3I(> 



[April 5, 



be uniformly leveled to or (which is Old French), as already done in so 

 many words, like author, doctor, senator, orator (all of which are adop- 

 tions from French, not from Latin)." 



(d.) The present so-called spelling is the chief hindrance to education, and 

 a chief cause of illiteracy, ignorance and degradation. — In his "Introduc- 

 tion to the Science of Language," Prof. Sayce speaks of the "vicious 

 moral training afforded by a system that makes irrational authority the 

 rule of correctness, and a letter represent every other sound than that 

 which it professes." He further remarks that the "dissociation between 

 sound and symbol to which the child has been accustomed from his 

 earliest years, makes the English and the French notoriously the worst 

 linguists in -Europe. The inadequacy of English spelling is exceeded only 

 by that of the Gaelic, and in the comparative condition of the Irish and 

 Scotch Gaels on the one side, and the Welsh Cymry on the other, we 

 may read a lesson of the practical effects of disregarding the warnings of 

 science. Welsh is fonetically spelt, the result being that the Welsh, as a 

 rule, are well educated and industrious, and that their language is main- 

 tained in full vigor, so that a Welsh child has his wits sharpened and his 

 mind opened by being able to speak two languages, English and Welsh. 

 In Ireland and Scotland, on the contrary, the old language is fast perish- 

 ing ; and the people can neither read nor write, unless it be in English." 



The most complete and convincing exhibit upon the educational ques- 

 tion is that which has been made by Dr. J. H. Gladstone, F.R.S., mem- 

 ber of the School Board for London, and sometime President of the Eng- 

 lish Spelling Reform Association. Dr. Gladstone's statements are drawn 

 from a thorough investigation of the National, British and Wesleyan 

 schools as well as board schools, and from village schools, town schools 

 and schools of the metropolis. He says : " From these data it is easy to cal- 

 culate that an average English child, spending eight years in school, and 

 making the not unusual amount of 400 attendances per annum, will have 

 spent on an average 2320 hours in spelling, reading and dictation. * * * 

 The spelling of the Italian language is, as far as I am aware, the most 

 perfect of any in Europe, with the exception, perhaps, of the Spanish. 

 It is, in fact, almost strictly fonetic ; that is, each sound is exprest by its 

 own letter, and each letter has but one sound. * * * I have gathered 

 information from different parts of Italy, and fortunately the detailed 

 programs of the instruction in elementary schools are publisht. From 

 them it appears that children begin school at six or seven years of age, 

 and that while in the first class, which usually occupies two years, they 

 learn to read with a correct pronunciation, and do exercises in transcrip- 

 tion and dictation. On passing to the second class they acquire the art of 

 reading fluently and with intelligence, and dictation lessons cease at the 

 end of the first four months. As the summer vacation lasts for two 

 mouths, and all festivals, both civil and religious, are holidays, the num- 

 ber of attendances can scarcely be greater than 360. As religious instruc- 

 tion and exercises, arithmetic and writing occupy a large proportion of the 



