a school capable of preparing its best pupils for the Universities should be maintained, the staff of such schools should be recognized, evening schools should be encouraged, and leaving examinations at secondary schools should be instituted 1.

In 1892 Scotland received her share of the money which England and Ireland, following her example, now spent on freeing education 2.

Education Act, 1892. By the Education and Local Taxation Account (Scotland) Act, 1892, of the sums so assigned £60,000 were given annually—

(a) to defray the cost of the inspection of higher class schools in Scotland, and of the holding of examinations for and granting the leaving-certificates of the Scotch Education Department.

(b) To make provision for secondary education, under Minutes of the Department submitted to Parliament, in urban and rural districts in Scotland, but only to schools under the same management as a State-aided or higher class public school, or school managed under an Act, scheme, or provisional Order. Subject to vested interests, the control of fees was transferred from teachers to managers in schools receiving the new grant.

A Committee under Lord Elgin was at once appointed by the Scotch Education Department to inquire into the best means of distributing the latter of these two grants, for which it was estimated that £57,000 would be available; the cost of inspection of Higher Class Schools and of the examinations for Leaving-Certificates being £3,300 *. The Committee took evidence 3 and, in accordance with their report, Committees on Secondary Education were elected for each county and for the burghs of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Leith, and Dundee, and for Govan parish.

These Committees were elected for three years on the principle of equal representation of the county or burgh

1 P. P., 1888, xli. p. 643; cf. P. P., 1892, lxii. p. 158. • Vide p. 144.

1 P. P. Eng., 1892, lxii. p. 67.

3

55 & 56 Vict. c. 51. 5 Ibid. p. 71.

council and of the School Boards. In counties the chairmen of all the School Boards elected their members, in the five burghs they were chosen by the burgh School Board. To these was added in each case one of H. M. Inspectors, nominated by the Department, and in the burghs representatives of specified local endowments.

The Committees were to report on the existing provision for higher education and any deficiencies in their district, and make recommendations to the Department.

'Under the original Minute' the money available was to be distributed on the principle that the amount earned by each school should be determined mainly by the work done in that school, the schools entitled to share being selected by the Burgh or County Committee.'

'After Parliamentary discussion, however, the plan was changed, and a new Minute was issued on May 1, 1893, in accordance with which a proportionate amount was allotted to each Burgh or County, to be distributed according to a scheme drawn up for the approval of the Department by each Committee 2.

Due regard must be paid in such schemes both to educational efficiency and to the extension of the benefits of secondary education to the largest possible number of scholars.

The Committees were elected for a second time in 1896, and while the original elements were retained, a provision was inserted that if the local authority under the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act, 1890, or the Education and Local Taxation Account (Scotland) Act, 1892, entrusted any Secondary Education Committee with the administration of funds available for secondary or technical education, the local authorities were to be represented on such Committee by additional members not exceeding onethird of the whole Committee in number *.

1 August 11, 1892, modified January 31, 1893.

2

Report of Ed. Dep. for 1892-93, pp. 141-156; for 1895-96, p. 142.
Ibid. 1892-93, P. 155. Ibid. 1895-96, p. 143; one-half, 1897.

In 1893 the new Code for Evening Continuation Schools was issued', which greatly increased the amount of secondary education given by them.

In 1898 a further annual grant of a residue of about £35,000 was assigned to Scotch secondary and technical education by the Local Taxation Account (Scotland) Act, on conditions to be set forth by Minutes of the Department.

Since the Education Department appeared on the scene as an inspecting and examining Board for secondary schools, the public and endowed schools have submitted to it, and it has naturally drawn to itself many of the private institutions.

The Leaving-Certificate Examination is held at the Higher Class Schools, and at a certain number of the State-aided schools, but candidates from the latter are also examined at other centres 2.

1 Vide p. 148.

2 State-aided schools were first admitted to the examination in 1892.

3 For the obverse vide Journal of Education, 1898, p. 25.

ii. Science and Art Department.

The grants of this Department have always been given to Scotland on the same terms as to England, and though Scotland obtained her Technical Schools Act in 1887, no help was offered in support of it from South Kensington until 1890, the year after the English Technical Instruction Act was passed. In that year', £5,000 was allotted by the Department to Great Britain and Ireland, but the grant was withdrawn from Great Britain the following year in consequence of the Customs and Excise money given in 1890.

In June, 1897, the Education Department was entrusted with the administration of all Science and Art Grants in Scotland.

The Department maintains no Science or Art College of its own in Scotland, which consequently has to send her students to South Kensington or elsewhere.

LOCAL EXAMINATIONS.

Local Examinations were introduced into Scotland in 1865, when the Universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrews both held them. But there seemed to be little demand; in 1867 St. Andrews had not candidates enough for an examination 2, and the system never prospered as in England.

It was chiefly of service in testing the education of girls 3. In 1883 Edinburgh had 47 centres where 891 candidates were examined, and of these 746 were girls *.

Glasgow took up the Examinations in 1877 and Aberdeen in 1880, but the University Preliminary Examinations and the Education Department Leaving-Certificate Examinations have reduced their importance, and Glasgow and St. Andrews have discontinued them. The Senior and Junior Examinations of Edinburgh are still held, and all three classes of Aberdeen 5.

1 For Technical Instruction, v. p. 227; Public Libraries Acts, p. 178. 2 Argyll Third Report, p. 133. 3 Taunton Report, vi. p. 35.

Sir A. Grant, University of Edinburgh, ii. 157.

5 Miss Galloway, p. 265 of Miss Bremner's Education of Girls and

TRAINING OF SECONDARY TEACHERS.

The Argyll Commission found in 1867 that while over 70 per cent. of the teachers in Burgh and Middle Class Schools had studied at some University and about half of these had taken a degree, 10 per cent. had been trained in the Training Colleges, and that the teachers in private schools were largely drawn from these training institutions'.

In 1876 the trustees of the will of Dr. Andrew Bell 2 (who died in 1832) founded professorial chairs at Edinburgh and St. Andrews for teaching the Theory, History, and Practice of Education 3, this being the first endowment of the sort in any University in these islands.

A Lectureship was founded in Aberdeen University in October, 1893, and a year later the University of Glasgow made a similar provision".

In all these Universities a hundred lectures are delivered each session, and attendance now qualifies towards graduation in Arts.

At Edinburgh arrangements are made for securing sufficient practice to qualify for the University Schoolmasters' diploma recognized by the Education Department.

Formerly the Edinburgh diploma was open only to Graduates of that University 5.

St. George's Training College, Edinburgh, was opened in 1886 for women only, and two years later started a High School in connexion with it. The students attend the lectures of the University; but very few of them graduate.

The greater part of the Scotch training is directed to those who will be masters in the ordinary public schools, and I can only repeat once more that the lines between

Women; School Calendar, 1897-98: Whitaker & Co.
Locals, L.L.A., &c., vide p. 303.

Argyll Third Report, pp. 78, 173.

For Higher

2 Vide p. 3.

3 The endowment at St. Andrews produced £223 in 1897 towards the salary of £400, Edinburgh drawing £361.

The Scottish Educational Year Book, 1898, p. 171: The Free Press

Office, Aberdeen, Is. 6d.

5 Registration Select Committee Report, 1891, p. 335.

• Handbook Victorian Exhibition, 1897, p. 132.