The article which we publish elsewhere to-day under the above heading should be prefaced by the same warning that was given with another article, by the same writer, on education in Shanghai—that no one particular school need be in " hurry to find a cap in the criticisms offered and fit it to ite own head. What the author says is based on general observation and intended for general consideration: one school may plead guilty on one point, another on another: and we are far from suggesting that any need feel guilty at all, At any rate we would emphasize strongly that there is no idea whatever of gi betting any one: school. What the author wishes to enforce is that competitive examuaations pushed to excess are rather injurious than advantageous; that they tend to sacrifice a great m: riy average pupils for the distinction to be won by a few clever ones and that teachers too often fail to read aright Nature's danger signs!s among their pupils, with dangerous results for the latter. We leave it to others better qualified to speak, to decide how far these chaiges are justified or not. But it is interest. ing to recall that cadets for the British Navy nowadays are examined as to all round intelligence, #0 as to avoid the evils of cramming; and that the Egyptian Service, which probably contains the highest average of ability of any service in the world, is recruited, not by competitive examination, but by. seleetion based on general suitability.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.