26 SEPTEMBER 1874, Page 3

Sir Stafford Northcote made a sensible speech on Wednesday, in

distributing the prizes of the Devon County School. He enlarged on the difficulty of doing any good in a work like education by mere legislation, without the active help of local effort ; but he warned the county of the prejudices which are apt to mark local feeling, and especially the silly prejudice against turning a puny and miserable classical school into a good, sound, second-grade school. Good cider, he said, was a great -deal better than bad champagne, but people are too ambitious to see it. That is a very apposite remark, and goes to the very heart of the chief difficulties with which the expiring, but wise and energetic Endowed Schools Commission have had to struggle no long.