TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 131 



branch. No doubt several thousands have been at work to produce this result ; 

 but, meanwhile, we arc clothing the feet of millions of people, who twenty years 

 ago knew nothing of stockings ; and will in all probability prove preciu'sors of de- 

 mand for the better and more costly articles ; 30,000 persons are employed by tiieao 

 round frames. In the working of power laco machines there is the anomaly of 

 eighteen hours' continued working of the engine in the midland factories. The 

 women and children are now withdrawn from night labour. It is more than ques- 

 tionable whether the natural hours of adult male labour might not now, if univer- 

 sally adopted, result in, at least, equal advantage to the owners of these machines, 

 costly as they are, yet working to little profit, and with greater comfort to the 

 workmen and their families. In conclusion, the condition of the children, probably 

 not much lower than 40,000 employed by mistresses, and the circumstances at- 

 tending such numbers being confined so many horn's in rooms not intended for 

 workshops, would seem to caU for authorized inspection, and, I think, for registra- 

 tion also. 



On Inventors and Inventions. By G. Bell Gallowa?. 



On the Suhjeets required in the Classical Tri])OS Examination and in the 

 Trinity College Fellowship Examination at Cambridye. By James Hey- 

 wooD, 3LA., "^F.B.S. 



The author contended that a wider range of subjects in the triposes or examina- 

 tions for honom's at Cambridge and in the fellowship examinations would raise 

 the standard of qualifications for schoolmasters, who are often selected from the 

 classes of honour-men aud coUege-feUows at the University. Royal Commis- 

 sioners, who regulated public schools and academical studies in the reigns of the 

 Tudor sovereigns, no doubt acted conscientiously according to the ideas and 

 enlightenment of the sixteenth century ; they followed in the same line ■ndth their 

 Roman Catholic predecessors, deeming Latin and Greek learning the only sure 

 basis of the higher education of the country. An example of their plans forthe 

 supremacy of Roman and Grecian studies may still be seen in the papers which 

 are every year set to the candidates for fellowships at Trinity College, Cambiidge. 

 Of nine papers appointed at this fellowship examination, six are classical, two 

 mathematical, and one comprises mental and moral philosophy. It is probable 

 that a revision of the Cambridge Classical Tripos sj'stem will sliortly take place in 

 the University, and Mr. E. C. Clark, late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, 

 has suggested that both the verse composition papers m Greek and Latin should 1)6 

 omitted from the subjects of examination for the Classical Tripos ; he proposes to 

 substitute for them a general philosophical paper, and a philological paper, includ- 

 ing questions not only relative to the languages of Greece and Rome, but also to 

 the connexion between these and other languages. Such an alteration would 

 enlarge the scope of the Classical Tripos, and increase the knowledge of the future 

 schoolmasters, who distinguish themselves whilst at Cambridge in that important 

 examination. 



On the Practicability of employing a Common Notation for Electric 



Telegraphy. By J. G. Joyce. 



The author proposed a very elaborate scheme for the establishment of a system 



of international electric telegraphy. He suggested that numbers should be used 



instead of words, the suggestion being derived fi-om the fact that signals between 



ships of different nations were made by means of numbers. 



On the State and Prospects of the Bate of Discount tvith reference to the recent 

 Monetary Crisis. By Professor Leone Levi. 



On the Influence of Science Classes in Mechanics' Institutions. 

 By E. Renals. 

 The paper first sketched the history of these classes, and then traced their influ- 



9* 



