LORD ROSEBERY'S GREAT SPEECH.
(To THE EDITOR OP THE 93PEOTATOR.1 Sin,---In your remarks upon Lord Rosebery's Glasgow speech in the Spectator of November 24th you say :—" To us there seems to be in all its splendid sentences but one piece of advice, and that is to enter your children on the ' modern ' instead of the classical ' side of the public schools, and that we hold to be wrong. The main product of much that is called technical education is a fidgety conceit." It is easy to dismiss a difficult question in a few—somewhat contemptuous —words. You would perhaps have been doing a greater ser- vice to your readers if you had, however shortly, dealt with the matter in a spirit of grave inquiry. I cannot believe, as you do, that Lord Rosebery meant to solve the pressing problem of education by the easy method of choosing the modern side of the public school, but rather to give expression to the serious doubts now disturbing the n in is of a large number of thoughtful English men and women, as to the efficiency of our secondary education for boys. Many men of sound sense and judgment feel that though our public schools turn out hundreds of vigorous and healthy-minded boys, yet a large majority of these boys, notwithstanding the boasted edu- cating power of the classical curriculum, grow into uneducated men. They have not learnt either to see clearly or to think clearly. They are not keen in any intellectual direction. If this is so (and nearly every issue of the Rana newspaper contains ample evidence that our prominent men are keenly alive to the deficiencies of our pubic-school education), would it not be well if the Spectator dealt more generously with one whose brilliant speech has at least called public attention to a ques. tion of vital importance to the Empire ?—I am, Sir, &c.,
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