Educational Conzparisons. By Swire Smith. (Simpkin and Marshall.) —Mr. Smith
lectures his fellow-townsmen of Keighley with consider- able vigour and plainness of speech. One measure that he gives of the number of the illiterate is new to us. It seems a very fair one. Keighley people have, it seems, to apply to the local Board of Health to have gas introduced into their dwellings. Now of these applications, made, it may be fairly argued, by the more intelligent part of the community, twenty-six per cent. are signed with a cross, while, as Mr. Smith says, many of those who had written their name give an impression that they would have a difficulty in writing anything else. With the educa- tion of Keighley, which is not worse than other towns, the lecturer compares that of Germany and Switzerland. Of course his inference is that there is much need for something to be done. Nothing could be more true, nothing better, than to stir up a supine and self-contented public by repeating it with all possible emphasis. Mr. Swire Smith deserves our thanks. But alas ! with the religions question and the labour question in sight, we cannot agree with him that "whatever can be done in Saxony can be done in England."
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