1871 COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION 39 



Other points in which he was specially concerned 

 were, that the universal teaching of drawing was 

 accepted, against an amendment excluding girls ; that 

 domestic economy was made a discretionary substitute 

 for needlework and cutting-out; while he spoke in 

 defence of Latin as a discretionary subject, alternatively 

 with a modern language. It was true that he would 

 not have proposed it in the first instance, not because 

 a little Latin is a bad thing, but for fear of " over- 

 loading the boat." But, on the other hand, there was 

 great danger if education were not thrown open to all 

 without restriction. If it be urged that a man should 

 be content with the state of life to which he is called, 

 the obvious retort is, How do you know what is your 

 state of life, unless you try what you are called to ? 

 There is no more frightful "sitting on the safety 

 valve " than in preventing men of ability from having 

 the means of rising to the positions for which they, by 

 their talents and industry, could qualify themselves. 



Further, although the committee as a whole re- 

 commended that discretionary subjects should be 

 extras, he wished them to be covered by the general 

 payment, in which sense the report was amended. 



This Education Committee (proceeds Dr. Gladstone) 

 continued to sit, and on November 30 brought up a 

 report in favour of the Prussian system of separate class- 

 rooms, to be tried in one school as an experiment. This 

 reads curiously now that it has become the system almost 

 universally adopted in the London Board Schools. 



In regard to examinations Huxley strongly supported 



