not always or necessarily the expression of truth, and describing the mission of journalism as being the propagation, not of any, but of the healthiest public opinion, the prevention of civil discord, and the suggestion of what is calculated to produce an increase of the public well-being, so that the demand on the honesty and relative intelligence of writers and newspapers can never be too severe. Signora Malaspina writes a long letter describing the International Exhibition in Rome. Signor Marangoni has an article on the damage done by the late inundations, and argues on the dis-foresting (if we may coin a word) and re-foresting of Italy. There is a translation of Florence Montgomery's story, The Indomitable Mike,' and Signor Tabarrini's discourse on Baron Alfred de Reumont,' held at the Colombaria Academy in Florence. Salvoni's article on English Guilds' is concluded. There is an article on 'The Superior Fem le Schools,' another on 'Social Legislation,' signed only with initial letters. Signor G. Regutini replies in a letter to Signor Conti's criticism of his Favole di Fedro.' DE GIDS.-Two rising young poets are discussed in the February number. From one of them, Pol de Mont, there is also a story in verse in this number. He gives evidence of great powers, and has grace and freshness with unfailing reality. His subjects are mostly interiors, of a homely type; sometimes, the reviewer says, he deals with unsavoury matters; but he has time, and is likely, to improve. The other is Jacques Perk. He has bestowed much trouble on his art, and has a gift of colour and vivid description, as the extracts shew. Pity that young poets of real genius should be imprisoned in the Dutch language. The March number is chiefly taken up with pages on the Dutch railway system, and on the approach to Rotterdam from the sea, matters interesting to the engineer and to those who have travelled in the country, but scarcely to the general reader. The April number has an able review of Mr. George's Progress and Poverty, the translation of which into Dutch was the last work of the lamented J. W. Straatman. While paying a hearty tribute to Mr. George's knowledge, logic, and enthusiasm, the reviewer, Mr. G. Heymans at once fastens on the cardinal proposition of the book, that wages are not advanced out of capital, and devotes his paper chiefly to refuting it. The mistake of Mr. George on this point, and indeed the appearance of his work, are ascribed to the want of accurate definitions by previous writers, and particularly to the confusion in Mr. Mill's work as to the meaning of capital. With Mill capital is an ideal quantity, and it is true that wages are not advanced from this. But strictly capital must be taken to mean a real supply of food and other substances essential to the carrying on of productive labour. Capital in this the true sense, must precede labour; the time which elapses between the beginning of a work and the sale of the finished product being greater than that during which man can do without the supply of his natural wants, there must necessarily be a store previously accumulated before the labour can be applied. On the land question the reviewer agrees with Mr. George that no absolute ownership of land can be recognized, but sees difficulties which are insuperable, in the way of giving practical effect to such a doctrine. The 19th April was the bicentenary of the great Hugo de Groot (Grotius), jurist, poet, theologian, philologist, patriot. A statue is to be erected to him at Delft, where he was born; and there are several notices of him in the April magazines. THEOLOGISCH TIJDSCHRIFT.-The Theological faculty at Amsterdam was set on foot a few years ago for the purpose of giving the candidates for the Dutch ministry an orthodox evangelical training. Not only were the theological Professors at Leyden and Groningen for the most part leaders of the Modern School, which has abjured all belief in the supernatural; but Utrecht also, the orthodox divinity hall, frequented by all who were anxious to churches, which the Leyden students find it hard to do, was becoming tainted with the new views on Biblical Criticism. In the TIJDSCHRIFT get for March, Professor Kuenen notices a product of the Amsterdam divinity school. It is a translation of Dr. Delitzsch's studies on the criticism of the Pentateuch, and it is first asked whether the Dutch cannot read German, that they should require to get Delitzsch translated for them; and then whether a great deal has not been done in Pentateuch studies since the German work appeared. Dr. Kuenen then expresses his surprise that Delitzsch's views on the Pentateuch should be espoused by the theologians of Amsterdam; as that scholar has long given up the unity of authorship of the Pentateuch, and holds that the work of arranging and editing its different materials was probably still going on after the Septuagint was in existence, and that the Thora is the reflection of a process of development which the law of Moses underwent during many centuries, in the thought and practice of Israel. The German and the Dutch scholar thus recognize the same facts, and the difference is only as to the interpretation of them. Describing Dr. Delitzsch's position that the priestly laws as well as those of Deuteronomy are in essence Mosaic, Dr Kuenen takes occasion to retract the opinion he formerly expressed (Religion of Israel, English translation, i. 285) that the ten words are the work of Moses himself; though he still regards Moses in the character of a religious founder as well as in that of a liberator. Dr. Kuenen also writes in this number of the TIJDSCHRIFT a review of Renan's L'Ecclésiaste.' He differs from the great French scholar and from Grätz, as to the character of the concluding verses of the book, and insists, as he did seventeen years ago, that these are an integral part of the work in which they appear, and not mere notes or résumés of a larger body of Scripture, written here by some late scribe because Ecclesiastes happened to be the last book on the roll. Kuenen has no sympathy with Renan's declaration that the preacher is a truer and better teacher than the thousands of hasidim among whom he lived, and that his want of theory gives him the advantage over the prophets. Kuenen says he was poorer in illusions than his contemporaries, but also poorer in moral energy and love of the ideal, and therefore also in religious faith.' Though the writer may be called a Sadducee, the name is only to be taken as characterising his mode of thought, not as fixing his date. Renan assigns the date about 125 B.C. Kuenen is inclined to say about 200 B.C. Mr. Mensinga thinks he has found a passage in which the historian Josephus expresses his opinion on the origin of Christianity. In the well-known passage, Antiq. xviii. 4, there is a testimony to Christianity which many scholars have declared to be interpolated, and which few would uphold in its integrity as due to the historian himself. This passage is immediately followed by a story which has no apparent connection with the subject of the work; but in this story Mr. Mensinga sees a veiled indication, intelligible to the Roman readers of Josephus, of his belief regarding Christ. BOOKS RECEIVED. Reviews of several of the following works are kept back through want of space. Ancient Scottish Lake-Dwellings. By Robert Munro, M.A., M.D., &c. Edinburgh: D. Douglas, 1882. The City of God: a Series of Discussions on Religion. By A. M. Fairbairn, D.D. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1883. Old Testament Revision: a Handbook for English Readers. By A. Roberts, D.D. Same Publishers, 1883. The Homiletical Library. Edited by Rev. Canon Spence, M.A., and Rev. J. S. Exell, M.A. Vol. III. London: J. Nisbet & Co., 1883. The Chemical Constitution of the Inorganic Acids, Bases, and Salts, from the Standpoint of the Typo-Nucleus' Theory. By Otto Richter, Ph. D. Edinburgh: Maclachlan & Stewart, 1882. Specimen Days and Collect. By Walt Whitman. McCormick, 1883. Glasgow Wilson & Annals of the Early Caliphate; from Original Sources. By Sir William Muir, By J. A. Beet. The Supernatural in Nature: a Verification by Free Use of Science. By. J. W. The Mystery of Miracles: a Scientific and Philosophical Investigation. The Man of the Woods, and other Poems. By W. M'Dowall. Edinburgh: A. & C. Black, 1882. Burns in Dumfriesshire. Same Author and Publishers, 1881. The Mind in the Face. By W. M'Dowall. London: L. N. Fowler. The Kingdom of All-Israel: its History, Literature, and Worship. Sime, M. A., &c. London: J. Nisbet & Co., 1883. Ensilage in America; its Prospects in English Agriculture. By James By J. E. Thorold Roger, M.P. London: W. Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1883. The Musician. By Ridley Prentice. Grade 1. Same Publishers. Select Poems of Goethe. Edited with Life, Introduction, and Notes, by E. A. Sonnenschein, M. A., and Alois Pogatscher. Same Publishers. Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle. Prepared for publication by Thomas Carlyle. Edited by James A. Froude. 3 vols. London: Longmans, Green. & Co., 1883. Revelation and Modern Theology Contrasted; or the Simplicity of the Apostolic Gospel Demonstrated. By Rev. C. A. Row, M.A. London: F. Norgate, 1883. Underground Russia. By Stepniak. Preface by P. Lavroff. Translated from Italian. London: Smith, Elder and Co, 1883. A Visit to Ceylon. By Ernst Haeckel. Translated by Clara Bell. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co, 1883. Copyright and Patents for Inventions. By R. A. Macfie. Clark, 1883. The Plough and the Dollar. By F. Barham Zineke. Edinburgh: T. & T. Kegan Paul, Trench & John Pringle, Printer and Heretic. London and Paisley: A. Gardner, 1883. The Free Church Principle: its Character and History. By Sir Henry W. Moncreiff, Bart., D.D., etc. Macniven & Wallace, 1883. Journal of East India Association. London, 1883. Outlines of the Philosophy of Aristotle. By Edwin Wallace, M.A. London and Cambridge: C. J. Clay, M.A., & Son, 1883. The Bantoffs of Cherryton. By Arthur Kean. & Co., 1883. 2 vols. London : Smith, Elder, Same Publishers, 1883. No New Thing. By W. E. Norris. 3 vols. The Temple. By George Herbert. Introduction by J. H. Shorthouse. Fac The Epic of Kings from Firdusi. By Helen Zimmern. Illustrated. Same Pub lisher, 1883. Life of Christ. By Dr. Bernhard Weiss. Translated by J. W. Hope, M.A. Aldersyde. By A. S. Swan. Edinburgh: Oliphant and Co., 1883. THE SCOTTISH REVIEW. SEPTEMBER, 1883. ART I. THE EDUCATIONAL WRONGS OF THE HE greatest, if severest, critic of English education, says of the Englishman: 'He abhors simplicity, and therefore his governments do not often give it to him.' The true Briton might urge in self-defence that he is essentially simple, that he does one thing at a time, that he asks one thing at a time from his government. But in the widest and deepest sense the stricture is undeniably just. With a quick eye for what is immediately necessary, the Englishman does not care to exhaust a political problem, or to work out a social question to its logical consequences. He does not demand the simplicity of principle, of principle wrought into detail, and expressing itself in symmetry of organisation: he is indifferent, if not averse to completeness or consistency. No better illustration of this national feature can be found than the history of education in Britain. The great doctrine that the education of a nation is essentially a concern of the State has only been forced by degrees upon the English mind. Accepted shortly after the French Revolution by the great nations of Europe, it was long rejected in Britain; nor can we say that it has even yet been fully recognised in this country. It has first established itself in the sphere of elementary education, and vast progress has been made since the time, not so far remote, when small grants were doled out to elementary schools as a sort of poor relief. English education is not yet altogether emancipated from the ominous patronage and control of the Charity Commission; but for elementary education we need have no fears: it is provided for on a scale of liberality at least equal to that of any other nation. Here, however, the inconsistency of the national genius comes in. We shut our eyes to the fact that a system of education made for the benefit of one class at the expense of all classes of the community gives to all classes a claim for something in return for their contributions. The greatest sufferers by this one-sided policy are the middle classes. They along with the higher classes contribute the greater part of the cost of national education; but in return they receive no public support for their own education. The result, is that the provision for middle-class education, both in England and Scotland, is the most meagre, irregularly distributed, and unsatisfactory to be found in any great European state. Their claim to such assistance is not so much seriously denied; it is only generally ignored, or now and then derided by the Philistine democrat. But it must ere long be fully considered, and it may be worth while to enquire at some length on what grounds it is based. We need not at present show the disastrous effects of this inconsistency upon the quality of secondary education. We shall confine ourselves to demonstrating the absolute injustice of the exclusion of the middle classes from the benefit of State aid to their own schools. Great Britain as a whole suffers from this injustice, but we will only take the case of Scotland, giving some illustrations drawn from the south-west district, in the full assurance that those who have a similar local knowledge of other districts will be able to draw the same conclusions from like premises. If we consider the public school system of Scotland as managed by the School Boards, we find that the total cost of the education given in these schools during the year 1880 was £668,774. About a fourth of this sum (£187,445), is contributed by the parents of scholars in the shape of fees. A further sum of £7,275 is paid by Parochial Boards on behalf of scholars whose parents are unable to pay fees. On the other hand the local rates supply £205,011, and the government grants amount. to £253,727. From these two sources therefore public funds |