N.B.-The term "branch" must be taken, of course, to mean English generally, or Classics generally, and not a particular subdivision of a subject. If the supplementary viva voce examinations, instituted, as is generally supposed, for the purpose of detecting and exposing the superficially read man, are of any real worth, then the continuance of the system of deduction can only be viewed under two aspects-(a) As an extra-judicial and very irritating additional safeguard; or (b), as a mild protest against the discriminating powers of the examiners. The prevalent feeling among the examinees is that they are prepared to undergo any amount of examination, provided the only test of merit be by a process of thorough investigation. If some distinct standard of merit, according to which the marks in the several subjects could be awarded, were set up, a real boon would be conferred on examinees; at present the examiners are changed every year, and each examiner introduces his own standard of what is excellent, or the reverse. The consequence is that each examination provides a large number of candidates with a substantial grievance. English Composition, 1873. 33 of the 35 selected candidates marked over 24 12 100 500ths 150 200 وو English Composition, 1874. 5 of the 38 selected candidates marked over 8 only reached 10 of the 38 marked. 100 500ths 60 N.B.-97 out of 207 competitors marked 0. Natural Science, 1872. The marks were awarded lavishly, notably in the departments of Geology and Zoology. Natural Science, 1873. The marks were perhaps more equally and more sparingly distributed. Natural Science, 1874. The awards under the heads of "Chemistry" and "Electricity and Magnetism" were high --but the Geologists and Zoologists were, in many cases, positively victimized. A cer The conclusion to which a person unacquainted with the candidates themselves would come after a scrutiny of what is recorded year by year in the Government Reports, would be that the variation in the marks was a consequence of the fluctuating condition of proficiency. This is by no means the case. tain number of candidates who began the study of geology and zoology late in the year 1871, remarked that the standard of merit recorded at the examination for the year 1872 was such as to give them reasonable hopes of ultimate success. Notwithstanding the higher standard set up for the year 1873, the results were so far encouraging that, subject to another year of study, they had the clearest right to anticipate satisfactory results. Had this not been self-evident, many If the writer on Competitive Exami- - "Natural Science, according to the A statement so inaccurate and mis- which at the time was known only to a very few. But he is guilty of telling a tale in the year 1874, the virtue of which has long since exploded. Briefly, this is what occurred. In the year 1868 the maximum number of marks allotted to Natural Science was 500. This, in the opinion of certain scientific gentlemen, was a very low figure to assign to a branch of knowledge which at our universities, and at some few of our public schools, was claiming particular attention. Accordingly the authorities consented to place Natural Science on a better footing by increasing the maximum of marks to 1,000. The consequence was precisely what every sane man would have expected. The bait was tempting, the idea was novel and liberal, the subject was interesting, and thus the bids for marks in Science were plentiful. University men, schoolboys, and the candidates reading with private tutors, all had a bite at the cherry; indeed, the entries for Science in 1869 nearly doubled those for the previous year, and what with the then benevolent spirit of examiners, and the want of a fixed standard of qualification, a great number of competitors had a short and by no means unsuccessful mark hunt. Of course the critics may assume, if they choose, that the same sort of thing is going on now, and they may tell the public so, and the public will probably believe it; but this is no guarantee that the information is correct. It is much to be regretted that a literary essay of so much theoretical merit, and to which, in consequence, such prominent attention has been called, should have abandoned some of its chiefest points of attack to this sort of counter evidence. The public have been pestered for years with is nowadays supposed to be indigestible, and is called "cram." The forced imparting of ill-digested matter may reasonably be called cram;" but the careful conveyance of well-digested matter is not cram." By what authority, then, are these scathing tirades against private tuition uttered and written? Why is every man, who does not happen to be a lecturer in an endowed educational institution, to be styled a "crammer?" A pertinent refutation of this popular fallacy was conveyed in the following remark made a short time ago by a gentleman eminent in the scientific world:-"I assisted in the lecture work at the University of Cambridge for twelve successive years; I bring my university lectures, together with increased experience, to bear on my pupils in London, and I am dubbed a crammer.' The British public seriously believe that competition wallahs are undergrown, brainspent creatures, who have been subjected to a "nefarious system" of education, and have been allowed to suffer premature growth in an exotic nursery; and that their tutors, the socalled crammers, are little better than burglars, who possess a Mephistophelian aptitude for rendering pupils impervious to assaults by the Civil Service Commissioners. The truth is, that the candidates for these higher examinations are notoriously the most exacting and the most hypercritical of students. They know perfectly well what scholarship and high class tuition mean; and if they leave school for a course of special reading, it is not because the school instruction is not of the highest order, but because their prospects of securing the prize of a grand start in life are enhanced by a continuous and uninterrupted course of study, and by having a definite object constantly in view. What the most earnest of these candidates also desire is to be placed, for the nonce, at a safe distance from the temptations and daily interruptions of the cricket field, the boating and foot-ball clubs, and other school sports. And will anybody assert that this is not the very moment of their lives when a little self-denial should be cheerfully exercised? The purport of this paper is not to champion private teaching, nor to assume that it is necessary for a candidate to read with this or that tutor if he would be successful. It is sufficient to say that the best teachers have no special art, except the power of teaching; and that really good and sound work will always hold its own by whatever name it may be called. I am, however, most anxious to put on record a few details bearing on the defective principles of action now in vogue; for nine-tenths of the strictures contained in the above quoted article, and, indeed, in nearly all that has been written on this subject of late, are really referable to other causes than the evils of private tuition. So very little is known about the process and the practical results of this examination, that the critics, anxious to explain the reason of its comparative failure, have selected the private tutors for their scapegoats. So numerous are the instances of premiums being paid for paltry knowledge in some subjects, that it is fast becoming a moot point whether the candidate who aims at a high standard and the tutor who helps him are not over-exerting themselves. It may be that some tutors who prepare men for the higher as well as lower examinations have found this out long ago, and have saved themselves and their pupils the labour of serious. reading. Hence, the ugly sobriquet of "crammer" has been transmitted through them to the more painstaking but less wary members of the profession. One case in point is worth quoting. A candidate after 4 years study, in view of the Indian Civil Service, has just succeeded in gaining a low place on the selected list. Very few, if any, more honestly read men in English and Science have presented themselves for examination during the past ten years. Last year the highest mark awarded for English Literature, and a very high mark for History, fell to him. The year before he also distinguished himself in the same subjects. Among the historical works to which he had access, and which he had carefully read, and continued to read to the last, were :-Freeman's "Norman Conquest" and "Growth of the English Constitution;" Kemble's "Saxons in England;" Stubbs's "Select Charters; Pearson's "History of the Middle Ages;" "The Paston Letters;" Hallam's "Constitutional History;" Erskine May's "Constitutional History;" besides parts of Palgrave's "Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth," miscellaneous biographies, and historical tracts. But the verdict passed in 1874 on his knowledge of history was identical, as expressed in a small number of marks, with that passed on a comrade of his who knew comparatively nothing whatever of the subject. In fact, the cursory perusal of a school text-book for six months would have served this candidate's purpose equally well; and young men are apt to notice these things. One may fairly conjecture he was vigorous enough for this year's struggle, as he was the only man of 207 competitors who appears to have really pleased Mr. Matthew Arnold in English essay writing. The lesson to be derived from this serio-comic circumstance is, that high class reading may suffer equally with "" "cram pure in the process of examination; and that they who condescend to take their stand on the low level of mere smattering" have been, so to speak, warned off the higher ground by "caution signals of this authoritative character. In the teaching communities, there may be persons with such queer notions of what is legitimate and high-minded that the profession of private "coaching" (outside the walls of universities) is liable to lose in dignity what it may gain in a certain vulgar notoriety. It is not that special preparation for the multiform ordeals regulated by the Civil Service Commissioners is a dangerous expedient in itself if properly carried out, since in most large schools there appear to be distinct arrangements to meet this par ticular end; but that recent legislation, by abolishing patronage, and by opening the door to every adult in Great Britain and Ireland within a particular limit of age, has tended to multiply twentyfold the number of competitors, and has consequently created a market, now quite flooded, for the employment of private tutors and lecturers. It was obvious that in the excitement of such vast changes the theory that "all is fair in war would freely obtain with some men more selfish and less scrupulous than they ought to be; and judging from the tempest of denunciation which has lately spent itself in the public press, it is to be inferred that there are delinquents in the land. And just as hundreds of innocent persons were arrested under the "general warrants," issued to trap offenders of the John Wilkes stamp, so the despotic and potent arm of anonymous criticism has fallen heavily on all to make sure of reaching the few who have abused their opportunities. The foregoing statistics represent a mere fraction of the evidence which can be brought forward to support the charge of inconsistency in the present scheme of marking. It must, however, be admitted that four branches have been marked throughout with fair consistency-Classics, Italian, Sanskrit and Arabic. The value of proficiency in the other branches seems to be about as unfixed as the weather during these Eastertide competitions. And it is quite intolerable to hear the ever-recurring question put by anxious aspirants, "Do you think such and such a subject will pay this year?" A new rule has recently been introduced which imposes on each candidate a fine of 51. for the privilege of being examined. The sum collected annually in aid of the expenses of this competition amounts to over 1,000l. If the whole or the greater part of this sum were expended on a Court of Examiners, whose duty it would be to suggest questions, to fix the character of the examination, and to see that the marks were distributed in accordance with |