HIGHER EDUCATION. 235 



the welfare of the coloured people. Be that as it may, 

 the Ordinance has become Law ; and I have faith enoiicih 

 in the loyalty of the good folk of Trinidad to believe 

 that tliey will do their best to make it work. 



If indeed the present Ordinance does not work, it is difficult 

 tu conceive any that will. It seems exactly fitted for the 

 needs of Trinidad. I do not say that it is fitted for the needs 

 of any and every country. In Ireland, for instance, such a 

 system would be, in my opinion, simply retrograde. The 

 Irishman, to his honour, has passed, centuries since, beyond 

 the stage at which he requires to be educated by a priesthood 

 in the primary laws of religion and morality. His morality 

 is on certain important points superior to that of almost 

 any people. What he needs is to be trained to loyalty and 

 order ; to be brought more in contact with the secular science 

 and civilization of the rest of Europe : and that must be done 

 by a secular, and not by an ecclesiastical system of education. 



The higher education, in Trinidad, seems in a more satis- 

 factory state than the elementary. The young ladies, many 

 of them, go " home " i.e. to England or France for their 

 Sf'hooling ; and some of the young men to Oxford, Cambridge, 

 London, or Edinburgh. The Gilchrist Trust of the University 

 of London has lately offered annually a Scholarship of 100/. 

 a year for three years, to lads from the West India colonies, 

 ^he examinations for it to be held in Jamaica, Barbados, 



