52 



excellent in most of the leading schools of Ireland, and there 

 fore he did not submit to the imputation that our schools and 

 colleges do nothing but " cram." He admired, however, Mr. 

 Brown's able and witty lecture, and had no doubt that the 

 suggestions thrown out would stimulate many to think more 

 on the important subject of education. He (Mr. Speers) felt 

 that there was still much room for improvement. In some 

 schools, children were put to learn too many subjects at once. 

 He knew that in England it was common to set children of 

 six or seven years old to learn Latin and other languages. He 

 thought that English, Arithmetic, a little Algebra, and the 

 simplest facts of Modern Science, with Drawing and Penman- 

 ship, are the right subjects to occupy the mind of a child 

 until ten or eleven years of age. He thought the education 

 given in Irish schools would compare favourably, both morally 

 and intellectually, with that in English schools, though not per- 

 haps physically, since many English schools were full of nothing 

 but football. He remembered once, while walking up the 

 street at Eton, asking several groups of fine fellows belonging 

 to the college there, what County Eton was in ; only one boy 

 gave the right answer. What would be thought of an Institution 

 boy who did not know whether Belfast was in Donegal 

 Antrim or Down ? 



Mr. Wm. Workman did not object to Mr. Brown's ideas as 

 Utopian, because they ought to have a high ideal to work up 

 to. The lecturer had given them such an ideal. Mr. Speers 

 spoke about the ignorance of the Eton boys in geography, but 

 if the history of England for the last hundred and fifty years were 

 consulted, it would be found that England had made geography 

 through the help of her Eton boys. In our present system of 

 education, so far as he (Mr. Workman) could see, there was no 

 attempt to develop vigorous bodies, and consequently no attempt 

 to develop vigorous minds. In the Irish Schools there was an 

 elaborate system of preparing for examinations which was 

 mainly learning what other men have thought and which is 

 more an exercise of memory than of the thinking powers. In 

 one or two of the schools there is a gymnasium ; but carefully 



