1861.] on the Study of the English LangUtPgo^ 809 



• 



School, King Edward's School at Birmingham, and the School of 

 Bury St. Edmund's. The Universities had for ages sent forth men 

 who had adorned the pulpit, the senate, the bar, and almost every 

 branch of human knowledge ; and one might well pause before pre- 

 suming to suggest even a doubt that systems, which had produced such 

 great and varied excellence, could be deficient in one of the chief means 

 tor qualifying the student for any department of public life. All this 

 was readily admitted — the great value of classical and mathematical 

 studies as disciplining the mind quite undisputed — and the Universities 

 defended against the popular cry of their not being equal to the re- 

 quirements of the age. But still the warmest supporter of the existing 

 order of things must, if candid, be compelled to grant, that there existed 

 some serious defect in any system of education which, while sending 

 out a few brilliant stars, left the great mass of its men but very indif- 

 ferent workers in those pursuits which were to be the business of their 

 lives. Were it the special duty of our Universities to produce classical 

 and mathematical professors and teachers, possessing not merely a 

 critical, but a hypercritical knowledge of their subjects, the present 

 system would seem admirably calculated to fulfil the end in view. 

 When, however, it was remembered, that nearly all the Colleges bore 

 some such designation as the " ancient and religious foundation of 

 ;" it was clear they were intended by their founders as training- 

 schools for the clergy : and when the Universities recognized the fact, 

 that the education given was not simply preparatory, but to a certain 

 extent professional, by their institution of Divinity Professorships, and 

 by requiring the attendance of theological students not only at lectures 

 but at examinations, it could not but be felt as somewhat extraordinary 

 and inconsistent, that no provision had been made for due training in 

 that language in which the future clergyman was to address his flock 

 — for systematic instruction in the composition and delivery of ser- 

 mons, and for distinct and unaffected reading of the Church service. 

 The present system of prizes for poems, essays, and declamations 

 stimulated but a very small proportion of the men — ^the scholarship 

 referred rather to the niceties of the classical tongues than to exercise in 

 our own idiom ; and the debating societies, to which some attached so 

 much value, effected but partial good, from the want of a judicious 

 criticism of the youthful orators. These meetings did, it was true, 

 frequently develope self-reliance, but they also encouraged a flashy 

 declamatory style, which prejudiced many thoughtful men against 

 attempts to cultivate the art of public speaking. The College chapels, 

 instead of being normal schools for Church reading, were practically 

 the reverse ; for the chaplains generally recited the prayers as if the 

 object were to get the duty over in the shortest time, and the scholars, 

 profiting by the example, read the Lessons rapidly, indistinctly, with 

 little attention to pauses or emphases ; and they were seldom corrected 

 for mispronunciation, monotony, provincial accent, or any error, unless 

 indeed a false quantity should have offended the ears of the classical 

 tutor. The University and College authorities seemed to take it for 

 Vol. III. (No. 33.) y 



