the time devoted to class work for the three lower classes and a diminution of the number of studies for all classes. The subjects which he treats as essential and upon which pupils should be examined are, the Italian language, writing, arithmetic, history, geography, and notions of civil rights and duties. The lessons on natural objects, drawing, music, gymnastics and manual training, are not to be made subjects of examination. The press generally approve the propositions, especially as they relieve the strain which the former programme imposed. Emphasis is placed upon the fact that this relief is afforded, not only by omitting some subjects and treating others as incidentals, but also by correlating the lessons in civil rights and duties. with geography and history. It will be interesting in this connection to note what the minister himself has said in respect to his position. At the outset he declares it to be his firm conviction that the elementary school should not be considered "as the vestibule to higher studies, either classical, technical or professional, but as a palestra, where everyone should be prepared for the civil life that awaits him. This," he adds, "need not prevent the schools serving also for those who may ultimately extend the circle of their knowledge.

"The minister's conviction that the programmes needed revision was supported," he says, "by advices from every province in Italy. The complaint was well nigh universal that the programmes should be relieved of the burden of studies and exercises not proportioned to the age of the children; not adapted to the demands of life, and consequently serving only to enfeeble the powers and to unfit the pupils either to continue their studies with vigor or to apply themselves to the industries which they must master in the future."

The minister notes further, that the expansion of the programmes in 1888 was due to the desire to bring the schools into closer accord with the progress of science and with the conditions of modern life. With this end in view dogmatic instruction was condemned, and in its place the method of leading the pupil to derive knowledge through his own observation and experience was advocated.

But in the endeavor to increase the importance of the school its true end has been obscured; the effort to meet conflicting demands resulted in an excessive number of studies and excess also in the number of daily exercises.

Drawing, gymnastics, morals, became matters for study and also for examination. The pompous terms, physics and natural history, appeared in the programmes and in the text books. Teachers might be heard descanting upon anatomy and physiology to distracted and astonished children; arithmetic bristled with abstract reasoning and complicated problems; and written examinations were set which

would have tried even candidates for the baccalaureate. By a singular inversion of orders, the history of the Greeks, Romans and Hebrews was taught to children six and seven years of age, absolutely incapable of transporting themselves in thought and sentiment to periods so remote. Hence irreparable loss of time and, what is still worse, physical and moral depression and the incapacity of either masters or pupils to realize the essential end of school education. "In order to overcome these evils," he adds, "I have felt it necessary to reduce the number of subjects to be studied, and brought the examination to that minimum of useful knowledge and of aptitudes which the pupil ought to acquire in an elementary school."

The interesting question at this moment is what M. Baccelli regards as essential to this very definite purpose. Here is his answer: "I have given the first place to the Italian language, that is to say, to the studies and exercises which, by developing and disciplining the faculties of invention and reflection, teach the child to express his sentiments in a simple and precise manner, in forms adapted to the national character and which are faithfully reflected in the language. I have omitted all parts of arithmetic which encroach upon the province of the intermediate (secondary) schools, retaining those that apply to ordinary practice, that is to say, enable one to calculate readily, and without recourse to writing, the problems that arise in ordinary domestic, industrial and commercial affairs." As to penmanship, exercises are proposed that impart freedom and legibility. History, geography, the rights and duties of citizens, are combined in one group. History, beginning with local incidents, passes to the history of modern or united Italy and thence to the anterior epochs. The survey of these last includes the most notable events, the most illustrious men and the succession of ideas and of events that belong to the glorious history of the past.

As to morals, the subjeet is no longer treated as one for formal study. "Morals," says the minister, "can best be learned through the example of parents and teachers; it is an outcome, also, of the instruction in other studies, especially of those which operate directly upon the intelligence and the sentiments." Gymnastics and singing are treated as agencies for physical training, recreation and discipline. They are to be left largely to the discretion of the teacher and not to be made the means of new pre-occupations for the pupils. The same position is maintained with respect to needle-work and to exercises for training the hand and eye, and to object lessons upon familiar things.

The above programme, it should be added, is intended to cover the period from six to ten years of age, inclusive. It affords interesting

points of comparison with the programmes of our own schools, and more particularly with the conception of elementary studies recently elaborated at Cleveland.

BELGIUM MANUAL AND TECHNICAL SCHOOLS.

The well-known importance attached to technical and industrial training in Belgium, and the practical development which the subject has there received, gives interest to the following statistics, which were compiled for the Antwerp Exposition:

The grand total of pupils is 29,426, and the expenditure for the

The city of Manchester is giving to the world some striking lessons in municipal government, and it would naturally be inferred that its educational system offers also points worthy of attention. Taken as a whole, the English system of popular education has not advanced beyond the elementary stage, but Manchester illustrates the larger development of which it is susceptible.

Five higher grade board schools and one higher grade denominational school are maintained. In four of the former, tuition is free for all pupils who have passed the sixth primary grade and have attended regularly, for two consecutive years, at one or more schools. A certain proportion of free scholars are also admitted to the organized science schools, and 160 scholarships in the "Manchester Grammar School" are open to pupils of the primary schools in Manchester and Salford. There are also upwards of 150 additional scholarships admitting to secondary education, available for primary pupils. From the higher grade school pupils may advance to the universities

by the help of scholarships. Of these, upwards of 60 were available in 1894. Already students, who have had the way open to them by these liberal provisions, are enrolled among the graduates of Oxford, Cambridge, London and Victoria Universities. Salford, which is intimately connected with Manchester, makes, also, liberal provision for the higher education of its youth. In both towns, evening schools are fostered, as the following statistics for 1894-95 clearly show: Number of pupils in evening science schools, 1,607; in art classes, 2,174; commercial schools, 3,656; school for shop assistants, 215; institutes for women and girls, 1,243; manual instruction schools, 1,243; miscellaneous, 918; general studies, 12,115; or a total of 22,958 pupils in evening schools and classes. The Schoolmaster, from which the above particulars are taken, notes the advantage which must accrue to the commission on secondary education in having in its membership the chairman of the Manchester School board, the Very Rev. Dean Maclure.

Mr. Thomas E. Heller, a leading spirit in the National Union of Elementary Teachers, and its honored secretary for several years, has been made Doctor of Laws by St. Andrew's University. Dr. Heller bore the brunt of many battles in the first twenty years of the working of the education act of 1870; he was a hard-working member of the School Board for London; and he went upon the Royal Commission on Elementary Education (1885) with a fullness of knowledge and a ripeness of practical judgment that gave great weight to all his utterances. Educated for teaching in the narrow lines of a Denominational Training College, he manifested, in his earlier years, a decided leaning toward the maintenance of denominational schools. He was, however, gradually converted into a staunch supporter of the nonsectarian board school system, and his name appears among the five signatures to the minority report of the Royal Commission which has given a powerful impulse to the progress of a truly national system of education.

UNIVERSITY ITEMS.

The official report of the Paris faculties gives the following statistics for 1894 Students, faculty of theology, 52; law, 2,273; regular, 955; special (not matreculates) total, 3,228; medicine, 5,144; science, 581; letters, 1,584; superior school of pharmacy, 1,716; grand total, 12,305. Of this total 1,417 were foreigners, and 449 were women. The number of students having the benefit of bourses (scholarships)

was 174.

Dr. Kukula, whose studies of university statistics are well known, estimates the proportion of university students to population in the principal European countries, as follows:

AMONG THE BOOKS.

To accommodate readers who may wish it, the publishers of EDUCATION will send, post paid on the receipt of price, almost any book reviewed in these columns.

Leach, Shewell & Sanborn published in March: Cicero de Oratore, book I, by Prof. W. D. Owen, Lafayette College; Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America, by Prof. L. DuPont Syle, University of California; Macaulay's Life of Samuel Johnson, edited by Gamaliel Bradford, Jr., instructor in literature, Wellesley and Boston. In April or May, a Latin prose composition for colleges, by Prof. H. R. Fairclough, Leland Stanford, Jr. University; Scott's Lady of the Lake, by Prof. Jas. Arthur Tufts, Phillips Exeter Academy, and a Surveying and Navigation, by Prof. A. E. Burton, Massachusetts Institute Technology, are expected from the press.

L. Prang & Co. add a special charm to Easter. They are constantly bringing out lovely cards and exquisite booklets to delight the eye, uplift the taste and enrich the soul. This spring their new publications are thoroughly American in text, design and printing. Lovely forms in birds and flowers and children's sweet faces are here; lillies in profusion and violets most of all. A very lovely booklet is called DEEP BLUE VIOLETS. It is by Catherine L. Connor, and presents several full-page illustrations of English violets with sweet and appropriate verses. It is daintily fastened with ribbon and has a cover design of violets. Another more pretentious little book which will prove comforting to souls in sorrow is THE SHADOW OF THE ANGEL, by Rev. Ernest W. Shurtleff, of Plymouth. It is a poetical presentation of the Scriptural doctrine of guardian Angels, and is reverent, sympathetic and melodious in treatment. The illustrations of ministering spirits are appropriate. Price 75 cents. Boston: L. Prang & Co.

THE GROWTH OF THE IDYLLS OF THE KING, is a very useful and interesting study of Tennyson's poems on this theme, by Prof. Richard Jones, Ph.D., of Swarthmore College. The author has made a very careful and thorough study and investigation of his subject. He finds that the subject matter of these Idylls grew "during many hundred years," and "the poem during a half century." In this rather brief book Professor Jones discusses "the growth of Lord Tennyson's version of the Arthur Legend." Tennyson is one of the noblest poets England ever produced, and it is a matter of real interest and mental stimulus to watch, in these carefully collated manuscripts, the outworkings of this rare intellect. We have read large portions of this book with delight and profit. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co.

LATIN GRAMMAR IN A NUTSHELL, a four-page card, giving in condensed form all declensions of nouns and adjectives; a complete list of conjunctions and prepositions, with meanings; prepositions governing special cases; interrogative words, with uses; a complete synopsis of the verb in all conjugations, voices, modes and tenses, etc. With this card in hand the student saves the time and annoyance of turning through the grammar in search of the information wanted. All is had at a glance. Tagboard, 15 cents. March Brothers, Publishers, Lebanon, Ohio.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ENGLISH FICTION, by William Edward Simonds, professor of English literature, Knox College, is an endeavor to trace the development and evolution of the English novel and to indicate the characteristics of successive epochs in its growth. The first part of the book contains the story of the rise of the novel and is a most careful analysis of the