The Express.
London, England, 1859-01-07 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING. JANUARY 7, 1859.

UPPER AND MIDDL.B.CL4BB scilooLmAsr.sits.

Yesterday morning a conference of the upper and
middie-eime schoolmasters of the United Kingdom wee held
in the Council Chamber, Guildhall, the room having been
generously placed at their disposal by the Lied Mayor and
the corporation of the City of London. In consequence of
the illness of hie lordship, who was to have presided, the
chair was taken by the Rev. Dr. Moore, F.R.S.
The CHAIRMAN, on opening the proceedings, said he
accepted with gratitude the honour they had conferred on
him to ogling upon Dim to preeide over their deliberations.
There we. only one remark which he would venture to make,
which was that he hoped they would hear with good temper
end attention all the arguments which might be brought tor-
ward either for or against the resolutions which would be
submitted to them. It was too, desirable that, having but
one object in view, they should endeavour to keep that object
perticolarly before them to the exclusion of all extraneous
matter'. (Hear, hear.)
Rev. Dr. HuIIPHREYK, of Cheltenham, then read to the
conference an address embodying the history of the newest
movement among the teachers of the young. The movement
dated from the publication is August last of the series rt
public examinations originated by the University of Oxford.
With that result, not with the punctilio( those examinations
themselves, the schoolmaster' of the United Kingdom were

very much, disestiaded, and he had been urged gimeny of
them to cell the mama conference, in the hope that sum
step might be takes to remedy existing evils in school
education. Speaking for intimate, he would say that the Board
of University Examiners were sots body properly quelitted
or adapeall ke the work which they had been appointed to
carry out. Utdversity tutors and examiners were not the
mein Wed to examine school classes. That was a des-
cription of examination which could be much better
performed by schoolmasters themselves, and he there-
fore hoped that for the future the university board should in
each local centre associate with themselves some of the

principal schoolmaster. in the neighbourhood, and thus
they would have a union of professional learning and
practical experience on the examining board. Such :a
union would go fee to remove the want of the tied ewe
system in testing the knowledge of the pupils. He thought
it unfair to charge the schoolmasters with the failure of the
pupils at the Oxford exaniinatione, just se If they bad mot
up the elite of their schools to the examination. He knew
of many mom In which, on the importunities ef their
paean, otheelmasters had to send in the very yams boys,
not at 1,21 competent for the examination; mad there were
as many eater seer in which the beat boys declined to sub-
mit totr mosieleisre. A Reboot, however, could never be
fairly tented by the insets or demerits of individual pupil.,
but, to be preperly judged of, should be examined as a whole.
Fran a gottni emdwence of echnolinantere, such or was
then seemakied, the =twenties would, he was sure, most I
willingly take ittieee hr the improvement of their pro- •
grammes; awl , la the programme for examinations'
of the meat yew, University of Oxford had introduced
isevenit 'brew lie thought that they ought,
le develop and render more general and esti.-
Asa: examine' ioo., the principled which
be appoved.:l bey should also promote the progress
et*. war said middle clue education by bringing together
the mein of the public schools to compare their wogs and
wishes, wed take congeal to assist each other in the great and
anxima work in which they were engaged, else they would
have government endeavouring to take the task of edocatiagthe
young out of their hands; but that was& change to which the
people of England, he was sure, would Dever submit. (Hear
hear.) But they never would or could make programs unless
they proved themselves willing to correct thee, faults and
strive to bring about a uniformity of sj stem In all the schools
of the kingdom. It was but right, too, that they should
claim CI( the educates, • status on a par with that of any one
of the learned professions. (Cheers.) Above all they should,
so heed maiden, take in,, to rain the character and improve
the condition of the amistant muter, by meeting them as
the members of one and the same brotherhood. In tencht-
sion, to show how favourably the project of calling the cm-
Branca wee regarded by the prolamine, he would mo-
tion that the committee bad sent out 1,600 circu-
lars making an expresaion of opinion upon the subject.
Mout 700 of thew had come beck to them. 600 containing
favouretile replies and 200 returned by the Post office, se the
persons to whom they were addrmeed could not be found.
• Rev. Mr. Lo thought Dr. Humphreys had deserved
well of the meeting, and without binding themselves to
• any of the opinions enunciated in his address, they ought
to thank him foe reading it, and he should move that taary
I do *). _

Dr. F. HALLS having seconded the motion, it vas
unanimously adopted.
Dr. WHIT; in moving a resolution to the effect that the
confervece regarded with warm admiration and gratitude the
liberal spirit shown by the ancient universities In insti-
tuting the new ...initiation., said that it ehould not be for-
gotten that fur the Isat 12 years the College of Preceptor. had
been acting as the pioneer of thia movement on the part of
the universities.

...
Mr. Tam e Luton, of Exeter, seconded the resolution be-
noose he bad from the commencement taken the deepest jute-

rest in The sores. re of those examinations, and felt 'cordially
grateful to the universities for stepping out of the confined
circle within which they had so long acted, and coming out
into the broad areas of education to improve the middle
deers, who were the stamen sad the backbone of the oate-
n,. He oonaidered the university middle-class exentinattons
as the greatest movement of the present day, and he hoped
that nothing would be rid in that Conference which would
be calculated to throw cold water upon it became it had some
deism. la fact, oratokkalions were disorder of the day, and
therefore it became their duty ea 'schoolmasters to re by
what means they might be rendered as dirk et an possible.

Dv. Arenuese; (of Brighton) supported the resolution.
He felt grateful to the UlliVerkliee for what they were
doing, but be thought their cis thertior would hare remained
with them, were it not that the action of the College of Pre-
ceptors and other bodies had, by successfully examining
hundreds upon hundreds, shown them the polity of their
becoming the great middle-clues whielosestme. They did
nut thank the universitim for originating a new idea, but
fur doing for them toot which they had been long doing fur
themselves. . . . .

The Cu tutu.% s remarked that the university examinations
were in • great massive based upon them instituted by the
Society of Art..
Mr. Perk, of Lestherhead, explained that the exam'.
nations conducted by the College of Preceptors, and them
conducted under the auapioes of the universities, were
altogether cliff,vent In character. The college examined the
schools of Its own members. whereas the university examina-
tions were open to all the mhoola of the kingdom. The body
of examiner.. too, mrsdifferent ; end he thought it better that
those examiners should be univereity fellows end tutors than
that schoolmasters should examine the pupils of reboot-

maters. There were many advantages ariOng from the board
being an independent one—the chief being the confidence
which would attach to their decision, it being known that
their verdict wee an impartial one. He thought that
the university authorities had in every way consulted
the intermits of the schoolmasters in the arrange-
meats which they had made and be could not but
admire the precision with which Mr. Sewell had, in
drawing up the ethente, anticipated every difficulty end in-
convenience v.ltch might arise. Indeed, if they were, as a
committee, to compare the arrangements which the univer-
sity had made with those which It might have made, the
alterations would be both few end slight. It had been ob-
jected that the lower limit of age at which boys were ad-
mitted by the Oxford scheme to examinations wee too low;
but it was his opinion that if they died at 16 indeed of at
IS, they would not find the persons examined persevering
with their own education, so w to qualify themselves for the
higher examination ; and It wee meet de treble that they
should have both a little" and a great" good.
The resolution having been supported by Dr. Prom
Halle, Mr. Board, of Plymouth, and Mr. Maws, of Den-
mark-hill, wee unanimously adopted.

The Cti A IRMA!! then proposed that the conference, while
arks owledging the merits of the ancient universities, wee also
vensible of the benefits conferred on middle clams education,
by the University of London, the Council of lndl; the Civil
Serrate Board of Examiner*, the Society of Arta the College
of Preceptors, and othen examining bodies. He raid that,
looking at the examinations of the Council for India in en
educational point of view, it wax impossible to estimate their
effect, All the university fellowships and scholarships, and
all their mastership, fell into insignificance as stimulants
to education, compared with the great sphere of action
which those examinational poesimsed. The same was

erne with respect to the' civil ellrflOP, and they
could not but feel grateful to the government for denud-
ing itself of its patronage that they might promote the
cause of education. When It was said that the University
of Oxford for the first time put those examinations before
the public an incorect statement was made, for they wero
held out to, end accepted by, many schools for a long time
tutors the uninveity moved in the matter, and the whole
credit of the experiment was due to the Rev. Dr:Temple,
the heed master of Rugby, who was one of the Society of
Arne board of examiners. Examination, when judiciously
wed, woe a powerful stimulus to self-Improvement, but it
might be carried too far, and applied to cams where Its Infla-
mes would be positively pernicious. He altogether depre-
cated the public examination of very young boys et school,
either by Orford or any other central authority. The
preparation for examination always interfered with and
interrupted the prooarees of mind that were brought into
operation in the acquisition of knowledge. The faculties
which were brought Into ploy in preparing for en exami-
' nation were chiefly memory, quickness, presence of mind,
reekineek anaemic. or 'harpoon, what the Greek. called
whilst the (scolds. that ware exercised in the
neon of acquiring knowledge were judgment, a spirit of
patient investigation, an ability to follow out a long-con-
tinued train of thought on the same subject, paring over it
if you will so call it. Learning habituated the mind to
slowness in coming to a conclusion ; examination, on the
contrary. leaded to produce quickness. Hence a boy should
always deem without thinking about his future examina-
tion., Nobody would ever thoroughly know any subject
who was always asking himself, Am I likely to be asked such

a emotion, or, le it probable that such and inch a subject will
be examined in at the next examination
Professor Cu mermen having seconded the resolution, it
wr supported by several 'Team", especially by Mr. Taylor
Jame, who warmly advocated the claims of the college pre-
ceptors, and was unanimonaly agreed to.
It was then agreed to meet again at Christmas, an audit
committee was appointed to inspect the accounts, a subscrip-
tion entered into to defray the expenses attending the as-
sembling of the conference, and a committee appointed to
collect practical suggestions from Kboolllllll44lfa, for the im-
provement of the university examinations, and in reference
to other matters in which, in ounnexion with their profession,
they might feel a deficiency.
This haying concluded the business of the day, a vote of
thanks to the Lord Mayor for the use of the hall wse pealed,
end the proceedings terminated in the usual way.