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

Lord Stanley on the Oxford Local Exami-

nations.

Lord Stanly, M.P., in distributing the prizes, yesterday
afternoon, to the successful competitors at the Oxford local
examinations at Manchester, said :—Ladies and gentlemen,
—Having finished the main part of the business of the day
—the distribution of prizes—you will expect me, perhaps,
to address a few words to you as to the general purpose and
working of these so-called local examinations. It is easy to
explain wh) it has been thought expedient that examina-
tions of this kind should be held. Great efforts, we all
know, have been and are being made for the improvement
and extension of school teaching among the lower and
labouring classes, Large sums are voted, private liberality
is stimulated and rewarded by State grants, the clergy, the
landowners, and the manufacturing employers are inces-
santly called upon to assist, and though the quality of the
teaching given may not be all that we could desire, and
though in large towns especially considerable sections of
the population still remain unprovided for, yet, on the
whole, comparing the present with the past, and compar-
ing ourselves with foreigners, we are entitled to say that
England, which 30 years ago was far behind Conti-
nental Europe in educational matters, now holds her own
with any country in the world. (Cheers.) For the higher
and wealthier classes, again, the great public schools and
the old collegiate foundations of the country supply educa-
tion of a suitable character. Whether these means are taken
advantage of to the utmost is another matter ; the Public
Schools Commission, when it comes to report, will tell us
something about that ; but at any rate, if anything is amiss
those classes have the remedy in their own hands. (Hear.)
But between the highest and the lowest, between those who
send their sons to Eton, to Harrow, or to Rugby, and those
whose children attend the village school, there is a class
numerically far larger than the highest, and both politically
and socially not less important than the labouring classes.
The want of good schools for the sons of farmers, of yeomen,
of tradesmen, of clerks, of men having incomes from £l5O
to £5OO a year—though this distinction is necessarily both
imperfect and inaccurate—the want, in short, of what are
known as good middle-class schools is an evil which has
been long understood and felt, though less felt perhaps
than it ought to have been by those whom it chiefly affects
With the exception of a few grammar schools here and there
the business has been left to private enterprise. And there
could be nothing better if only the buyer were always qua-
lified to judge of the article in which he invests, but that is
not the case. Many fathers have not the leisure or the will
to investigate very carefully the qualifications of the school-
master. Those who have made their own way in the world,
and happily they are a class more numerous in England
than in any other country, except perhaps the colonies—
naturally wish their children to have a better education
than they had themselves. And they are willing to give a
good plies, but they are liable to be duped by any confi-
dent pretender, and they went some test by which to know
a good school from a bad one. That test is supplied by
r hese examinations. I do not hesitate to say that during
the six years of their existence they have done more
to expose bad schools and to bring 'good ones into
notice than any other machinery that could be devised for
the purpose—(cheers)—for they have put not the lads but
their masters upon their trial, and it is not easy to see in
our state of society what other agency could have accom-
plished so much. Government inspection is very well for
schools that get help from the State, and great national
foundations, such as the universities and public schools,
may from time to time be subjected to the supervision—
cautiously and monerately exercised—of Parliament or of
the Executive, but we should never endure in England to
have Government interfering with private teaching estab-

lishments, and I may say for one that we ought not to en
dure it. (Hear.) The plan that has been adopted is open
to no such objection. It is perfectly voluntary. No school
need send any candidates unless the masters choose, It
implies no independence, and it leaves the teaching abso-
lutely free. It simply marks out for honour and distinction
those schools in which the most accurate and effective
teaching is given ; for I believe it will be found that in this
as in all such trials, where they are properly managed, suc-
cess depends far less on the amount which is supposed to be
known than on the thoroughness of the knowledge attained.
(Cheers.) It is in that respect that our University system
is thoroughly sound and good. There will always be dis-
putes as to what are the fittest subjects for boys and young
men to study—for the field is vast, time is short, and life is
busy; but I think there can be no dispute as to the sound-
ness of the rule which every Oxford or Cambridge exami-
ner lays down—to take no account of, to ignore and pawl
over altogether any answer which is not accurate and pre-
cise as far as it goes. That is, I think, the very best part
of mental training that University men get in early life.
To know what it is we know, and where our knowledge
ends—!o use the plainest and most simple English words
that will convey the meaning, neither more nor less—to
avoid vague general terms, which carry with them no deft•
nite idea, but only sound well, and remind one of what is
called " fine writing"—these are the marks by which we in..
stinctively know an educated from a half-edueated man,
whether in his writing or in his speech. And why ? Because
these are the signs of a man having mastered his subject,of
his having trained himself to think and to express his
thoughts. (Cheers) And when a man has done that, he
is sure to be worth hearing. The misfortune is that we so
often come across people who can find words about anything
and everything—words which in the mouths of those from
whom they picked them up had a very real and definite sig-
nificance, tut which are repeated with only a half under-
standing of what they imply. (Hear.) I think that habit
of talking and thinking at second hand is one which our
customs in the present day necessarily encourage. Nobody
doubts that there is a vast amount of mental activity in
English society ; everything is written about, everything
is discussed, conversation and reading spread themselves
over a range of topics which would have utterly astonished
and perplexed our forefathers. The first-class newspaper
alone are probably read collectively by more than half a mil
lion persons—l speak of those only who read them habitually
and with understanding. Ido not say that such a state of
things is unfavourable to origin it thought. Original thinkers
are rare in every time, and they can take care of themselves.
However thick the crowd may be, there is always room for
those who can pass over other• men's heads. And Ido not
complain of the great mass of half-knowledge, and superfi-
cial knowledge,for that is better than mere lethergy and stag-
nation. But undoubtedly our intellectual dangers in the pre-
sent day lie not on the side of a culture too narrow and exclu-
sive, as formerly, but rather on that of spreading our atten-
tion over 100 subjects instead of concentrating it upon a few.
Perhaps you will think that in saying this 1 am forgetting
the question of schools; but I advert to it because it is a
part of my case. As the boy is so is the man. Accuracy
and thoroughness rather than variety and superficiality is