granville had an audience of her Majesty.

The Right lion. Sir George Grey and the Right Hoc. C.
P. Villiers left town yesterday by a special train on the
South Western Railway to attend the Queen's council at
Osborne. At Gosport the ministers embarked on board her
Majesty's ship Fire Queen, Staff Commander F. W. Paul,
R.N., sad arrived at Osborne at a quarter to one o'clock.
Alter the council the ministers retnrned to town.

Sir Francis Graham Moan, Bart., Chairman of the
General Purpose, Committee of the Court of Aldermen,
with the City Solicitor, trannicted business yesterday at the
Home-offico.

Despatches wore seat from the
to the Gomm. of Cicada.

yesterday