The Experiences of Richard Jones. By J. Jones. (Digby and
Long.)—Dick Jones comes up to London with some knowledge of Latin and Greek and other ordinary bubjects of education, very little acquaintance with English, and two exceedingly ill-made suits of clothes, to seek for a situation in a school. This volume recounts his experiences, recorded, it is supposed, in his diary. Very curious experiences they are, and, what is more, they have all the appearance of being genuine. There is something about them—what it is it would not be easy to say—that does not look like invention, hardly like exaggeration. Supposing them to be true, the picture they present of "private schools," of the " commercial academy," and self-styled " college " species, is a very strange one indeed. The " principals " of these places are represented as bad enough, though there are exceptions ; but the "assistants" defy description. If these things are so, it is indeed high time that there should be a " registration of teachers." We have had enough of the laisser-aller system in education. English children ought to be protected from the stupidity of their parents, too often at the mercy of the first plausible tout that gets hold of them, and of the greed of adventurers who are no more fit to be schoolmasters than they are to be archbishops.
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