twenty hours. Between these two examinations,
an interval of at least a twelvemonth must
elapse. But, all this, represents the pass
examination only. For those who pass with all the
honours, each examination lasts eight days.
After the lapse of at least another year, another
examination of four days' duration must prove
or disprove the candidate's right to the title of
Master of Arts. One plan in this, as in all
courses, is distinctly traced. In the first, or
matriculation examination, the intention is to
test general knowledge by questions covering a
good deal of the groundwork of study. In each
subsequent examination, there is care taken at
once to contract and elevate the demand on the
student, until in the last he is tried only, but
tried to the uttermost, in two or three of the
subjects that require the longest study and
maturest thought. The practical use of the
London degree of M.A. is not great, and it is,
therefore, less regarded than the medical diplomas;
yet barely to pass, in seeking it, the candidate
has to fight his way through ninety-six
hours of unusually strict examination.

The degree of Doctor of Medicine in this
English People's University, is even more difficult of
attainment. The tests are so strict and
continuous, that there is no degree in Europe
comparable to it as a certificate of professional
competence. In the medical profession, this fact is
entirely recognised. Nobody can be M.D. of
London by a happy accident. He must have
studied, more thoroughly, than ninety-nine young
men in a hundred can endure to study for any
smaller prize than a degree that absolutely
testifies to their attainments. From the first, the
medical degrees of the University of London
have been marks of competence compelling
recognition throughout the profession and
wherever their significance was fairly understood.
They have raised also, the standard of the teaching
in all good medical schools. A Bachelor of
Laws in this university must have become a
Graduate in Arts before getting his first degree
in law, and he cannot hope to get a Doctorate
in Law until after long and close study in
chambers.

There could be in our day no maintenance,
in such a republic, of the complete tradition
of knowledge, unless it would distinctly admit
the necessity of special, and to a certain
reasonable extent exclusive, pursuit of
particular lines of investigation. The foremost
place of modern science in the knowledge of
today, and the immense extent of it, has to be
recognised in any university that shall endeavour
to be truly national. By some of the most
famous men of science resident in London, the
claims of pure science were first represented
two years ago, and again in a second memorial last
year, to the senate of the University of London.
A committee was appointed by the senate to
collect the opinions and evidence of such men as
Sir Charles Lyell, Dr. Sharpey, Dr. Hooker, Dr.
Carpenter, and other chiefs in the several subdivisions
of the science of the day. The result is that
the university is resolved to comply with this
demand upon its energy, and to mature plans
for a degree of Doctor in Science, which shall
be given (like the Ph.D. of the more respectable
German universities) for proficiency in some
one branch of scientific research, and in its
collaterals. Probably, it will add to the evidence
of general good education furnished by passing
the matriculation test, the usual two examinations
for the degree of Bachelor, requiring higher
evidence of general attainment with especial reference
to scientific training, and will then concentrate
all its available force in a test of
competence for the degree of D.Sc., which will
assure the credit of its graduate as one who is
truly a master in the single branch of science to
which he devotes his energy.

HER MAJESTY'S IRISH MAIL.

I WAS on a Wicklow jaunting-car that was
climbing one of those steep hills that lead into
the mountain country, that you see blue and
tempting, smiling to you with promises of fairy-
land, from the pleasant green deer-walks of
Phoenix Park, Dublin. The car was the old
Irish car, with the two hanging shelves back to
back, and the little iron-bound crow's-nest in
front, but where the carman never sat, preferring
to sit sideways and drive, sharing in the gossip
of the passengers, be they priest, labourer,
quarryman, or black-eyed girleen, we picked up
by the way.

My temper clarified as we slanted up the blue
billiard-board, dry, hard roads peculiar to the
mountain districts of Ireland. Not an hour
ago I had been in a dreadful state of rage and
indignation. They had told me in Dublin, at
my hotel opposite the College, that the Wicklow
car started at two o'clock. At two o'clock, there-
fore, the vanguard of the army moved on O'Grady-
street, where the car was reported to start, and
was deposited there, with " the blessings of the
Lord" upon it, by Tim, the incomparable boots.
If I waited in that dirty street opposite that
little spirit-shop—where they also sold herrings,
biscuits, and candles—ten minutes, I waited two
hours. I reconnoitred all the neighbouring
streets, looking at prints of the last ill-favoured
saint, Doctor Wiseman, Napoleon, and Daniel
O'Connell. I became the scorn of the adjacent
clothes-shops, where the faded regimentals
dangled in the wind, and the very red painted
Gorgon masks over the doorways lolled out their
tongues at me. I was the butt of a select
clump of greasy beggars from the slums of the
Liberty. The carmen leered at me as if I was
the first invading Saxon that had set his foot on
Erin's shore. The boys, striped with rags,
walked round me suspiciously, as the street dogs
at Constantinople do round a stranger, as if
they suspected his creed. No signs of the car in
spite of all the anathemas I heaped on the
inconsequential, harebrained, reckless Celtic race.

All I got was ridicule. For instance, when I
asked a woman who was driving about coals in
a cart, with a bell jingling in front, if the car was
not punctual,