SPECIAL REPORTS.

I.

1.-REPORT ON THE CLASSES IN POLITICAL ECONOMY AND LOGIC.

During the term which has just expired, we have had three classes in Political Economy,-the Clare (1st year's) scholars, West (2nd year's), and a class consisting of the 1st and 2nd Normal scholars. The Normal scholars had some previous acquaintance with portions of Mill: to the West and Clare the subject of Political Economy was altogether new.

The Clare-the junior class--have gone through Clift's Elementary Treatise during the term, in addition to a small collection of manuscript notes.

The West scholars also commenced the term with Clift: but with their much greater command of English, and more cultivated intelligence, they completed it in about six weeks, submitting to very satisfactory examinations in it. They then commenced Mill, and got up very carefully and soundly, as I think it will subsequently appear, the whole of the 1st volume, with the exception of the chapters on Property.

With the normal scholars we omitted also the chapters on property in the 1st volume; and in the 2nd volume, several of those on the functions of Government, viz. the 1st and the 7th, and subsequent ones. With these exceptions this class has read, been lectured upon, and carefully examined in all Mill, and a part of Ricardo. The portions, however, prepared more fully for the annual examination were, the 1st volume of Mill, and to the end of Book III. in the second.

Each class has now undergone two examinations,-a rather severe one on paper, and perhaps a still more searching one vivá voce. Specimens of the papers accompany the Report, and also remarks on the answering of the normal class, by the gentleman who was kind enough to set the questions in this class, and assign the numbers to the answers.

It can scarcely be necessary to remark that in all the paper answers the mere style is considerably below what the pupil is really capable of,-that such answers are all written against time, without opportunity for any previous reflection, or leisure for any fastidiousness in phraseology, and with the consciousness that the matter will tell far more than the style in the subsequent scrutiny by the examiner; also, that it would be found, I believe in every case, (as those who have attended the viva voce examinations will know,) that the student usually possesses much clearer ideas on the subject he is treating than the intractableness, in his hands, of the difficult foreign idiom in which he writes will allow him to show. In the vivá voce examinations, in which opportunity is afforded for subsequent explanation, an obscure answer from a student is found to be by no means a certain indication of obscurity of thought, but merely, in many cases, of an insufficient command of English, and an insufficient appreciation of the value of the words he uses.

Specimens of the viva voce answering cannot of course be given; but the Tables appended of marks obtained would enable any one who might wish it to form for himself, though not perhaps without some little attention, a sufficiently definite notion of the results even of these. I hardly know whether this matter requires to be dwelt upon longer, but may perhaps be allowed to give an example or two.

In the viva voce political economy of the West Class, for instance, Báláji Pandurang, at the head of the class, obtains 50 marks out of 50, and Nárayan Balál, at the foot, 5 out of 50,-showing at once the relative merits of the two on this occasion. If now we wish to know what absolute proficiency is implied by this, we have to consider that Báláji must have answered satisfactorily every question which came to his turn, and that it is fair to infer, therefore, that he could have answered all, or nearly all, the questions put; and in the same manner that Nárayan Balál would probably have answered only about one-tenth of them. And to judge of the amount of knowledge or ignorance which this implies, we have evidently only to read the questions, which in this case will be found at page 27. In so doing, however, it may be necessary to bear in mind that the questions here given are but small selections, with various modifications, from a large mass prepared at various times for the numerous private examinations during the term. These selections, however, ranged originally over the whole

of each subject; but in no instance was the time allotted to the public examination found sufficient to exhaust them, and as only those which were really asked (about half) are here given, the entire acquirements of the students cannot, perhaps, be fairly inferred even from these.

The viva voce examinations in each case lasted the half of one of our working days; yet it will be seen that while in political economy the 1st year's men answered 70 questions in this time, the 2nd year's answered but 49, and the 3rd year's but 34. This is very easily understood: A single sentence from the junior men, showing that they really possessed the knowledge required, however incapable of dilating upon it, and illustrating it, was received as an answer; while many of the questions in the normal class elicited miniature dissertations in reply, or gave rise to several sub-questions, which do not appear in the list, but which had to be replied to before the mark was registered for an answer.

With reference to the paper questions I may perhaps be allowed to point out that all Mr. Fraser's are answered, (they were all indeed answered by every student,) and that although, from my frequent private examinations, the students might fairly have been expected to anticipate me to some extent in the public one, yet the replies to Mr. Fraser's paper are even fuller and more complete than those to my own.

Referring to the whole results in political economy, it will, I think, be seen that the Normal scholars have mastered more of the subject than it is usual to make a part of a regular course of education at all,—more indeed than it would have been easy to teach prior to the collection, by Mill, into one systematic treatise, of the portions of the subject previously scattered through some half score of writers,that the Wests have studied quite as soundly a somewhat more limited portion, and that the Clares have obtained a very good elementary knowledge of the subject,-complete, too, as far as it goes.

This last, indeed, to wander for a moment from the subject in hand, is a matter of considerable importance in all the classes. The twenty Clare scholars are diminished after a year to at most twelve West; these, after the 2nd year, are again diminished to six 2nd Normal, and ultimately to at most three 1st Normal. As the majority, therefore, must drop out during the four years' course, the