I Understand that the boys mostly arrive at the College about the completion of their 10th year, and leave about the completion of their 17th year, and that the 7 years of the College Course, each including three terms, correspond in normal progress to as many Classes.

I further understand that there will be similarly 7 Classes in the Science Curriculum, but that these will be reckoned apart from the other Classes, and wisely so. A boy, say of 12 or 14, may arrive as ignorant of Science as any can well be who arrive at 10. Consequently though his classical attainments, concurring with his age, may assign him an advanced place in the Classical Department, he will only be lit to be booked for the lowest Class in the Scientific Department. If regardless of this, he were set at advanced portions of Science, without the required training in elementary facts and phraseology, the little knowledge he might acquire with much difficulty, would be hollow, and practically almost valueless.

I am sorry to find that only 4 hours per week are page 19 contemplated for Science, though I am perfectly aware that in an Institution designed to introduce the study of modern Languages, and of the Natural Sciences, without setting aside Classical and still less Mathematical attainments, some reciprocal concessions must necessarily be made. I trust that an extra allowance may be granted for scoring arrears of ignorant boys, and that care will be taken to select competent and energetic Science Masters who understand the art of inspiring interest in what they teach; but at all events 4 hours per week are barely proportionate to the accomplishment of such objects as the following:—lstly, A comprehensive and sound acquaintance with the leading facts and principles of the Bionomic Sciences, and with their applications in Daily Life.—2ndly, The contemporaneous acquisition of certain branches of Scientific Knowledge, which if not indispensable in a utilitarian point of view, are essential in that of Intellectual Culture.—3rdly, A secure foundation for advanced studies, whether theoretical or applied.—4thly, A certain amount of special preparation for distinct scientific pursuits, whether technical or professorial.

I hope that in future years, when the value of a scientific education is better appreciated, a more liberal allowance of teaching time will become customary throughout the country.

A scheme of scientific studies framed to suit the purposes of one Institution, cannot be expected to meet those of another of an entirely different character. Hence it is to me by no means a matter of surprize, that your Professors should have found it impracticable to adhere to the draft with the sight of which you have favored me, and of which a portion is taken almost verbatim from the Syllabus of the Science Examinations at South Kensington. The scheme of scientific instruction of the International College, must of course, before acquiring anything like a permanent and stereo- page 20 typed character, be worked into shape by actual use; but in order to simplify and curtail that process, we must start with as near an approximation to what we are likely to want, as painstaking forethought can produce. We may incorporate in our projected curriculum materials borrowed from others, but only after cautiously scrutinizing and adapting them in detail, never losing sight of a certain chain of purposes which must run as a back bone from end to end.