under the material despotisms of the
continent one can admit as inevitable; but in
the English school-system, tyranny of ideas
can surely be mastered. A strong and
hopeful step towards this achievement has
been taken by Miss Burdett Coutts, which is
worthy of much following.

Pursuing beyond theory Lord Ashburton's
recommendation, Miss Burdett Coutts has
shown how to do all that can at present be
done towards the attainment of the result at
which we ought chiefly to aim. The nature of
that lady's effort and the first results of it, are
set down in a little book which—while it lets
us know that there is something being done—
shows also, clearly enough, that there is much
yet to do.* The schoolmistresses and pupil
teachers of a certain standing in the Church
of England schools of Middlesex, are the
particular material upon which Miss Coutts
has commenced her experiment. She offers,
to distribute annually among these, certain
prizes varying in value, for the best answers
to a set of questions upon which (reserving
our own notion on the subject), we follow the
rest of society in calling Common Things.
The subjects of examination are, as to food;—
the prices, qualities, economical uses, and
various ways of cooking, or otherwise using
different kinds of meat, vegetables, and
grocery. As to clothes;—the general price, use,
and comparative values of the different
materials; whatever relates to cutting out and
making, mending, altering, and keeping in
right order. As to household arrangements
generally, candidates for these prizes must
be prepared to say how health is best
preserved at home; they are required to be
informed fully as to the duties of servants
and the proper management of children and
sick people; to know, also, how to act in
any case of sudden accident, or other great
emergency.
* A summary account of Prizes for Common Things
offered and awarded by Miss Burdett Coutts, at the
Whiteland's Training Institution.

The result of this offer made by Miss
Coutts, and accompanied, on her part, with
earnest and direct attention to the teaching
in the schools, was the appearance at Whiteland's
Training School, on the appointed day
of trial, of fourteen schoolmistresses and
sixty-nine young women in various stages of
training for the teacher's office. Before them
an examination-paper was set which
contained twenty questions relating to the
subjects we have enumerated; and from which
we quote three:—

What common things can most suitably be taught
to children who get their living in town, or to those
who get their living in the country?

Give an account of the different grains used for
making bread; and give a good receipt for making a
quartern loaf, naming the weight of flour, &c.

Enumerate the different darning stitches. For
what articles should they severally be used? Give
full directions for making a man's shirt, a housemaid's
apron, and knitting a stocking.

It is noticeable that the first of the questions
here cited is one of those (although it simply
asks the schoolmistresses that are, and
schoolmistresses that are to be, how they
propose to exercise their office in reference
to matters of this kind) to which the answers
were least satisfactory: so that the persons
who have shown most anxiety and
determination to become teachers of common
knowledge, have yet to learn how to teach
it. Another question upon which answers
generally failed, related to the outfit for the
schoolmistress herself; the articles she would
need, their material, quality and price.

Not the least valuable part of the little
pamphlet is the body of citations from the
written answers of the prizewomen. From
them we see how they would speak and work.
There is a great deal to praise and to respect in
these effusions; but the one thing needed, if our
judgment be correct, has yet to be discovered.
Of course it would be ridiculous to offer
school-mistresses a prize for independent thought—
for, in fact, suddenly becoming exceptions to the
rule followed by the rest of the world. All that
could be done was to invite them to show
competence under the test of questions that are
of a sort to encourage them to think. Here
and there are answers evidently well-
considered, and containing thoughts that belong
really to the writer; but they are exceptions.
Secondhand and second-hundredth-hand
opinions are the rule. The leaven of quick
independent teachers' wits which shall communicate
itself to the quick wits of children; the
strong thought that begets thought, we
seldom find. No shame to these humble
teachers is implied in such a stricture. We
might say the same of men who have had
infinitely better means of making themselves
what all should desire to be.

To remedy some of the defects she has
observed, Miss Coutts has added to her little
book a few ideas of cottage cookery, and a
collection of real accounts of the way in
which labourers proportion their several
expenses to their incomes. Every one of the
ninety-three candidates, on the day of the
distribution of the prizes, received a copy of
this account of the prizes with its wise
suggestions of their meaning. The books and
prizes, we should not omit to add for the
behoof of others, were given by the donor,
quietly, at a private social gathering and tea-
party. Speech-makers in large waistcoats
were not brought down, with the great public,
to talk and stare. Nothing was done to hurt
the modest, quiet temper which is fittest in
the girl who is to become a teacher of the
poor. Out in the big world, there is much
talking and much hearty applause; but, in
their quiet world, the schoolmistress and
pupil teachers come only into pleasant contact
with their friend and benefactress.

The short-comings to which we have