4 DECEMBER 1869, Page 2

Gloucestershire has taken the lead in meeting the Endowed Schools'

Act. At a meeting called by Earl Dacie, and attended by the Bishop and representatives of nearly all the endowed grammar schools of the county, it was agreed to form a com- mittee, consisting of endowed schoolmasters, who should draw up a scheme for submission to the Commission. It would appear, however, from the report, that this resolution was due in great measure to the influence of Lord Dude and the Bishop, that the schoolmasters and trustees arc somewhat averse to their task ; that the private interests are fretful from fear of loss ; and that the instinctive sense of the meeting was to leave everything to the Commission, criticize their plan, and then obey it as coming from above, as, in fact, a sort of schedule to an Act. We should not wonder if many of the counties took that course, some preferring the judgment of the Commissioners to their own, and some pre- ferring martyrdom to suicide.