EXAMINATIONS FOR ENTRANCE SCHOLARSHIPS AT THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

THEIR CHARACTER AND EFFECT ON THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF PREPARATORY SCHOOLS.

I.

Most of the Public Schools offer scholarships which are competed for by boys at Preparatory Schools or by the younger boys already in the schools.

SEPARATE HOUSES FOR SCHOLARS.

Winchester, Eton, and Westminster provide in each case a separate house (called the College) for their 70 scholars, the fees for these scholars at Winchester are £21 per annum and at Eton £20 10s.

VALUE OF SCHOLARSHIPS AND HOW PROVIDED.

The ordinary fees for a boy at Winchester are £126 per annum, and at Eton £136 10s.

At the other public schools, amounts varying from £100 per annum to £20 per annum, in some cases for two years, in others for the whole school course, are deducted from the fees. In no other schools than Winchester, Eton, and Westminster do the scholars live separately from the other boys, they are distributed among the various houses.

These scholarships are provided by endowments, but in some cases the housemasters are obliged to take a certain number of scholars at reduced fees.

OBJECT OF SCHOLARSHIPS.

a

The object in view is to attract clever boys, and the examination on which the scholars are elected is regulated with this end. Whatever may have been the original purpose of the endowments out of which these scholarships are provided, they are practically employed at the present time as a means of obtaining supply of boys who will do their Public School credit by obtaining University or Army distinctions. At a few schools, notably at Marlborough, the Scholarships go chiefly to boys already in the school. In this case it must either be assumed that a preference is shown for boys already in the school or that these boys are so prepared as to have a better chance than outsiders in the particular examination, or that the teaching of young boys in the lower form is better than at Preparatory Schools. The fact may be naturally used as an inducement to parents to send boys young to Marlborough instead of to a Preparatory School.

EXAMINERS.

At Winchester and Eton and many other Public Schools, the examination is chiefly conducted by outside examiners. At Rugby and Marlborough a committee of masters sit and look over the papers and decide the elections. All schools demand a certificate of moral character before electing a boy to a Scholarship; but beyond this no information as to character or attainments on the part of those who have had the previous training of the candidates has any weight. Winchester, Eton, and Rugby publish the names only of the scholars-elect without mentioning the schools they come from. Almost all the other schools publish the names of the Preparatory Schools from which the successful candidates come.

METHODS OF EXAMINATION.

The mode of examination and of election on the results of examination vary very much at the different schools.

SELECTION-Two SYSTEMS.

There are two principles of selection which are typified best perhaps at Winchester and at Rugby.

One is (a) that of electing on an aggregate of marks obtained on papers in Classics, English (History, Geography, and Divinity), Mathematics, and French; this is the case at Winchester. The other (b) that of election for special merit in a particular subject, with or without easy qualifying papers on one or more of the other subjects. This is the system at Rugby.

In the (a) system papers are set in the four subjects mentioned above up to such a standard that only good boys will get any appreciable marks for any paper. In this way a smattering or superficial knowledge is made useless. The all round" good boy will beat the boy who is only good at one subject, even though the latter may be somewhat better in that subject than the other boy. This system encourages teaching at the Preparatory Schools in the four subjects mentioned, and discourages dropping some subjects to specialise in one.

In the (b) system the election is either for Classics, or for Mathematics, or for Modern Languages. In this the inducement is to get boys up to a very easy pass standard in Classics or French, and to give extra time and attention to Mathematics or to spend as much time as possible on Classics, teaching merely up to a pass standard in French and Mathematics, or to work mainly at Modern Languages and obtaining a pass standard in classics and mathematics.

In many cases there is no qualifying examination at all in the other subjects, and the election is made purely for excellence in the one particular subject.

In other cases the qualifying examination is a farce, and a boy who has spent practically all his time on Classics is not disqualified because he has not been taught any Euclid or Algebra; nor is the boy who has done a good paper in Conic Sections and Trigonometry rejected because his Latin Grammar is weak.

In the two systems the following would be the results:

20

20

20

60

80

Whilst in the (b) system A would get a scholarship for Classics, and B would get one for Mathematics; whilst C and D would be beaten.

The results would probably in neither case differentiate the abilities of the four boys, but merely the methods of training adopted. It is quite conceivable that if D and C had specialised and A and B worked "all round," the results would have been reversed. Probably all the four boys were about on an equality in brain power-the difference is arrived at by differences of teaching. In the (a) case the Public Schools Authorities prefer that boys should be trained "all round" during their preparatory stage; in the (b) case it is preferred that they should specialise.

The following papers set in the entrance scholarship examinations at Eton, Marlborough, Rossall, Rugby and Winchester in 1899 will exemply better than any other mode of description the standard required and the Preparatory curriculum that such a standard necessitates.

The limits of age are as follows:

Eton, A under 14; B under 13.

Marlborough, Senior under 15; Jun or under 14.
Rossall, Senior under 15; Junior under 14.

Rugby, under 15, but the papers are set mainly with a
view to well-taught boys between 13 and 14.
Winchester, under 14 and under 13.

I.-CLASSICS

ETON COLLEGE ELECTION, 1899.-Tuesday, July 4th, 7—9 a.m. A under 14.-B under 13.

FOR LATIN PROSE..

I have long since avowed my belief that, in accordance with God's purpose, each nation of the earth possesses a peculiar character adapted to the duties assigned to each in the great scheme of human affairs.

Thus to France was appointed by the Supreme Ruler of mankind the duty of civilising the European world. To England it has been given to guide all other states to commercial wealth, to excellence in the useful acts of life, and to political liberty. But to Germany was delegated the highest and noblest trust. For in Germany we revere the mother of nations, the reformer of corrupted religion, the preserver of the liberties and independence of the republic of nations. Weakened as she has been for aggressive war by the division of her territory into so many states, yet in that very weakness she has found her strength in the beneficent career she was destined to pursue. Our age has seen her assumption of her proper place in the republic of letters, and we ourselves are witnesses how, in this new sphere of distinction, she has exhibited the same strength which more than a thousand years ago enabled her to lay in this island the basis of government, of which, if we are true to ourselves, a thousand years will scarcely see the overthrow.

MARLBOROUGH COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIPS.-June, 1899.

LATIN PROSE.

A.-For Seniors only.

Even in the House of Commons, he was, on one occasion during this session, assailed with an insolence and malice which called forth the indignation of men of all parties; but he endured the outrage with majestic patience. In his younger days he had been but too prompt to retaliate on those who attacked him; but now, conscious of his great services, and of the space which he filled in the eyes of all mankind, he would not stoop to personal squabbles. This is no season," he said, in the debate on the Spanish war, "for altercation and recrimination. A day has arrived when every Englishman should stand forth for his country. Arm the whole; be one people; forget everything but the public. I set you the example. Harassed by slanderers, sinking under pain and disease, for the public I forget both my wrongs and my infirmities!" On a general review of his life, we are inclined to think that his genius and virtue never shone with so pure an effulgence as during the session of 1762.

B-For Juniors only.

When the advance of spring allowed the troops to move, Caesar called a council of Gallic chiefs. He said nothing of the information which had reached him respecting their correspondence with these new invaders, but, with his usual swiftness of decision, he made up his mind to act without waiting for disaffection to show itself. He advanced at once to the Ardennes, where he was met by envoys from the German camp. They said that they had been expelled from their country, and had come to Gaul in search of a home; they did not wish to quarrel with the Romans; if Caesar would protect them and give them lands,