tone of a good man shrinking from a detestable action. Lady He is almost as comfortable as a man can be who is bent on a desMacbeth answers him-answers him powerfully-answers him un- perate enterprise, with hardly "virtue enough to be faithful to answerably. But how? Schlegel tells us she uses the sophisms his own villany." "I am settled," he cries,

that throw a false splendour over crime. Nothing could be more untrue. She uses no sophisms at all-either here or in other passages. I beg you, for we are now at the heart of the matter, to give your most attentive hearing to the argumentative part of Lady Macbeth's share in this conversation. Was the hope drunk,'

she says―

Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dressed yourself? hath it slept since?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely?

An admirable metaphor this: bold, realistic, and to the purpose; appropriate to the moment and the scene, while the coarse revels of a half-barbaric castle during a royal visit were actually audible, as these two debated the miserable issue on which hung the life which of all others in the world they should have held sacred. "From this time," says Lady Macbeth, knowing her power over her husband, and probably seeing that her apt, rough simile has seized upon his quick imagination

Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour
As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem,

Letting" I dare not" wait upon "I would,"
Like the poor cat i' the adage?

If this plain speech needs a paraphrase, and perhaps it may, for Dr. Johnson said it contained no argument, it should run somewhat as follows:-" Come," says the wife, " no sentiment, no harking back, and no cowardice! Duncan has been just as good to you yesterday. If there were any sound reason of policy why you should give up the idea of murdering him, you would state it. But you do not. You merely lack courage to do what you desire. Surely you are not so poor a creature as to prize the esteem of men without deserving it! Surely it is better that men should hate you in a proud position, resolutely won, than that you should despise your self in a lower position, in which you remain, not from virtue, but from cowardice. If you were a good man, and had religious scruples-if you were a humane man, as I used to think you, and shrank from cruelty-I could understand you objecting. But this mere quaking, without any principle in it, is beneath contempt."

When you durst do it, then you were a man ;
And, to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man.

And bend up

Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
Away and mock the time with fairest show:

False face must hide what the false heart doth know.

After this, I must say that it seems to me too bad that it should be levelled at any actor as a reproach, that he makes Macbeth craven and abject. What is the man else? What greatness has he except in the field-in vivid eloquence—and in a desperate death at bay? It is no weakness indeed to shrink from crime. To recoil from a misdeed which promises wealth or power is to many a nature a task requiring vast strength of moral principle. No one would call Macbeth a coward for being horrified at the thought of murder. To break into the human temple and steal the life of the building must always be indescribably horrible. There is no image that any of us can conjure up that more thrills our moral sensations, though we may be barely able to conceive the feelings of a homicide. But Macbeth was meanly wicked, because his mind did not revolt from the deed, but only from its accompaniments and consequences.

At the same time, it must be confessed that in these two scenes, in which the character of Macbeth is fixed, the representation of Mr. Irving-which has been severely censured as too craven--does not exactly bring out the idea of the text. I hesitate to take objection lightly to anything in that wonderful performance, because it is superior, with all its faults, to any other that I have seen, and because I shrink from seeming to be among the crowd of empty depreciators by whom the steps of original greatness are always dogged. But in order to distinctly mark the true Macbeth, the new Macbeth must be rigidly as well as sympathetically scrutinized. caught the character of Macbeth, he has not quite so successfully Now, it seems to me that while Irving has most truly and firmly apprehended Shakespeare's method of displaying that character. Shakespeare depends more on light and shade. Irving relies too much on a prevailing dun colour. His first scene is faultless. When the dim rocks of the witch-prelude have vanished, and the heath is revealed, upon which the returning generals meet the imperfect speakers who prophesy their fortunes, Macbeth enters on a rising ground, and the striking profile of the actor is seen clear-cut against the murky sky, as he gazes with the keenness a great general never quite lays aside across the gloomy country. He turns to the audience, and in a single gaze, as in "Hamlet," fixes the character of the whole performance. Is this right? It would not be if Macbeth were, according to the received notions, the amiable tool of a wicked woman and an irresistible destiny. But it is right, because Then Lady Macbeth-her mind fixed solely on her one principle, the dramatist has given the actor the means of knowing beforethat if you are not prevented from perpetrating evil by scruples, hand the restless, acquisitive moral nature that lives within Macit is contemptible to be hindered by mere fear or irresolution-beth's warlike exterior. As he stands there in clear outline against bursts into the celebrated rhapsody in which she describes how re- the lurid sky, no one could fancy him an ordinary successful morselessly she would have slaughtered her babe if she had sworn to eral on his way home from victory to honour. There is more in do it. This produces a very slight effect on her husband. When she him, and the overplus is high-reaching, gloomy, and mischievous. asked him whether he was content to live like the poor cat i' the Such a disposition, insatiably ambitious, fretful over the need to do adage, she threw out one of those obvious light outworks of mo- ill deeds in order to satisfy unbounded desires, but never genuinely rality which are prompt enough in most extempore defences against turning away from temptation that promises advantage, is tinder temptation-a line and a half which Dr. Johnson said must make for the sparks of the witches' promptings to fall on. At the first Shakespeare immortal if all the rest of his works perished: Who contact the glimmering tracery of evil suggestion flits and flutters dares do more than becomes a man is none. But this is soon for- through Macbeth's being. Honest Banquo-too little regarded by gotten. While his wife has been talking of dashing her infant's lovers of the play, one of the finest examples in poetry of unsmirchbrains out, his mind has lit on the one point that is practical. "If ed and unsmirchable humour in a mind quick to comprehend they should fail." And then comes the most significant incident of inducements to evil and to note the yieldings of others to brilliant all. As yet Macbeth has not the dream he needs. His wife's bold temptation-honest Banquo sees almost everything that is passing moral theory does not stimulate or assimilate with his mean instincts. He is just as little inclined either to deserve or to lose the world's esteem as ever. He is not screwed to the stickingplace. What happens? Lady Macbeth hints at the plan of putting the murder upon the drunken officers of the king's bedchamber. In a moment her husband-this highly moral and noble character, whom only supernatural soliciting and a bad wife can bring within sight of an evil project—is all agog.

Bring forth men-children only;

For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing but males.

With wonderful quickness he improves on his wife's dastardly suggestion :

Will it not be received,

When we have marked with blood those sleepy two
Of his own chamber, and used their very daggers,
That they have done't?

LADY MACBETH.

Who dares receive it other,

As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar

Upon his death?

gen

through his colleague's mind. There is very little secret about it. Before he meets the witches, Macbeth has thought of murder. From the moment when they call him king he dwells on murder. From the instant when, being greeted Thane of Cawdor by the king's messenger, he has earnest of the fulfilment of their weird prophecy, he means murder.

2. THE ENGLISH EDUCATION BILL OF 1876. On May 19th Lord Sandon explained the elaborate and somewhat complex provisions of the Ministerial Education Bill in a lucid and admirably arranged speech, which repeatedly elicited expressions of cordial approval from both sides of the House. It was quite understood that there can be no serious criticism of the Bill until it comes up for its second reading; but the following are its main provisions. He said that although there was school accommodation for three millions and a quarter children, and a school population of 2,300,000, there were only 1,850,000 under instruction, so that 450,000 had to be accounted for. These were not to be found in the private adventure schools, and, in fact, he was at a loss to know where they were. The education that the

These happy thoughts are quite sufficient for the virtuous Macbeth. country desired to give, however, was ready; there were the

VI. Departmental Notices.

schools and there were the teachers; everything, in short except the children who ought to take advantage of it. To secure their attendance at school, the present law was defective and inade1. MIDSUMMER VACATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. quate, and wanting both in simplicity and uniformity. Consequently some legislation was really needed on the subject. The In view of the examination of candidates for Teachers' cerproposal, then, which he had to make on behalf of the Government tificates occurring this year on the 10th July, and following would, when it came to maturity in 1881, for it would be introduced days, and for other considerations, the Hon. the Minister of gradually, present the following features:-The country would still Education has decided to authorize the closing of the Public be free to establish School Boards with all their existing powers; Schools for vacation on Friday, 7th July, instead of on the but the Agricultural Children's Act would be repealed, and Town

3. EXAMINATION OF CANDIDATES FOR CERTIFICATES AS PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS.

Councils and Boards of Guardians would be empowered, on the re- 15th.
quisition of the ratepayers, to pass bye-laws, the same as School
Boards were now, for enforcing school attendance for full or half time;
but they would have no authority to establish schools. Again, no
person would be allowed to employ a child under ten years of age,
nor from ten to fourteen years of age, without a certificate Under the regulations for the examinations, Monday, the
of efficiency in reading, writing, arithmetic, or of having attended 10th day of July, has been appointed by the Minister of Educa
school two hundred and fifty times in each of the five previous tion for the commencement of the examinations of teachers for
years in not more than two elementary schools. By this arrange- the current year, for certificates of the first, second and third
ment a child between ten and fourteen might be employed, pro-

vided it did not interfere with his efficient instruction. The Town class.
Councils and Boards of Guardians would enforce their authority
through the action of school attendance committees ; but they
would not be permitted to interfere with regulated industries, such
as workshops and mines. In the event of the local authorities not

VII. Advertisements.

carrying out the provisions of the Act, power would be taken by St. Catharines' Collegiate Institute.

the Government to appoint an officer to see that the Act was enforced for two years, at the expiration of which time the responsibility would recur to the local authority. With regard to "wastrels," children neglected and left to wander, it would be the duty of the local authority first to warn the parent, if there were no reasonable or just excuse for keeping the child from school. In case the warning was unheeded, he would then be brought before a court of summary jurisdiction, when he might be fined 5s., and in further default the child might be committed to a School of Industry. The object was, therefore, to put the whole responsibility for the children in the hands of the local authorities, who would have to carry out the measure and the Industrial Schools Act. Referring next to the case of poor districts, Lord Sandon defined these as districts in which a threepenny rate produced less than 6s. per child; and in such cases he proposed that the parliamentary grant might extend to double the school fees, rates, and subscriptions. The Bill would also deal with the subject of bye-elections to School Boards, and, following the precedent of the Scotch Act, would empower the School Board itself to fill up an occasional vacancy. After describing other subsidiary proposals Lord Sandon commended his measure to the approval of the House, as being at once cautious and bold, comprehensive and straightforward; and expressed a fervent hope that it would be successful in putting the coping-stone on the great work of national elementary education.

HEAD MASTER.-John Seath, B. A., Queen's, Ireland.

TEACHING STAFF.-The Staff consists of eight experienced masters, four of
whom are University Graduates, and the others hold the highest
Grades of Certificates. Three are Medallists in their respective De
partments.
BUILDING. The accommodation has recently been increased and greatly im
proved, and each Class-room is supplied with every educational re
quisite. The School contains a large Laboratory furnished with the
best appliances for the study of Practical Science.

COURSES OF STUDY. -Pupils obtain a thorough English, Commercial, or
Classical Education, and are prepared for University Matriculation
Examinations, for the Preliminary Examinations of the Law Society
and Medical Council, and for Teachers' Certificates of the 1st. and
2nd Class.

After

the Summer vacation new classes will be organized in all the subjects required for Teachers' Certificates. A special class will be formed for young men who wish to begin Classics, and to advance more rapidly in their studies than they would in the Lower School. FEES.-School free to these who have passed the "Intermediate." Fee for BOARD.-Board may be obtained at $2.75 and $3 a week in private families and in boarding-houses connected with the Institute. For Prospectus address the Head-master.

others $3. a term.

June 21st, 1876, St. Catharines.

A

Free Public School Library Card.

NEW and beautiful Chromo-Lithographic Library Card has just been 3. COMPULSORY EDUCATION IN ENGLAND. prepared by the Education Department, for the Public School Libraries of the Province. It is 22 inches by 14 inches, is printed in gold and England has 3,250,000 children that should be at school. Of of Library books to the scholars, and the meeting of the children outside colours and presents two pleasing views of school life, viz: the distribution these but 1,850,000 are under instruction, leaving 1,400,000 to the School-House door after the distribution is over. be otherwise accounted for. This state of affairs in the educational Too often in our school-rooms the Library case stands with no distinguish world there is to be deplored, and was sufficient to justify the Gov-jing mark. One of these cards placed over the case gives the library a more attractive ernment in bringing down a compulsory measure, intended to remedy the evil. Whether the details of the Bill will be sound in their principle and effective in their working remains to be seen, but they will doubtless provoke great discussion in the country as well as in Parliament. If the State has one duty more than another incumbent upon it, it is that of educating its people; and if it cannot be ac

appearance.

books, or 65c. each by post, postage paid.
Supplied at the People's Depository, at 55c. each when taken with library

PRIZE AND LIBRARY BOOKS.

complished by moral suasion being brought to bear on the refrac- THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

ALLOWS

ONE HUNDRED PER CENT.
On all remittances over $5 sent to it

FOR

PRIZE OR LIBRARY BOOKS.

The price charged the Schools for the Books is at the rate of 18 cents on the 1s. sterling of retail cost, being nearly 35 per cent. lower than the current retail prices of these Books.

tory parents and children, it should be by a little of the good old doctrine of compulsion. In England, as Lord Sandon said upon introducing the Bill, they have the schools and the teachers, but the children are wanting. It was proposed to supply them, by enforced attendance, by a system which will gradually come into effect until 1881, when it will be complete. Great powers are to be entrusted to the local authorities, who, by by-laws, may compel the resident children to go to school either upon full or half time. No person would be permitted to employ a child between ten and fourteen years of age, unless it could produce a certificate of efficiency in reading, writing and arithmetic, or of having attended some elementary school 250 times per annum in the five preceding years of its life. Where the local authorities are careless in the discharge of, or oblivious to their duties, a Government inspector is to be em*** If Library and Prize Books be ordered, in addition to ployed for two years in strictly enforcing the Act, when the power Maps and Apparatus, it will BE NECESSARY FOR THE TRUSTEES is to revert to the local Boards. The Bill has many details, of no TO SEND NOT LESS THAN five dollars additional for each class of great importance in this country, but, before dropping the subject, books, &c., with the proper forms of application for each class it may be well to remark that some of its best features are borrowed PRINTED FOR THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT BY HUNTER, ROSE & Co.

from the Scotch laws.--Hamilton Times.

Catalogues sent on application.

RELIGIO.SCIENTIA LIBERTAS

TORONTO, JULY, 1876.

Copy of an Order in Council approved by His Honour the Lieuten- and Natural Philosophy within certain limits; (3) lastly, those who ant-Governor, the 21st day of June, A.D. 1876.

2. The First Division shall contain (1), the students who have 7. STANDING IN ONTARIO OF TEACHERS CERTIFIpassed through the Second Division and obtained Second Class Certificates, grade A ; and (2), those who hold Second Class grade A, Certificates granted by County Boards, provided they can pass an examination (within specified limits) in Natural Philosophy, Alge

A memorial was received at the Department requesting that quar-it. terly instead of half-yearly entrance examinations might be held. The subject will be carefully considered, but at present the Minister sees no advantage in the proposal which is not counterbalanced by disadvantages.

The proposed change would, in fact, require a revision of the existing scheme, additional examiners, and increased expense, without affording, except in a few instances, any further needed facilities for admission than exist at present. The Minister is of opinion that a provisional examination would lead to a recurrence of some of the former abuses which it is the object of the new regulations to prevent.

The Intermediate Examinations at High Schools will be governed by the following instructions of the Minister :

Q.-The board did not give you any assistance? A.-None.
Q. And the same with the slips in Arithmetic? A.-Yes, the

same.

By Mr. Le Sueur, Commissioner :

Q. When you were writing, was it upon a slate? A.-No, upon paper; I think we always use paper.

Q. And you put a piece of paper aside if you do not work it very well? A. Yes, I think so. There was no rule in the case. Q.-You had a slip of paper with the correct answer. You were working upon the question, and found your result was not the same as that upon the paper. Could you put the piece of paper aside and commence a new operation until the correct answer was brought out? A. Yes.

By Mr. McDowall, Complainant:

Q. Did you find any of your answers not to correspond those upon the paper? A.-I do not remember.

Q. You do not remember making any changes? A.-I do
MARY PILSON.

Signed in presence of

P. LE SUEUR,

Commissioner.

given in evidence I cannot say—and something about the bones, [ dare say, but I am not sure.

Q.-Were you aware of what the subject of the examination paper was? A. Decidedly and emphatically, no. Q. The papers were still sealed up? Yes.

Q.-The Regulations require these seals to be broken in presence of another examiner. Can you mention the name of that examiner ? A.-I most emphatically state, with regard to these papers on Physiology, that while standing on the platform, as I have shown you, and when the conversation alluded to took place, I had no more idea of what was in them than, as the saying is, the man in the moon, for they had not been opened. As to the sixth charge, that the time was extended, &c., &c., I could not say. There may have been a few minutes given occasionally--I cannot to say how often. I consider there is a license given on special occasions, or at any rate a latitude, to presiding Inspectors and Examinot.ners, so far as their judgment lies. I am decidedly certain the extension was not for an hour. It was done with my sanction I have no doubt, but whether at my instance I do not know. I think it quite likely, however.

This closed Mr. McDowall's list of witnesses upon the last group of charges, and after some discussion

By Mr. Le Sueur, Commissioner:

Q.-You are Chairman of the Board? A.-I am Chairman of the Board by virtue of my office as Inspector. By Dr. Hodgins, Chairman:

Q. Do you know whether there is a Regulation as to the time of
closing examinations? A.-I know there is a Regulation that they
shall be opened at one hour and closed at another.
Q.-And another in regard to persons coming late? A.-I do
not know that if persons come in late, they are not allowed to
make up lost time.

Q.-In other words, that the examination shall close specifically
A.-I think so.

Q. In this case the Examiners did not do so, under circumstances which appeared to them to justify it? A.-1 admit that, but I consider, as presiding examiner, that there was a latitude allowed

The Rev. H. J. Borthwick was called in his own defence. Having stated that he had a conscientious objection to "kissing the book," he made an affirmation with uplifted hand, and proceeded to make the following statement :-The third charge is that in one case at least I wrote on the black-board the answers to questions, thereby assisting candidates to the solution of the same. Until this present inquiry was in progress, I had no recollection whatever of the fact recited in that charge, but of course I cannot for one moment suppose that the ladies and gentlemen who have given tes-at the hour named? timony here have testified falsely. I have no recollection whatever of having written these answers, but the witnesses have said the writing was there, and I am sure they would not have been written by anybody else. But I demur most emphatically to the state- us. ment that it was done to aid the candidates in the solution of their Q. Do you not know that it is a question upon which we have problems. It was meant merely to give them an idea whether they been very careful not to allow Boards any latitude at all? A.were approaching to correctness or not. These ladies and gentlemen Well, I do not think I had any motive in doing it. have testified that the answers were there. I am sure that neither of the other gentlemen put them there, and therefore I shall have to take the onus of having written them myself, but of having written them to give the candidates an idea of whether they were nearly right or not certainly not assisting them to that conclusion. I would also say, in regard to this third charge, these answers to the Physiology questions, if put up by me, were put up just at the close, as I shall acknowledge in the fourth case, with the view of letting them know whether they were right, or whether they were likely to pass. As to the fourth head, I admit, as I have already said, that I did hand round papers such as those mentioned at the close of the examination. Some, I believe, had ere then handed in their papers, and some had not, but none of them made any change in their papers in consequence. As to having written "You have passed in English Grammar," I have no doubt I did.

Dr. Hodgins-What was your object in stating that?

Mr. Borthwick These teachers were all of them in our own staff, and my object was to send them home comfortable. I had no desire to injure any one or help any one. No one could have derived any unfair advantage in any form.

By Mr. Le Sueur-I suppose it was done out of a feeling of kindness to them?

Mr. Borthwick-Exactly so.
Cross-examined by Dr. Hodgins, Chairman:

Q.-You did not give these answers to some and not to all? A.
-I did not.

Q.-So that favouritism could not arise out of the matter? A. -By no possibility. "Hodgins' School Law Lectures," page 177, gives information with regard to examiners. (Reads the declaration.) In your presence, gentlemen, I distinctly state, upon oath as I am, that no advantage was given to any one that was not given to the whole.

A.

Q. The fact is admitted that the time was extended? That is so, but I do not admit that I was solely responsible for it. By Mr. McDowall, Complainant, through the Chair:

Q. In the examination of July, 1874, did you not actually give an advantage to some teachers that you did not give to others? Did you not pass slips to some with the answers in Arithmetic written on them, while to others the slips merely contained the information that they had passed in English Grammar? A.-I answer that I did not pass these papers to some and not to others. Q. Are you prepared to say that you gave these answers to Mr. Martin; and is it not the fact that you only gave him a slip of paper with the information-"you have passed in English Grammar?" A.-I do not acknowledge that these answers were any advantage, but I am not prepared to say whether I left out one of the candidates in distributing them or not. My impression and belief is that they were given to all, including Mr. Martin. By Mr. Le Sueur, Commissioner:

Q-Have you any recollection of giving it? A.-I have no recollection, but I have no doubt he got it. My intention was that all should see them, without any distinction. H. J. BORTHWICK,

I.P.S.

Dr. Hodgins, Chairman of the Commission, announced that the investigation of charges 1 and 2 would now be proceeded with. Abraham Pratt, sworn and examined by Mr. McDowall, Complainant:

Q-And you regarded the act of giving these answers as you did quite within the scope of that solemn declaration? A. Yes, I did. Now, as to charge No. 5, I remember quite well the circum- Q.-Are you a member of the Board of Examiners for the examistance. I had no recollection of it at first, but now I do remember nation of Public School teachers for Ottawa? A.-I am. standing upon the edge of our platform, when the ladies and gen- Q. When were you first appointed on that Board? A.-I tlemen were passing out, and some one of the ladies jokingly ask-think in 1871, when the first Board was appointed. ing "Well, what is going to be on the next paper, I wonder?" Q. And you have been a member of the Board ever since? A. That was done over and over again. I remember that some one -No; one year I was not. made this remark, but I cannot say who. I answered-" Phy

Q. What year was that? A.-1873 or 1874, I would not be siology." I wonder what it will be about," was the next remark sure which.

from the lady. I answered in a general way-a mere coincidence Q. When were you re-appointed? A.--At the beginning of something about the teeth-whether the correct words have been 1874, I think; but I did not act that year,