We may draw attention to the valuable Report of the
expert Committee appointed by the Prime Minister to inquire into the position of modern languages in our educational system, which has been published by the Stationery Office, and costs ninepence. The Committee, of which Mr. Loathes was Chairman, while Sir Maurice de Bunsen, Dr. Fisher, Mr. J. W. Headlarn, and pr. George Macdonald were among the members, recognizes that the public needs to be convinced of the value and importance of modern studies, and that the average " modern side " in a Public School has proved unsatisfactory. It recommends that the study of modern languages should be begun at a later period of school life than is customary. British teachers should be preferred to foreigners, and should be better paid. The Committee contrasts the pay and prospects offered by the Civil Service with those of the teaching profession ; it is well known that modern language masters are rarely, if ever, selected for head-mastershins, so that their branch of the profession offers still fewer attractions to a clever youth than the classical or mathematical side. Yet without a large supply of good British tatchers modern studies cannot advance.
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