July 12, 1900J 



NATURE 



249 



novelty in administration ; and the working of the new 

 experiment will necessarily be watched with much 

 solicitude by all persons who have at heart the im- 

 provement and development of our system of public 

 education. 



The following are the names of the eighteen persons 

 who are nominated as the first members of the Con- 

 sultative Committee : — 



Right Hon. Arthur Herbert Dyke Acland. 



Sir William Reynell Anson, Bart., M.P. 



Professor Henry Armstrong. 



Mrs. Sophie Bryant. 



Right Hon. Sir William Hart-Dyke, Bart., M.P. 



Sir Michael Foster, K.C.B., M.P. 



Mr. James Gow, Litt.D. 



Mr. Ernest Gray, M.P. 



Mr. Henry Hobhouse, M.P. 



Mr. Arthur Charles Humphreys-Owen, M.P. 



Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb, M. P. 



Hon. and Rev. Edward Lyttelton. 



Very Rev. Edward Craig Maclure, D.D., Dean of Man- 

 chester. 



Miss Lydia Manley. 



The Ven Ernest Grey Sandford, Archdeacon of Exeter. 



Mrs. Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick. 



Professor Bertram Coghill Alan Windle, M. D. 



Rev. David James Waller, D.D. 



It will be noticed that with the exception of the two 

 former Vice-presidents of the Council, and of Mr. 

 Hobhouse, all the persons named in this list may 

 be regarded as representatives of "bodies interested 

 in education." Oxford, Cambridge and London are 

 most appropriately represented by their respective 

 Members of Parliament ; two of the proposed members 

 are head-masters of public schools, one has been a teacher 

 in a public elementary school, one is a High School 

 mistress, another lady is the head of Newnham College, a 

 third is the mistress of a training college for school- 

 mistresses, and may also be reckoned as a representative 

 of the British and Foreign School Society. Science and 

 technology have their advocates in Prof Armstrong and 

 Sir Michael Foster ; the Established Church and the 

 National Schools are represented by Archdeacon Sand- 

 ford the Roman Catholics by Prof Windle, and the 

 Nonconformists by Dr. Waller, Wales and the Welsh 

 Intermediate Schools by Mr. Humphreys-Owen, and the 

 School Boards of England by Dean Maclure, the chair- 

 man of the Manchester School Board. There can be no 

 doubt that an excellent selection of names, typical of 

 various classes, and likely to command the public con- 

 fidence, has been made by the Lord President and his 

 advisers. 



Nevertheless, it was generally hoped and expected 

 that, while two-thirds of the number were very rightly 

 and in fulfilment of the express intentions of the Act to be 

 composed of persons able to express the views of different 

 academic and professional bodies, the remaining third 

 would consist of persons detached from sectional interests, 

 and specially qualified by breadth of view,by large acquaint- 

 ance with schools and institutions of various classes, 

 both here and in foreign countries, and by a disinterested 

 concern for the interests of national education as a 

 whole, to render service in consultation with the Board 

 of Education. No such proportion has, however, been 

 observed in the composition of this committee. Like 

 some recent Royal Commissions, to which have been en- 

 trusted duties especially demanding wide knowledge and 

 judicial impartiality, the chief ingredients in the com- 

 mittee are advocates and partisans specially charged to 

 look after the interests of particular institutions, creeds, or 

 professional bodies. It appears to be assumed that the re- 

 sultant of all these opposing forces will be a satisfactory 

 conclusion. But when it is considered that one of the 

 first duties [of the committee will be to determine 

 the conditions on which teachers shall be ad- 



mitted to the official register, and that it will be- 

 the task of that committee to determine the kind 

 of qualification which should be recognised, and 

 the relative claims of a great number of different 

 institutions, both public and private, it becomes evident 

 that the list of the proposed committee is seriously 

 incomplete. One of the most important questions 

 which will in due course inevitably demand its atten- 

 tion is the examination and inspection of secondary 

 schools, and it is quite conceivable that on this point 

 professional interests may not prove to be precisely 

 identical with the public interests. It may be hoped 

 that attention will be given to these considerations before 

 October, when the committee is for the first time to be 

 summoned. It is indispensable that a body charged with 

 such novel and weighty responsibilities should from the 

 first command the full confidence of all those who are 

 conscious of the defects in our present system, and who 

 are concerned more with its due expansion and its fulfil- 

 ment of high national ideals than with the conservation 

 of any traditions and interests, however important and 

 deserving of respect, which belong to particular classes 

 or institutions. 



NO. 1602, VOL. 62] 



THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF 

 ACADEMIES} 



THE Academy will recall the fact that at the con- 

 clusion of the mission entrusted to M. Moissan and 

 myself, consent was given to the " Projet de Statuts 

 pour I'Association international des Academies," drawn 

 up by the delegates of the nine Academies represented, 

 at the Conference held at Wiesbaden early in October 

 last, at the invitation of the Academy of Berlin. 



The International Association is now constituted ; andi 

 it includes the eighteen following Academies : 



1. Academy of Sciences Amsterdam. 



2. Prussian Academy of Sciences Berlin. 



3. Academy of Sciences, Literature and the 



Fine Arts ... Brussels. 



4. Hungarian Academy of Science . . . Budapest, 



5. Academy of Sciences ... Christiania. 



6. Society of Sciences Gottingen. 



7. Academy of Sciences of Denmark ... Copenhagen. 



8. Academy of Sciences of Saxony ... Leipzig. 



9. Royal Society London. 



10. Academy of Sciences of Bavaria ... Munich. 



11. Academy of Inscriptions and Literature Paris. 



1 2. Academy of Sciences Paris. 



13. Academy of Moral and Political Sciences Paris. 



14. Academy of Sciences St. Petersburg... 



15. Academy dei Lincei Rome. 



16. Swedish Academy of Sciences Siockhobn. 



17. Academy of Sciences Washington. 



18. Academy of Sciences Vienna. 



Amongst the Academies invited to join, one only, the 



Royal Academy of History of Madrid, has as yet not 

 replied to the request of the Wiesbaden Conference. 



The provisional rules take into consideration the pos- 

 sibility of the addition of other learned societies, and in. 

 § 2 the conditions and formalities are indicated which 

 will be necessary for the admission of a new Academy. 



The Association comprises two Sections, the Section of 

 Literature and the Section of Science. The work will be 

 carried out by general meeting and committee. In, 

 principle, the general meeting will be held every three 

 years, and each Academy will send as m.any delegates as 

 it may deem necessary, but each Academy will have 

 only one vote, which should be given by one of ihe 

 members of the delegation. 



In the interval between two general meetings, the 

 Association is represented by the committee, each 



1 Translation of a repoit made to the Paris Academy of Sciences on. 

 July 2, hy M. Darboun, permanent secretary of the Academy. 



