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the competitors? Who should be allowed to nominate to the quarterly contests? It would doubtless be desirable that the power of nominating should not be confined to one source but be entrusted to various hands; so that all the many diverse sections of the English people might be fairly represented in these struggles, and have each a fair chance of contributing its special excellence to the public service. It is not my purpose, however, to enumerate the different parties upon whom this power might be advantageously conferred: it would doubtless be well employed by the clergy of the Church of England and by the ministers of the principal congregations of Dissenters; probably the heads of departments would exercise it for the public benefit; and perhaps by the members of the legislature it might, under the altered circumstances, be used without detriment. But my present object is limited to this suggestion—that into whatsoever other hands the privilege might be also committed, it would certainly be highly beneficial both to the Civil Service and to popular education, if it were confided to the Managers of most of the popular Day Schools throughout the country.
It would be useless at present to go into details as to the conditions upon which a school should be entitled to this privilege. Perhaps the only condition necessary would be that the School was efficiently conducted. This rule would of course admit at once all schools approved by H. M. Inspectors; but it need not exclude others not subject to their inspection. There are doubtless many excellent Church schools receiving only diocesan inspection—British schools inspected only by the agents of the British and Foreign Society—and schools of Dissenters who object on conscientious grounds to the receipt of public money. It would be desirable to avoid even the appearance of exclusiveness in such a matter, and every school which might be proved, by whatever evidence, to be efficient, to the satisfaction of some neutral and impartial authority, should be placed in the schedule of those, the managers of which should be allowed to nominate a limited number of candidates for trial in the next competition.
