an interval long enough in all probability to enable an architect to appear to whom their construction might be intrusted with safety. The chief difference between the condemned and the partially recognised school is that the owner of the former will be left in peace, while that of the latter will, we suppose, again receive visits from enumerators or inspectors. The remarks of the School Board do not tend to increase the value of the statistics upon which they purpose to act; the data which have been arrived at are based upon an allowance of eight superficial feet to each child, concerning which the Report says, "It may be doubted whether this amount is sufficient in any case a statement the reverse of assuring.

These two classes of provisionally recognised schools are calculated to afford accommodation for 350,720 children, while the accommodation required is for 498,718. The Board, therefore, after deducting a percentage for temporary causes of absence, has arrived at the conclusion that places must be provided for 103,863, and they ask the Department to authorise the immediate provision of schools for 100,600 chil

dren. In five out of the ten divisions accommodation in excess of the deficiency to the extent of 9790 school places is recommended, owing to the unequal distribution of the schools in existence. Marylebone has a deficiency of 3140 places, and it is proposed to provide accommodation for 7900 children. The City of London has an excess of 1418 places, none of which are available to balance a deficiency of 673 places in one of its subdivisions. Of the remaining five divisions of Finsbury, Hackney, Lambeth, Southwark, and the Tower Hamlets, Hackney, which includes the districts of Bethnal Green, Shoreditch, and Homerton, is relatively to its population the most ill-provided with school accommodation, having only 34,851 existing and projected places for 56,906 children, or a deficiency of more than one-third. In these five divisions where the estimated deficiency is 94,121, the Board recommends the immediate provision of school accommodation for 79,650 children :

"The reasons for this modified proposal may be briefly stated as follow-To provide schools, even for 100,000 children, will be a task which will not easily be accomplished in eighteen

months or two years. During that time the Board will have the opportunity of watching the operation of many causes, the effect of which is at present wholly undetermined. How will the Bye-laws work? the second, which enforces the attendance of children at school; and the fourth, which exempts them from attendance under certain conditions? Will the Half-time Acts, which at present are almost a dead letter, come into more general operation? To what extent will schools which have been condemned by Her Majesty's Inspectors transfer themselves to the Board, and be made efficient? These and other causes may contribute to reduce the deficiency of school accommodation which now appears to exist. Lastly, there is the growing difficulty of obtaining qualified teachers for elementary schools, the number of which is increasing day by day."

The chief point in the above quotation is that the effect of many causes is wholly undetermined, and we may add will probably remain so, until a certain number of mistakes has been made. The Report asks various questions without much expectation of receiving answers, and we shall venture to imitate their example. Will it be easier to find teachers for schools of from 750 to 1500 children (the number preferred by the Board) than for communities of a smaller extent ? How will the payment of school fees be enforced? What is to be the future system of investigation and examination of private schools? The Report before us seems

to imply that the inspection of last year was undertaken by the Education Department because the Board had no staff immediately available for the purpose. It is a matter perfectly immaterial to the public who the officials are who inspect metropolitan schools, but it is important that it should be done as simply as possible, and that the expenses of a dual government should be avoided. It may be that all these matters remain to be decided, like the sites and the sizes and the number of schools which it is proposed to erect; the next Report of the School Board will, we trust, enlighten us upon many points "at present undetermined."

FASHIONABLE SCRAMBLES IN

COUNTRY HOUSES.

IF Charles Lamb had been in the habit of spending the winter in the country, and of paying visits during that season to his neighbours, or indeed to anybody else's neighbours, it is more than probable that he would have added another to his list of fallacies. Some paragraph would have borne for its heading, "That a Country-house must be Pleasant." There are various methods by which human beings are enabled to gauge their progress in the world, and to ascertain their social age. One of these is the loss of illusions. It may take place very gradually, but before the age of thirty-five has been attained the pleasure of mere visiting is apt to