welve days, and are held three times in
the year; and the schedule of days, subjects and hours for each year is
published nearly a year in advance. The decision of the board is upon
the individual: "Has he passed a satisfactory examination in a
sufficient number of subjects?" and the board takes no account whatever
of the opinions and certificates of school-authorities concerning the
individual. A printed report is annually made by the board, showing the
name of each person who obtained a certificate, the subjects in which he
satisfied the examiners, and the school from which he came. The
examinations are conducted in writing for all the subjects, but for a
few subjects oral examinations are superadded. The questions are
printed; they are the same for every candidate in any given subject; and
they are made public when the examinations are over. In order to secure
uniformity of standard at the examinations, the results obtained at the
different places of examination are compared by the central board of
examiners. Each candidate pays a fee of two pounds, and from these fees
each examiner is liberally paid for every day of service spent in
setting questions, attending the examinations and looking over the
answers of candidates.

There never was a method of examination without its drawbacks, and the
chief weakness of the English system is that it tends to excite a spirit
of rivalry which is apt to resort for aid to cramming processes. As yet,
however, the examinations have been conducted in such a manner that the
special "cramming-schools"--of which there are not a few--have very
generally come to grief, even when they have had successes before the
examiners for the civil service.

D. C. MACDONALD.

OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.

THE RUSSIAN PRESS.

In its present form Russian journalism is a kind of geological diagram,
the primary strata being typified by the ministerial organs (the
_Russian Invalid_ and the _Northern Bee_) and their shadow the _Journal
de St. Petersbourg_; the transition period by the _Voice_ (_Golos_) and
the _Moscow Gazette_; and the more advanced ages by the _Russian World_
(_Russki Mir_). The last, although dating back only to the Franco-German
war, has already made itself conspicuous for the exceptional accuracy of
its information, the wide range of its topics and the frank and manly
tone of its criticism. Thanks to it and to its two great forerunners
above mentioned, the utterances of Russi