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is, in respect of noise and irregular attendance, about equal to that of the very worst countryschools at home.

"As soon as these young men had learned how a class in a foreign school is taught and managed, little children were brought in, formed into classes, and the young men set to teach them. This they did in the presence, under the eye, and by the aid of their foreign instructor. The latter did not know Japanese, nor did he need it.

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'At present there are one hundred and fifty young men in training to be teachers. They are from almost every section of the country. According to the rules, the prospective teacher must not be over 25 years of age, but no applicant is very severely cross-questioned as to his years. They are arranged into classes of about thirty each and are first drilled in the correct pronunciation of their own language. As they come from all sections of the empire, most of them use provincialisms and a style of pronunciation that varies greatly from the standard language of the capital. The importance and significance of securing a uniform pronunciation will be appreciated by all readers of this article at once. Starting thus, the young men begin a regular course of study in and by means of Japanese and Chinese, which is to be equal to that of a good high school in the United States. They study foreign learning and science by means of text-books translated from English into Japanese. At the start they are supposed to have a fair knowledge of Chinese and Japanese, and to be assured of this they are subjected to an examination before they can enter the school. Of all the young men who apply only about one-third of the number are chosen.

"The very best Japanese teachers procurable are set over these young men as instructors. The foreign superintendent visits the class-rooms at intervals, to see that the general foreign methods and discipline are observed. No unnecessary talking, no smoking, no awkward positions, nothing that would be out of place in an American school, is allowed.

"It must be kept in mind that these young men learn no English whatever. They use the following text-books, translated into Japanese, printed and bound in Japanese style. Willson's series of reading-books, four in number; Robinson's series of mathematics, comprising simple and advanced arithmetic, algebra, mensuration, and geometry; Monteith and McNal ly's System of Geography; Cutter's Anatomy and Hygiene; Willson's Outlines of Universal History.

"Most of the above books have been already translated, others are in progress, and the series will comprise those in an average American high-school use.

"The young men study and recite five hours daily. They number at present one hun. dred and fifty. They are divided into relays of six each, and take their turns at teaching the boys and girls for a week at a time. At present the turn of each young man comes round about once in three months.

"In getting his education proper the young man is simply a pupil. Besides his actual acquirements of knowledge, he is taught how to impart his knowledge and how to manage a large class. He is taught how to use the slate and pencil, globe, map, phonetic and pictorial charts, blackboard, &c., as a child would use them. He is actually taught how to teach properly before he leaves his Japanese teacher. This is his theoretical training as a teacher. For his practical training, for his induction into the actual work of teaching and managing a class, the normal department exists. For success in class-teaching, such as is pursued in the best foreign schools, three qualifications are essential: 1. Knowledge of what is to be taught; 2. Ability to impart that knowledge; 3. Power and skill to govern a class. The young man gains the first requisite in the academic department, to prove whether he has the second and third; and to gain them he enters the normal department.

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"To serve the double purpose of a field of practice for the young men who are to be teachers and of a primary school for the instruction of children between the ages of 6 and 9, there were brought in last April one hundred boys and girls who had never before been taught, and hence were unspoiled. They are now arranged into five classes and are under the instruction of the young men who have been already trained in the art of teaching. It is proposed to increase in a few weeks the number of pupils, and to put fifty in a class, as in the primary schools of the United States. A new brick building in foreign style is also to be built. There will then be ten classes of fifty pupils each, making five hundred in all. "The children are to be taught, through the primary and secondary, up to the average

American grammar-school-course. There are to be eight grades of study and the course will require six years for completion. Boys and girls study together, the former being in the majority. The average age of the pupils is 8 years.

"The apparatus for these pupils consists of Willson's series of readers, translated into Japanese; slates and pencils; blackboards and chalk; improved copy-books for writing; text-books of arithmetic, translated from the English; and a system of charts, both phonetic, ideographic, numerical, and pictorial. The charts number thirty in all and contain about eight hundred objects. No. 1 contains the "kata kana," which is learned by the eye and ear and with the voice, slate and pencil, and pen and paper; No. 2, the “hiragana," learned in like manner; No. 3, the Chinese numerals up to ten; No. 4, the "niigori" marks and letters; No. 5, the Arabic numerals; No. 6, the Roman numerals. Other charts contain the Chinese, Arabic, and Roman numerals up to one hundred, and combinations up to one thousand are made. The pupils are practiced in counting from one to one hundred to one thousand, backward, forward, skipping one, two, three, four, five, &c.; then by odd and even numbers, and in every possible way, until they can handle numbers as easily as words. Mental and written addition, subtraction, and the multiplication-table, adding up columns of figures and notation, are next taught. The pictorial charts contain colored drawings of the most familiar objects of every-day-life, with the Chinese ideograph beside them, so that the name of the object and the sound and form of the character are fixed in the memory at once. This differs from the Chinese and Japanese method, which is to learn the sound first without regard to the meaning of the character. By the method of charts the eye and ear assist each other. Next follow the names of vegetables, householdarticles, furniture, &c., and from these the pupil is gradually led to more complex objects, such as flowers, trees, rarer animals, clocks, thermometer, &c. From these the ascent is to abstract terms, feelings, the relations of life, uses of various parts of the body, weights and measures, lines, geometrical forms, angles, colors, &c. Practice in reading and writing Chinese and Japanese consumes a large portion of the time. It is intended to study the

geography and history of Japan first, and then that of other countries. In due course the other elementary branches of learning will be introduced.

"The scholars under this system not only make very rapid and sound progress, but the young men acquit themselves with great credit as teachers. The progress already made is more than encouraging; it is astonishing.

"The foreign instructor is engaged in overseeing both departments, the academic and the normal. Any dereliction of duty, any breach of discipline, or slovenliness of work, or lack of attention, is at once corrected. Under the easy and pleasant, because natural and graded, methods pursued in this school, learning is made almost as attractive as playing, and the boys and girls seem to like it as much. The teachers are taught that the very first requisite of a good teacher is to interest his class.

"The children are kept in school five hours a day, but ten minutes for play are allowed at the end of each hour. Gymnastics outside and calisthenics in the class-room are practiced by the young men in the academic and by the teachers and children in the normal department and primary school.

"The young men who finish their course of study and succeed well in the actual work of teaching and managing large classes, are to be given a diploma by the Mombusho, certifying their acquirements and ability. Those who cannot succeed as teachers or fail to become good students will receive a certificate specifying what they have done-in other words, a partial diploma.

"The charts and translated books referred to above are now made by hundreds and are sent out to be used in the various schools throughout the country. A good Japanese grammar, by a native scholar, is said to be in preparation, but of this we cannot speak with certainty. It is proposed to establish other normal schools as necessity arises and means allow."

The government of Japan, like that of nearly all civilized nations at the present day, is composed on the departmental system, and there is a minister for each department. These ministers, however, are not necessarily cabinet-ministers, though they happen to be so at the present date. These departments are foreign affairs, treasury, justice, education and

religion, public works, army, navy, imperial household, and colonization, (for Yezo and Saghalin.)

All these departments employ a certain number of foreigners for educational purposes, but the principal one is the Kobusho, or department of public works, which comprises the following subdepartments, namely: (1) railways, (2) telegraphs, (3) light-houses, (4) mines, (5) surveys, (6) engineering, and (7) mechanical.

At the survey-department there are twenty-one Japanese students; at the engineering there are thirty students.

In connection with the department of public works is the engineering college; principal, Henry Dyer, C. E., M. A., B. Sc., University of Glasgow.

Professors for the general and scientific course: natural philosophy, W. E. Ayrton, University College, London; mathematics, David H. Marshall, M. A., University of Edinburgh; chemistry, Edward Divers, M. D., F. C. S., Queen's University, Ireland; drawing, Edmund F. Mondy, A. R. S. M., Royal School of Mines, London; English language and literature, William Craigie, M. A., University of Aberdeen.

Secretary, William Craigie, M. A.

Modeler, Archibald King.

General assistants, George Cawley and Robert Clark.

TECHNICAL COURSE.

It is expected that this course will be completely organized in two years from this date, August, 1873.

I. OBJECT OF COLLEGE AND CONDITIONS OF ADMISSION.

This college has been established under the orders of the minister of public works, with a view to the education of engineers for service in the department of public works. The couse of training will extend over six years; during the first four years, six months of each year will be spent at college and six months in the practice of that particular branch which the student may select. The last two years of the course will be spent wholly in practical work. By this alternation of theory and practice, the students will be able during each working half year to make practical application of the principles acquired in the previous half year. The system of instruction will be partly what is usually termed professorial and partly tutorial, consisting in the delivery of lectures and in directions and assistance being given to the students in their work.

The session will last from 1st October to 31st March, with the intervention of certain holidays, marked in the calendar. During the months of April, May, and June a short preparatory session will be held for students entering the college, when the elementary parts of the scientific course will be taught, so that the students may be able to enter more thoroughly into the work of the session proper. At the end of the summer-session certain subjects will be prescribed for study during the vacation, and in these an examination will be held in the beginning of October. The college-vacation will take place during the months of July, August, and September. During these months first-year students will be employed in the work-shop. Students of the second, third, and fourth years will serve from 5th April to 26th September of each year as pupils, under a properly-qualified engineer.

Admission to the college will be obtained by competitive examination, for which all Japanese subjects between the ages of 15 and 18 years, inclusive, and of sound constitution, who can produce satisfactory testimonials of good moral character, will be eligible.

The competitive examination will embrace the following subjects: (1) reading in English: (2) writing to dictation; (3) arithmetic; (4) elementary geometry; (5) elementary algebra; (6) geography; and (7) rudimentary physics.

The examination in these subjects will, for a session or two, be of the most elementary kind, but the standard of admission will be raised year by year, till it attains that of European schools.

II. FORM OF APPLICATION AND OBLIGATION OF SURETIES.

Being desirous of studying engineering, I beg that permission be granted me to enter college after due examiration.

I am, &c.,

(Date.)

Declaration of successful candidate.

(Signature.) (Province of applicant.)

As a successful candidate for admission to the Imperial College of Engineering, I hereby bind myself to conform, in all respects, to the prescribed regulations, and, after six years of combined theoretical and practical training, to serve seven years under the government.

(Signature.)

(Date.)

Declaration of surety.

A. B. being a successful candidate for admission to the Imperial College of Engineering, I hereby declare myself responsible for his strict observance of the regulations and for his serving seven years under the government, after the completion of the prescribed six years of theoretical and practical training.

In the event of his violating any of the regulations, I likewise bind myself to act according to the rules laid down for such cases.

(Date.)

OBLIGATIONS OF SURETIES.

(Signature.)

In the event of a student leaving college before he has finished the entire term of training or his resigning his appointment under government before the completion of the stipulated term of seven years, his surety will be required to pay all expenses incurred on the student's account up to the date of his leaving.

The same law applies to the surety of any student who may be expelled, either for insufficient proficiency in the examinations or for misconduct.

The surety is also held responsible for the cost of any damage done to government-property within the college by a student.

III. BRANCHES OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

It is the aim of the college to train students in the following branches of technical education: (1) civil engineering; (2) mechanical engineering; (3) telegraphy; (4) architecture ; (5) practical chemistry; (6) mining; and (7) metallurgy.

The student will be allowed to select a special subject; but, when that selection has been made, he must strictly adhere to the course of study herein laid down.

The student's whole course of training may be thus divided: (1) the general and scientific course; (2) the technical course; (3) the practical course.

IV. GENERAL AND SCIENTIFIC COURSE.

This course forms the foundation of the technical applications and is common to all the special divisions into which the students are separated. It includes (1) English language and composition; (2) geography; (3) elementary mathematics; (4) elementary mechanics, theoretical and applied; (5) elementary physics; (6) chemistry; and (7) drawing, geometrical and mechanical. This course will be taught during the first and second sessions of the student's career at college.

V. TECHNICAL COURSE.

Each student will be required to attend the special technical course for that branch of engineering which he selects. These special courses are as follows:

(a) Civil engineering.

(1) higher mathematics; (2) higher natural philosophy; (3) civil engineering, with special reference to the branch selected by the student; (4) mechanical engineering; (5) geology; (6) surveying; and (7) drawing-office.

(b) Mechanical engineering.

(1) Higher mathematics; (2) higher natural philosophy; (3) mechanical engineering, with special reference to the branch selected by the student; (4) naval architecture; (5) physical laboratory; (6) drawing-office; and (7) workshop.

(c) Telegraphy.

(1) Higher mathematics; (2) higher natural philosophy; (3) surveying; (4) strength of materials; (5) chemical laboratory; (6) physical laboratory, with special reference to electricity; and (7) drawing-office.

(d) Architecture.

(1) Surveying; (2) strength of materials; (3) geology; (4) architecture and buildingconstruction; (5) drawing-office; and (6) free-hand-drawing.

(e) Practical chemistry.

(1) Surveying; (2) geology; (3) mineralogy; (4) physical laboratory; and (5) chemical laboratory.

(f) Mining.

(1) Geology; (2) mineralogy; (3) geological surveying; (4) practical chemistry; (5) machinery; (6) mining; and (7) drawing.

(g) Metallurgy.

(1) Surveying; (2) geology; (3) mineralogy; (4) practical chemistry; (5) metallurgical laboratory; (6) machinery; and (7) drawing.

The technical course will be taught during the third and fourth sessions of the student's career at college.

VI. EXAMINATIONS.

The progress of the students will be tested by periodical examinations and by assigning values to drawings, reports, &c., executed by them at college, as well as to work done by them during the summer in the department of public works.

At the end of the second year a general examination will be held in all the subjects of the scientific course, in which a certain minimum of average proficiency will be required. Should any student fail in attaining this qualifying standard, as fixed from year to year, he will not be allowed to proceed to the technical course.

At the end of the fourth year an examination will be held in the technical course. The proficiency of the students will be recorded in the order of merit, as determined by the aggregate number of marks gained in all the subjects.

Each student who attains the prescribed qualifying standard will receive the diploma of "licentiate of engineering," (L. E.,) and will be appointed assistant in that branch of the public-works-department which he has selected.

VII. PRACTICAL COURSE.

During the last two years of the curriculum, the student will be engaged in the practice of the special branch he may have selected. At the end of every half year he will be required to send in to the principal of the college a report on the work in which he has been engaged. At the same time the student will undergo an examination in the principles and practice of uch work.

At the end of the sixth year a final examination will be held, in which the student's knowledge of the works he has been engaged in, and those of a similar nature, will be tested. He will also be required to send in complete drawings, specifications, &c., of a work on a prescribed subject.

Each student, on passing a satisfactory examination, will receive the diploma of master of engineering," (M. E.,) and will be appointed engineer in the board of public works. The position of the student in the service will be determined by the final examination at the end of each course.

*

[Some twenty pages, consisting of regulations, schedules of studies, and examination-papers, are omitted.]

There are at present in this college, which has been very recently opened, thirty-one cadets and twenty-five day-students.

The following statement shows the complement of the Imperial Naval College, which has been established at Yedo:

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