USE AND ABUSE OE EXAMINATIONS. 
843 
Australasian colonies. Such a scheme should be at once simple and 
precise in order to secure accurate returns, and should also fall into 
line with similar investigations which are being prosecuted elsewhere. 
Mr. Erancis Gatton, whose psychometric experiments render him a 
leading authority on this subject, has favoured the committee with 
several suggestions. At the same time, he urges the need of careful 
deliberation, and of an adequate knowledge of the programmes which 
have been carried into effect in the United States. “All this,” he 
remarks, “ will require a full year; but anything is better than the 
waste of money and the damping of enthusiasm due to an ill-considered 
start.” In accordance with this advice, the committee has sought for 
fuller information as to what is being done in the States, and also in 
the Board Schools of London, and defers any recommendation till this 
has been received and considered. Mr. Gaiton’s valuable letter is 
submitted for perusal with this report. 
HENEY LAUEIE, 
Chairman of Committee. 
31st December, 1894. 
2. — USE AND ABUSE OE EXAMINATIONS. 
By HENRY BELCHER , M.A., LL.D Eelloiv of King’s College, London , and 
Rector of the Boys' High School , Dunedin. 
Bentley,* * * § in establishing examinations for the juster award of the 
Fellowships of Trinity College, Cambridge, would seem to be the father 
of the present system under which every man is athirst to examine his 
neighbour. The second impulse is due to Brougham. f Then let . us 
reckon Macaulay, + who vigorously pushed the cause of education 
mainly because education should be the cheapest defence of the rights 
of property. In support of his contention he cites the brutal ignorance 
of the mob in the Gordon Eiots of 1780. According to this view the 
Chicago Eiots of 1894 should have been impossible. Then comes Lord 
Sherbrooke, a man of Australian experience, better known as Mr. 
Lowe. Mr. Lowe is one of the extraordinary Englishmen of our 
century. He had no belief in education. He never would allow that 
education contributed to his own remarkable influence and success. 
He did not admit the existence of any science of education. He 
scouted the notion that to the working classes education can be of any 
profit. These views are expressed in a memorable address to the 
Philosophical Institution of Edinburgh §. Such was the attitude 
towards education of the author of the Eevised Code. This is now 
admitted to have been the worst instrument of its kind yet devised by 
the wit of man. It has been condemned by every educationist of 
rank not in Government employ, and by the majority of those who are 
in Government employ. To him we owe the conception that there are 
* Cambridge is the source of the modern examination system. Latham : Action 
of Examinations, p. 151. First Tripos List in 1748: id. p. 133. Sir Geo. Young: 
International Educational Conference, iii., p. 249. 
t Schmidt, quoted by Donaldson : Hist, of Education, p. GO. 
+ Macaulay : Speech on Education, 1847. Macaulay, when Secretary of War, 
established girls’ schools in connection with every army corps . _ _ 
§ Donaldson, ibid., p. 83 ; and Sir James K. Shuttleworth on the Revised Code, 
ibid,, p. 85. 
