guard against these things, and he will make a society worthy of the institution in which it exists. But many a debating club has been rendered ridiculous or has been killed off, by not considering this aspect of the question. Have the students at Toynbee Hall ever heard the warningstory that a Methodist minister once told a young man who was forming an association of the kind?-At a certain town in the Midlands, the debating society at the Methodist chapel determined upon discussing the errors of Rome, and duly announced the matter on the notice-board in the following terms:-"Young Men's Debating Society. Subject for discussion: Purgatory. Entrance, first door down the passage."-Yours truly,

Dec. 7th, 1885.

AN OLD SPOUTER.

New Books and New Editions.

We hope to notice, under this head, whatever important books, dealing with social and educational topics, may be published during the month. Publishers will oblige by stating the prices of any books which they may send for review.

THE MAKING OF THE HOME. By Mrs. S. A. Barnett. (Cassell and Co. Price Is. 2d.)

"The importance of the home it is impossible to exaggerate. The greatness of no nation can be secure that is not based upon a pure home-life." These were words of Arnold Toynbee's; and if we would realise that home-lore (or, as it is the fashion to call it, "domestic economy ") is perhaps the most important object of study, it is not easy to say how immensely, not only the comfort or health, but the morality of the nation would develop. To those who have realised this, Mrs. Barnett's little book will be an invaluable help. Though insisting throughout on the higher aspects of the home life, it is intensely practical. The reader is initiated into the mysteries of dusting and scrubbing, of mangling and ironing, of the oven and the "stock stew-jar." The chapters on "Food" are most fascinating, those on "Dress' equally to the point. Nor is it a book for the housewife only. The man, too, has his share in home-making, and it should be his duty to learn something of that lore without which he cannot exercise his family duties aright. IDEAL COMMONWEALTH. Being the twenty-third volume of Morley's Universal Library. (Routledge and Sons. Price 9d.)

99

are

It is not difficult to account for the fascination which Utopias have for us all; and apart from the charms which they possess, apart from the power which they have to effect their own fulfilment, they have a serious practical value for the political student. "Utopias," says Comte, "are to the art of social life what geometrical and mechanical types are to their respective arts. Every great change has been ushered in one or two centuries beforehand by an Utopia bearing some analogy to it." This present volume is welcome, not only for the opportunity it affords for comparing the Utopias of different ages, but for giving to the general reader works from which he has been hitherto excluded. More's "Utopia" is in the hands of most; but Plutarch's "Lycurgis," and Bacon's "New Atlantis" are inaccessible in any cheap and popular form; while Campanella's " City of the Sun" has not been previously translated into English. The volume, like the rest of the series, is well printed and neatly got up.

THE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION MOVEMENT. By R. G. Moulton, M.A. (Derby: Messrs. Bemrose and Son. Price 3d.)

Mr. Moulton, who is the Senior Lecturer under the Cambridge Extension Scheme, gives a full account of the movement in all its branches, with detailed descriptions of the various plans that have been adopted for meeting the financial difficulty which presses upon all centres in and out of London alike. Every University Extension student should obtain a copy. It will be a revelation to the majority to learn that they are taking part in so large and important a

movement.

Virgins of Israel, or of England, richly clad by your kings, and "rejoicing in the dance," how is it you do not divide this sacred-if sacred-joy of yours with the poor? If it can ever be said of you, as birds of God

"Oh, beauteous birds, methinks ye measure Your movements to some heavenly tune," can you not show wherein the heavenliness of it consists, tosuppose--your Sunday-school classes? At present, you keep the dancing to yourselves, and graciously teach them the catechism. Suppose you were to try, for a little while, learning the catechism yourselves, and teaching them-to dance?-RUSKIN: Fors Clavigera.

And this thought reminds me of a story I have heard Irving tell about an old Scotch woman (living not far from Balmoral) who criticised the Queen somewhat hastily for having ridden out on a Sunday. Met with the retort that Christ Himself plucked ears of wheat on the Sabbath, the orthodox old person (no doubt a member of the Sabbath Protection Society) exclaimed, "Ah, yes; I ken all about that; and I dinna think any the better on Him for it!"

*

If, loving well the creatures that are like yourself, you feel that you would love still more dearly creatures better than yourself-were they revealed to you; if, striving with all your might to mend what is evil, near you and around, you would fain look for a day when some judge of all the earth shall wholly do right, and the little hills rejoice on every side; if, parting with the companions that have given you all the best joy you had on earth, you desire ever to meet their eyes again and clasp their hands, where eyes shall no more be dim, nor hands fail; if, preparing yourself to lie down beneath the grass in silence and loneliness, seeing no more beauty, and feeling no more gladness, you would care for the promise to you of a time when you should see God's light again, and know the things you have longed to know, and walk in the peace of everlasting love-then, the hope of these things to you is religion, the substance of them in your life is Faith.-RUSKIN: The Bible of Amiens.

It is particularly requested that orders for the Journal, as well as all other BUSINESS communications, may be addressed, NOT to the Editor, but to the HON. MANAGER of the TOYNBEE JOURNAL, 28, Commercial Street, E.

The subscription to the TOYNBEE JOURNAL is Is. 6d. per annum post free (payable in advance). Single copies may be had at Toynbee Hall, price id.

Our Future Schoolmasters.

ONE of the institutions which has found a home in Toynbee Hall is, we see, threatened with destruction, the Pupil Teachers' Centre to wit, and such an event is one which the TOYNBEE JOURNAL cannot properly pass unnoticed. Not, indeed, that we have any intention to trespass on the forbidden ground of contentious matter; but this is happily a subject about which it is quite possible to say something without ever leaving the firm ground of fact for the quicksands of opinion. The New School Board is talking of abolishing the Pupil Teachers' Centres because they are too expensive. That is a subject of opinion into which we will studiously abstain from entering. We will venture only one remark under this head, namely, that economy is not an absolute but a relative term. Whether the expenditure of any given £100, that is to say, is extravagant or not, entirely depends on the purpose for which it is expended, and the circumstances of the spender. In the purchase of a luxury it may be extravagant; in improving a business it may be economical. Whether the expenditure of the ratepayers' money on the "Pupil Teachers' Centres" is a luxury or a necessity is the real question in dispute. And the answer to it depends very much on the view which is taken of the teacher's function. That again is a matter of dispute.

But there is a further question, involved partly in this last issue, which is one not so much of opinion as of fact, and about which, therefore, we may speak freely. The pupil teachers, it is said, were taught "quite well enough" under the old regime. Perhaps so; that entirely depends on

[PRICE ONE PENNY.

what we consider "enough"; but at least let us know the facts, let us know what the actual results of the old system were. There is a very simple

and a very trustworthy way of arriving at these facts-the reports, namely, of the education office. We take the following summary of the last Annual Report from one of the public journals, and will let our future schoolmasters speak for themselves.—

"GENERAL KNOWLEDGE.

"One girl, when asked how to spend holidays,' advises a visit to a seaport town, where one might study the movements of the ocean, and the various composition of the rocks (if such there be), especially if there is a gentleman friend who understands it.' The nightingale, it seems, is a bird that sings on a gale,' and larger birds feed on smaller animals, which may account for their not being able to sing songs.' One student found that the Knights of the Round Table were patterns of breeding.' The Danish invaders, we are informed, brought in many new words, but they took them away with them when they left the country.'

"HISTORY.

They

"History is a subject in which the young candidates invariably blunder and give some singular answers. mixed up the Acts of the Union (Scotland and Ireland), stumbled about the different Reform Bills and the two Pitts. One candidate, who must have been a little Conservative, considered the death of Lord Beaconsfield and Mr. Bromley Davenport, and the election of Mr. P. A. Muntz for North Warwickshire, to be a fair summary of the 'great changes made in the representation of the people in Parliament during the present century.' It is something new to be told that Sir Robert Walpole succeeded Sir Robert Peel as Premier, and that Her Majesty is the daughter of Prince Albert.

"GEOGRAPHY.

"In the matter of geography candidates were very much abroad. Counties were placed in many curious positions; latitude and longitude with some students is still in the gridiron stage, and one paper showed latitude decreasing northward and longitude increasing as the meridian of Greenwich was approached. A question for a description of the basin of the Po afforded scope for the imagination not to be neglected, and one budding schoolmaster sets forth that the inhabitants of Italy were fond of traversing the river in their little boats, the gondolas, and that there are some parts of this valley where the sunlight never penetrates, and where the people are consequently in a very sad state, morally and physically !'

"ARITHMETIC.

"Some comically absurd answers were given in arithmetic. 'A fraction of a number is the least part less than a farthing.' 'A decimal is 10, or some power of 10,' and so on, whole

batches of papers not showing an intelligent acquaintance with the common rules of arithmetic. Many of our future schoolmasters and schoolmistresses estimate that the time in which a sum of money would rather more than double itself at 10 per cent. compound interest, would be from seventyone days at various periods up to 18,297 years. The annual rent of a house rated at £38 175. varied between £15 and £25,000, and the number of yards of paper required for an ordinary-sized room was put down at 58,151-more than thirty miles!

"DOMESTIC ECONOMY.

"But the most dispiriting and distressing chapter of all is that on domestic economy. What, for instance, would a man think of a schoolmistress with £80 a year who insists on spending about £25 of it on dress? Where is the domestic economy that suggests a joint of roast beef weighing three or four pounds as an economical dinner for a labouring man? and where is the husband that would accept as a remedy for choking (before the arrival of the doctor) the making of a 'slight cut in the throat below the obstruction'? It is almost incredible to think that many young ladies have no idea how bread is made (some hint it is advisable always to buy bread), but believe that 'beer is made from cider obtained from apples,' and state that 'lean beef consists of gluten, a strange, jelly-like substance.' Some have a weakness for a 'nice derangement of epitaphs,' and talk of 'barm' for 'balm,' 'yoke' for 'yolk,' say the 'handel of a mangel would squeek,' write 'temperament' for 'temperature,' speak of hot water being used as a propencity for heating,' and class the lion and tiger among farinaceous animals '!"

In all the absurdities of these answers one rootfault is easily detected, the children had never learnt how to think; they were like young birds called upon to fly before they had learnt how to use their wings. There is no more fatal mistake than that of educating people beyond their wits, and it was exactly this mistake that the Pupil Teachers' Centres were designed to correct. The children were removed from the tuition of the overburdened head school teachers and placed in centres under special instructors, who were thus able to classify their scholars, and develop them, to some extent, along the lines on which they showed special capacity. This arrangement, as every one at Toynbee Hall knows, has the further advantage of giving those who care for education an opportunity for providing means of that wider culture without which information is but innutritious mental food. The debating society, reading parties, Shakespeare evenings, founded on the belief that the people's reading should be of the best, are appreciated and welcomed by the pupil teachers, who, as they become more cultured themselves, will demand more intelligence in their pupils and will devise means of shaping their means to their ends.

Meanwhile this is a free country, and it is perfectly open to anybody, therefore, as we have said, to think all this unnecessary, and the education capable of producing the results described above,

not too good, but just good enough." All we have wished to do is to place the question in the light of our actual experience at Toynbee Hall, and to remind our readers of the facts, without which any mere "opinion" is only as sounding brass, or as a tinkling cymbal.

The Committee of the Whitechapel U.E.S. Centre has decided to hold monthly conferences for the discussion of matters connected with the Society, and to throw them open to all students who may wish to attend. We consider this an excellent move. There are many big questions concerning the present and future of the Society which need to be thoroughly threshed out. We trust that a goodly number of students will be present. Though the conferences will have no constitutional standing, their recommendations will have great weight with the Committee. This is the biggest step in the direction of popular government that the Society has yet taken.

The extent of ground which is open for the opera tions of such conferences can be seen from that which was mapped out for that of the 6th ult. ; the agenda paper presenting the following as principal points :1, Lectures and Lecturers; 2, Reading-parties; 3, Library; 4, Journal; 5, Students' Union; 6, Future Conferences; 7, Extension of the Work in the East End. The conferences have been arranged to take place on the last Monday in each month.

We have commented above on some comical examination answers given by our future elementary schoolmasters; but it is only fair to note that such absurdities are by no means confined to candidates ; examiners often make themselves quite as ridicu lous. Here, for instance, is a note about some Oxford examiners, which a correspondent sent the other day to the Pall Mall Gazette :

"In the well-known Oxford examination in ‘Rudiments,' a paper in the substituted matter'-that is, Bacon's Advancement of Learning'-contained the following question: 'What would have been Bacon's opinion on specialised study,

(2) the extension of the franchise, (3) the reunion of Christendom?' This precedent opens a wide field for the ingenuity of examiners. Future students of philosophy should prepare themselves to be asked, 'What would Hobbes have thought of Mr. Ashmead-Bartlett?' How would Berkeley have decided between the claims of the three-acres-and-a-cow and help-us-to-keep-our-land-and-we'll-help-you-to-keep-your beer candidates?' 'Deduce from Locke's Essay the correct views to hold about-(1) compulsory retirement in the army; (2) early closing; (3) Thames drainage; (4) the Primrose League; (5) Jumbo; and (6) Archdeacon Denison's electioneering speeches.'

Very absurd, too, are the mistakes which our new teachers, the newspapers, sometimes make by ignoring the simplest rules of English grammar. Even a pupil-teacher would find it hard to cap the absurdity about the longevity of horses implied in the following piece of "penny-a-lining" about the opening of Parliament, the other day :—

"It is not generally known that the famous cream-coloured horses which will draw Her Majesty's state carriage this afternoon, as they have drawn the carriage of her predecessors before her for the last century and a-half, belong to her not as Queen of England, but as a Princess of the Royal House of Hanover."

The information that Her Majesty's predecessors came before her seems at first superfluous; but in a world where horses live to be 150 years old, "before" might come "after," for all one could tell. Here is another comical mistake, made not by an anonymous_scribbler, but by so well-known a journalist as Mr. Escott. Writing of the Duke of Wellington in a recent number of the Fortnightly Review, he says, "the Duke was not merely a very great man, but he the only great man in the true sense of the terms who was living when he died," which, after all, however (as one of Mr. Escott's critics suggested), is "quite an appropriate epitaph on a great Irishman."

At a recent meeting of the London Dialectical Society, some very startling statements were made about the difference in the death-rate among rich and poor. St. George's-in-the-East, with 40,000 inhabitants, has twice the death-rate of St. George's, Hanover Square. Poverty is the cause of this. Overwork and underpay shorten the lives of the poor. Pessimists will tell us, with a grave shake of the head, that length of life is a thing we need not trouble about; though at the same time they will take all precautions to prevent any undue shortening of their own careers. And no doubt it is true that a long life is not necessarily a good thing, or a short life necessarily an evil thing. It is not of the first importance how long our life lasts, but what we make of it while it does last. But where this is admitted it does not alter the ugly fact, that the social system of the nineteenth century, the century which boasts of its enlightenment and progress, crushes the lives out of half the population, while the other half is lapped in luxury and wealth. When the poor realise this, is it any wonder that they sometimes talk of revolution?

This time last year two names were in everybody's mouth, names associated with hope and anxiety, names bound up-synonymous, almost-with the English virtues of courage and endurance; they were the names of Gordon and Wolseley. Gordon is gone-one hero is lost to the human race; but Wolseley, the courageous and far-seeing general, who in the face of insuperable

difficulties took up troops to rescue the man who alone kept the hordes of the Mahdi at bay, is still amongst us, and he is announced to come and lecture at Toynbee Hall on February 13th. The subject of his lecture has not been announced, but anything he may have to tell of the journey up the Nile would be interesting. When we see the bright red coat of the soldier who saunters along our streets, or when we watch the men on parade, moving in systematic manner to the sounds of gay music, we are apt to think that the life of a soldier is an easy one; but Lord Wolseley can tell us another story, and East Londoners would like to hear of the marches in the burning deserts, the pulling of the boats up the cataracts, of privations gladly endured, of difficulties overcome, and of disappointment bravely borne. Students of the classes will have the first claim on tickets.

Friends of Co-operation will be glad to learn that the latest venture in co-operative production-the London Productive Society-is now in a position to begin its manufacture of cocoa. Promises of support, and in many cases applications for shares, have come from fifty-one distributive societies. These, with their branches, represent some 250 stores, and some 150,000 members. The first business-meeting is fixed for Thursday, February 25th, at Toynbee Hall. It will be preceded by a conference of friends of the Society at 8 p.m.

The young men among the U.E. students in search for a social club cannot do better than join the Kingsley Club. This club has lately been started at No. 25, Brunswick Buildings, Goulston Street, and is open to members every evening. Besides the more quiet attractions of newspapers, books, and cards, a weekly debate has been organised, and boxing is practised. The name indicates the aim of the club.

The earnestness of the Durham pitmen in the cause of University Extension has been often quoted. Here are some striking instances of it from Mr. Roberts' Report:-"Two pitmen, brothers, who lived at a village five miles from one of the lecture centres, attended the course. They were able to get in by train, but the return service was inconvenient, and they were compelled to walk home. They did this for three months on dark nights, over wretchedly bad roads, and in all kinds of weather. On one occasion they returned in a severe storm, when the roads were so flooded that they lost their way, and got up to their waists in water." Here is another case. "Two students, members of the Students' Association at Backworth, attended the course at Cramlington, a distance of between four and five miles, walking both ways, after their day's work. Finding others in their village anxious to study chemistry, but unable to attend the course at such a distance, they formed a class of seven at Backworth on the night following the Cramlington lecture, and with the help of the syllabus and their own notions reproduced as much of the lecture as they could. They also purchased some simple chemical apparatus and reagents, and repeated the experiments made at the lecture. The lecturer attended one of their meetings at the end of the term, and, at the request of the students, examined them, and found that all had acquired a sound knowledge of the subject, and would have passed the regular

University examination had they been entitled to enter for it."

Students of history and art among our East-End subscribers ought not to miss the opportunity of visiting the National Portrait Gallery during its sojourn at the Bethnal Green Museum. A few good authentic portraits of the chief actors of any epoch will often throw a light upon its history that all the memoirs and chronicles in the world will not give. The gallery is open daily, excepting Friday, from 10 to 4.

Our readers are familiar with the perennial difficulties of the Students' Union in respect of funds. So far all attempts have been ineffectual to raise the necessary funds by voluntary subscriptions. An excellent suggestion was made at the Conference on January 18th, which, we hope, will be endorsed by the Committee. The proposal is to make each class responsible for the funds of its own conversazione. This will have the double purpose of stimulating the esprit de corps of the classes, and utilizing this spirit to relieve the Students' Union.

The concert given in aid of the Students' Union proved a considerable success. About 200 tickets were sold, and the net proceeds will be sufficient to clear the Union of debt, and leave a small surplus. In order that the main idea of the Union might not be wanting, the element of friendliness was introduced by the interval for talk and refreshments which came in between the two parts. The Concert Committee have to thank all those who volunteered their services, and above all Mr. Jackson, who, at very short notice, undertook the duties of accompanist throughout the evening.

The worship hour every Sunday evening at 8.30 at St. Jude's, Whitechapel, deserves to be known more widely than it is. Those who desire in their worship assistance from great thoughts and from music will find here what will meet their needs. Might we suggest that more use might be made of the rich stores of English music? Solos from Handel and Mendelssohn are usually torn from their oratorio context, while the music to which we allude was specially written for anthems. It seems a pity that as things are now it cannot be heard outside the walls of a cathedral. Here is an opportunity for the enterprise of those who believe in the mission of music.

Sir John Lubbock's address on "Reading" at the Working Men's College, valuable as it is to all thoughtful men, illustrates very exactly a bad tendency of the present day. The verdict of posterity upon the last quarter of the nineteenth century will be that the men and women of it tried to do too much; and Sir John Lubbock's discourse is evidence of this. Probably not one among his audience will seriously endeavour to study the long list of books which he has placed before them, and this may be so much the better for them. There are so many things that men are expected to be familiar with nowadays that they try to obtain a superficial knowledge of everything, but they have an accurate knowledge of nothing. There is much reading, but there is very little study. George Macdonald once compared the modern reader to a travelling trunk, which has all sorts of things inside of

it, but is none the better for what it holds, and is nothing but a travelling trunk, let it hold them as long as it may. The facility for acquiring a knowledge of everything makes many a man only a storehouse of information, which he does not know how to use. Those who do the best work in the world are those who know a few things well. The men who by their steadfastness of purpose were able to overthrow a tyrant, and to strike such a blow on behalf of English freedom as had never been struck before, were not men of wide and varied knowledge, but men of one book. The men were the English Puritans, and the book was the Bible.

"Is Sir John Lubbock a misogynist ?" writes a correspondent, "else what could have prompted his singularly incomplete list of English novel writers among the 'Best Hundred Books'? Surely every one must acknowledge that in this field the authoresses have beaten the authors. And yet there is no mention of the Brontës, or of Miss Austen, or of Mrs. Gaskell ; George Eliot is the only authoress admitted. It is curious to note that Ruskin in his comments on the list excludes even her, as he also excludes Thackeray and Kingsley, 'putting his pen blottesquely' through their names as 'rubbish and poison.' Dickens alone and Scott ('every word') he allows to stand among fiction writers."

Comparatively few may know of Thomas Hughes, the Christian Socialist, disciple of Maurice and friend of Kingsley, the man who fought a long, uphill struggle for justice to the working men ; but unhappy the wight who has not learnt to love Tom Brown. It was not surprising, therefore, that a large audience turned up on January 16th to see in the flesh, the author of "Tom Brown's Schooldays." He had a congenial subject to talk about in Mr. J. R. Lowell. The same manliness, the same hard battling for justice, the same love of downright, English common-sense and pluck, characterise both men. The "Biglow Papers" are well enough known; but comparatively few are familiar with his serious poems. Many of his audience will long thank Mr. Hughes for introducing them to their beauties, and owe to him a new treasure added to their lives.

The Tower Cricket Club has a high-sounding name. It suggests a connection between the Tower of England and the cricket-field, in which we are told battles are won. The members of this club would give strong evidence before a Royal Commission as to the use which might be made of the gardens and moat of the Tower. At present this practice-ground is so ill-kept that balls are ruined in an evening's play, and the military regulations are not on a system which sides with reason. The members, however, are full of hope, and under the presidency of one of the Toynbee Hall residents, intend even to excel their last year's victory. On January 12th they dined in Toynbee Hall, enjoyed complimentary speeches and an "at home" in the drawing-room, when Mrs. Barnett presented the winners of the prizes subscribed for by the club.

The clubs of Hackney have made their power felt. The political council of the Commonwealth Club dined at Toynbee Hall on January 5th. After dinner 'Mr. Barnett welcomed his guests in the name of the residents, and while disclaiming for Toynbee Hall any