raise the funds required for this or any other undertaking, of the utility of which they are convinced; but I think it of paramount importance that a public institution for education should have a certain degree of independence. The colleges of our fore-fathers were foundations, not speculations.
The conclusion to which, after nearly twenty years attention to the subject, I have arrived, as to the direction in which my own efforts may most usefully be exerted on the subject of middle-class education, is already before the public. My hope rests for the present in giving a definite aim and purpose to the independent action of existing schools; so that parents may know better what to expect, and masters may have some encouragement in the path of duty, subject to this one paramount condition, that sooner or later their work shall be tested by a competent tribunal.
I hope that we are not far from the establishment and recognition of such a standard and such a tribunal; and that the Bath and West of England Society will have had some share in bringing about such a result.
I feel bound to acknowledge that to Lord Ebrington I owe the first clear perception of this object; though not altogether agreed with him as to the means of attaining it, I was happy to cooperate with him in his prize scheme, of which I regard that in which I am engaged as an extension.
I cannot close these remarks without expressing my thanks to several gentlemen engaged in various departments of education in the West of England, for the frank and hearty support which they have given to the West of England Examinations,
My personal acknowledgments for much valuable information are especially due to the Rev. J. Penrose, of Exmouth; and to Mr. Templeton, M.A., St. David's Hill, Exeter.
It is also a great pleasure to me to refer to communications of a friendly character from other gentlemen engaged in tuition in Devonshire and the adjoining counties, many of which cannot fail to impress those who read them with the conviction that in the West of England may be found a considerable number of manly minded men who despise imposture of all kinds, who are doing honest work, and shrink from no test, but rather desire a searching examination in order that it may appear who are the real Educators; men who, if there be defects in the methods adopted by themselves, wish to know the fact, that they may remedy those defects. Such men have nothing to fear; the demand for good education is on the increase, and parents are as anxious as they are themselves, that the public should know where to find it.
