At Saltaire, on Thursday, Mr- W. E. Forster delivered an
address which turned chiefly on the reorganisation of secondary education in England, and the manner ia which it could best be effected. Mr. Forster was opposed to putting this duty into the hands of the State. He thought the middle-class,—which h ad not been by any means robbed ,of power by the extension of the franchise to the artisan, on the whole quite equal to the work ; and if equal to the work,
i then far better fitted for t than the State itself. It was danger- ous to teach the middle-class to be less soli-reliant and energetic than hitherto it had always shown itself. And difficult and costly as the work of secondary education is, he thought that, with the growing educational competence of the working-class, there would be stimulus enough to the middle-class to see after the improvement of its ow i n education for itself. All the aid he would have the State give t, would be the aid of helping it to test and recognise a good school, by the adoption of a well. 'considered scheme of inspection of schools.
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