Mr. Forster, in the discussion which ensued, pressed upon the
Government Mr. Mundella's warning that the masters of ele- mentary schools have far too much of their time occupied in compiling the very elaborate returns required by the Govern- ment. It was impossible, he said, for them to compile these returns, except at the cost of their health or their efficiency ; and of course, the sacrifice of health is the sacrifice of efficiency. He
believed that many of the returns might be simplified, and not a few of them abolished altogether, to the great gain of the masters and mistresses. But Lord George Hamilton did not give Mr. Forster much encouragement on this head. He thought no great reduction in the number of returns would be possible. This is very discouraging. No work is more exhausting or less fruitful than this vast amount of clerk's labour on school statistics ; and it leaves teaching-power—which requires plenty of elasticity and verve,—at a very low ebb indeed.
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