ments in trade and manufacture. The instruction is largely supplemented by work in the laboratories, where principles are illustrated by experiments performed by the student himself, and in the workshops, where manual exercises are performed at the bench and lathe. The subjects taught in this department include arithmetic, algebra, geome try, mechanics, heat, chemistry, geometrical and mechanical drawing, lectures on local industries, use of tools in the workshops, French, German, typewriting, and shorthand.

The wood and iron workshops are supplied with all the necessary tools and appliances for a useful course of manual training, but no attempt is made to teach special trades. The work performed by the students is executed from working drawings previously made by themselves. In the testing room experiments are conducted on the strength of materials and simple structures by actual breaking with deadweights, and on the elementary principles of construction.

The hours of attendance daily, except Saturday, when there is no school session, are from 9.30 a. m. to 12.30 p. m., and from 2 to 4.30 p. m.

Each student pays a tuition fee of 10s. ($2.43) per month of actual school work; but six free scholarships are available in this department, entitling the holders to instruction in all the subjects taught. These scholarships are awarded on the result of a competitive examination, and are tenable for one year.

STOCKPORT.

At Stockport there is a day school for boys and girls, the main object of which is said to be to continue the education of boys and girls, beyond the public elementary schools, in such a manner as to give them a thorough grounding in science and art, and by a judicious combination of practical and theoretical instruction to develop manual dexterity side by side with the mental faculties. The students will be placed in the best possible position for subsequently acquiring a practical knowledge of a trade or profession, and will be enabled with advantage to take up the study of more purely technical subjects.

Here is a clear and explicit avowal of a purpose to conduct the school instruction in such a way as to bring manual training into close and vital relations with the secondary education in the schools of lower grade. At the same time the limitations of manual training are distinctly defined. Not to teach special trades, nor to supercede apprenticeship, is the aim in this school; but so to develop the faculties and educate the hand as to equip the pupil for the duties of life, whatever they may be.

Drawing, building construction, mathematics, chemistry, sound, light, heat, theoretical mechanics, French, shorthand, bookkeeping, English composition, manual training in the use of tools, cookery, needlework, sick nursing, dressmaking, millinery, and starching and ironing, are the subjects taught.

The sessions of this school cover about forty weeks per year. The school hours are 9.30 a. m. to 12.30 p. m., and 2 to 4.30 p. m. on five days per week, there being no classes on Saturdays. The fee for attendance is 1s. (24 cents) per week, including stationery.

The teaching staff consists of the principal and 19 assistant teachers; but no record of the number of students in attendance in any of the departments is accessible.

ROBERT GORDON'S COLLEGE, ABERDEEN.

At Aberdeen, Scotland, an institution known as Robert Gordon's College is in operation, with day and evening classes, to which both sexes are admitted. Connected with it is a day department called the trade and engineering school, though the title is hardly exact. It is properly a manual training school, and its aim is to put boys in a position to profit to the full by the apprenticeship they are about to enter, at the age of 15 or 16 years, thoroughly equipped as to preliminary knowledge. It is by no means intended that a boy should learn his trade in the college, but only that he should lay the foundation of that scientific and technical knowledge which has become an essential concomitant of trade experience and manual dexterity. This explanation determines the status of the day school, for the completion of whose course an attendance of two years' duration is necessary. In the evening classes instruction is given to apprentices in several technical branches throughout a four years' course.

The registration of pupil apprentices in each of the technological classes for the year 1890-'91 is reported as follows:

The Birmingham Municipal Technical School is to be rated as a manual training school of high grade. This school was established for the purpose of carrying out a liberal scheme of technical education, which was rendered possible by the technical education act of 1890. It does not undertake to teach the practice of trades in the class room. This can be properly learned only in the workshop. But, in the school,. the student learns the scientific principles on which the various local

industries are based. The Birmingham Seventh Standard Technical School is under the control of the Birmingham school board. Instruction is given in the school in those sciences and arts upon which the trades and manufactures of the town are based. It is contended that the result of such instruction in the board school is that a boy instead of having possibly to spend two or three years as an errand boy before being initiated into some handicraft with which he is entirely ignorant is, after spending a couple of years at such a school, enabled to enter a manufactory already instructed in the use of tools of the craft he is about to follow; as a consequence of intelligent training in the elementary principles, he is enabled at once to command. higher wages, and is a more thoughtful and original worker. It is also argued that in consequence of the decline in the apprenticeship system some such preliminary training is requisite in order that a lad may learn more than just one particular branch of his trade.

As a result of the introduction of machinery in every branch and detail of manufacture a workman is frequently kept upon one special description of work. If the demand for the article, upon which perhaps he has for years been at work, declines he is placed at a great disadvantage in regaining employment as he has had no general training. The result, therefore, of the system adopted by the school board is felt to be that employment will not only be more constant, but that the work of the skilled mechanic will be of more value, and consequently it will be accompanied by an increase in wages.

Parents entering their boys in the Birmingham Seventh Standard Technical School have to sign a declaration that they will keep the boys at school for a period of at least two years. This is done to insure their receiving an adequate and proper course of instruction, and also to enable them to earn the government grants in the science subjects for the two years.

In this school the subjects taught are arithmetic, drawing, theoretical and practical mechanics, chemistry, electricity, model and machine drawing, geometry, and principles of machinery, with laboratory and workshop practice.

The school board believes it necessary to provide for the technical training of artisans, and states the case as follows:

Competition with the better trained workmen of the continent and America is becoming more and more severe every day, and is actually taking some of the means of livelihood away from the English workman. A more thorough and more scientific training of the artisans of Birmingham will greatly improve the articles manufactured here, in style, design, and delicacy of workmanship, and will also lead to a lessened cost of production; the trade of the town, where it now languishes, will revive; new developments of mechanical skill will open out new trades; employment will be more constant; and the wages of the skilled workman will rise.

In the report of the Birmingham school board for the year ending

November 28, 1889, regret is expressed that school boards have no power to introduce technical or manual instruction in schools under their control; but it is understood that the act of August 19, 1890, removes this cause of complaint. The provisions of the law are, however, somewhat obscure, and have given rise to considerable controversy.

BIRMINGHAM SCHOOL OF ART.

Birmingham has a municipal school of art, whose influence on local industries is incalculably beneficial. In this school and its eight branches there were enrolled at the date of the latest report to which we have accèss, namely, in the autumn of 1886, 1,307 art students. Many of these were artisan students; and the committee state, that it is their purpose to facilitate as much as possible the art instruction of those engaged in the trades of the town. Consequently, in the branch schools, where the attendance is chiefly composed of artisans the fees have been fixed at the low rate of 3s. (73 cents) per term.

The course of instruction includes elementary drawing, drawing from models, elementary design, perspective, practical, plane, and solid geometry, outline and shading from nature, casts, and objects, machine construction and drawing, and building construction. In five of the branch schools instruction in elementary modelling is also given.

REGENT STREET POLYTECHNIC DAY SCHOOL.

Another class of day school is represented by the Polytechnic day school. At this school the committee realize the importance of specializing the course of instruction a boy receives, so as to fit him to fill with greater advantage the special vocation he is afterward to follow. Accordingly at the age of 13 (or before, provided the boy can pass a qualifying examination) the future studies of the pupil are specialized. Should it be the intention of the parent to place the boy in some profession he is placed in the professional division. If to enter the civil service is desired then the boy is placed in that division which prepares specially for the examinations. In the commercial division a boy receives a special course of training for the office and for commercial pursuits.

In the technical division the curriculum is altogether different and includes instruction in science and technical subjects, also a complete and systematic course of manual instruction in the workshop. The latter instruction is virtually a continuation of that given in the lecture room, every example having to be constructed from working drawings produced in a workmanlike manner in the drawing office. For convenience and regularity of instruction a regular text book has been prepared for the workshop, and not until the examples contained therein have been made by the pupil is he permitted to engage in more difficult pieces of work.

The advantage of such a school has been most apparent from the number of applications for boys that have been made by employers. Many of the firms which have taken the lads are among the best in London, and many of the appointments that have been obtained are those for which as much as £200 ($973.30) premium has been paid by apprentices entering the firms. It is, however, to the advantage of an employer to take a well trained lad as an apprentice, and, even without a premium, pay wages to commence with, for without question such a boy will get through his work quicker, will waste less material by trial and error, and will require less attention bestowed upon him than a poorly edu cated lad.

The number of boys in the school exceeds 500. There is, however, an upper department or engineering school, where even a higher grade of instruction is given to those preparing for colonial engineering appointments, or for special positions in mechanical, civil, or electrical engineering firms. In this division, termed the engineering school, higher branches of the sciences are taught, special attention is given to mechanical draughtsmanship and designing, and every possible effort is made and facility afforded to develop originality. Lads usually remain in this department for at least two years after leaving the lower school, and many of the old scholars now hold most important and lucrative appointments in different parts of the country. The average cost of instruction for each boy amounts to about £8 ($38.93) per annum, or, after deducting an average government grant of £3 10s. ($17.03), a net cost per boy of about £4 10s. (821.90). This high aver age is due to the expensiveness of manual instruction, which involves not only costly tools and machinery that constantly need replenishing, but also the employment of skilled and efficient manual instructors who command a high salary. It is necessary to obtain the sanction of parents to keep the boys at their specialized studies for a period of at least two years in order to obtain a thorough course of instruction.

PEOPLE'S PALACE DAY SCHOOL.

A school upon the model of the technical division of the Polytechnic was founded in connection with the People's Palace for East London. This school has now been taken over, together with all the evening classes conducted at that institution, by the Worshipful Company of Drapers, one of the wealthiest of the guilds of the city of London. There are at the present time some 350 boys in the school, about 300 of whom obtain their instruction free of cost.

Examinations are held each year, when about 150 free scholarships are granted. By this means the very best boys are secured for the course of training given, and the results are consequently of a satis factory character. The net cost per boy at the People's Palace school, without taking rent of building into consideration, amounts to about £5 10s. ($26.77) per head. To maintain the educational department