10 Original Articles. [Jan., 



occasion in company with able teachers of Science, to peruse the 

 examination papers of several of these gentlemen, and can fully 

 indorse the opinion we have often heard expressed that the whole 

 heart of the examiners is in their work. 



Because these gentlemen are moderately remunerated, it does not 

 follow that the students and votaries of Science are under no further 

 obligation to them, and we do not feel it to be a presumption on our 

 part, when, in the name of all interested in the diffusion of sound 

 scientific information, of students, teachers, and committees, we say 

 that they are entitled to our cordial thanks, and to our best wishes. 

 We trust that they may long continue to direct the examinations 

 in their respective departments of Science. Professor Huxley on 

 Zoology ; Dr. Lankester, Botany ; Professor Ramsay, Geology ; Pro- 

 fessor W. W. Smyth, Mineralogy ; Professor Hoffmann, Chemistry ; 

 Professor Tyndall and the Reverend B. M. Cowie, Physics ; and Pro- 

 fessor Bradley, Geometrical Drawing. 



Quitting now the bright side of our subject, we must return for a 

 moment to the question of the teachers' grievances. And it may pos- 

 sibly appear strange to some of those who have followed us in this 

 cursory and imperfect review of the South Kensington Science move- 

 ment, that if the reductions, which have been made from year to year 

 in their emoluments, had been considered unfair by the masters, they 

 would have broken out into open opposition. 



" How is it," they may be inclined to inquire, " that these 

 ' minutes,' have been issued year by year without any public protest 

 against their injustice ? " For whoever has conversed with teachers 

 and committees, knows well that, privately, much dissatisfaction has 

 been expressed, and that representations to that effect which have re- 

 mained unheeded, have even been made through the proper channels 

 to the Department. 



The reply will be found in the following story, which, though very 

 old, has lost none of its force when applied to the case under con- 

 sideration. 



There once reigned, somewhere in the East, a great tyrant, who, 

 like the Caliph Haroun al Raschid, used to amuse himself by walking 

 abroad alone to hear what people said of his rule. 



This bad ruler, having heard of a poor defenceless old woman who 

 possessed four cows, sent down one of his minions to take away one of 

 them, and transfer it to the " Crown'." A few days afterwards, when 

 the king was passing the poor woman's cottage in disguise, he heard 

 her, in her devotions, secretly invoking curses on his royal head, and 

 praying for his speedy removal to a better land. 



Thereupon he sent an officer to take away another of her cows ; 

 and on again passing the cottage shortly afterwards, he heard the old 

 woman reiterate her prayers to the Almighty to punish and remove the 

 tyrant who thus plundered his subjects. The result was, as may be 

 anticipated, the disappearance of a third cow ; but when some time 

 afterwards his Majesty was passing by the cottage, he heard, to his 

 astonishment, a voice praying for his long life and unimpaired health. 

 On entering the cottage he was surprised to find a poor decrepit old 



