preceded the Education Act of 1870, while the more important Act of 1876 making education compulsory was only carried nine years later. Even this was wholly inadequate. The democracy has been taught to read, but it has never been trained to think.

There will always be people who are contented with the assurance that there is a real carrière ouverte aux talents in the educational world. This there has always been-in the Middle Ages through the Church; in later times through private patronage; to-day through an elaborate system of scholarships. But such a solution is no solution at all. In the first place it degrades education into a purely commercial transaction: for it becomes the way to advancement. And throughout the century there have been well-grounded protests against the utilitarian tendencies of English education, and the motto which it seemed to have adopted, 'Learn, that you may get on.' In the second place, the boy who takes advantage of this ladder system' is almost bound to desert his class. Instead of his educational influence acting as a leaven where it is most wanted, his training becomes of comparatively little advantage to any but himself.

Many enlightened and constructive attempts-such as Maurice's Working Men's College in North London-have been made to bring a 'humane' education within the reach of all. Even the State with its continuation schools has made a half-hearted attempt to cope with the problem. But England has still to acknowledge the superiority of Germany in this respect. Among other and still more recent experiments, the most hopeful is that of the Workers' Educational Association, which might take as its motto the wise words of the flint-glass-makers in the first number of their Magazine (1850), 'Let us earnestly advise you to educate; get intelligence instead of alcohol, it is sweeter and more lasting.' Finally there is Ruskin College, which is neither part of a ladder system by which a man can climb out of his class, nor an attempt to educate the rank and file. It endeavours to train and to develop the intellect of those who are, or will be, leaders of working-class opinion. Without going so far as the Talmud, which declares that 'learning without a calling is ruinous, and leads to sin,' Ruskin College is a protest against the divorce between higher education and manual labour. It sets before itself the ideal of educating students who will 'raise, not rise out of, their class.' Every student who has passed through Ruskin College becomes an educational missionary.

VOL. XXV.-NO. 146, N.S.

13

Such an ideal is liable to the misconstruction of undergraduate orators, and to the pleasant satire of 'Punch.' One of the former described the college as 'An educational sausage machine for the turning out of labour agitators,' and another deplored its 'blindness to the appeal of Empire.' 'Punch ' described an imaginary visit— 'Well you see,' explained a student, we are on strike at present. The Trades Union of undergrads have called us out, and we are not going in till the Dons give us our terms-better scholarships and shorter hours. We heard they were getting in some non-Unionists to listen to them, and I was told off to picket the lecture room. That's why I took you for a blackleg, see?'

'I understand, and are you often on strike?'

'Generally, in term time.'

'But doesn't that interfere with your work rather? Oh, no, we are learning to be labour leaders.'

These humorous fancies are of course based upon the fact that the College is largely, though by no means exclusively, composed of what Mr. Sidney Webb calls the 'Non-commissioned Officers' of the Trade Unions, for many of its members are secretaries and presidents of local unions, branches and district committees of National Societies and of Trade Councils. Dependent for their livelihood upon manual labour, they have yet found it possible to devote much time and trouble to the disinterested service of their fellow-workmen. Picked men like these, whose character has already been trained by the necessity for a businesslike and tactful management of local branches, form the greater proportion of those who are sent by their unions to Ruskin College. From their stay there they derive benefit which could be gained in no other way. For though their character and their special knowledge of the industry in which they are engaged are developed by serving their Trades Union, such service takes up so much time that they find it difficult to attain a wider outlook. It is the broader and more systematic conception of history, of economics, of life, which Ruskin College endeavours to teach them.

The same argument applies with equal or even greater force to those students who are sent by private individuals to the College, or who manage at considerable self-sacrifice to pay for themselves. Nor can there be anyone who does not honestly feel that no working man, whatever may be his views, but must derive considerable benefit by being withdrawn for a while from the rough and tumble of the fierce struggle for existence-from

The city of the smoky fray,

A prodded ox it drags and moans;
Its morrow no man's child; its day
A vulture's morsel beaked to bones

At Oxford, which William Morris so lovingly described as a 'vision of grey-roofed houses and a long winding street, and the sound of many bells,' these men gain their first chance of quiet study and reflection. It is for many of them the first opportunity of hearing the other side of a question, the first time they have been able to weigh things in a balance. Nor is this opportunity likely to be abused; for most of them feel their educational advantages as being in the nature of a trust, and, in their desire to know and to understand, are moved by a mighty purpose

to lead

The tidal multitude and blind,
From bestial to a higher breed.

The average age of the students at the College is about twentyfour. They are men who have already had some measure of responsibility; men who are attached to their own class, and want to share their educational advantages with their fellow workmen. It is such a spirit which needs encouragement in England to-day. The measure of the success of Ruskin College may be gauged from the fact that not a single working-man student who has passed through the College has failed to return to his trade. It is this feature which has ensured the ready support of working men throughout the country; the humblest miner who contributes to send one of his comrades up to the College knows that the money does not go merely to the advancement of a single individual, but that the education of the individual will prove to be to the advantage of all his fellow workmen.

It is such a feeling which prompts the generous and selfsacrificing support which the College has received from the Unions. This support began a few years ago, and has been increasing in volume ever since. The Amalgamated Society of Engineers took the lead, and since 1903 the society has contributed over 3001. a year, either in scholarships or donations; and six practically permanent scholarships have been established. The Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants subscribed 300l. to the first building fund and sends four students every year. The Northern Counties Amalgamated Associations of Weavers have established three annual scholarships as a permanent memorial to three of their late officials. The College has also gained the confidence of the miners all over the country, and students are sent from Lanarkshire, Aberdare, Rhondda, Northumberland, Durham, Fife, Nottingham

shire, Blaina, Anthracite district, and Western Valleys Unions, while the Yorkshire miners have sent donations. The steelsmelters and coachmakers are also represented. The College does not, however, consist solely of students sent by Trade Unions; it is also supported by co-operative societies, and the most advanced of the county councils-that of the West Riding of Yorkshire-has established two scholarships at the College. Moreover several of the students are sent by private individuals. It will be seen, then, that there is considerable variety in the composition of the College, and this variety is an education in itself.

In order to gather them from as wide a circle as possible, the fees which are charged for each student have been reduced as far as possible to a minimum, and now stand at 521. a year. This sum includes all charges for tuition, board, and lodging for fortyeight weeks. But of course there are incidental expenses, such as buying the necessary books, for which the student needs some pocket money: and he has to face the fact that he may be unable to get work immediately on returning home. Such drawbacks, however, deter few who have a chance of coming to the College, and the difficulty to-day is not to get students, but to house them. The numbers, which stood last year at fifty-four, cannot be very conveniently increased until it has been found possible to build more ample accommodation. This, however, will cost 20,000l., and though one supporter has already promised 2000l., and other large donations have been made, it is easier to collect money for scholarships than for such an impersonal thing as a building fund. But there can be no doubt that the future expansion of the College is bound up with adequate buildings.

In describing the existing life of the College itself, it is unnecessary to pause over its external government, which is much like that of any other similar body. Its internal politics are, however, of greater interest. The supreme control is vested in the House Committee,' which consists of the Principal, the Vice-Principal and the Secretary. This Committee has the administration of the details of the curriculum, the broad outline of which has been drawn up by the Executive Committee; it also has general control over all questions of internal administration. Much of the latter is, however, delegated to what is known as the House Meeting,' which is a primary assembly of all the students. Its chief duty is the control of the housework-scrubbing floors, cleaning lamps, washing up, etc.-all of which is done by the students themselves. Besides

materially reducing the cost of living at the College, these household duties make many of the students realise, as they never did before, exactly what they expect their wives to do. One important household duty has, however, been taken out of the hands of amateursnamely, the cooking. Originally this duty also fell to the students in rotation, and the results were sometimes as disastrous as the misdirected zeal of Brother Juniper, And Brother Juniper set his stew on the table before the Brothers, and there is not a pig in all the land of Rome so famished as to have eaten of it.'

The apportionment of the housework presents a valuable study to those interested in political science. When the first students arrived, there were no rules whatever; there was original anarchy. But within a few days a social compact had been drawn up; one or two individualists refused to conform, but they were subsequently coerced or cajoled into compliance, and the control of affairs was vested in the House Meeting.' At first this primary democracy was competent to divide the duties, but as the number of students increased and the problem became more complicated, it was found necessary to delegate this task to a small committee of an oligarchic nature, which draws up the weekly scrub list.' This 'scrub list' apportions the multifarious duties to each of the forty odd students who are on duty that week; and it needs an expert to understand the principle on which the division of labour is made. It is clear, however, that efficiency is still to some extent sacrificed to a jealous passion for rotation and equality, which seems to afflict all forms of primary democracy from Athens and Florence to the nineteenth-century Trades Union. Elements of stability and permanence are beginning to appear, but their progress is slow, for the constituents of the little State are changed too rapidly, and each fresh batch of students insists upon learning its lessons over again from personal experience.

Students come as a rule for one year only, though, as is much to be desired, the number who stay for the second year is steadily increasing. But a year at Ruskin College is very different from a year at the University. The College is only closed for four weeks annually, so that out of the whole year forty-eight weeks are given to study. Even this, however, constitutes but a very limited time, and the subjects studied have to be limited also. The aim has always been, not to give the student a superficial acquaintance with a great number of subjects, but to ground him thoroughly in one or two. Many of those who come up to the College have