416 
here Woodward’s ancient cabinets are piously pre- 
served. Adjacent to them are the rooms of the Wood- 
wardian professor, Prof. Hughes, and a board room. 
On the second floor are numerous students’ class 
rooms and private rooms for the various demon- 
strators and teachers. On this floor also is a library 
the beautiful fittings of which were provided from a 
gift of money presented to the university by the late 
Master of Trinity Hall. 
Between the two arcades, which lead from one wing 
of the Museum to the other, stands the bronze statue 
of Adam Sedgwick which was unveiled by the King 
on Tuesday. This statue was one of the last works 
of Mr. Onslow Ford, and represents the professor with 
a geological hammer in one hand and a specimen in 
the other. Considering that this statue was made 
more than thirty years after the death of him whom 
it commemorates it is wonderfully successful. 
The Law School forms the central block on the 
north side of the new courtyard. It is, in fact, the 
centre of Mr. T. G. Jackson’s facade. The univer- 
sity has been able to erect this noble building by the 
generous bequest of Miss Rebecca Flower Squire, 
who has also endowed certain scholarships to be held 
by law students in the university. To the 15,000l. 
which the trustees allotted for the purposes of the 
Law Library the university has been able to add 
sufficient to complete the Law School by the addition 
of professors’ rooms, lecture rooms, and examination 
rooms. The main library is a lofty room 85 feet 
by 30 feet in area, lighted by spacious windows on 
the north and south, and with book-cases projecting 
towards the centre of the room between each window. 
Above these are ample space for storing duplicates 
and books which are seldom used. Each end of the 
room is provided with a handsome gallery. 
For some time, owing to the wants of the university 
library, the professor of civil Jaw has been driven out 
of the old Law School and has been a wanderer 
through the literary lecture rooms. Miss Squire’s 
bequest has enabled the university to find him a home, 
and for the first time in the history of the Cambridge 
Law School, more than five or six hundred years, the 
students of law will assemble in a handsome and 
roomy building especially adapted for their very needs 
and in close contiguity to the ample library. 
The illustrations which accompany this article are 
taken from photographs made by Mr. Palmer Clarke, 
of Cambridge. 
EDUCATION AND PROGRESS IN JAPAN. 
es his address at Southport last September, the 
president of the British Association, taking as his 
subject ** The Influence of Brain-power on History,” 
traced convincingly and conclusively the intimate re- 
lation that exists between the provision made by a 
nation for the higher education of its people and the 
position taken by that nation in the ceaseless competi- 
tion between the great countries of the world. After 
a searching comparison between the facilities for uni- 
versity education in this country on one hand and 
in the United States and in Germany on the other, 
Sir Norman Lockyer said :—‘‘ But even more 
wonderful than these examples is the ‘ intellectual 
effort ” made by Japan, not after a war, but to prepare 
for one. The question is, Shall we wait for a disaster 
and then imitate Prussia and France; or shall we 
follow Japan and thoroughly prepare by ‘ intellectual 
effort’ for the industrial struggle which lies before 
us? ’’ Jt would indeed be difficult to find a more 
striking example of the profound and comparatively 
NO. 1792, VOL. 69| 
NAGRO La 
[Marcu 3, 1904 
immediate effect on national prospects which an 
earnest and thorough attempt to establish a complete 
system of education can effect. The events of the past 
few weeks serve to bring into high relief what was 
before clear enough to students of educational progress, 
that Japan has succeeded in a little more than thirty 
years in bringing about a revolution without blood- 
shed, in changing an eastern people—among whom 
originality was considered a form of disloyalty—into 
a powerful nation equipped with western education 
and possessed of all the resources of modern civilisa- 
tion. 
In the following attempt to trace the leading events 
of these thirty years of Japanese progress in educa- 
tion, reference has been made to numerous authorities, 
but most of the facts included are from a statement 
of the development and present position of State 
education in Japan prepared by Mr. Robert E. Lewis, 
of Shanghai, and published in the reports of the United 
States Commissioner of Education. 
The beginning of modern Japanese history dates 
from 1868. For three and a half centuries before this 
date, to quote Mr. Lewis, ‘‘ Confucius was the head- 
master of Japan, with Buddhist priests as his under- 
studies.’’ But with the coming of the new learning 
and with the arrival of English-speaking people from 
America in 1853 and from England—in the persons of 
Lord Elgin and his suite—in 1858, in which year the 
British-Japanese treaty was signed, a change com- 
menced which was destined, as subsequent events have 
shown, to be a rapid one. 
A provisional board of education was established 
in Kioto in 1868, and three years later the Mombu-sho, 
or department of education, was established with a 
Minister of State to preside over it. The first 
educational code was issued in 1872, and in pro- 
mulgating it the Emperor said :—‘‘ All knowledge, 
from that necessary to prepare officers, farmers, 
mechanics, artisans, physicians, &c., for their respec- 
tive vocations, is acquired by learning. It is intended 
that henceforth education shall be so diffused that there 
may not be a village with an ignorant family or a 
family with an ignorant member.’’ In 1898, that is, 
in twenty-six years, out of 7,925,966 children of school 
age in the country, 4,062,418 were being educated in 
schools modelled on western plans. Moreover, if only 
the boys are taken into account, there were in that 
year 82.42 per cent. of the Japanese boys of school 
age receiving what may be described as education in 
the European sense. 
In 1872 what was known as “‘ the world’s embassy,’’ 
consisting of forty-nine representative Japanese, in- 
cluding Prince Iwakura and Marquis Ito, was at 
work, and much of its attention was devoted to 
observations of education in Europe and America. 
The plan of sending Japanese students to foreign 
countries for the purpose of studying modern thought 
and methods has been much employed by the educa- 
tional authorities of Japan, though in recent years the 
custom has been largely discontinued, as highly 
educated Japanese have become available for university 
and similar posts. For instance, in 1873 there were 
250 students studying in foreign countries at the ex- 
pense of the Japanese Government, while in 1895 only 
eleven Japanese students were similarly officially sent 
abroad. The same tendency to dispense with foreign 
assistance at the first opportunity is noticeable also 
when the personnel of the staffs of the institutions in 
connection with the Japanese department of educa- 
tion is examined. Though in the years following the 
promulgation of the first education code by the 
Japanese Government the number of European and 
American professors and instructors was relatively 
