New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-11-01

of those who desire TO exclude Greek from the list
Of subjects essential for Cambridge degree. They
call themselves educational reformers They are,
in fact, opposed to all teaching not in their view
practical. Many of them are teachers Of physical
science crsmmers for the Civil Service and mill
tnry, as we'll as for the university examinations.
They would like TO have one standard for all.
Some of these gentlemen are head masters of public
schools, and to be head-master of a public school
in England is 10 hold one OF the most dignihed
and profitable places any profession has to offer.
They are. however only too apt to put the interests
of their own schools above the interests of their
pupils, and still further, above the interests of
education in general.
Some Of them took leading part In the anti
classical movement. now less strong than when it
started. They and their associates have been
beaten at Cambridge by nearly three to one, the
vote in the senate standing 525 to 1855. Yet
their proposal was put forward in the most in
sdious FORM All they asked was grace" for
effect, that syndicate be appointed to consider
whether it be expedient TO allow an alternative
for one of the two classical languages in the pre-
vious examination. Surely, urged the modernists,
you cannot object to mere inquiry. But il they
had carried the inquiry, they would forthwith
have nominated a syndicate with majority for the
new scheme. Therefore it was that the frieads
of classical education and those who believe that
education means something Tore than mere tech
nica training for the practical work of lfe rallied
IN such numbers. They have a victory
which may or may not be permanent but they
have stayed a movement which struck at the very
idea on which university teaching is based
The Queen and her Ministers have shown in
the most emphatic way their sense of Captain
Shaw's services, and also of his treatment by the
London County Council. lie retires to-day, and
he retires Sir Eyre Shaw, X. c. B. This dignity
whatever value it may have in non-English eyes,
is here reckOned real distinction X. G. Bs. are
not much chucked about, the Bath being still
an order kept down to small numbers and con-
ferred, only for exceptional service, men Of real
mark. He has been for thirty years head of the
London Fire Brigade, which is at present without
a head, or perhaps has too many heads, each mem
Der of the Fire Brigade Committee being one.
writer who prefers to be anonymous has
something to say in morning paper in reply to
discourses in IIarper's" by Mr.. George William
Curtis and Mr.. Howells, touching Mr.. Theodore
Watts, and his notions of American literature.
Mr.. Watts seems to have said that there is none.
1t was, suppose, natural that his article should
attract attention in America. 1t appeared in
a monthly review, and abounded in dog1natism
Yet Mr.. Curtis with his sympathetic liking for
what is excellent and his penetrating good sense,
and Mr.. Howells, with his fine literary percep-
tions, are not men who would ordinarily be i'm
posed upon by mere pr0tentiousness. Their
patriotism has summoned them into the field
against an antagonist worthy of the steel of
neither. They must be aware that Mr.. Watts
holds no important place in English literature,
whether original critical. He was parasite
of Rossetti and a parasite Of Mr. Swinburne.
and his own verse is sometimes just good enough
for corner in the weekly journal which some
times finds room for it. If he had written an
article on English literature, no Englishman of
rank equal to Mr.. Curtis Mr.. Howells would
have cared a straw what he said. Why should
we care in America? But Mr.. Curtiss and Mr..
Howels's reply will give Mr.. Watts position TO
which he could not otherwise have attained.
Mr.. Howells, moreover, seems once more to have
forgotten that he is read in England not less
FULLY than in America. He surely forgot it when
he said that for all aesthetic purposes, the
American people is not a nation, but n condi-
ton" This remark is received with yells of de-
light The NALL" cries the British critic; the
very obnoxious nail war never more firmly knocked
On the head" Well may he be grateful to Mr..
Howels for his really astonishing frankness."
Whether his own countrymen have cause to be
grateful, is another question. They will be more
likely to say, as this Englshman says, with
reference 10 another more patriotic opinion of
Mr. Howells: Probably no human being agrees
with Mr.. Howes."
Other points are touched by him. and touched
in a way Mr.. Howes will not like. The triumph
ant BritOn ends he began: The great, matter
is the admission that, for all aesthetic purposes.
,he American people is not nation but con-
dition of the English people" He adds the pious
wish that the admission were true for all pur-
poses, an admission which even Mr.. HoweIls, in |
mis- all-embracing cosmOpotanism, may hesitate
10 make. What he has already said will do quite |
mischief enough, and continue to be quoted long |
fter he has vainly repented of his indscretion. |
G. w. S