to the boys, who could not afford to buy
"stingers," to go up the line of donkeys, and
give them all whacks on the ribs with their
open hands; and the proprietors appeared to
think that the boys were appreciative, and were
showing their animals a kindness. The donkeys
did not mind all this whacking much; or, at
least, they did not appear to mind it; but, I
should say, for much the same reason that the
eels are said not to mind being skinned. A
costermonger will tell you that a donkey does
not feel these blows; and that is possibly true
when the donkey has seen several years of hard
labour. With constant whacking his hide
becomes tanned into hard leather on his back.
Feel his sides and his haunches, and you will
find the sinews and the skin beaten and welded
into a thick, corded, insensible, armour-plate.
When the donkey has been hammered into this
state, he does not feel blows very keenly; but
in his youth his skin and flesh are as tender as
those of any other animal, and every blow is
torture to him. The costermongers do not
consider this; but I believe if they were led to
consider it, they would soon see both the policy
and the humanity of moderating the use of the
stick. It is unfortunately an article of the
costermonger's creed that a donkey is an animal
that will stand a great deal of beating; it is
another article of his creed—and this exhausts
the whole code of his religion that a donkey is
a racing animal, that ought to be made to do
from eight to ten miles an hour. It should be
the object of future shows at the Agricultural
Hall to prove to him that he labours under
a gross error; and to convince him that the
donkey is as keenly sensitive to pain as any
other animal, and that it is designed by nature
not for a racer, but for a patient, steady-going,
sure-footed beast of burden.

INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION.

THERE is a scheme on foot in Paris for a new
move in the way of education. It takes a bold
theoretical swing, as French schemes often do,
and does not propose to stop at the immediately
practicable. But what was immediately practicable,
its promoters tell us that they really have
done at St. Germain-en-Laye, and it is now for men
who are of their mind in other countries, to see for
themselves how one wheel of the system works,
and if they like its action, to provide that it shall
set other wheels in motion. The plan is to
establish in the different countries of Europe a series
of international and corresponding schools for the
middle and the upper classes which will enable
a boy during the course of a liberal general
education, to acquire thoroughly several modern
languages, each being learned with others, among
schoolfellows of all nations, in the land where
it is spoken. The arrangement of classes and
method of study being precisely the same in each
international school, the English youth, after
studying for a year or two in France, may pass
to Italy or Germany, and continue his general
course of instruction exactly at the point where
it was broken off, while he is adding practical to
the previous elementary teaching of German or
Italian, and his teaching is presently continued
through German or Italian, instead of French.
For it is to be a special care of each school to
teach thoroughly, to pupils from all nations,
the language and literature of the country to
which it belongs.

The working out of this idea has been undertaken
by a European association for International
Education, of which the secretary is M. Eugène
Rendu, Inspector-General of Public Instruction.
To this gentleman, at Paris, 99, Rue de Clichy,
anybody practically interested in the matter may,
doubtless, apply for information. In the first
place, there was formed a sub-committee of this
European association of Frenchmen, under the
presidency of M. Dumas, of the Institut, senator;
consisting of M. Denière, president of the
Tribunal of Commerce; M. Hachette, the
bookseller; M. Lavallée, founder of the central school;
M. Mourier, vice-rector of the Paris Academy;
Senator Bonjean, M. Monjean, Director of the
Chaptal College, M. Marguerin, Director of the
Turgot School; M. Pellat, Dean of the Faculty
of Law; MM. Delbruck, Emile Pereire, and
Eugène Rendu. This sub-committee resolved
that henceforth an educated European ought not
to feel himself as a stranger in any country of
Europe. That, for many reasons, the intellectual,
commercial, economic, and political relation
between people and people call for strong
recognition in a system of education suited to the day.
That such recognition would be obtained by a
system of uniform studies carried on simultaneously
in several countries, and in their several
languages, so that the pupils in passing from one
nation and language to another, would find no
notable change in the course of study to retard
the progress of their education. That the
gathering together in each school of boys from
all parts of Europe destined to occupy high
political, administrative, commercial, and industrial
positions in their different countries, would
itself add greatly to the efficiency of this method
of training. Such was the purport of the report
of the sub-committee, which appeared two years
and a few months ago; the next step was to
found in France what might serve as a pattern
school. That having been done, the question
now is of extension of the system.

The international school now founded is at
St. Germain-en-Laye, famous for forest walks
and for the terrace, whence one sees Paris about.
five leagues distant as but a small part of the
wide prospect. The capital is within easy reach,
while the boys have , as at Eton or Harrow, the
comparative privacy, free range, and healthy
surroundings of country life, for it is part of the
scheme that the scholars shall not only fence and
have gymnastic training, but also ride, and swim,
and pull an oar; a couple of boats form part of
the educational stock.