German Education. 39 



consequences of over-education. But the period was also one of 

 advance, and the elementary schools diversified their plans of 

 study to suit the growing needs of the commercial and industrial 

 community. In the period extending from 1870 to the present 

 time education had advanced in a marvellous manner the 

 universities had been strengthened by the State, secondary schools 

 had been improved, and there was the quickening of a new spirit 

 among the teachers and pupils in elementary schools, while 

 technical education had been furthered in all grades upon a basis 

 of liberal preparatory training. Continuing, the lecturer pointed 

 out that there was no single code for the regulation of elementary 

 schools throughout the empire, and attendance at continuation 

 schools was subject to laws which differed considerably in various 

 States, and the provision of intermediate or higher elementary 

 schools was diverse according to State law. Education in 

 Germany owed its strength and its capacity for readjustment to 

 social needs to the fact of its being a federal unity. It, however, 

 maintained an impressive uniformity of intellectual standards, and 

 was so organized as to obtain the reciprocal recognition of 

 educational qualifications between different parts of the Empire. 

 It possessed great intellectual pre-suppositions, which characterized 

 it among the educational systems of the world, and it exerted a 

 united influence upon the thought of other nations. The 

 provincial varieties which enriched and strengthened it did not 

 weaken or obscure the fundamental unity of the whole system. 

 There were many signs of impending changes in the system, but 

 the great fabric of its administration remained intact and its 

 prestige remained unshaken. 



An interesting discussion followed, in which the following 

 took part : — Professor D. L. Savory, Dr. A. Trimble, J.P. ; Messrs 

 D. R. Campbell, J. Johnston, and T. R. Johnston. 



Rev. Dr. Hamilton, vice-chancellor of the Queen's 

 University, in moving a vote of thanks to Dr. Sadler, said they 



