versity has reason to be dissatisfied, in the state of instruction in which pupils are sent to College by Grammar Schools and early teachers; such an Examination, steadily enforced, offers an effectual means of producing the requisite improvement: for it cannot be supposed that the Schools would long be content to turn out their scholars in a state of instruction in which they should be rejected by the University.

259 The Examination for Classical Honours, the Classical Tripos, as it is termed, must also be the subject of some remarks here. For reasons already stated (162, &c.), it seems desirable that a portion of this examination should be vivá voce. Such an examination, to be effectual, must occupy a considerable time. But we should, no doubt, if the University were to order such an examination to take place, find able and zealous Examiners to conduct it, as our friends at Oxford do.

260 It may be a question whether our system, of comprizing in the Examinations for Classical Honours the whole body of the best Greek and Latin authors, or the Oxford system, of examining in a few selected works, is likely to make the better scholars. Perhaps, ours tends to make the candidates better acquainted with the Languages; theirs, with the Books. A general examination in the whole body of Greek and Latin literature appears, in the idea, better suited for a final examination. But an examination in defined authors, long prepared for, will be likely to make the candidate better versed in those Authors, with reference to their general matter and objects, as well as their more remarkable passages.

261 I will remark on another point;-the provision in our laws that no person shall be a candidate for a place on the Classical Tripos who is not already placed on the Mathematical Tripos. This rule appears to put an inequality between the two lines of study;

for we do not, necessarily, make Classical honours requisite in order to Mathematical. But this apparent inequality of encouragement is really quite necessary, as a means of restoring the balance between the two lines of study which is commonly so utterly deranged in our Classical Schools. In those, the student, if he have tolerable talent and industry, acquires a knowledge of Greek and Latin Literature, which enables him to pursue it with ease and pleasure; while of Mathematics, he generally acquires only enough to learn to dislike the study, without deriving from his acquirements any help to his future progress. If, therefore, there were road to Classical Honours at the University for those whose mathematical attainments were very slight, it may be expected that this would be the path generally taken by the more gifted and ambitious of the scholars from our Classical Schools. Hence, in this case, Mathematical Studies would be comparatively neglected among us; and the general proportions of the elements of our Education would be destroyed. It is, in fact, an intellectual benefit to the candidate for Classical Honours, to require of him a knowledge of the parts of Mathematics to which we give our honours. If he cannot, or will not, master these, either he has no power or no disposition to think steadily on any but his favourite subjects. His reason is not cultivated in any proportion to his literary enthusiasm. The University does well, not to encourage students to make such a frame of intellect their model of excellence.

262 If it be said that the mathematical attainments by which our lower mathematical honours are reached, are of such a nature as not really to cultivate the reason, or to imply any valuable instruction; that is certainly a very strong ground for improving the character of that portion of our Mathematical system. Accordingly, I have attempted to shew how such an improvement may be effected, by separating the ex

amination for Junior Optimes from the examination for Higher Mathematical Honours, and making the former take place, and have its result decided, before the latter is entered upon.

263 It appears to me that this plan might also be made to remove an inconvenience sometimes complained of, that the classical candidate cannot know beforehand whether he will be admitted to be a competitor or not, since he may fail in his attempts to obtain the requisite mathematical honour. If the plan were adopted which I have suggested, this inconvenience would be removed or alleviated. The Examination for Junior Optimes might terminate at the end of the Michaelmas term, and its result be declared by the 16th of December. The Examination for the Classical Tripos begins on the fifth Monday in Lent Term; and therefore the interval would be above two months; and for those who were not candidates for Mathematical Honours, a time entirely uninterrupted by University requirements. This would be as long a time as ought to be given to the mere preparation for an examination; which is an employment, as we have already said, not altogether beneficial to the mind (149).

264 The plan, therefore, of an Examination for Junior Optimes, ending with the end of the Michaelmas term, and extending, as to the viva voce part of it, through that term, appears to have many recommendations. I do not think it would be difficult to put it in such a shape as to make it entirely consistent with the Statutes of the University and the other parts of the University System; and, when it is recollected how recently it has ceased to be the business of the Moderators to preside over vivá voce exercises during the greater part of the year, it cannot be considered a startling innovation to wish to revive this during one term in each year.

SECT. 3. Of Private Tuition at Cambridge.

265 The prevalence of Private Tuition, in a manner which interferes with the Public Tuition of Colleges, has already been noticed as one of the evils resulting from a system of mere examinations (154). When there is a tendency to such a state of things, so that its inconveniences become manifest, it is natural that those who are the guardians of the constitution of the University and of its Colleges, should endeavour to repress the practice which thus interferes with the beneficial influences of the established system. With this object, the University may prohibit candidates for honours from reading with a Private Tutor during the latter part of their studies; and may thus teach them that their stores of knowledge, however accumulated at first, are to be appropriated by their own proper acts of thought, before they are fit to be offered as claims for honours. Such measures have been adopted by the University of Cambridge, as we shall see.

266 Or again; Colleges may impose restrictions upon the reading of their pupils with Private Tutors, which shall disarm such reading of its evils. Private Tuition, employed in harmony with, and in subordination to a course of progressive literature and science, of which the scheme is determined by Public Lectures and Examinations which the pupil has to attend, may be a valuable element in our Educational system; and, under such conditions, is to be encouraged in many instances, as I have already intimated (124). On the other hand, Private Tuition not duly limited may, as we have seen, tend to supersede the operations of Colleges altogether. It may, for instance, grow up into a regular and permanent scheme, occupying the vacations of College Lectures; and in such a scheme, it might become a practice of the students, to prepare themselves for the Examinations in the periods of

vacation, and to pass in social amusements the periods assigned to College Lectures. The tendency to such a state of things requires to be guarded against in the administration of the Colleges.

267 But all measures having for their object the repression of Private Tuition should be devised and carried into effect with great caution and tenderness; since they must, more or less, make the University, or the College, appear to look with an unfriendly aspect upon a body of able, learned, and estimable men; for such, the persons most sought as Private Tutors will usually be. Moreover, such measures seem as if they tended to repress the zeal for study, and the love of distinction, which impel pupils to seek for this assistance; and hence, they are likely to fail in obtaining that general sympathy without which laws can hardly be effectually enforced.

268 The excessive prevalence of Private Tuition is, as we have seen, not the source, but the symptom of the evil. In a system entirely governed by examinations, men are naturally led to rest their main dependance on Private Tutors;-still more, if these are mere paper examinations, the answers being unpublished (156);—still more, if the examiners be a rapidly changing body (157):-and still more, if the same persons can, within a short interval of time, discharge the office of Private Tutors and Examiners. And the remedies which I have to propose for the evil, are contained in what I have already said. They are, a definite and progressive System of Studies in the Colleges, occupying the earlier part of the Student's University residence -a Standard Course of Permanent Studies for the Lower University Honours, and of Progressive Studies for the Higher Honours; each of these courses to be drawn up and revised from time to time by a body having in it permanent as well as rapidly mutable elements;-a vivá voce examination