The number of candidates for the Oxford local examinations has
this year been very great, and 206 have passed in English, 138 in languages, 166 in mathematics, 26 in physics, 29 in draw- ing, and 8 in music, the immense preference given to languages and mathematics over physics showing the hold the old system of education still has on the country. Lads still have their mental muscles developed, instead of learning only how to apply them. Of languages the favourites are, first, Latin and French, then Greek, and then, but at a great distance, German, a curious error in judg- ment—traceable, we imagine, entirely to long-standing school customs. Latin is as valuable for use as Greek, and French as German, but as a means of education Greek is to Latin what German is to French—its superior to an indefinite degree. Very few private schools for boys, however, as yet teach German, though it has made its way after a fashion into the popular curri- culum for girls.
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