careful investigation of facts, is, as it stands now, next door to hopeless. The hope lies in the possibility of a complete alteration in this position. There are, I am thankful to say, grounds for believing that this hope may be largely realised.

The complete alteration of a state of things highly complicated and involving many diverse interests is very unlikely to be effected by the adoption of one sweeping reform, but by a combination of numerous measures, each one of which, if taken alone, would effect little or nothing. It will, I believe, be found that the case now under consideration lends itself, and lends itself alone, to this cumulative treatment. We must seize upon everything, however apparently insignificant, however apparently remote, and utilise it, if by any means we may remove what I cannot but describe as a blot upon the profession.

Let us assume that, even under the present unfortunate condition of affairs, one quarter of the Assistant Masters at Preparatory Schools may, by one means or another, look forward to having an income sufficient to provide them with a home. Some portion of these will have money independent of their profession, others will succeed to Headmasterships of Preparatory Schools. Some few will be in Holy Orders and get clerical preferment. I am confident that, as things stand at present, this is a generous calculation. How shall we provide for the remainder?

To expect that any profession should, for all who enter it, provide a home and maintenance for a family, is certainly to expect more than will be got. Let us, therefore, consider ourselves responsible for two out of the three quarters that remain at present unprovided for. That is, we have to account for one half. I hope and believe that this can be done.

The first change, a change without which absolutely no improvement is possible in the position of the Assistant Masters, must come from within. The potential Assistant Master must be trained to his business, apprenticed to his craft. This alone would revolutionise his position. It is impossible here to enter into details in defence of such an assertion; a few only of the leading points can be noticed. The supply would be immediately reduced, and reduced in the best possible direction. There would drop off the uncertain, the amateurs, the weak, the incapables. The remainder would be instructed and skilled members of their profession. They would all be registered, according to a system provided for this purpose by Government. The incompetents would be reduced to a minimum. For two out of three of this body of trained men we have to provide homes. Already we may discern some tendencies favourable to the Assistant Masters, especially to a body trained and equipt for their work.

Among the most encouraging of these is the following. It is becoming more common than it used to be for a Headmaster to pass on his school to one of his Assistants, and the tendency undoubtedly seems to be in the direction of making this custom increasingly common, so much so that I believe we may assume that, for all practical purposes, we may look forward to a day

not far distant, when it will be a very general practice. This alone would be an incalculable boon to Assistant Masters. The statement of all the grounds for this belief would carry me too far afield. I will limit myself to the mere mention of two.

1. As stated above, every well-established Preparatory School will have its own history, traditions, sources of supply, methods, and even idiosyncrasies. The introduction of a stranger ignorant of all this as head of so small a society would be attended with much risk, risk moreover which it will be quite unnecessary to run. For we start with the assumption that the staff of Assistant Masters has been trained to its craft and is thoroughly efficient. Further, the closer the scrutiny the clearer does it become that the previous training for and the work of a Preparatory School have a distinctness of their own, and that a stranger would but be intermeddling with them,

2. An Assistant Master known to the parents, past and present, and to the "Old Boys" of the school, would be likely to be more acceptable to them than a stranger. And this fact alone will count considerably in favour of his being appointed instead of an outsider.

This single fact-the fact that the Headmaster may be expected to select his successor from his own staff at once places the Assistant Masters in a totally different position from that which they now occupy The full appreciation of the difference is possible to a Preparatory School Master alone. To him I am confident that I should not appear to be using the language of exaggeration if I were to characterise such a change in his position as a revolution-a revolution profoundly bettering for him the whole condition, status, and prospects of the profession.

Further enlargement upon this subject is impossible here. Enough, I hope, has been said to enable the interested reader to supplement for himself.

Postulating, then, a well-trained and thoroughly equipt staff, one of whom is likely to succeed to the Headmastership of the School, what further possible openings are there leading to the proposed end of a modest competence and a home?

The Government, it may be confidently expected, in their desire to secure the best Inspectors and Examiners of Preparatory Schools, will usually make their selection from those who, in addition to being trained experts, alone are cognisant from within of the particular circumstances of these schools. There seem, further, good grounds for supposing that, if the element of hope were to enter more largely into the life of the Assistant Master, there might be elaborated a Pension Scheme likely to meet with more success than has at present attended the efforts made in that direction.

Again, one of the best and most immediately practical remedies would be found if the Public Schools, great and small, would occasionally open their doors to Preparatory School Masters when vacancies occurred on their staff. A master trained to his business, and with an experience of some years in a good Preparatory School at his back, would be a valuable addition to the staff of

any Public School. It seems, indeed, to be clear, even in the comparatively few cases in which this has been done, that experience has justified the experiment. By the supposition, none but trained, experienced, and successful Assistants would have a chance of being accepted, and this consideration would, in its turn, encourage them to make themselves a success in their Preparatory School. It would be one of the means of giving hopefulness to what is now usually an almost hopeless outlook. Last, and in some respects most interesting of all. Assuming what has been stated, or may be naturally inferred therefrom, as to the position and prospects of the Assistant Master-an expert in his profession, well known among the parents and old boys of the school, and a probable successor to the Headmastership_is there any reason why there should not be set on foot, to take operation after some stated period of years of faithful service, some system of profit-sharing, by the operation of which there might be brought about a greater equalisation, not merely of the pecuniary profits of the school, but of its burdens, risks, and responsibilities? Such a proposal may well be expected to be received with a good deal of general surprise and distrust. It has not been advanced without much deliberation, nor without the firm conviction that the present generation of Preparatory School Masters will not have ceased to exist before it has been put into motion in some schools, with results of such large benefit to the schools and the boys and masters of the same as I will not trust myself now to forecast.

It is difficult to believe that, when the circumstances of the present situation are fully appreciated, some means will not be adopted to remove what I must repeat is to be regarded as nothing less than a blot upon the profession affected by it. I hope from my heart that I may not prove to have been mistaken, and that by some such means as those mentioned above the prospects of a body of men who are working devotedly and unostentatiously in their various schools may be more hopeful than they can fairly be regarded as being, under the present conditions. How closely bordering upon hopelessness those conditions now are, and how revolutionised that lot would be by the presence of hope is known only to these men themselves, and known to them also in exact and cruel proportion to the number of years of work that lie behind them.

C. C. COTTERILL

PREPARATORY SCHOOL EQUIPMENT.

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS.

I-THE SCHOOL.

(a) Boarding and Day-schools.

(b) Age of Boys.

(c) Size of School.

(d) Staff.

(e) Forms or Classes.

II. THE SCHOOL HOUSE.

(a) School and Class Rooms.

(b) Other rooms for School purposes

(c) Dormitories.

(d) Lavatory, etc.

(e) Lighting, Warming, and Ventilation

III.-ACCESSORY BUILDINGS.

(a) Chapel.

(b) Sanatorium.

(c) Gymnasium.

(d) Swimming Bath.

(e) Carpenter's Shop

IV.-GAMES, ETC.

(a) Playgrounds.

(b) Fives, Tennis Courts.
(c) Gardens.