70 LAY SERMONS, ADDRESSES, AND REFIEWS. [iv. 



out to be of more importance to the welfare of the 

 people, than many political changes, over which the 

 noise of battle has rent the air. 



Under the regulations to which I refer, a schoolmaster 

 can set up a class in one or more branches of science ; 

 his pupils will be examined, and the State will pay him, 

 at a certain rate, for all who succeed in passing. I 

 have acted as an examiner under this system from the 

 beginning of its establishment, and this year I expect 

 to have not fewer than a couple of thousand sets of 

 answers to questions in Physiology, mainly from young 

 people of the artisan class, who have been taught in 

 the schools which are now scattered all over Great 

 Britain and Ireland. Some of my colleagues, who have 

 to deal with subjects such as Geometry, for which the 

 present teaching power is better organized, I under- 

 stand are likely to have three or four times as many 

 papers. So far as my own subjects are concerned, I can 

 undertake to say that a great deal of the teaching, the 

 results of which are before me in these examinations, is 

 very sound and good ; and I think it is in the power of 

 the examiners, not only to keep up the present standard, 

 but to cause an almost unlimited improvement. Now 

 what does this mean \ It means that by holding out 

 a very moderate inducement, the masters of primary 

 schools in many parts of the country have been led to 

 convert them into little foci of scientific instruction ; and 

 that they and their pupils have contrived to find, or to 

 make, time enough to carry out this object with a very 

 considerable degree of efficiency. That efficiency will, 

 I doubt not, be very much increased as the system 

 becomes known and perfected, even with the very 

 limited leisure left to masters and teachers on week- 

 days. And this leads me to ask, Why should scientific 

 teaching be limited to week-days ? 



