national schools for girls, and in many higher classes lace-making is successfully taught.

Domestic economy was taught in 1890 to 3,933 girls in 300 schools. It is generally conceded that the industrial education of girls is most carefully looked after in the convent schools.

Notwithstanding the efforts of the commissioners to promote industrial training the languishing state of many native industries and of the arts in general was urged in Parliament as evidence that technical instruction is not sufficiently regarded. If this be true, however, it is undoubtedly due to causes beyond the control of the commissioners.

In the theoretical elaboration of the system whose principal features have here been outlined, apparently no detail has been overlooked. Judged from the American standpoint, the system would seem to be entirely wanting in the force and spirit of spontaneous action. Nothing else gives a system so strong a hold upon the sympathies of a people nor such powerful effect upon their development. Systems wanting in this element have the character rather of expedients than of deep-rooted institutions, and to this general rule the Irish system is no exception. Its results as a practical expedient may be judged from several particulars.

The average daily attendance maintained in the schools is low, being, as already noted, but 10 per cent of the total population, 47 per cent of the total enrollment, and 59 per cent of the average annual enrollment. This is explained in part by the sparse population of many districts, the poverty of the people, and the absolute demand for the help of the children in agricultural regions. The failure of the system to modify class distinctions is due in some measure to the fact that it has little attraction for the rural gentry of Ireland.1 In the chief cities the system, it is said, can not compete with the schools of the "Christian Brothers."2

SECONDARY AND SUPERIOR SCHOOLS OF IRELAND.

In dealing with education in Ireland the General Government does not confine itself to elementary schools. To complete our view of the subject reference must be made to secondary and superior instruction, although details can not here be considered.

In Ireland, as in Great Britain and in Europe generally, secondary

See article by Prof. Mahaffy in the Nineteenth Century, January, 1893, pp. 21, 22. 2 In the debate in the House of Commons over the new law, Mr. O'Brien, member for Ireland, is reported as saying, "The Christian Brothers had practically the education of the whole Irish urban population in their hands, for their schools were situated in all the chief centers of population. The most influential men in every city and large town in Ireland had been their pupils. Their system was regarded in Ireland as the really national system. It was adapted to the genius of the people, it was deeply grounded in their respect and affection." (London Times, March 23, 1892.)

instruction, as understood in this country, is imparted in schools whose classification is determined rather by social than by scholastic considerations. The schools of the secondary or middle class in Ireland are either private or endowed. Most of the latter are of ancient date, and although in many cases founded for the benefit of the poor and lowly, have come to be almost exclusively the privilege of the gentry; they are classical schools of the traditional order.

In 1878 an intermediate education board was established by Government to maintain examinations for schools of this class and to dispense Government aid to them in the form of payments for success at examinations or, as it is called, "upon results." Judging by the increase in the number of pupils secking the examinations, this has proved a popular scheme. The number rose from 3,954 (3,218 boys, 736 girls) in 1879 to 5,236 (3,943 boys, 1,293 girls). The amount of results fees paid to managers of schools on account of these examinations was £13,687 6s. ($66,520); the number of schools sharing in the same, 244.1

The oldest institution for superior instruction in Ireland is the University of Dublin (Trinity College), chartered by Queen Elizabeth.

Besides the arts faculty, schools of law, divinity, medicine, and engineering are comprised in this foundation. Roman Catholics were not permitted to take degrees in the university until 1793, when the disability was removed by an act of Parliament. Eighty years passed before they were allowed recognition in the election for fellowships or for scholarships on the foundation of the college. Meanwhile, in 1854, a class of nonfoundation scholarships was established which were not restricted to any religious denomination. The final abolition of "tests," excepting in the case of professors and lecturers in the faculty of theology, was accomplished by act of Parliament in 1873, through the direct efforts of Mr. Fawcett, at that time postmaster-general.

Until 1850 the University of Dublin was the only body in Ireland authorized by law to confer degrees.

In 1849 three institutions, called Queen's Colleges, were established by the Government at Cork, Belfast, and Galway, respectively, for the avowed purpose of maintaining purely secular instruction. In pursu ance of this purpose the colleges were organized with faculties of arts, engineering, law, and medicine, theology being excluded. Parliament voted the money for buildings and equipment, and an annual appropriation of £7,000 ($34,000) for each foundation. In the following year the work was completed by the creation of the Queen's University in Ireland, empowered to conduct degree examinations for the students of the Queen's Colleges. In 1879 this foundation was abolished and the Royal University created in its place. The examinations and degrees of this university are open to all candidates, women included. Alex

1 As to the tendency of this policy to foster superficial attainments, see the article by Prof. Mahaffy alluded to on p. 162.

andra College, founded in 1866 for the higher education of women, prepares women for the degree examinations.

The movements of which the Queen's Colleges and the Royal University were the outcome are inextricably involved with the political and religious history of the country. The outcome on the side of the Catholic party, which has maintained a struggle for the official recognition of a university of its own, is the college of the Catholic University, Dublin, founded in 1854.

The rivalry of the universities and denominational zeal appear to stimulate the interest in higher education. Dublin University enjoys a prestige which even those who have suffered from its intolerance in the past recognize with pride. The preparations for the tercentenary of this university, appointed for July, 1892, call forth from every center of learning high praise for its scholastic distinction and for the number and valuable achievements of its illustrious graduates.

To complete the enumeration of superior institutions, mention should be made of the Royal College of Science, Dublin, which is maintained by the science and art department. This is a high-grade scientific school, whose courses of instruction prepare students for the degree examinations of the Royal University.

The same department maintains at Dublin a museum of science and art, which includes also a national library. The numbers annually visiting the various departments of this museum (344,071 in 1890) testify to the popular appreciation of their advantages.

The recent census (1891) reveals a favorable view of the results of education in the country. The census commissioners observe that "the progress achieved in both primary and superior instruction may be considered the most gratifying fact elicited by the census. In 1881 the percentage of wholly illiterate persons was 25.2, whereas in 1891 it reached no more than 18.4 per cent. Of the whole population above 5 years of age, 70.6 per cent could read and write at the latter date as compared with 59.3 per cent in 1881. The addition to the number of schools and of pupils has been relatively small."1

The improvement in material conditions which is also brought out by the census must be regarded as another favorable indication of the effects of the educational system.

In this connection it should be observed that the returns show "a decrease of no less than 15.7 per cent in the number of children under 15 years of age as compared with the returns of the previous decade (1881). This decrease reaches 18 per cent among children 5 to 10 years old, and 19 per cent among children 1 to 5 years. Analysis of the returns makes it evident that this decrease is not due to emigration alone, but is the proof of a check in the normal increase of the population." (London Times, August 19, 1892.)

CHAPTER VII.

INDUSTRIAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN CENTRAL

EUROPE.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION.-(1) Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften, edited by Conrad, Elster, Lexis and Loening. Article: Gewerblicher Unterricht, by Dr. Carl Roscher, which has been freely used and translated—(2) Statistik der landwirthschaftlichen und zweckverwandten Unterrichts-Anstalten Preussens, 1890—(3) Jahrbuch des Unterrichtswesens in der Schweiz, 1890, by C. Grob—(4) Statistik der Unterrichtsanstalten in Oesterreich, 1889-'90-(5) Statistik des Unterrichts- und Erziehungswesens in Würtemberg, 1890-'91.

I. GENERAL STATEMENT.-(1) Origin—(2) Classification—(3) Connection of industrial schools with one another, and (4) with practical life—(5) Frequent faults of such schools. Sunday and evening schools-(6) Compulsory attendance—(7) Sources of revenue (8) Teachers-(9) Means of instruction—(10) Local supervision—(11) School exhibitions—(12) Literature, statistics, and history.

II. CLASSES OF SCHOOLS.-(A) Industrial continuation schools, and public draftsmen's rooms-(B) Industrial schools for women—(C) Lower industrial or trade schools; workshops, schools for builders, and schools for foremen—(D) Secondary industrial and commercial schools-(E) Schools of design; museums of industrial art— (F) Polytechnica or technical universities.

I. GENERAL STATEMENT.

(1) Origin. The inventions of modern times have perfected many old industries, such as spinning and weaving, and led to the establishment of new ones, such as the building of engines, labor-saving machines, locomotives, and steamships, and the chemical and electric. industries. The former mode of perspective drawing has been supplemented by parallel projection, according to the principles of which working drawings are made, which furnish the means of easy and accurate measurement. This has greatly promoted progress in technical pursuits. The liberty of trade, which is barely 50 years old in central Europe, has added another incentive to technical education; it has increased the demands on the talents of industrial men. To develop these talents and special aptitudes is the aim of industrial schools, the youngest branch of the modern school system.

France took the lead in this. German experts, like Eitelberger and von Dumreicher, emphasized the fact that the strength of French textiles, for instance, and the greater value of the products of French art

industry, were not owing to the greater innate talents of French laborers, but to their better and more appropriate schooling in labor. This special education had been going on in France from the time of Colbert (minister of finance of Louis XIV). Indisputable proofs of this have been furnished by the various world's expositions, especially that of Philadelphia in 1876, from which city the German commissioner, Prof. Reuleaux, reported to the Imperial Government, "Our goods are cheap, but poor." These expositions opened the eyes of intelligent men to the great inadequacy of the existing institutions for industrial education, and it may be said that German industry thereupon took an upward start most gratifying in its results, since it was consistently planned and aided by the establishment of higher institutions for technical and industrial pursuits.

The entire system of technical and industrial schools of central Europe (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) is still in its youth, hence many questions concerning it are yet under discussion; course and method of instruction are still mooted problems, and much less definitely settled than those of elementary and secondary schools for general culture. Another cause that retards an early settlement is the fact that laymen who represent various interests assume to dictate in the management and plans of these schools; hence it is that sometimes the results attained by such schools are not commensurate with the outlay, and their usefulness is questioned.

These schools are established and maintained chiefly by committees and trade unions; by the latter in Saxony, Hessia, Nassau, and Switzerland. When the funds of these are insufficient, or the needs of the country demand it, for instance, for the promotion of the building trades, industrial art, or technical universities, schools maintained by the state are justified. Only in exceptional cases does the state maintain lower industrial schools, in Austria more frequently than in other countries. In some cases the state encourages and subsidizes lower schools, and in others the revivifying and stirring influence and active participation of individual leaders furnish the necessary impetus for the establishment of such schools, and at times also for their mainte

nance.

(2) Classification.-According to the requirements of admission and the objects of the schools they are classed as (a) lower, (b) secondary industrial schools, and (e) art schools and polytechnica. According to the time when instruction is given they are classed as (a) day, (b) evening, and (c) Sunday schools. According to their aim they are classed in industrial continuation schools and trade schools. Beside these classes we may divide the schools into those for boys and those for girls, also into public and private schools. When comparing the statistics of these schools, care must be taken to consider the time devoted to studies; thus, for instance, a three-years' course in an industrial continuation school with four weekly hours of instruction (equal to four hundred and