On Technical Education . 
289 
1882.] 
The grammar-schools of the country are of course open 
to boys intended for trade and commerce, as well as to those 
who, after leaving school, are to proceed to one of the uni- 
versities, yet the teaching staff and the course of studies 
provided in these schools are mainly intended for the educa- 
tion of the latter class, although in most country grammar- 
schools they form but a very small percentage of the entire 
number of the pupils. One of the London daily papers, in 
commenting on the result of the recent competition for the 
Cambridge Classical Tripos, gave as one of the reasons why 
pupils from the country grammar-schools frequently gain 
higher prizes at Cambridge and Oxford than the pupils from 
the great public schools, that it was owing to the large schools 
being, in comparison with small establishments, conspicuously 
under -master ed ; at country grammar-schools the percentage 
of boys who are going to universities is comparatively low. 
Frequently at these smaller institutions there are only one 
or two pupils destined for Oxford or Cambridge, and the 
teachers devote themselves with extraordinary assiduity to 
this small number, in comparison to the rest of the pupils. 
The education of the many in such schools must be more or 
less sacrificed for the scholastic advancement of the few ; 
but the evil does not terminate with the schools that yearly 
have one or more pupils preparing for the university, but 
extends to schools that never even have one pupil. Not 
many years have passed away when, in such schools, if a 
boy learned Latin he was not taught even English grammar, 
and all other subjects that would have tended to fit him for 
the business of life were equally negleCted ; and it is to be 
feared that in many country grammar-schools the state of 
education has not been much improved since that period. 
Attempts have been made to rectify some of the evils by 
combining in one Institution three separate schools, viz., an 
upper, a middle, and a lower school ; but such a system will 
never equal the one adopted in Germany. In that country 
they have distinct and separate schools for different systems 
of education ; they have, as we have, elementary and classical * 
schools ; but they have, what we have not, the real schools, 
and trade and mercantile schools. Other continental coun- 
tries have established similar schools ; but whilst France has 
developed most fully the apprenticeship schools, Germany 
has most fully developed schools for the education of those 
who are intended to be Directories of industries, and for those 
intended for a purely commercial career. We need not there- 
fore be surprised that the present Chief Secretary for Ireland, 
the Right Hon. W. E. Forster, when speaking a few years 
ago on middle class education,, stated that a young German 
