bad fiddles pass freely for the interesting "prison Josephs."

loads of Cremonas, boiled, cleaned, rubbed, and otherwise withered with apparent age. They smell as badly as they sound. The immortal Lupot-greatest of French masters.

With Carlo Bergonzi (1718—1755) and Guadagnini (1710-1750) the great Cremona school comes to an end. The very varnish-did not boil and dry in ovens and cook disappears, the cunning in wood selection seems to fail the pale reflectors of a dying art, and the passion for vigour and finish has also departed.

If I have in the above remarks omitted great names like Rugerius, Cappa, Albani, Montagnana (Cremona and Venice), it is because I am dealing with characteristics more than with men, and have used my men, not in catalogue, but as landmarks in art.

As the greatest masters grow rare, the secondary stars cannot fail to rise annually in value.

with acids his woods; he copied fair and varnished full, and time is now doing for him what it will never do for the revolting shams of Mirecourt. In fifty years "Lupot" will rank little below Stradiuarius himself in tone; his roughness of timbre is even now rapidly mellowing, and his sweet brilliancy is rather suggestive of the clear ringing sweetness of the Strad. than the loud rich roundness of the Joseph del Jesu.

GERMAN SCHOOL.

In passing to the German School (1621 The violin, although it culminated, is not-1800, &c.), the two M. Albanis of Botzen exhausted at Cremona; but it would lead are not to be confounded with the Palermitan me into a new branch of my subject to deal with the other schools. These after all are but reflections, more or less pale or perfect, of the incomparable Cremonese masters.

Florence, Bologna and Rome (1680— 1760) may be briefly summarised under the names of Gabrielli, F.; Tononi, B.; and Techler, R. Venice (1690—1764) claims D. Montagnana (famous for his violoncellos), and Sanctus Seraphino. Naples (1680-1800) boasts of the families of Testore, the Gagliano, and Grancino. Milan owns to C. F. Landolphus, a very capital maker, rapidly rising in estimation (1750). He was a pupil of Joseph Guarnerius, and beware of his clever imitations; beware still more of those vulgar red imitations (from which even Gillott's collection was not quite free), perpetrated on many a passable Landolphus, to make him look like a Guarnerius del Jesu.

FRENCH SCHOOL.

E. Albani, pupil of N. Amati. Setting aside the Fendts and Lotts, who worked in England, there is but one German name paramount. It is Jacobus Steiner (1680 and onwards)—he was unhappily deeply infected with round viol tub model with the worst of side scoops. After visiting Cremona his form improved, but never attained to the late Maggini, much less to the later Nicolas type. His workmanship at the best is superb; his varnish green yellow or green brown-often spoiled by being rewashed and oiled by modern cooks-his tone piercing, not to say screaming; but in every way Steiner is so strong and so full of character that his very defects were idolised; he fascinated his age, and his mistakes corrupted the violin model in England and retarded the progress of Cremonese form here for about one hundred

years.

ENGLISH SCHOOL.

Passing to the English School, we have to Passing to the French school (1610-note that (like the French), the Brescian and 1880) we note the fathers of it-Medard Cremona makers were at first copied up to (1610), Boquay and Pieray (1700-1730), the days of Barak Norman (1688-1740), De Combre (1730-1760), and greatest of when, the French remaining true to Cremona, all Lupot and Pique. These two last men, the Steiner mania seized upon England; but in all but their silicate varnish, which chips although Duke (1768) and others leaned rather than rubs, made consummate copies much to the Steiner model, there certainly of Stradiuarius; their violins improve every never was a time in England when the year. To the late M. Vuillaume is due the Italian school had not its eager copyists, and merit of almost re-creating a taste for fine our Banks (Benjamin) 1727-95, may even violin patterns, not only by his diligent re- be called the English Amati. During the search and collection, but by his admirable last half of the seventeenth and the first studies in the workshop and attention to half of the eighteenth centuries the Duke detail. Chanot and Gand are also excellent mania in England raged so furiously that devotees of the lost art. The awful Mire- hardly a respectable kitchen in the land, court laboratory sends forth annually waggon- | not to speak of the beershop, was without

Educationist and Philanthropist.

BY WILLIAM JOLLY, H.M. INSPECTOR OF SCHOOLS.

THER HERE passed away in London, on the | exercised in directing the public mind, and 18th of February last, in his eighty- the subsequent agitation in regard to educafirst year, a remarkable man, whose retiring tion; the countless speeches and pamphlets modesty has hidden his name from popular then given forth; the great educational fame, but who will yet achieve renown when crusade of 1851, of which Manchester, Edinhis enlightened labours for human well- burgh, and Glasgow were the centres; and being, on which he spent above a quarter of the numerous educational measures succesa million, are adequately told. This was sively submitted to Parliament, which culmiWilliam Ellis, philanthropist, educationist, nated in the Elementary Education Acts of and social philosopher, whose death is not 1870 and 1872. The efforts and aims of unworthily associated in time with that of the the Combe party were not confined to mere great Carlyle the one a notable lasher of public agitation on the great questions inabuses and shams, the other an enthusiastic volved, but extended to earnest practical worker in the best means for their pre- effort, in establishing schools that would furnish models of what they thought popular education ought to be, and of what they hoped it would some day become.

vention.

The decease of this good Englishman in a green old age, recalls a noteworthy educational endeavour of thirty years ago, less One of the important matters to which known even amongst educationists than it they addressed themselves in these schools deserves. The memorable year 1848, amidst was the curriculum, the subjects that should its political and social disturbances, wit- form the staple of the education supplied. nessed the unobtrusive foundation of three Their views on this great question were unschools in different parts of the country, usually broad, practical, and philosophical, established, amongst other aims, for the and they were worked out in their schools. express purpose of furnishing the people with great success, surprising for such a new with a broader and more life-preparing edu- and untried system. According to the procation than was common; the want of which, spectus of the Edinburgh school, founded by it was thought, rendered such social con- Combe, assisted by William Ellis and other vulsions possible, and, when they happened, friends, their curriculum included reading, dangerous. These schools were the National writing, arithmetic, spelling, grammar, comHall School of William Lovett, the high-position, history, geography, book-keeping; souled moral-force Chartist, founded in Hol- the elements of mathematics and the physiborn in February of that year; the first Birkbeck school in London, opened in July; and the Edinburgh Williams' School, in December. These institutions were the practical outcome of a great educational agitation, mainly originated and carried on by George Combe, assisted by several like minded friends in various parts of the country, the chief of whom was William Ellis, the manager of the Indemnity Marine Assurance Company in London. Not a few in Scotland and England will yet recall the indefatigable efforts of George Combe and his friends to draw public attention to the rising cause of National Education, and to make it more worthy of the name, as a preparation of the man and the citizen for life. They will remember Combe's lectures on the subject, delivered in 1833 before the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, then the Philosophical Association, of which he was one of the founders; the influence these

cal sciences (the teaching of science receiving special attention); a "knowledge of the natural sources of wealth, and of the natural laws which govern its production and distribution," as unfolded in Political or Social Economy; and a knowledge of the human body and mind, and of their relations, and the natural laws by which their functions are regulated. Social Science and Physiology were prominent features of the instruction given from the first, the aim of the whole being "to communicate such knowledge and such amount of it as would enable a man intelligently and successfully to perform the various duties of life, personal and relative, and at the same time give the best training to all his faculties." Many of these subjects are now commonplaces of the common school; but, when first advocated and taught, they formed astounding innovations, opposed by all the old wives of the political, social, and theological worlds, as

tending to subvert the order established by Providence for keeping us, in every sense, "in our proper stations."

On the teaching of one subject, which then roused fierce controversy, these educationists held special views-that of the burning subject of Religion. There never have lived more earnest advocates of the vital importance of religion in education than these men, who were then ignorantly supposed to be its adversaries. As George Combe says, in one of his abundant pleadings in its favour, "In a philosophical education, Religion must of necessity find a place, because Veneration is implanted in the mind, and the Divine Being is its highest and most legitimate object a sentiment echoed by Mr. Ellis in all his works, which are hallowed by its spirit, and one of which, on Social Science, he named "Religion in Common Life," after the well-known sermon by Dr. Caird. But they held with the great Dr. Chalmers and many others, that the school is not the proper place for doctrinal teaching; that this ought to be undertaken by the great and powerful organizations for such instruction, the Churches; and that, if these Churches were truly awake to the real importance which they rightly declare belongs to this subject, and to the need of a much more thorough religious education than is possible in national schools, they would rouse themselves with due earnestness to claim and undertake such teaching as their own special work, and thus cause, as Dr. Chalmers urges, a most wholesome rivalship in the great aim of rearing, on the basis of their respective systems, a moral and Christian population, well taught in the principles and doctrines of the gospel, along with being well taught in the lessons of ordinary scholarship." They, therefore, excluded theological instruction from the public school, while earnestly advocating its teaching by other agencies.

Not a few readers will, no doubt, cherish different views in regard to this subject, holding that Religion should still be taught in school, as in the past. But it surely becomes us all, to understand and recognise that different men may, and must, have different ideas on this, as on all other subjects; to discriminate friends from enemies in all discussions concerning it; and to tolerate differences among those who equally feel its paramount influence, though advocating different methods of securing its efficient teaching. The schools of Combe and his friends being based on this sever

ance of dogma from the school, were known
as Secular," a title determinately chosen
by Combe as expressing the function of the
common school in its relation to education,
the "religious
religious" instruction being left by
them to the proper "religious" agencies. The
designation was unfortunate in many respects,
especially as being liable to misinterpreta-
tion, and as confounding them with the popu
larly obnoxious anti-theological sect which
afterwards chose the same name. This,
however, was wisely never adopted by
William Ellis for the schools founded by
him. In, therefore, claiming the Combe and
Ellis party as friends of religious education
of the most earnest type, we do not base the
claim on charity, but on simple justice to
men who have too long been supposed to be
its enemies.

Schools were established to carry out this novel educational programme in London, Edinburgh, Leith, Glasgow, Manchester, Salford, Blandford, and elsewhere. These were remarkably successful, as testified by competent, unbiassed authorities. They have, without doubt, by means of their work and the controversies it led to, exercised a strong, healthy, and abiding influence, in making our recent educational legislation the broader and more educative thing it has become, in spite of the opposition by the ancients of Norton apprehensiveness and Sherbrooke narrowness. Their curriculum and the utterances expounding it,* form a valuable contribution to the vexed and important problem of what ought to be taught in our schools, which merits the study of all interested in education. Great points in its favour are not only that it was an attempt to base its solution on philosophical grounds and on the science of human nature, but that it was practically and successfully carried out in many schools throughout the country. These were characterized, besides, by other interesting features, such as the abolition of corporal punishment, the subordination of the linguistic in favour of the real in teaching, while acknowledging the true function of languages in education, especially the native tongue, and other unusual points too many to mention here. The most of these institutions existed till the passing of the recent Education Acts, when, from various causes apart altogether from their work, for they were successful to the end, they were given up-many of the points. contended for being, in the opinion of the promoters, secured in these Acts. The Birk

A résumé of these is contained in "Education: its Prinby the writer. Macmillan & Co., London. ciples and Practice as developed by George Combe," edited

ingly impossible programme; and this was done. The first was founded in 1848, chiefly by Mr. Ellis, in connection with the London Mechanics' Institution, in which the new curriculum was at once established. Ellis thereafter, solely at his own expense, founded a succession of such schools in various parts of London, known as the Birkbeck Schools, after the great founder of Mechanics' Institutes, generously and characteristically subordinating his own name in connection with them.

of dispelling this ignorance was through the school. Lectures and books, he saw, can only reach adults, whose untrained minds and early educational neglect effectually prevent their being able to grasp such problems as those presented in Social Science. Like the true educationist he was, he early perceived that the schoolroom was the best mission-field for effecting any social reform in these lines; and he set himself to digest and simplify the principles of the science he wished to teach, so as to adapt them to the capacity of the average Several of these schools have, from various child. He made his first attempt in 1846, causes, been discontinued. There still, howin this novel and seemingly Utopian work ever, exist four, admirably equipped and fully of instruction, at a British school in Cam- endowed-the Birkbeck Schools in Bethnal berwell, and two years later at William Green, Peckham, and Kingsland, and the Lovett's National Hall School in Holborn, Gospel Oak Schools in Kentish Town. with a success that surprised himself. He Besides the usual subjects in the infant and by-and-by reduced his lessons to systematic upper classes, Social Science and Physiology form, and issued his earliest text-book on are regular and prominent studies in these Social Science for schools in the same year schools, with Latin for those pupils wishing it, "Outlines of Social Economy." This the elements of the sciences, music, and was the first of a long series of similar works, drawing, as well as French, German, the piano, published by Smith, Elder, and Co., written and dancing, besides gymnastics, drill, domeswith great simplicity, high purpose, and tic economy, and industrial work. The aim elevated moral and religious spirit, which of the whole course is stated to be, that constitute them a valuable contribution to "the children may not go forth to take their the cause of broader realistic education,* part in the work of the world utterly ignorant while they were the first of their kind. In of any safe guides of conduct; to secure treating this subject, William Ellis has virtu- which they are to be taught, "above all, the ally created a new science, by correlating course of conduct which ought to and must be and bringing to bear, on Social and Political followed in order to secure future happiness Economy, the whole of the mental faculties, and well-being," chiefly as unfolded in Mr. the sympathetic as well as the self-regarding; Ellis's works on Social Science. Certain special so that, as has been well said, "instead of principles also characterize these schools, warping the minds of its students into a such as subordinating the learning of roteone-sided egoism, it develops a largeness of lessons to the training of faculties by objects views, a generosity of sentiment, and a and ideas themselves, the non-use of prizes soundness of judgment, perhaps unattainable and rivalry and of corporal punishment, and through any other subject." the employment of "the Socratic method of teaching," in which questions are asked by the scholar of the teacher during the progress of a lesson. These schools have been, and still are, eminently successful.

In the view of Ellis and his reforming friends, this subject, and others already mentioned, especially Physiology, should not be counted optional or extra, like the present Specific Subjects of our schools, but should be made the staple of the education given; leavening it from end to end of the school life, and beginning in the infant room, in simple gallery lessons, so arranged as to form the basis of after more systematic instruction. It was necessary, therefore, to establish schools for carrying out this seem

These are" Progressive Lessons in Social Science," "Introduction to the Study of the Social Sciences,' A Layman's Contribution to the Knowledge and Practice of Religion in Common Life; being the substance of a course of conversa

tional lessons introductory to the study of Moral Philosophy,"

a valuable work; "Lessons on the Phenomena of Industrial

Life and the Conditions of Industrial Success," edited by Dean Dawes (Groombridge); "Helps to the Young," edited by the Rev. Wm. Jowitt (Longmans), &c.

But Mr. Ellis's labours were not confined to the schoolroom, in which he gave lessons up to a recent date, and to forming textbooks, but extended to lectures on Social Science, carried on for years in his own drawing-room, attended by ladies and others. He also issued from time to time various "Eduworks on educational reform, such as cation as a Means of Preventing Destitution; Thoughts on the Future of the Human Race "What am I? Where am I? What ought I to do? How am I to become qualified and disposed to do what I ought?"--a short and admirable résumé of a