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saved, had masters and men alike been better instructed! The Commissioners on the State of National Education in 1861 justly remark, in their Report, that the knowledge most important for the future labouring man to acquire while he is a child in the elementary school is that of the causes which will regulate the amount of his wages, the hours of his work, the regularity of his employment, and the prices of what he consumes. The want of such knowledge leads him constantly into error and violence, destructive to himself and his family, oppressive to his fellow-workmen, ruinous to his employers, and mischievous to society.'

Mr. Ellis, however, did more than show how political economy may be practically and simply taught so as to give useful information for daily life. He also correlated its facts one with another, and with those of philosophy generally, so as to show that it is in truth a branch of moral science. Social economy explains the causes and the consequences of the social organisation in which we live. The duties which are thereby imposed upon us come easily into view; he who sees the reasons for the conditions of his daily life must also see what it is right and what it is wrong for him to do in those conditions. Social duties thus perceived are in a position precisely analogous to that of laws of health taught through physiology; they are seen not to be mere arbitrary rules imposed by authority, which may be disregarded with comparative impunity provided the negligence be repented of afterwards; but laws derived from the nature of things, and, therefore, having punishment follow neglect as surely as burning follows touching fire, as unerringly as the winter succeeds to the summer solstice.

Political economy is the science of the production and distribution of wealth. This has a heavy and technical sound; and what have children to do with it? cry the thoughtless. But even they perceive the reply when it is pointed out that the production of wealth depends upon moral as well as physical qualities. Industry, knowledge, and skill are indispensable for the production of wealth, and economy or thrift must have been exercised in the past to obtain every instrument of production. So, too, it can be shown to children that, speaking of men as a whole, wealth is distributed among them, as it is produced, in accordance with their moral qualities; industry, trustworthiness, intelligence, all tending to increase the share of wealth which falls to the individual. The hurtful fallacy that there is an essential antagonism between wealth and goodness is to be exposed on moral grounds. The necessity of having wealth in order to fulfil all one's social duties, including those of charity and benevolence, shows that, as a good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit, so the virtues of industry and economy cannot produce results which are in necessary opposition to any moral law; and in connection with this, benevolence is taught as a corollary from the fact that there must be in the world a certain number of inevitable non-producers

are here appealed to by the aid of association of ideas, and the self-regarding ones by the consideration that we may ourselves be numbered among the disabled, dependent upon the general recognition of benevolence as a duty for our maintenance.

It is shown to the child that the supposed antagonism between the interests of capitalists and labourers, employers and servants, shopkeepers and purchasers, regraters, and the poor, and so on, is an entire fallacy. Here again both sympathetic and self-regarding faculties are called into play to ensure right feeling and kindly action towards all our fellows in society, by showing that the true interests of each man are best served by everybody else seeking his own interest, while at the same time the progress of each reflects good upon society at large. How clearly this is shown, and how wide-reaching are the practical lessons in morals and politics deduced from it, can hardly be indicated here. It is not difficult to judge, however, of the value of proving to the young student that while the rules and regulations recommended for his guidance are framed with a view to the general good-not to the good of one or a few-every society as a whole and each individual in it will prosper in proportion as these rules are generally understood and obeyed."

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Enough has been said to indicate how right conduct must be taught as a necessary corollary of the science. The duty of the teacher includes a practical recognition of the fact that he deals with pliable minds, which can easily be led, by the conjoint cultivation of their reasoning powers and their moral sense in such a study, aided by his personal influence, to seek to guide their own conduct according to their knowledge of what will promote and what will diminish general well-being. The entire results of such a course of training are incalculable; but that it must produce good results for society at large, both in mental development and in moral progress, is surely not open to doubt. Any education is better than none, because the cultivation of the intelligence renders it probable that many of the truths of social science will be apprehended, though after many errors, and accompanied often by mistaken views which have deplorable consequences. And, again, the mere power of reading is valuable, because the attention may by chance be directed to the acquirement of ideas by means of the art. But it is plainly better that instruction on so important a subject as the relation of the individual to society should be given clearly and directly in youth, and not left to be learned or neglected in after life. When to the value of the knowledge is added the value of the moral training, I know not how any subject whatever can be considered of equal importance with social economy, in the schools of a State governed by popular and almost universal male suffrage.

It is, nevertheless, the fact that the new Education Code proposed by Mr. Mundella omits this subject altogether. The present code

allows it to be taught through reading books;' it is not mentioned in the proposed new code from the beginning to the end. Surely this is a mere oversight; but it is one of such incalculable importance, in view of the fact that the code dictates the subjects of instruction in all State-aided schools, that it is most earnestly to be hoped that the subject will not be allowed to remain forgotten. With Professor Fawcett and Mr. Leonard Courtney holding office, there should be enough knowledge of the importance of the matter to secure a revision of the proposals in this respect from within the Ministry. But if the code is laid upon the tables of the Houses, as it has been issued, omitting social economy altogether, it is indeed to be trusted that the omission will be rectified by the wisdom of Parliament. Compulsory subjects should not be multiplied; it would probably be wisest to abolish class subjects' altogether. But at least let the science of human well-being' find a place both among the specific subjects in Schedule IV. and in the syllabus for training colleges.

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To Mr. Ellis, as the late Professor Hodgson wrote, very many owe much for great personal kindness, but, above all, for a higher, wider, clearer, more definite, practical, consistent, and inspiriting view of education, as it ought to be and will be.' The name of those thus taught and influenced by him is legion. A mind at once so keen, so practical, so business-like, and yet so tender, so generous, so philanthropic, could not fail to deeply affect all earnest and welldisposed persons who came within its charmed sphere. It is impossible to give a list of those who were in some sense his disciples, even among distinguished men; but it is, perhaps, worthy of passing note that his valuable teaching received the recognition of that Prince whom wifely devotion has taught us to regard as one of the most thoughtful, sincere, and cultivated men of his time-the late Prince Consort.

Lord Beaconsfield, in his speech on the address of condolence with the Queen on the death of her husband, remarked as one speaking with knowledge- Prince Albert was the consort of his sovereign, and the father of one who might be his sovereign. He framed and partly accomplished a scheme of education for the heir of England which proved how completely its august projector had contemplated the office of an English king.' In that scheme, the science of human well-being was not overlooked. At the personal request of the Prince, Mr. Ellis gave a series of lessons (not lectures, but his usual Socratic lessons) to the three eldest of Her Majesty's children. In these lessons, it may interest some to hear, Mr. Ellis was especially struck with the ability of the present Crown Princess of Germany, whose answers and queries often showed unusual acumen and original reflection.

The reasonable faith and the confident hope in which William Ellis did so much work for humanity, free from all taint of selfishness or egotism, may be best recorded in his own glowing words :24—

There is much room for hope in another direction. An education vastly superior to anything hitherto attempted, and made universal; specially aiming at teaching what good conduct is, and how it is to be attained; and at training so as to inspire a desire and love for good conduct —at teaching what bad conduct is, and how it is to be avoided; and at training so as to inspire a horror of bad conduct; is the means on which all intelligent and well-disposed men must fix their thoughts if they would effect any further sensible diminution in the number of criminals. Considerable time must elapse before education, let it be ever so much improved and extended, can be expected to prevent moral malformations. Such malformations will, perhaps, never be prevented. The solution of that problem must be bequeathed to future ages. . . . But to reform a character is surely a more arduous task than to form one; and how can we look for success in the difficult undertaking from those who are unequal to the easier? This consolation is in store for mankind. In proportion as they approach excellence in the performance of the easier duty, so will the strain upon them for the performance of the more difficult be lessened. Let them engage, then, in that holiest of all duties, knowing no rest till childneglect is obsolete as the slave-trade till institutions abound for educating the young so efficaciously that, when sent forth into the world, they may need no relief from the rates, fear no interference from the police, nor overtax the capabilities of criminal reformers.

FLORENCE FENWICK MILLER.

IF

CLÔTURE.

the political situation was not very satisfactory at the commencement of the year, it can scarcely be said to have improved during the past month, and only believers in one of Rochefoucauld's most cynical maxims can be comforted by the reflection that almost all European nations are in a worse plight than ourselves. The condition of the two leading States of the Continent is critical, and the crisis is such that no one can foretell what will be the eventual result of it. Germany sulks at the severe reprimand she has received from her Emperor. The Germans are generally considered a proud people, and their bearing towards other countries during the past eleven years has not been specially marked by modesty or humility. They have given themselves the airs of a great people, and their press has not been slow to lecture other nations on their want of political principle, or on their lack of a truly patriotic spirit; their remarks have been considered so weighty and worthy of consideration, that they have frequently been reproduced in the columns of foreign journals, and especially in those of this country. German opinion as expressed in the German press was always summoned by the Tory journals to the aid of Lord Beaconsfield's foreign policy, and much stress has been laid on the fact that they are inclined to ridicule that of the present Government. Liberals, on the contrary, always contended that so-called German opinion was not worth a straw, as it was only the opinion of Prince Bismarck, published in such form and at such times as he wished in a variety of subservient journals for his own special purposes.

The recent Rescript shows that the Germans, as a people, in the control of their foreign, or even of their internal, policy are of little account. Their master's will is law, and he is determined to let them know it. There is not another country in Europe where such a document could have been published and been received in the same tame spirit; and its reception shows that, however great the German nation may be as a military one, politically they are yet far behind all the other nations of Europe, Russia alone excepted. With the finest army in the world, with a body of the most learned and distinguished professors, with great financiers and great merchants able to hold their own against those of any country, and with a working class and peasant population supposed to be more highly instructed than those of any other people,-they still, as a nation, are so unaccustomed to the ways of freedom and the manner of selfgovernment, that they have received the Imperial rebuke with humble submissiveness. All they do is to sulk quietly. That under the smooth surface of apparent law and order there burns a fiery