26 SEPTEMBER 1868, Page 22

Education and Training. By a Physician. (Churchill.) — "A Physician"

at least aims high enough. Ile would have education made compulsory for all children between the ages of six and fourteen. Government aid should be given to all schools that might need it on this condition, that every year the children who had passed their fourteenth year should be examined by a Government Inspector, and that a sum varying from one pound to four should be paid according to their pro- ficiency. The maximum would be earned for the school by those who

should show satisfactory progress in !cur departments of knowledge. "The first would take in all that the provisions of the Revised Code in- clude up to the sixth standard." The second would include the elements of mental and moral philosophy and of theology ; the third, those of chemistry, mechanics, or natural philosophy ; the fourth, those of music. "A Physician" does not expect that the average child will pass in more than three of these subjects. We fancy that these expectations might be still further modified if he had taught, as the present writer has, in a Wiltshire village. This does not binder us in the least from thinking that he does well to set up a very high standard. It may take centuries before we reach it. But if we ever do get anything like a real "education and training," not a miserable modicum of teaching which is neither the one nor the other, we may see some real impression made on the great mass of pauperism and crime. The more we can get of the enthusiasm which evidently inspires "A Physician," the sooner we shall arrive at this result.