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grounds. If my assertion be true, then ti priori the colonies will come cheerfully to the generous assistance of a scheme that possesses inherent merit the potentiality by educational means of the highest order of drawing the Britisher and the colonist closer together through the medium of brains. Lord Rosebery's dream of a legislative picnic, in order to insure a better acquaintance of the governed by those who for the nonce have to perform the task of governing the Empire, served its purpose —it gave point to an epoch-making speech : but when men regarded it from the standpoint of practicability it was generally recognised that it could never be accomplished. But Mr. Vaile has taken hold of the idea, and is using it to the greatest advantage. Send to us for, say, three years the ablest of your "intellectuals" (in this term I include not only the academic but the scientific), attach them for that time to the recognised universities of the oversea dominions, and let them come among us with a determination to view us and our difficulties impartially; and the net result of the operation of the scheme must be to remove mutual prejudices, to clear away mis understandings, to strengthen the Imperial tie, and, to adopt your own simile, to found "a true and wide Imperialism." What amount of money is needed to put the scheme on a sure basis I know not —Mr. Vaile has doubtless closely calculated the cost/and is prepared to state it; but I am confident that if the details are put clearly and squarely before the citizens of Greater Britain they will rise to the occasion, do the part required of them, and again demonstrate that their Imperialism is not founded on lip service, but is in their heart of hearts. Believing firmly as I do in the potentialities of Mr. Yaile's scheme, and feeling sure that its realisation will be of immense value in the upbuilding of the Empire, I gladly indorse it. and on my return to my own land shall use my voice and pen to bring its salient - features before my own people and to secure their adoption by them. A Nkw Zkm.anu Editor. htt'KuiAt, Scholarships, Shi, — (To the Editor of the Evening Standard and St. .hunts'* Gazette.) The Imperial Scholarship scheme, recently broached in your columns, strikes one as appealing to the imagination; but, like everything which appeals to that overworked faculty, it is based on a true instinct. Will you allow me, as one who has had a good deal of practical experience of education and theoretical experience of sociology, to refer to some points which the idea of the scheme suggests 1 No one but the hide-bound pedagogue or the Socialist " endeavourer " doubts that education to-day is a monstrous growth in the flesh of the social organism. The obsolete curriculum through which 80 per cent, of the upper and middle classes are pushed at school and college is a " rudimentary process" which drains or perverts the mental and moral development of its victims. It has no relation to the facts of life. The invaluable part of it—Greek thought—was long ago absorbed by western culture and science. To extract a few drops of this in each generation is unnecessary. The draught is only appreciated by dreamers, and it is bad even for them. Far better to bring up our youth on the sincere milk of reality, instead of on the condensed wisdom of the ancients. In the next place, there is the huge and unwieldly growth of elementary education, so-called. It has had many years of trial, and its results are ridiculous. It elevates an occasional "sport," 1 per cent, of the proletariat; by a process more clumsy and with an outlay far greater than are involved in that proverbially difficult feat —the conversion*of a Jew. And this at the expense of the ninety-and-nine persons whose usefulness and content as workmen and artisans is spoilt, to their own and their country's injury. In his address last year to the British Association, Professor Ridgeway emphasized this lesson of elementary Again, the majority of the middle-class schools are crippled by a scheme of "elementary scholarships," as futile in its results and as misguided in its aims as the scheme of old-age pensions. The whole system is fostering physical and mental degeneration. Its cost is enormous, and it grows. Thus, education, the most important concern of the State, bids fair to lead to national bankruptcy in credit, physique, and brain. Confine elementary education to the three Rs; cut down its ridiculous list of "subjects." and its enormous and costly machinery. A small outlay on a scheme such as that of Imperial Scholarships would have fifty time's more result for the individual and the Empire than the present, educational budget. The individual would receive the highest crown of education—initiation into living ideals as a preparation for living reality; the Empire would advance its own interests without wasting its money . A study of individual benefits might be expanded into pages. The best sociology of all times has had a similar method of completing the education of its lust subjects. The old systems of the " wanderjahr " ami the Grand Tour arecxamples from two strata of society. America has followed the latter custom, anil the colonies are beginning to do so. Greece and Rome hail a similar practice. The ideal man of the Creeks was one who " had seen the cities of many men and learned their thoughts." The present scheme will organize a well-tried instinct; it will combine the highest individualism with the highest Imperialism. ami should insert the thin end of the wedge of science in the widest meaning of that term into modern Anglo Saxon education. A. E. CItAWI.EY. \Koeniiuj StandaM ami SI. James's Gazette. 7th July, 1909.J Rhodes reversed. —A New Imperiai. Scheme. —By P. A. Vaile. The Rhodes Scholarship Trust has been in existence for some years, but it is too soon for any one to say with certainty what the effect of it will be. So far as it has gone at present the result has