and accuracy. The number of candidates continues to | tion to the candidates as to more earnest effort to secure increase. method, well-digested arrangement and neatness of their papers will be for their good. I am glad to be able to mention one exception to the defect which marks the generality of this year's papers.

Algebra.-Whilst there have been several failuresrather more than one-fourth of the total number of candidates having fallen through—a good deal of talent and acquaintance with the subject has been evinced by a fair portion of those who have passed. Every question has met with a solution among the papers sent in, which is a favourable symptom, as one or two of them are of a kind to call forth the exercise of original thought. Altogether I regard the result of the examination as of an encouraging nature. In many instances the literary style of answering is good. In other cases, however, a more diligent study of the English language might be recommended with advantage to some of the candidates. The word "ternary" appears to have been a stumblingblock to some, it having been variously interpreted as referring to the numbers 2, 5, and 7.

Practical Mechanics.-I have been unable to award any certificates of the first or second class. I believe that this is the first occasion upon which so unfavourable a result has occurred, and it has been very apparent to me that the candidates have not entered with sufficient care upon the course of reading pointed out for their guid

ance.

El ctricity and Magnetism.-The examiner has much pleasure in reporting that one of the two most universal practical applications of this subject, namely, electrotelegraphy, appears this year to have received more attention than heretofore. The other not less universal

Geometry. The general character of the papers is application to the mariner's compass, its construction, its good. Several candidates have evinced aptitude in solving ing the errors therein arising, does not yet appear to deviations, and the most practicable methods of correctproblems. Many have shown that they appreciate close-command the attention of advanced students to the exness of logical sequence, and none failed to exhibit some tent the subject is entitled to, considering the present benefit gained by their study of the subject. vast and increasing importance of iron in marine architecture.

Mensuration. It may be observed that none of the candidates are in the first class, and that there are too Light and Heat.-The candidates have all shown conmany in and below the third. This I attribute to the want of due attention to the elements of the subject. Insiderable knowledge of the properties of light and heat, the arithmetical part their work is satisfactory, but in They have all, however, shown the need of more exercise which form important portions of Natural Philosophy. the geometrical part it is not. in answering examination questions, so as to enable them to make the best use of their acquired knowledge during examinations, by answering each question completely, and yet in a condensed, distinct, and accurate manner, giving also the figures correctly where required.

Trigonometry. The answers to the questions were very well worked out, and although none of the candidates obtained sufficient marks to be placed in the first class, those who have second-class certificates did not fail for want of ability. All the important and more difficult questions were answered by one or other of the candi

dates.

Conic Sections. Only one candidate has answered the questions in the Conic Sections and Algebraical Geometry paper. Although the answers are not as good as heretofore, yet the subject deserves encouragement, for the disciplinary value of it is very great, and I cannot recom

mend the Council to discontinue it.

Navigation and Nautical Astronomy. The number of candidates in this subject is still very small. There is an improvement in the style of working the problems, and two first-class certificates have been awarded.

Astronomy. It is strange that a single candidate only furnished any answers to the several questions. Year by year I have been urging increased attention to those parts of mathematics on which astronomy rests, and upon their practical application. In previous years I have totally failed in obtaining one satisfactory answer to any question on either the theory or the practice of interpolations. Last year a very satisfactory advance was shown in the application of spherical trigonometry, and in the practical reduction of observations as far as required. This year this is almost totally wanting, and the questions answered or attempted to be answered, were those rather upon the literature of astronomy than upon astronomy either theoretical or practical. I am disappointed. It is clear that the paper set, although by no means difficult, has been so considered. I suppose next year the examination paper must be more elementary This is to be regretted. In the answers some knowledge of the application of algebra and trigonometry is shown,

but to no great extent.

But still

that candidates pay more attention to analytical che-
Chemistry.-There are distinct evidences in the papers
mistry than was the case some years ago.
there is considerable room for improvement in that di-
rection. I believe that many teachers of chemistry are
hardly aware how easy it is to give practical instruction
in elementary qualitative analysis to students without
great expenditure of time or money. Every course of
instruction in chemistry might include practical exercises
of that kind.

Mining and Metallurgy. The observations of last year are equally applicable to this. None of the papers exhibit a degree of excellence worthy of special remark.

three

Botany. Of the twelve candidates this year, have not complied with the required conditions as to the number of questions to be answered in each section. The only candidate passed in the first-class left five questions unanswered, but the answers given indicate a well-grounded acquaintance with the subject. The two papers of the second class are of tolerable promise, and improved by another year's experience would probably rank higher. All candidates would do well to handle living plants more frequently, dissecting and describing them as they go on in accordance with the examples given in the works recommended to them as text-books.

this year show that, out of eighty-four candidates, four Animal Physiology.-The results of the examination are in the first class, twelve in the second, eighteen in the third, and fifty are not placed. Since both teachers and pupils and self-taught students may be supposed to have learnt, by the issue of previous examinations, that real merit, in its several degrees, can alone obtain the several orders of certificates, it seems, at first sight, disPrinciples of Mechanics.- Pleased as I am with the heartening that the results are not more satisfactory. evidences of considerable knowledge on the part of the Of the fifty candidates "not passed," thirty-three have majority of the candidates, yet my pleasure is mixed obtained only 20 per cent., or less, of the full number of with some regret in seeing a want of clearness and per- marks; and I have no hesitation in describing these as spicuity, which spoils the effect of the results, and renders immature students, even of their own language, prema it a difficult task to assign fairly the marks due to them. turely offering themselves for an examination in so spe I have never been obliged to send you a qualified report cial a subject as Physiology. The first paper in the first before, but on this occasion I think that a word of cau-class is admirable, a few slips only depriving it of the

full number of marks. There are a few papers in classes 2, 3, and 0, which fail to take higher places from deficient quantity of answers, the quality being good of what they contain. To justify my strictures on the majority of thirty-three of the fifty unpassed papers, I append a few examples of the sort of delinquency which I maintain unfit the authors of them for being candidates in an advanced science :

I.

66

we

Errors in scientific terms which may be more or less excused, a kind of a neucleus in the centre, and are so adapted to perhaps :

Membranum tympanum

Cancella....

cancelli.

pillaries.

2.

byrinth, and only exists in those classes of animals who have a keen sense of hearing, as the deer, man, &c. ;" it "carries away effete or superfluous matter into the nasal cavity." 7. Reflex movements are such as the secretion of gastric juice;" by sensori-motor movements" act as we think proper.' As two final examples I transcribe the following literally :-"The osseous tissues present a very pleasing structure under the microscope, the majority of them being of a circular-like shape, with fit closely together and form a compact mass, and are so small that they are easily carried along with the blood for membrana tympani to that portion of the bone that needs nutrition." In answer to a question on the uses of the blood and of its several parts, a candidate's sole reply is this-" The (liq. Sanguinis ca- blood is said to be the life of the body, for there is no part of our body, if an incision be made in, the least whatever, some portion will come out. It also helps to nourish and build up this goodly frame of ours. constituents are, in a pure state, salts, albumen, fibrin, red and white corpuscles, these may be found in coagulated clot." The inaccuracies, the confusion of thought and expression, and the bad grammar, punctuation, and orthography, illustrated by the above examples of errors, constituted about one-third of what a strict scrutiny would reveal. Unless dealt with firmly such defects may increase. Nay, in my opinion, they require exposure, and public notice of some kind or other. At all events, advice should be given to future candidates or their teachers, as, indeed, I gave last year. If a strict hand be not held over them, the examinations of the Society of Arts in the subject of "Animal Physiology" will do not only no good, but a large amount of evil.

Membrania tympani...

4 Liquor sanguinus capilliaries

mammals.

gelatinous.
carbonaceous.
saccharine.
nucleus.

Errors in English, unpardonable :

Ouses

Air-like vessels.

[Take] panes

..

not

Fowl [air]

Hear Respiar Differant Suffication

A sleep

Ere Aire As Byle

Increditable
Ordours

Two

Secrets

Togeather
The use of two 1's for one is constant, as in "ventilla-
tion," "controll," &c. Such phrases as these occur-
"is for to make," "
greatest of nicety," "inodorous
smells" [used twice in the same answer, so the incon-
gruity is not accidental, but in the writer's mind], the
blood is also contaminated" by saline constituents
which are natural to it-and so on.

1. "Pancreas" means "sweet," means "sweet-bread;" is so-called, i.e., pancreas, because it is "sweet," because it is "acrid;" it lies "behind the back;" it is a "bag;" it is "above the diaphragm." 2. Bone is formed of "mucous" matter outside, and of "nervous" matter in, the latter being partly grey and partly white; it is made of "cells" and "sacs.' 3. Bone "consists of long layers of cartilage arranged in a very nice manner;" "it has a pleasing structure." "4. The red blood corpuscles each contain a gland and a duct," but "it requires a great power of the microscope to find them." 5. The "external auditory meatus," being confounded with the “alimentary canal," by two candidates, is described as "twenty feet long, one and a half inch wide, and going zigzag through the abdomen, &c." 6. The "Eustachian tube" assists in breathing," "it exists," the same writer adds, "in man, ourang-outang, and all kinds of monkies;" "it carries away wax;" "it carries away mucus and excess of air after it has been used for making vibrations;" "it prevents choking;" it is "connected with the la

Its

Domestic Economy.-The answers sent in this year on this subject show a gradual improvement over past years, and are better than in any previous examination which I have had, some of the answers showing a knowledge of the nature and composition of food, &c., and that the writers of them have profited from such papers as those of Dr. Lyon Playfair, in Good Words, and altogether making one feel that their knowledge may be useful to them in every-day life.

Geography.-I am better satisfied, on the whole, with this year's papers than with those of any former occasion. A large number of them reach a fair, and several a very high, degree of merit. There are, indeed, several failures; but, taken altogether, the answers give evidence of more preparation and of study directed to a definite purpose, than I have hitherto observed. This is an advance in the right direction. In geography, as in other subjects, diligent and methodical study, directed by progressive stages towards a definite object, can alone lead to success. The first-class papers of this year do very great credit to the writers.

the

English History.-The answers on this subject are, on average, better than those of last year; though a few are so bad that it is difficult to understand how their authors can have been advised to offer themselves for examination on this subject. Those who are placed in the first class have laid a good foundation for future reading; but those in the second are generally deficient in accuracy as well as in quantity. Perhaps the period proposed as the subject for examination is too long. If by shortening it more accurate knowledge could be With regard to the form of the answers, there is a great secured, the change would certainly be for the better. improvement this year; and, with a view to maintaining this advance, it may be worth while to repeat the suggestion made last year-that candidates should practice themselves in answering questions on papers for their tutors from time to time.

English Literature. The papers which I have now'examined are certainly not less satisfactory than those of any previous year. There are but very few of them in which the candidates have not proved their sound ac

quaintance with the text of the books in which they have been examined. A good proportion of the answers are well expressed, and show thoughtfulness and judgment. But two or three of the candidates have wasted their time in making imperfect, though tedious, grammatical analyses of the passages contained in the questions. As I have met with the same in some former examinations, I think it best to give a caution on the subject. It should be understood that no marks can be given for anything beyond an answer to the examiner's questions. Logic and Mental Science.-Nearly all the candidates show very fair preparation in the subject of logic, and a few more than a popular acquaintance with it. The papers on mental and moral philosophy are not generally so good, and mostly evince a hasty preparation of the subjects. Some of the candidates, however, show a very fair acquaintance with one or even two of the prescribed

text-books.

Latin and Roman History.-The work has a little fallen off both in quantity and quality.

French.-On the whole this year's papers are very satisfactory. It is true that I can only recommend four candidates for a first-class certificate, and that for papers which only just reach the standard. Nor are the second-class certificates numerous either; but I am able to award no less than fifty-one third-class certificates, which raises the total number of successful candidates to about three-fourths of the whole number, a proportion considerably larger than on any previous occasion, whilst the standard this year is certainly not lower. The chief cause of this result is the fact that the candidates have mostly confined their attention this year to one section of the examination paper, instead of attempting to give unconnected fragments of the different sections, as was too much the case previously. Altogether the candidates seem to have gone more methodically to work, which is in itself a great progress.

German.-In comparing this year's papers with those of last year, I am happy to find that in every section they are distinguished by greater ability and bear the marks of closer application. Not one candidate had to be rejected. Only six out of nineteen did not write the essay; some of those, however, who have done so, sometimes deviate from the point in question. A stricter keeping in view of the subject to be handled, and a more logical method of arranging the matter, ought in future to be aimed at. The questions on Grammar are answered with greater precision than last year, and the majority of the translations from German into English are very good. The gainer of the highest number of marks has mastered all the four pieces selected for translation, and left hardly any part of the examination paper untried.

Italian. The papers, with one single exception, are highly satisfactory. The candidates have shown that their knowledge of Italian exceeds the average standard usually attained by many who yet are supposed to have mastered a foreign language. One paper evinces much readiness, if not style, in translating into Italian; and all show careful grammatical studies, and a fair acquaintance with the peculiar idioms.

drawings of the following subjects:-Two, fruit and flowers; three original designs for manufacture; four, animals; seven, human figures, or portions of the figure; eight, landscapes; thirty-one, copies of scrolls and drawings of flattened leaves and flowers. This analysis shows pretty well what is being done for art-education throughout the country.

Geometrical Drawing.-Since the general nature of the examination in Practical Geometry must be better known from year to year, it might be expected to improve. This, I regret to see, is not the case, the proportion of failures to the whole number is greater on this than on former occasions. It is well perhaps to point out again the apparent causes of these failures in the hopes of putting future candidates more on their guard against them. They are-1st. A neglect of the conditions of the questions, either arising from carelessness in reading them, or from misconception of their import; 2. Neglect of the repeated injunction not to attempt more than the prescribed time allows of being carefully and thoughtfully accomplished; 3. A want of knowledge of the elements of solid or co-ordinate geometry, causing a great loss of time by compelling the candidate to adopt complicated and circuitous constructions instead of the brief and simple ones based on sound elementary knowledge. It is but fair to the successful candidates to state that their work is highly creditable, as regards the neatness and accuracy of their drawing,

Music. This year's are certainly, on the whole, the best papers I have yet had. Of the few candidates who have not passed, the failure is attributable (as on former occasions) to their having attempted the harmony and counterpoint questions, with insufficient or no preparation, to the neglect of those questions which possibly they might have answered correctly. The second-class papers-nearly half of those worked-are very creditable.

TABLE IV.

Spanish. Most of the candidates have tried for a higher certificate than their knowledge of Spanish seems to warrant, and a few only have complied with the requirements. This mistake has damaged the result of the examination of some who, in all probability, would have OCCUPATIONS, PRESENT OR PROPOSED, OF THE 1,369 been more successful had they tried for a lower class certificate.

Free-hand Drawing.-Candidates for examination were requested to bring any drawings they had made during the last twelve months as proofs of their abilities; this gave each candidate an opportunity of showing what he had learnt, and what his taste was, if he had any peculiar talent. There were fifty-six candidates who sent in

CANDIDATES FROM WHOM RETURN PAPERS WERE RE

CEIVED:

[and

Art-Student

11 Assistant,

Building

2

Accountants
Clerks]
Agents..
Apprentice to Linen
Manufacture ..
Architects ..

Surveyor's

Corn Merchant's

Hotel

Librarian's

Measurer

1 Mechanics

12 Medical students

1 Messengers..

1 Milkman

1 Millwrights

1 Minder.

1 Miner..

1 Mining engineers

1 Missionary.

1 Model-maker
Moulder

1 Muslin-man

1 Needle-hardener.

5 Oil-cloth-maker

1 Oilman

twenty principal towns in the kingdom, indicating the popular unanimity of the nation in the work. On the pedestal are inscribed the facts which gave rise to the inonument. The column is decorated with four figures of Fame, in bas relief, on its lower portion, and these figures are connected together by garlands. The capital of the column is decorated with the cypher and arms of the king, in the midst of palin branches and symbolic flowers. The figure of Don Pedro IV. is dressed in a general's uniform; the right hand holds the constitution which he inaugurated, while the left rests on the hilt of the sword. This statue is to be ten feet high, cast in bronze, and gilt by the electro-galvanic process. The entire monument will be nearly one hundred and forty feet high.

EXHIBITION OF CARICATURES.-The whole of Europe and France in particular is just now full of exhibitions agricultural, industrial, artistic, and miscellaneous. One of a new kind is talked of in Paris at the present moment -an Exhibition of Caricatures. There is little doubt that such a collection might be made extremely interesting, but at the same time there would be some difficulty in knowing what to admit and what to exclude. Not only would the political question raise some difficulties, but many of the productions which a hundred years since were considered only grotesque could not now certainly be exhibited in public. Such an exhibition, moreover, could not well be made international; few nations would like to show how they sketched others in past times, or to see how the caricaturists of other nations treated them.

Commerce.

logical researches, discovered that vast caves in the innumerable islands of the Indian Archipelago were filled with the detritus of bats, which are of enormous size in those latitudes, and have existed there by myriads, almost undisturbed, for ages. Mr. Earl says that the amount of guano in those islands is incalculable. A French chemist has analysed the guano of Vesoul, and considers it valuable as manure, a fact which helps to validate Mr. Earl's discovery, as both deposits are produced by the same creatures.

THE EXHIBITION AT BOMBAY.-The promoters of the proposed Great Exhibition at Bombay are losing no time in pushing forward the scheme. Already a Building Committee has been formed who will superintend all the necessary arrangements. Another has been appointed for India, one for China and Japan, one for Australia and the Cape, one for Persia and Egypt, one for Europe (to correspond with the London Commission), and one for America (corresponding with the New York Commission). A District Committee is formed for regulating the arrangement of all the articles in the building, and Government has been applied to in order to form official committees throughout India.

Colonies.

INTERCOLONIAL CUSTOMS.-It appears that Victoria is going in the direction of protection, while South Australia, which is contending with it for the trade of Western Riverina, is being urged by others to go to the opposite extremeof an immediate abolition of the Custom-house. A proposal to that effect was brought forward in the Chamber of Commerce at Adelaide, but it does not appear to have excited much attention. Only 30 attended and only 19 voted. The result was that 14 persons expressed them

PRESERVATION OF SHIPS.-A communication has been made by Lieutenant A. Mariot, of the French navy, relative to the means employed by the Cochin-Chinese to protect the hulls of vessels from the attacks of the auger-selves in favour of an immediate abolition of the Customworm and other mischievous creatures. M. Mariot house. It was argued that a moderate increase of direct declares that the Chinese and Annamites know how to taxes would enable the revenue to dispense with the protect their vessels effectually, and at a very small cost, Custom-house, but how it was to be collected or what it and a long residence in the two countries as a naval officer would cost was not gone into. The special reason which gives weight to his evidence. He was struck with the makes the policy of South Australia interesting to New extreme antiquity in appearance of many of the native South Wales is, that, if it were to adopt the system of vessels, and found on inquiry that they were quite as old open ports, it would either compel New South Wales to as they looked, and that in some cases they had been do the same or put it to great expense to guard against bequeathed from father to son until their origin was smuggling. If spirits were admitted duty free into South entirely forgotten. The timber of these vessels being Australia, how are they to be kept from the back territhe same as that employed in India for the same purpose, tories of New South Wales? It would pay to cart the conand the waters of Cochin-China teeming with destructive traband commodities for long distances towards Sydney, creatures, it was evident that the durability of the vessels perhaps into Sydney itself. A preventive service on the arose from some special precaution. The means employed River Murray would be very inconvenient, and perhaps are, according to Lieut. Mariot, a mixture of a resinous not effective, although New South Wales has only wo oil with a resin, applied hot to the wood; both the sub-guard against goods that have paid full duties. How stances being special products of the lands on the banks of much more troublesome to guard against the introduction the river Meikou, the trees which yield them having of goods that have paid no duties at all. South Australia heart-shaped leaves, strong roots, and throwing out is, perhaps, in a better position to be able to dispense with suckers. The tree which yields the oil is called by the customs dues than any of its neighbour's. Annamites caydau, literally oil-tree, and often attains a height of more than two hundred feet; it will furnish from three to five pints of oil per week. Boats made of the wood of this tree are said never to be attacked by the auger-worm. The tree which yields the resin is described as being somewhat similar to the former. M. Mariot, when in command of the Amphitrite lorcha, under Admiral Charner, employed the native mixture on a boat which had been attacked by the mollusks, and at the end of a year it was perfectly free from any fresh attacks.

Obituary.

SIR JOSEPH PAXTON, late M.P. for Coventry, died on Thursday, the 8th inst., at his house, Rockhills, Syden ham. He was the son of poor parents, and was born at Milton Bryant, near Woburn, Beds, in 1803. Having while very young to seek his own livelihood, he became a gardener, and in that capacity obtained a situation to GUANO IN FRANCE.-A large deposit of guano, the pro-work in the gardens of Sion House. He rose to the post duce of bats, has been discovered in a natural cave, belong of foreman, and was gradually promoted by the Duke of ing to the Commander de Beaufond, eight miles distant Devonshire to the position of director of the garden at from Vesoul, in the department of the Haute-Saône. Chatsworth, and afterwards to that of manager of the The deposit is estimated at about eight hundred cubic Derbyshire estates belonging to the duke. He remodelled inetres. This discovery recalls another which was made the whole of the gardens, and the many magnificent many years ago by Mr. George Windsor Earl, now magis-works now standing there were carried out under his trate at Penang, and published in London about the year direction. Amongst them was the great conservatory, a This gentleman, in his geographical and ethno-glass and iron structure, 300 feet long, which he made

1854.