lS§2.] 
Cram and its Amenities. 64 7 
look, tone, and movement ? Surely the price which the 
nation is paying for the abolition of “ influence and 
favouritism ” is too ruinously dear ! 
It is a common subterfuge with the defenders of the 
English system of education with its everlasting prizes and 
certificates, when pressed on the points just mentioned, to 
say : “ Examinations are a poor test, but we cannot devise 
a better/’ It is therefore with peculiar satisfaction that I 
notice certain revelations which have lately been brought to 
light, calculated greatly to shake the confidence of the 
public in this supposed test. The disclosures in question 
occurred in Dublin, and relate primarily to medical educa- 
tion. But in their essence they apply to the courses of study 
required for all professions and for all positions where a 
certain standard of attainments is demanded. Within the 
last twenty years there have sprung up a class of persons 
technically known as “ coaches,” “ grinders,” &c. These 
persons make it their special business to “ prepare” students 
and candidates for any and every examination which they 
may require to pass. At first sight it would of course seem 
to the uninitiated that such a “ coach ” must have some 
happy and secret knack of conveying to his pupils a sound 
acquaintance with the various branches of science or litera- 
ture in which they are liable to be examined. On further 
thought it will appear strange that one and the same man, with 
perhaps a couple of assistants, should be able to teach a 
multitude of different subjedls better than can a body of 
professors, each of whom has made one science the study of 
his life. On further prying, the inquirer will find that the 
duty and the aim of a coach is to teach, not so much any 
science, as the art of passing an examination in such science. 
By his success or failure in communicating this art he must 
stand or fall. Accordingly he studies closely and carefully, 
not the subjects, but the examiners. He obtains lists of the 
questions asked year by year, and these he collates and sub- 
mits to a close analysis. Some questions he finds recur very 
frequently, and for these he accordingly specially prepares 
his pupils. Others, he finds, are very rarely put, and these 
he considers may be safely negledted. A gentleman of this 
class said recently in evidence : “ I closely watch the whole 
business. I have two things to find out — first the questions, 
and next the answers. As regards the questions, I examine 
the man’s previous papers very closely. I exclude the 
questions which have recently been asked. ... There is 
one respedted gentleman, who happens to be alive, and his 
number of questions is something under 50. He repeats 
