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might certainly be supplied by increasing the num- holders of good character, of however humble rank ber of these officers. in life.

In conclusion, it seems to me that all that is wanted for the extension of the University might be comprised in the three following proposals:1. Open the responsions to candidates who are not members of the University on their producing satisfactory testimonials to character, and matriculate all who passed.

2. Allow those who were thus matriculated to lodge wherever they pleased in licensed lodginghouses, and grant the licences freely to all house

3. Before moderations, and again before the final examinations, require proof by certificate, either from a Master of Arts or from a Professor, that the legal number of days' residence in each Term had been kept.

If this plan were adopted, I have little doubt that the University would double its number in less than twenty years, with the greatest advan tage both to Oxford and England.

F. T.

Correspondence.

MR GORDON'S TABULATED REPORTS. SIR,-If any of your numerous readers have a copy of Mr Gordon's Tabulated Reports for 1858, I

shall be happy to correspond with him, with a view
to obtain the report of my school (Hurlford School)
for that year.-Yours,
P. M.C.
Schoolmaster, West Kilbride.

[B. R.'s reply to A. J., being too late for insertion, will appear in the February number of this Journal.]

Notices of Books.

Constitutionalism of the Future; or, Parliament the
Mirror of the Nation. By JAMES LORIMER,
Regius Professor of Public Law in the University
of Edinburgh, author of "Political Progress not
Necessarily Democratic," &c., &c. Edinburgh:
Adam and Charles Black. 1865.

This book has a close connection with the progress of education. It is, in the first place, an example of a kind of work which, unfortunately, is too rare amongst us. If ever politics is to form the subject of instruction in schools or universities, it must be in the form of political science. The fundamental laws on which political measures are, or should be, based, must be exhibited. In other words, we must have a theory of politics. Professor Lorimer states again and again that such laws do exist, refers to some of them, and expounds them in clear, vigorous language. When politics take this shape, party feeling disappears, the student becomes an inquirer simply after truth, and then there can be no objection to the introduction of such studies into our Universities. But I'rofessor Lorimer's book has another aspect towards education. Intelligence gives an individual power in a state. It was a maxim of Socrates, that people willingly obey him who they

believe is able to devise more prudent schemes for them than they can do themselves, If education give this insight, then the man who is thoroughly educated becomes necessarily a power in the country. But as yet the Legislature of our land has recognised property as almost the only basis of electoral right. Professor Lorimer maintains that this should not be the only basis, that all the elements of power should be taken into account, and, of course, intelligence among the rest. It is manifest that, if the state ever come to recognise the value of education in this way, the whole cause of education will receive a perma nent stimulus, and teachers will ultimately receive more respect and consideration than they now generally do.

It is out of our way to discuss minutely the various opinions which Professor Lorimer has broached in his volume. The book is exceedingly readable; it is evidently intended to be popular, and yet it bears traces on every page of being the production of one who has gone to the foundations of thought. It is eminently suggestive.

In the first chapter, he describes the doubts which have arisen within the last ten years as to whether the common symbols of parties exhausted the possibilities of politics, whether there might not arise a

"new symbol more liberal than Radicalism, more conservative than Conservatism, safer and more orldly wise than Whiggery, which should harmonize and ultimately supersede them."

In the next chapter, he describes the new-born faith that has arisen out of such doubts. The question, he says, which men have felt put to them by circumstances, is this:

"What, seen in this light, is the true character and measure of the political power which may be justly claimed, and which alone can be justly recognised as belonging to the various classes of the community? If fact be the basis of law-if the object of legislation be to recognise the distribution which God has made of his gifts, and to assert and vindicate it, not to redistribute them-ought the suffrage to be extended at all, and if so, ought it to be extended equally?"

He thinks that this question has been the problem of the last ten years, and he believes that the answer which has been given to it in an unconscious and irregular manner might be presented in the form of a syllogism thus:

Our representative system must accept and conform itself to the arrangements of providence, or, in other words, to the facts of nature as exhibited in society.

political power by any Reform Bill at all likely to find acceptance in this country, I hope and believe; and that belief is to me the greatest source of confidence when I look forward to other changes which may be disastrous, and which I believe to be inevitable. But whilst I join with Mr Mill in this hope, and shall thank him for every effort that he makes for its realisation, I am still not altogether at one with him; for I hold strongly the opinion, that education, in the sense of the acquisition of knowledge, or in any sense in which it can be ascertained by examination, is not in fact, and ought to be recognised in law as the sole basis of political power. This opinion I rest on the following considerations:

"1st. The social importance of an individual is seldom coincident with the amount of knowledge which he possesses, or of direct mental training which he has received. By giving to the latter the fullest political recognition, therefore, you may fail to exhaust him socially; whilst relatively to others you not impossibly assign to him an amount of political power which his social value does not warrant. Take, for example, the representative of our great commoner families; or a merchantprince, who is in a condition to negotiate a foreign loan. Any number of votes which should represent

"Human inequality is a fact of nature which so- their intelligence merely, would not represent their ciety exhibits.

Therefore: Our representative system must ac cept and conform itself to the fact of human inequality as socially exhibited."

The recognition of this principle or fact of human inequality is the basis of the new party which embraces all parties, and which Professor Lorimer names the Constitutionalists.

Professor Lorimer discusses in the next three chapters the answers which the Radical, the Whig, and the Conservative give to the question of the problem. He sympathises with the Radical and the Conservative, the Radical having hold of one sound idea, liberty, and the Conservative having hold of another, order, while the Whig has no idea at all, but a mere temporary shift. Constitutionalism is the union of liberty and order. Professor Lorimer discusses in the next two chapters the nature of human inequality, and the measures which should be taken to represent it fairly. His remarks on education will be read with deep interest.

"2. The Educational Theory and the Examination Test. The scheme which proposes to base political power upon mental qualifications, and to proportion it to their extent, is that which unquestionably enjoys the greatest amount of favour with the political theorists of the present time. As it has already had the advocacy of Mr Mill's pen, and will doubtless now have that of his tongue, it would be worse than needless that I should say anything to commend it. That education will be recognised as a ground of

real actual social value; or disarm them of the power, or of the right, of seeking to represent themselves by indirect means. It is impossible to imagine any examination in which the usher of the nearest grammar-school would not be extremely likely to surpass them both. Now the usher of a school may be really the superior of an ancient country gentleman, or a new merchant prince; but it is very certain that social opinion in this country does not recognise him as such, and I do not think it belongs to the suffrage to redress the wrong that society does him. If, by the help of the educational appliances at his disposal, he can induce the next generation to reverse the judgment of the present, he will be entitled to the benefit of the reversal; but till the reversal is pronounced, the judgment must stand, and he must accept the consequences of it politically, as in other respects.

"2d. But suppose we adhere to Mr Mill's view that personal qualities alone are to be taken into account, the examination test, even if there existed such a thing as a really rational education, or a trustworthy system of general examination,' would not measure them. It is the indefinable quality called character, far more than anything that can be either taught or learnt, that distinguishes man from man in after-life. The amount of knowledge demanded by the callings which they have chosen, the majority of men are able to acquire; and a very large minority do actually acquire it. But the character requisite for their successful exercise is intransmis

sible, unattainable, and wholly inappreciable by examination; and yet it is its presence or its absence that determines not only between success and failure, but, I think also, between political importance and insignificance.

3d. But even if we accept knowledge as a substitute, or as a guarantee, for all other personal qualities, I doubt the adequacy of examination as a test of knowledge; and this on grounds somewhat dif ferent from those I have usually heard stated. There are not only kinds, but there are degrees of knowledge, very important for political purposes, and which admit of being ascertained by other means which elude it altogether. Take, for example, the professions. It is only the rudiments of professional knowledge which can be tested, or are even proposed to be tested, by any examination, however stringent. The gulf which divides the tyro from the expert,the briefless junior of yesterday from the senior whose presence is priceless, and whose mere absence men are willing to purchase with half their substance, is as great, even as regards knowledge, as that by which the young aspirant to forensic honours and emoluments that will never come, is separated from the vulgar laity without. A single glance, such as the income-tax commissioners are in the habit of directing annually at the fee-books of these professional brothers, will furnish an indication, not infallible certainly, but very significant, of their respective acquirements, and of the differences between them; whereas the examination-test to which they have both already submitted has not improbably pronounced them equal.

A New Course of Practical Grammar; or a Plain, Straight Road to Good English. Being an attempt to teach simply and thoroughly English Spelling, Inflection, and Composition, in one volume, and with an improved system of exercises, adapted both for schools and for self-instruction, By JOHN VICKERS, Master of the Grammar School, Blakesley, Towcester. London: F. Pitman, 20 Paternoster Row, E.C.

Mr Vickers has attempted what we may call a novelty in education, and has, in our opinion, succeeded. English grammars generally aim at two incongruous ends. They try to teach the pupil how to use his own language accurately, and at the same time they initiate him to a certain extent in the philosophy of language, and make the study of the English forms of speech preparatory to severer logical studies. Mr Vickers has discarded the second of these aims altogether. He has drawn up a book which shall teach children how to use their own language with accuracy and clearness, and has introduced the technicalities of grammar only so far as they are indispensable for this purpose. It is plain that such a work will be of vast value to the great mass of children who leave school at a comparatively early period. Their minds are utterly unfit for the abstractions which philosophical gram. mar expects them to make and understand. But they are not unfit for dealing with the concrete facts this numerous class of children-but it is equally of language. Mr Vickers has prepared his work for useful for even those who intend to go through a course of classical training. Philosophical grammar deferred till the mind is somewhat mature, and at is generally taught too soon in schools. It should be least thoroughly versant in the use of language. It best preparation for such a course, is a perfect masshould then be thorough and systematic, The very

"But though it appears to me that education, as a solitary basis for political power, would be quite as objectionable as the property basis to which we are accustomed, or perhaps even more so, I do not think there would be the same objection to education being represented by separate constituencies, that there would be to the creation of such constitutery of Mr Vickers's manual. Throughout the work Mr Vickers shews himself a thoughtful and experiencies within the borders of the property basis itself. enced teacher. The spelling lessons are judiciously From the fact that most individuals who would be arranged, the exercises are all in harmony with the laws of education, the language is clear and intel

competent to vote under an educational qualification would be the possessors of property, and would vote on that qualification also, no absolute line of demar-ligible at once, and the information given is exactly such as ought to be given in such a manual. We cation between classes would be traced by the formost heartily commend the manual to the notice of mation of separate educational constituencies. teachers.

"All persons, however, who are competent to vote on the educational basis at all, ought, I think, to vote together, though not equally. By this I mean that if a University, for example, grants ordinary or honorary certificates, as the result of what are called middle-class examinations, the holders of such certificates-associates, or whatever else they may be called-ought to vote as members of the same constituency with the graduates of that University, though not on equal terms with them."

We most heartily recommend this remarkably able and interesting work to our readers.

The Apostle of the North. The Life and Labours of the Rev, Dr M'Donald. By the Rev. J. KENNEDY, Dingwall. London: T. Nelson & Sons, Paternoster Row; Edinburgh and New York. 1866.

This is an exceedingly interesting work. Dr M'Donald is characteristically a native of the Highlands of Scotland, and his whole history reveals phases of character which are widely different from those of the Saxon type. In this aspect the work well repays

the student of human nature. And additional interest is given to the history of such a life, that it is written by one who is himself perhaps a still purer embodiment of the Celtic form of puritan Christianity. The work is well written, lively, full of facts, and of moderate size.

A Collection of Problems and Theorems, with Hints, Results, and occasional Solutions, forming Examples in the methods of Modern Geometry; especially Trilinear Co-ordinates. By the Rev. R. H. WRIGHT, M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge. Longmans, Green & Co., London.

This book, as the title shews, contains a collection of examples on the method of trilinear co ordinates --a new branch of science which has lately engaged

the attention of some of the ablest mathematicians

of the day. In the ordinary method, the position of a point is determined by its distances from two fixed lines, called co-ordinate axes; in the trilinear method, it is determined by the ratios of its distances from three given straight lines in that plane which do not pass through the same point. This new method was fully explained in a work lately issued by the Rev. N. M. Ferrers. The author of the work in question had nearly completed a treatise on the same subject, when he found himself anticipated by Mr Ferrers, and he consequently abandoned his intention of publishing. Under these circumstances, he contemplated the issue of the present series of examples in the new theory. The examples are numerous, selected with considerable judgment, and afford to the student an interesting variety of questions to which the method is applicable. Several solutions are given as illustrations of the mode of working the examples. The volume should be perused in conjunction with the work just referred to, the two together forming a pretty complete course of the new system.

Elements of Plane Geometry. Book I. Containing nearly the same propositions as the first book of Euclid's Elements: in which an attempt is made to improve the arrangement and supply the defects of that book, and also to give a direct demonstration of the properties of Parallel Lines. Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh.

The author of this book has not given his name, for what reason we are at a loss to conjecture. He attempts to obviate the defects which exist in Euclid, to improve upon the arrangement and demonstration of the propositions as contained in the first book,

Every mathematician is aware that such defects exist; notwithstanding, we presume there is scarcely a school or college in the country, in which the

Elements of Euclid, in their usual form, are not adopted as a text-book.

There have been many attempts, like the present one, at renovation and alteration, yet none of the works have received much favour, or been deemed of sufficient merit to supply the place, and mathematical teachers, content with the general verdict, have unhesitatingly adhered to Euclid, explaining as opportunity presents itself wherein the defects lie.

In the subject of parallels, which has been long a vexed question, the author adopts the following definition: "Parallel lines, or those straight lines which are in the same plane, and being produced ever so far both ways, do not meet, are such as make equal alternate angles, with a single third From this he gives a direct demonstration of the straight line, which either meets or intersects them." fact that, when a straight line falls upon two parallel straight lines, it makes the alternate anglés equal. We question much if this is so satisfactory as the indirect methods, founded on the principle that "two straight lines cannot be drawn through the same point parallel to a given straight line."

The preface, which contains a short history of the progress of geometrical science, is well and ably

written.

The Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin Messenger of Mathematics. Edited by W. ALLAN WHITWORTH, M.A., Professor of Mathematics in Queen's College, Liverpool, JOHN CASEY, B.A., Trinity College, Dublin, &c. Macmillan & Co., London and Cambridge.

This is a mathematical journal conducted by former students of the three universities, and contains problems and solutions of an interesting nature in all the departments of the subject.

The present number contains a good and able account of Professor Sylvester's proof of Newton's Theorem, which has excited so much interest lately in the mathematical world. We cordially recom mend the journal to the attention of mathematicians.

Outline of the Geography of Palestine. With Scripture References. By CHARLES MICHIE, M.A, Rector of Silver Street Academy, Aberdeen. Aberdeen: Lewis Smith, M'Combie's Court. Edinburgh: Thomas Laurie. 1865.

Mr Michie informs us, that he thinks teachers may find his manual "useful in imparting a better acquaintance with the geography of the Holy Land than can be obtained from the common text-books of general geography." Mr Michie does not tell us in what respect he supposes his manual superior, and we cannot discover it for ourselves. It is a carefully prepared manual of the ordinary kind, well

written, and with numerous references to the Scrip. The Illustrated Book of Nursery Rhymes, with Music. tures, but with almost no indication of the results which modern travellers have reached in regard to the sacred localities.

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Rescued from Egypt. By A. L. O. E., Author of the 'Shepherd of Bethlehem,' Exiles in Babylon," "Pride and his Prisoners," &c., &c. London: T. Nelson & Sons, Paternoster Row; Edinburgh and New York. 1866.

The initials A. L. O. E. are security that "Rescued from Egypt" is an interesting work. The plan the author has adopted is to give a story which young people will read with interest. The members of the family, who occupy a prominent place in the story, go to hear cottage lectures. These lectures narrate the history of Moses in simple language. The book is sure to be a favourite with young people, and it is calculated to do them good in every way.

The Illustrated Book of Songs for Children. Edited by K. L. L., Author of "Hymns from the Land of Luther." T. Nelson and Sons, London, Edinburgh, and New York.

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This is a new edition of a book which is already a great favourite. We have here such songs as "Four-and-twenty Blackbirds," Froggy would a-wooing go," "The North Wind doth blow," together with some new songs by A. L. O. E. and others. These are all set to music, and beautifully | illustrated. The printing is beautiful, the paper is beautiful, the binding is beautiful, and altogether it is an exceedingly nice book for young or old.

The Old Testament History, from the Creation to the Return of the Jews from Captivity. Edited by WILLIAM SMITH, LL.D., Classical Examiner in the University of London. With Maps and Woodcuts. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1865.

This work is prepared with great care, and embodies the results of modern investigation. We are very far from agreeing with many of the opinions which are propounded; but we willingly bear our testimony to the genuine excellence and thoroughness of the manual. We do not know a volume where the student of the Old Testament will find so compact and accurate an account of all that he ought to know. Not only is the history clearly narrated, but topographical difficulties are explained, Jewish customs and political institutions are discussed, an account is given of the books of the Old Testament, and useful genealogical and chronological tables are added. The work is moreover amply illustrated with maps, plans, and engravings of coins and similar matters.

Edited by T. L. HATELY. Illustrations by KEELEY
HALSWELLE. T. Nelson and Sons, London,
Edinburgh, and New York.

This is the best book of nursery rhymes that can be presented to a child, for it is complete in every respect. It has all the favourite rhymes and nonsensical jingles. It is beautifully illustrated, the artist shewing remarkable skill in drawing exactly what would please the young and amuse older people. And every rhyme is set to music, so that the child may learn to sing the words for himself. In every traditional tunes have been retained, and in other case where it was possible, the preface says, the cases the words have been adapted to well known airs, and in some instances new and beautiful melodies have been prepared for them. Scripture Facts Chronologically arranged in plain and concise Lessons: with References and Questions for Self-Instruction. A Complete Abstract of the Old and New estaments. By HENRY COMBE, Poplar and Blackwall Free School, and Joint Editor of "The Ready Writer;" and EDWIN HINES, Middlesex Society's School, Cannon Street Road, E. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. 1865.

This little book is somewhat of the nature of the Old and New Testament Biography, published by the Scottish School-Book Association. It is, however, prepared on a better plan. Each section contains rather a full analysis of what is to be found in Scripture, the passages being placed beside the analysis, and then a series of questions follows, the answers to which are to be gathered from the Bible itself. "The following," say the authors, "is the The first event taken is the plan of the book. creation. Each separate event in the creation is printed in a separate line, and the chapter and

verses are marked in which the event is described in the Bible. The scholar reads up the details of each event as they are given in the Bible, and then learns the notes given in this book. All the persons and great events in the Bible are treated in a similar way. But as children cannot learn a history by reading it once, a great many questions are nserted at the end of each section; and to answer these questions, almost all the history must be read over again." The little work will be found of great use in religious instruction.

Récréations Françaises. Petit Drames pour la Jeunesse. London: Published by Relfe Brothers, 150 Aldersgate Street. 1866.

This is a delightful little volume of short French plays. The French is simple and elegant, the dialogue lively, and the incidents interesting. It is well calculated to attract young people who are making acquaintance with the French language,

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