nd trades insufficiently carried out; the old
schools and old colleges much too classical and mathematical. If this
position is untrue, no popular scheme can be adopted at present; but it
appears more than probable that before long the subject will be brought
before the House of Commons, and education made accessible to all. As to
the money for the purpose, the country will never grudge that. The obstacle
appears to lie more in persuading the endless religious sects into which we
are divided to shake hands over the matter.

At present my only desire is, that boys at public schools should have
plenty of books, being assured that reading while we are young leaves a
very strong and permanent impression, and cannot be estimated too highly;
besides which, if a youth has access to works suited to his natural bent,
he will unconsciously lay in a store of valuable information adapted to his
future career.

WELD TAYLOR.

When I was at the College school, Gloucester, in 1794, there was a
considerable library in a room adjoining the upper school. I never knew the
books used by the boys, though the room was unlocked: in fact, it was used
by the upper master as a place of chastisement; for there was kept the
block (as it was called) on which the unfortunate culprits were horsed and
whipped. The library, no doubt, contained many valuable and excellent
works; but the only book of which I know the name as having been in it (and
that {641} only by a report in the newspapers of the day) was Oldham's
_Poems_, which, after a fire which occurred in the school-room, was said to
have been the only book returned of the many which had been taken away.

P. H. FISHER.

Stroud.

In Knight's _Life of Dean Colet_ (8vo., London, 1724), founder of St.
Paul's School, there is a catalogue of the books in the library of the
school at the date specified. The number of the volumes is added up at the
end of the catalogue, in MS., and the total amount is 663 volumes. The
latest purchases bear the date of 1723, and are:--Pierson (sic) _On the
Creed_, Greenwood's _English Grammar_, and Terentius _In usum Delphini_.
The books for the most part are of a highly valuable and standard
character. Does the library still exist? have many additions been made to
it up to the present time? and is there a printed catalogue of it?

J. M.

Oxford.

* * * * *

TRENCH ON PROVERBS.

(Vol. viii., pp. 387. 519.)

The error, which Lu