On Thursday, Mr. Cross, the Home Secretary, made a speech
at Liverpool, in delivering the prizes 'to the boys of the Liverpool College, in which he insisted on the very.important and at pre- sent needful principle that it is much better to learn a little thoroughly than a great deal -without really mastering it, =that what is learned should be learned not for the purpose of passing muster at an examination, but for the purpose of making it your own. He added, however, what we read with some sur- prise, that he is quite convinced that the boys taught in the schools of this country are, as a rule, "infinitely better edu- cated than those of Germany ;" and he explained that what he means by ' educated,' is ' trained,' drawn-out, enabled to -cope with difficulties for themselves. Now, we did not know that Mr. Cross was so well acquainted with German boys and German schools as this very decisive judgment implies. We should shrink from expressing any opinion of our own on a point on which we have not sufficient information, but it is certain that some very excellent authorities hold a view just the reverse of that of Mr. Cross,—who does not add .much to our confidence in his judgment when he adds that he is -quite sure that for the special training of any mind there is no education, " so far as scholar-learning goes," like the classical education of our public schools. Classical educa- tion is a very good sort of education, and public schools are a good apprenticeship to public life ; but "so far as scholar-learn- ing goes," we doubt whether any schoolboy really learns less than the average boy in an English public schooL Till quite lately, at least, he learnt nothing but Greek and Latin, and exceedingly little of that.
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