SCHOLASTIC REFORM.
Assort° the registered projects for incorporated joint stock com- panies, in a list lately published by order of the House of Corn- pions, is one for the manufacture of a biographical dictionary. Possibly this hint may have suggested the project of an incorpo- rated joint stock company for the manufacture of schoolmasters, • which has been largely advertised this week, under the title of "scholastic reform." The nature of the projected company sufficiently indicates • what kind of reform is to be expected from it. A "Royal Col- lege of Schoolmasters" is to be incorporated ; and it is proposed to render illegal, "from and after a certain time," the opening of a school by any one but a licentiate of this College. In the • case of parties who have taken a class degree at the Universities, - the licence will be dispensed with. The College is not to inter- fere with Government schemes of education, or any public schools or colleges. Its regulations are not to affect the already esta- blished schoolmasters. In short, the great end and aim of the College, or joint stock company, appears to be to give the exist-. lug race of private schoolmasters security that the number of their professional rivals shall not increase too rapidly. This obvious tendency of the institution has led its promoters to calculate on the ready and unreflecting support of the class in whose favour a monopoly is to be established. Accordingly, al- though the "Provisional Committee" preserve a guarded incog- nito, they invite the profession "to forward their subscriptions with as little delay as possible." In return, they promise to call a meeting of the profession in London, on or about the 18th of June next.
It is not impertinent, delicately to hint to private schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, "whether principals or assistants," that even at the height of the railway joint stock company mania, the names of the promoters, interim directors, or provisional com- mittee-men, were always published before applications for shares —much more, deposits or subscriptions—were called for : not- " withstanding which precaution, there is at this moment a very
• prevalent desire among the subscribers to such undertakings to have a part of their money, however small, refunded. Nor is it " found a very simple or expeditious business to wind up the schemes. With these warning examples before them, "the pro- fession" act not unwisely if they reply to the alluring pro- posals of the "Provisional Committee," that in the end, a world of troubles in the way of winding-up and repaying deposits, may be saved, if the meeting on the 18th of June be held first and the subscriptions called in afterwards.
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