mony to the fact that in
the public schools of England 90 per cent. fail "to read with tolerable
ease and expression a passage from a newspaper, and spell the same with
tolerable accuracy." This is the substance of the "ernest testimony"
from "scholars and educators in England." All this testimony has been
previously given by the same "reformer" and by others without variation
or corroboration. The facts stated seem to be isolated ones, as well as
"grand, gloomy and peculiar." One swallow does not make a summer, nor do
one eminent philologist and one uneminent educator make "scholars and
educators." But when the testimony is carefully viewed, what does it
amount to? Some of the very elements necessary in the consideration of
the testimony are wanting. What was the extent of the failures by the
candidates for civil service? Did they miss one word or more? Were they
more deficient in spelling than in other branches? Of the 90 per cent.
of the public-school pupils who failed, what is the class composing
those pupils? Were they as deficient in other branches as in spelling?
What were the newspaper passages selected for trial? What is meant by
"tolerable ease and expression" and "tolerable accuracy"? According to
the testimony itself, the reference of Max Mueller is to the "new
schools" established since the late extension of education in England.
Confessedly, then, this applies to classes of pupils who had formerly
been deprived of educational advantages and privileges. It is a wonder
that 10 per cent. were successful. The testimony furnished is more
"ernest" than valuable.

The state of education in Protestant countries where other languages
than the English are spoken is taken as a conclusive argument for the
efficiency of phonetic orthography. Denmark, Norway, Sweden and
Switzerland are named as shining exemplars in this regard. It is because
the languages of those countries are orthographic models that the people
are so highly educated. The general fact is incontrovertible that among
those people there is less illiteracy than among those who speak the
English language. As Switzerland has no national language, the Swiss
people should not have been named except in company with those others
whose languages they use. But the bare fact of the smaller percentage of
illiteracy among the people above named is not conclusive as to the
retarding and depressing influence which the "difficulties of English
spelling" have upon the s