to bed, and an incredible consumption of wet towels, strong cigars, and brandy-and-water, was one of the most astonishing feats of mental gymnastics I ever heard of."

31

"That will do for the land and the Church," said Arminius. "And now let us hear about commerce.' "You mean how was Bottles educated?" answered I. "Here we get into another line altogether, but a very good line in its way, too. Mr. Bottles was brought up at the Lycurgus House Academy, Peckham. You are not to suppose from the name of Lycurgus that any Latin and Greek was taught in the establishment; the name only indicates the moral discipline, and the strenuous earnest character, imparted there. As to the instruction, the thoughtful educator who was principal of the Lycurgus House Academy,Archimedes Silverpump, Ph.D., you must have heard of him in Germany had modern views. 'We must be men of our age,' he used to say. 'Useful know. ledge, living languages, and the forming of the mind through observation and experiment, these are the fundamental articles of my educational creed.' Or, as I have heard his pupil Bottles put it in his expansive moments after dinner (Bottles used to ask me to dinner till that affair of yours with him in the Reigate train): 'Original man, Silverpump! fine mind! fine system! None of your antiquated rubbish—all practical work-latest discoveries in science-mind constantly kept excited-lots of interesting experi ments-lights of all colours-fizz! fizz! bang! bang! That's what I call forming a man,””

"And pray," cried Arminius, impatiently, "what sort of man do you suppose this infernal quack really formed in your precious friend Mr. Bottles?" "Well," I replied, "I hardly know how to answer that question. Bottles has certainly made an immense fortune; but as to Silverpump's effect on his mind, whether it was from any fault in the Lycurgus House system, whether it was that with a sturdy self-reliance thoroughly English, Bottles, ever since he quitted Silverpump, left his mind wholly to itself, his daily newspaper, and the Particular Baptist minister under whom he sate, or from whatever cause it was, certainly his mind, qua mind" "You need not go on," interrupted Arminius, with a magnificent wave of his hand, "I know what that man's mind, quâ mind, is, well enough."

But, Sir, the midnight oil is beginning to run very low; I hope, therefore, you will permit me to postpone the rest of Arminius's discourse till to-morrow. And meanwhile, Sir, I am, with all respect,

Your humble servant,

MATTHEW ARNOLD.

To the EDITOR of the PALL MALL GAZETTE

LETTER VII.

MORE ABOUT COMPULSORY EDUCATION.

SIR,

GRUB STREET, April 21, 1867.

I TAKE up the thread of the interesting and important discussion on compulsory education between Arminius and me where I left it last night.

"But," continued Arminius, "you were talking of compulsory education, and your common people's want of it. Now, my dear friend, I want you to understand what this principle of compulsory education really means. It means that to ensure, as far as you can, every man's being fit for his business in life, you put education as a bar, or condition, between him and what he aims at. The principle is just as good for one class as another, and it is only by applying it impartially that you save its application from being insolent and invidious. Our Prussian peasant stands our compelling him to instruct himself before he may go about his calling, because he sees we believe in instruction, and compel our own class, too, in a way to make it really feel the pressure, to instruct itself before it may go about its calling. Now, you propose to make old Diggs's boys instruct

themselves before they may go bird-scaring or sheep-
tending. I want to know what you do to make those
three worthies in that justice-room instruct them-
selves before they may go acting as magistrates and
judges." "Do?" said I; "why, just look what they
have done all of themselves. Lumpington and Hittall
have had a public-school and university education;
Bottles has had Dr. Silverpump's, and the practical
training of business. What on earth would you have
us make them do more?" "Qualify themselves for
administrative or judicial functions, if they exercise
them," said Arminius.
"That is what really answers,
in their case, to the compulsion you propose to apply
to Diggs's boys. Sending Lord Lumpington and Mr.
Hittall to school is nothing; the natural course of
things takes them there. Don't suppose that, by
doing this, you are applying the principle of com-
pulsory education fairly, and as you apply it to Diggs's
boys. You are not interposing, for the rich, education
as a bar or condition between them and that which
they aim at. But interpose it, as we do, between the
rich and things they aim at, and I will say something
to you. I should like to know what has made Lord
Lumpington a magistrate?"
"Made Lord Lump-
ington a magistrate?" said I; "why, the Lumping-
ton estate, to be sure.' "And the Reverend Esau
Hittall?" continued Arminius. "Why, the Lump-
ington living, of course," said I.
"And that man
Bottles?" he went on. "His English energy and
self-reliance," I answered very stiffly, for Arminius's
incessant carping began to put me in a huff; "those

same incomparable and truly British qualities which have just triumphed over every obstacle and given us the Atlantic telegraph !—and let me tell you, Von T., in my opinion it will be a long time before the 'Geist' of any pedant of a Prussian professor gives us anything half so valuable as that." "Pshaw!" replied Arminius, contemptuously; "that great rope, with a Philistine at each end of it talking inutilities!

"But in my country," he went on, "we should have begun to put a pressure on these future magis trates at school. Before we allowed Lord Lumpington and Mr. Hittall to go to the university at all, we should have examined them, and we should not have trusted the keepers of that absurd cockpit you took me down to see, to examine them as they chose, and send them jogging comfortably off to the university on their lame longs and shorts. No; there would have been some Mr. Grote as School Board Commis sary, pitching into them questions about history, and some Mr. Lowe, as Crown Patronage Commissary, pitching into them questions about English literature; and these young men would have been kept from the university, as Diggs's boys are kept from their birdscaring, till they instructed themselves. Then, if, after three years of their university, they wanted to be magistrates, another pressure! - a great Civil Service examination before a board of experts, an examination in English law, Roman law, English history, history of jurisprudence- "A most abominable liberty to take with Lumpington and Hittall!" exclaimed I. "Then your compulsory