those who have to earn their living early to leave school after having passed through the Grammar grades,-say at the age of fifteen,—but if it were then found suddenly possible for a boy of promise to continue his education, he would be able to pass at once to the High School, for the work of which he would be fully prepared.

The English plan of entirely separating elementary from secondary or High School education from the very first, heavily handicaps the boy or girl who, having been brought up in an elementary school, desires to prepare for the University. Is it too much to dream of an educational system for Wales which should be one organic whole from the Kindergarten to the University,-an outgrowth and expression of the life of her people? If the realization of such a dream is possible anywhere within Great Britain, it is possible in Wales, and the time is ripe.

In one respect at least Wales is leading the way, and that is in connection with the organization of secondary or intermediate education. The establishment of the Intermediate schools is an event of the utmost moment to the future educational life of Wales. From these schools will the University of Wales draw its future students, and on the preparation given in these schools will the quality of these future students depend. The closest relations should therefore exist between the University and the Intermediate schools, and the responsibility of the University towards them can hardly be too highly estimated. In America, an ever increasing number of Universities have awakened to a sense of this responsibility, and are endeavouring to rightly exercise their peculiar functions in respect to intermediate education. They have realized that it is not only their function "to teach and to supply the world with teachers" in the general sense, but also in the special sense of making provision for the due training of teachers for their profession. Pedagogical departments have been opened in many Universities, in which graduates may obtain the necessary theoretical preparation for their work as teachers. These departments, however, generally appeared to me incomplete, from the fact that little

or no practical training in the actual art of teaching is given. They are, moreover, mostly attended by those who will fill the higher educational posts, and not by those who will teach in the Primary or High Schools. Other teachers who desire training obtain it in the State or City Normal Schools. In this respect it would seem that Wales was really in advance of America, for at least two of its University Colleges provide for the training of both intermediate and elementary teachers. It remains for its University to set the seal of its sanction on such training by the granting of educational degrees, as is already arranged for in many American Universities.

It struck me as a curious fact that in America the University courses in the science and art of education are mostly attended by men, while in Great Britain it is the women graduates who have been the first to recognize the necessity for such special preparation for their future work as teachers.

In addition to the lectures given by the Professor of Education in an American University, it is becoming more and more common for each of the other professors to be responsible for the conducting of seminaries or classes for the discussion of the best methods of teaching his special subject, and the place it should occupy in the school curriculum. In this way the influence of the professor tends to extend beyond the pale of the University and to reach the schools, which are thereby kept in touch with it; and the break between the schools and the University, too often the sad result of the separation between them, is to a large extent done away with.

The supervision of State schools is in the hands of the superintendents,-State, County, or City,—and it is becoming more and more common for the University to supply such from the number of those who have passed through its pedagogical department.

The fact that some State Universities admit students who have certificates of graduation from a High School, makes it necessary that an almost direct supervision should be exercised over the work of such schools as prepare for the University. A list is usually kept of those schools from which certificates may be accepted, on the understanding that any school may be

removed from the list, if the students sent

by it are found to be insufficiently prepared, and such students may be requested to withdraw from the University. There is a growing tendency to discourage preparatory departments in connection with the Universities, and this can be most effectually accomplished by careful watchfulness and stimulation on the part of the University, in order that the schools may be maintained at a due standard of efficiency. One of the greatest difficulties with which the Welsh colleges have to contend has been the insufficient preparation of a large number of the students, necessitating, from time to time, the formation of preparatory classes. This inadequate preparation has, no doubt, been largely the result of the absence of intermediate schools, but it must not be forgotten that it is not enough to start such schools; due supervision and inspection are needed, and as they are to lead up to and prepare for the University, it would seem fitting that such supervision and inspection should be undertaken by the University.

Only by securing well prepared students, and so lessening the amount of preparatory work needed, will the Welsh University be able to devote the necessary time and energy to the development of graduate work. American Universities are setting the Universities of Great Britain a noble example in the attention they are giving to research. Facilities for post-graduate work are now afforded by all the chief Universities as a matter of course, and in the Clark University at Worcester, Massachusetts, we have an example of a new type of University, entirely devoted to scientific research on the part of those who are already graduates of other Universities. The Welsh University must of course give due attention to undergraduate work, but could it adequately provide for post graduate work also, its influence would be increased tenfold.

In many of the States the University endeavours to keep in touch with the schools, not only by undertaking the training of teachers before they begin work, but also by providing summer courses for those already engaged in the profession. At such summer courses,

teachers can attend lectures on those subjects which they desire to study more thoroughly, or pursue any scientific investigation with all the advantages afforded by the laboratories and scientific appliances of the University. Special courses on the Science and Art of Teaching are also often held. held. Were it possible thus to provide for the needs of Welsh teachers at our colleges during the summer vacation, much good might result; but the short holidays which fall to the lot of most teachers make it doubtful whether they would be wise, even if able, to undertake a serious course of work in the vacation time. More feasible would it seem to adopt the American plan of holding summer schools, which are conducted on some such plan as the following,

A watering place or mountain health resort is chosen, which has special attractions in respect of climate and scenery.

Short courses of lectures are arranged for, having in view rather the stimulation of interest in a subject than the direct imparting of information. Such courses always include at least one on the Science and Art of Teaching. Instruction in elocution and physcial training is also usually provided. Well known lecturers come to give popular lectures on various subjects in addition to the special courses.

The morning alone is devoted to work, the rest of the day being spent as the students desire. Excursions to places of interest, concerts, debates and meetings of various kinds, serve to make the afternoons and evenings pass pleasantly; and teachers tired with their year's work, and depressed with the social and intellectual isolation in which many of them, especially those from country districts,-are obliged to live, find in the society and intellectual stimulus afforded by such a meeting together, just the kind of rest and refreshment that they most need. Many of our Welsh teachers are leading isolated lives; few and far between indeed are the opportunities which most of them have of meeting together to exchange views on matters of professional interest or even for purposes of relaxation. The advantages of a cooperative holiday, such as this would practically mean, are perhaps too little realized; but I am convinced that, were

such a summer meeting properly organized and well attended by Welsh teachers, not, of course, to the exclusion of any others who would like to join,-it could not fail to be a complete success. Ten days or a fortnight would probably be long enough for a first experiment. A small fee would be charged for each course of lectures attended, sufficient, at least, to cover the incidental expenses of rent of rooms and lighting. Many lecturers and teachers would doubtless be willing to give their services for a first meeting, in order to start the scheme, but it should be possible to make it entirely self-supporting, as are those in America. It would be necessary to choose some meeting place where it would be easy to obtain accommodation and provisions at reasonable rates; and, in order to secure these conditions, to arrange for the lecture courses, and to ensure that the scheme should be made widely known among teachers, an energetic and enthusiastic committee would be indispensable. Given such a committee of management, I believe that the scheme would be so in accord with Welsh thought and feeling that its success would be assured.

There is yet one more Welsh problem upon which possibly American experience may shed some light. A large number of Welsh students find it a difficult matter to raise the necessary money to enable them to go to college. It is true that they have three months in the summer in which they might earn, but it is not easy to know what work to undertake forso short a time. Teaching, to which many turn, is not always to be obtained, and is liable to prove especially wearing after the work of the session.

The problem has been faced in America, and to some extent solved; whether it could be solved in the same way in Wales is a question not easy to decide. An opportunity of studying the American solution was afforded me during my stay in Chicago. I had engaged rooms in the University, the dormitories of which were let out to those attending the Educational Congresses. I found that the students of the University had organized themselves in order to open a restaurant at which the visitors might obtain meals. Some seemed

an

to help with the cooking, and some with the keeping of accounts, but the majority acted as waiters. Of course the opening of the restaurant at the college was exceptional occurrence, but I found that it was quite a common practice for University students, both men and women, to undertake the duties of waiters in hotels and restaurants at summer resorts. At such places extra help is needed just when students are having vacation, and the arrangement suits all concerned. Such posts are eagerly sought for at hotels in those places where summer schools are held, and then sometimes the duties undertaken are very light, and only given in return for board and lodging, it being understood that such students should be free to attend classes between meal times. Hotel keepers regularly advertize for students to help as waiters in the busy season, and such work is eagerly accepted by those who either wish to earn money towards the defraying of their college expenses in the winter, or else simply to obtain board and lodging for nothing while attending a summer school or college course.

At the World's Fair, most of the guards and wheel-chair men were also college students. The idea of there being any degradation attached to the doing of such work never seems to even occur to anyone for a moment, it appears to an American to be the simple and natural thing to do. Even to a visitor the first strangeness soon wears off, and it very speedily appears quite as natural to meet a college student as waiter as in any other capacity.

Might it not be possible for Welsh students to find similar employment at some of the many sea-side and mountain resorts of Wales? Such a scheme would also require careful organization at first, but once the idea had taken firm root, and it became clear that no social degradation would attach to the performing of such work, it is a scheme that would take care of itself. The change from mental to manual work would usually prove beneficial to the student, the dignity of all honest labour, whether of mind or of body, would be emphasized, and the student and the University would alike be benefited. MILLICENT HUGHES.

QUERIES.

Independence. Some information respecting them may be found in a work entitled "The Cymry of '76; or Welshmen and their descendants of the American Revolution. An address, &c., by Alexander Jones, M.D. New York, Sheldon, Lamport, and Co., 115, Nassau Street, 1855." An abstract is given in "Bye-Gones" of the Oswestry Advertizer for 1884, pp 37, 42, 45. T. H. J.

5. THE WELSH PRESS.-The first Welsh newspaper was published on the 1st January, 1814, at Swansea, under the editorship of the Rev. Joseph Harris (Gomer), under the title of Seren Gomer. A paper on the subject by Mr. W. E. Davies, London, was read at a meeting of the Cymmrodorion Society, January 31, 1884, and doubtless appeared in the Cymmrodor.

T. H. J.

8. RADNORSHIRE.-Radnorshire was entirely Welsh-speaking during the seventeenth century. The native tongue of Vavasour Powel and Hugh Evans, who were born on the Shropshire border, was Welsh. The eighteenth century was the transition period of much of the county, as well as of a good slice of Montgomeryshire, - Kerry, Mochdre, Penstrowed, and, in part, Llandinam. In 1747 the service in all the churches was performed in Welsh; and Howel Harris, 1737-51, preached and organized Welsh "societies" in several places. The present century has witnessed the death of the language in several parishes. The Geninen for March, 1891, contains a racy article by "Kilsby," written in 1884, being the

CHAPTER VI.

PERPLEXITY AND LOVE.

DURING their interchange of ideas concerning the restoration of convicts to the advantages of trade partnership and to the privileges of society in general, Gabriel had been thinking of his own position. In the first place he valued the statement of his friend's ideas merely as the enunciation of generous and philanthropic principles which did credit to the hearts where they were cherished; and then he thought of the bearing of those principles upon his relation to the very persons who gave them such lucid and unmistakable expression. He perceived the obstacles he keenly felt, on the way of his proposal for the hand of Miss Riley,

removed by the parties whom he feared would strongly interpose objections, if they knew his exact standing in society; and in the event of his antecedents becoming known, he had, according to their own showing, only to persuade them of his innocence, and all would be well.

Many sleepless nights were spent in endeavouring to think out the problem whether he had a right to persuade a cultured young lady who had been so tenderly reared up and so carefully trained, and who besides was gifted with a mind of many rare qualities, to wear the disgraced name of Gabriel Yoreth. As his love grew deeper his perplexity became more and more hopeless. There was one phase of the question which tended to help him to arrive at a conclusion. In his conception of the matter, he made it