558 
appears to us to merit the most serious attention of the 
French Government and manufacturers.” 
The Department had nevertheless to encounter a bitter 
and unscrupulous opposition in various quarters, and 
being less anxious to answer its detractors than to do the 
work intrusted to it, sneers about South Kensington 
became easy, and a clap-trap denunciation of the Bromp- 
ton clique went the round of society, and is even now 
to be found among its dregs. Though for many years 
the object of persistent and venomous attacks, Sir H. 
Cole, never swerved from the great work commitfed to his 
care, and England is now beginning to recognise the debt 
of gratitude she owes to this truly remarkable man. 
And now let us look at the method of encouraging 
elementary scientific instruction adopted by the Depart- 
ment, and at some of the results of its methods. 
The system of certificated science and art teachers was 
introduced, with payments to both teachers and pupils 
dependent on the results of an annual examination in 
May. By this means pupils were attracted from the 
artizan class, and teachers were glad to have pupils at 
almost a nominal fee. Through evening instruction alone 
a moderate income could thus be made by any active and 
painstaking teacher who complied with the rules laid 
down by the Department. In this way, irrespective of 
fees, the teachers of the Science School at Keighley 
received last year in payments on results nearly 3507. ; the 
teachers at the Bristol] Trade and Mining School, in the 
same way, made upwards of 450/; the teachers at 
St. Thomas, Charterhouse, nearly 6c00/. ; and the teachers 
at some of the Science classes in Liverpool nearly 700/. 
Similar results are to be found among the certificated art 
teachers. It is not surprising that the number of schools 
in connection with the Department rapidly and steadily in- 
creased, till in 1870 theie was only one short of 800 science 
schools, with the large number of 34,283 students under in- 
struction, chiefly during the evenings of the week. Ten 
years later, in 1880, these numbers had increased nearly 
60 per cent., there being now 1391 elementary science 
schools under the Science and Art Department, with 
60,871 individuals under instruction: 34,678 of these 
students entered for the annual examination in May, 
several taking two or more subjects, so that there were 
over 69,000 papers worked; of these upwards of 45,000 
were passed, or more than 65 per cent.; and 12,c00 
gained a first-class, or say 27 per cent. of the successful 
papers. Every successful paper entitles the candidate, 
if in the first division, to a prize, and the certificated 
teacher to a money payment. 
As might be expected, the inhabitants of the manu- 
facturing districts avail themselves most largely of the 
May examinations; and it is instructive to note the 
relative number of individuals receiving elementary 
science instruction in the different sections of the 
United Kingdom. Last year there were in England 
2,711 students, who paid in fees 89632, or a little over 
4s. each; and gained 7281 prizes and medals, or about 
one prize to every six students. In Hales there were 
1344 students, who paid in fees 146/, or a little over 2s. 
each, and gained 184 prizes and medals, or one prize to 
every seven students. 
In Scotland there were 7376 students, who paid in fees | 
2088/., or 55. 9@. each, and gained 1423 prizes or medals, 
or one to every five students; in /ve/and there were 
5369 students, who paid 665/. in fees, or 2s. 5a. each, and 
gained 1267 prizes and medals, or one to every four stu- 
dents. The payment on results to the teachers amounted 
to 29,900/. for England and Wales, or say 14s. per pupil, 
to 5250/. for Scotland, or 145. 2d. per pupil, and to 
5079 for /re/and, or 18s. 9d. per pupil. The foregoing 
analysis which we have made of the figures in this report 
shows that Ireland has the highest proportion of prize- 
winners, indicating a higher grade of ability on the part 
of both teachers and pupils; atthe same time its students 
NATURE 
[ April 13, 1882 
are poorest, or at any rate least inclined to pay for in- 
struction. The smallness of the fees received by the 
teachers doubtless also acts as a stimulus to the teacher, 
for it makes his payment almost wholly dependent on the 
successes of his pupils. 
The report unfortunately does not supply any data as 
to the relative number of boys and girls among the 
students, an omission that we hope may be supplied in 
some future reports; for the Department bad the 
honour of recognising the claims of women to educational 
prizes and distinctions long before any University opened 
its door to women. 
The nature of the subjects selected by the students 
differs considerably. The following table, which we have 
summarised from the report, shows a singular and sug- 
gestive difference in national traits; the figures indicate 
the number of individuals under instruction in 1880 :— 
Geome- | | 
| : Mathe- Me- . Che- 
ue entice | bese | Eystcss mistry. 
| 
= | | 
England and Wales | 17,494 | 11,081 | 4,293 | 15,401 | 7,732 
Scotland : 2,229 | 3,C50| 1,226 | 1,477) 1,475 
Ireland ... 292 | 2,738 | 982 3,212| 439 
| : | Physio- | Agri- 
lagers Biology. | Steam. | Eau aes 
| 
England and Wales | 2,c92| 9,336| 1,539 | 4,435| 2,772 
Sc tland ae | 416, 935 539 | 709 548 
Ireland ... feel 400n5 | ORT 105 | 1,521 | 3,104 
It will be seen from this that in England the majority 
select geometrical drawing, next to that physics, and then 
mathematics. In Scotland the majority choose mathe- 
matics, and next to that geometrical drawing ; very few 
selecting agriculture. In Ireland the majority select 
physics, and almost as many agriculture; next to that 
being mathematics, and very few geometrical drawing. 
In connection with these statistics we notice that 
Ireland stands far below England and Scotland in 
point of the number of its art schools and art students; 
and this notwithstanding that the Irish are essentially an 
artistic race, the fame of many Irish artists being well 
known. In fact, though the number of art students 
in Ireland is small, the quality of their work is more than 
twice as good as English or Scotch art students ; that is, 
judged by payments on results, the payment to pupils in 
English art schools under the Department average in the 
annual competition about 2s. 3@.a head, in the Scotch 
2s. 4@., in the Irish 5s. In round numbers, there are in 
England about 5000 art schools, with some 650,000 pupils ; 
in Scotland there are more than 500 art schools, with some 
75 000 pupils; whilst in Ireland there are only 50 to 60 art 
schools, with 6000 to 7000 pupils. In fact few things are 
more needed in Ireland than the encouragement of art- 
teaching by local art, by museums, and otherwise ; and 
now that the difficulties and interminable correspondence 
between the Royal Dublin Society and the Department 
are at an end, we have no doubt that the able and ener- 
getic director of the national collection in Ireland will 
make this question an object of care. 
If we now turn to examine the percentage of failures 
in the different subjects taught by certificated science- 
teachers, we find some surprising results. Not only is 
there a wide difference in the number of failures in the 
| different subjects, but in the same subject the percentage 
varies extravagantly in different years. We cannot think 
this is wholly, or even chiefly, due to the candidates, the 
variations seem far more likely to be due to differences in 
stringency on the part of the examiners. Uniformity is 
