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talks and rousing songs, pledges, etc., create public sentiment against a wrong and waken the dormant conscience. The men and boys sadly need to be awakened and educated as to the evils of this cruel custom.

Yours sincerely,

MARY E. COGDAL.

American Presbyterian Mission, Shanghai.

Your note received. In regard to the requirements of McTyeire's school on the subject of foot-binding I would say first of all there are none. A girl's entrance or remaining in the school does not at all depend upon the size of her feet. The institution is in no sense a charity school, and we have made no legislation whatever on the subject. In our charity schools it is different; we receive no girl with bound feet. I have not yet been in China four years, and it is not improbable that my "views" "views" may undergo a change.

To say no girl with bound feet shall enter the school is to close its doors to the very class for whom it was opened. Most of our pupils have entered with bound feet, but I am happy to say that to-day three-fourths of them are unbound, and this I do not believe has resulted from the persuasion or influence of any foreigner in charge but from the strong Christian sentiment of several (I might say one) Chinese girls.

I believe a proper appreciation of the origin, use and end of the human body will be more effectual in taking the bandages off than any amount of direct talking on the subject.

When you can legislate, legislate. When you cannot, instruct and pray.

I am enthusiastically in favor of big, or rather, of natural feet.
Yours sincerely,

HELEN S. RICHARDSON.

Methodist Episcopal (South) Mission, Shanghai.

In the Foochow girls' school we admit no bound-footed girls. This has been a positive rule since 1888; before that time there was a strong sentiment against the custom, and most of the girls who entered the school with bound feet soon unbound.

The proper course is for Christians not to bind their children's feet and to unbind their own, and as our boarding-schools soon become schools for Christians only, the question is solved,

Bound feet should be looked upon as a mark of heathenism, and should not be tolerated in a Christian school.

Most respectfully,

JULIA BONAFIELD.

Methodist Episcopal Mission, Foochow.

I have twenty-six girls in school with large feet. "Eight have just been unbound." Twenty-nine in all; three with small feet. Two of these I hope to unbind soon.

Sincerely yours,

MARY A. SNODGRASS.

American Presbyterian Mission, Tungchow.

Notes and Items.

NE of the most important publications of general educational interest which has ever issued from the Press is the Report of the Committee of Ten on "Secondary School Studies." This Committee was appointed by the National Educational Association of America in July, 1892, and submitted its Report at the close of the year. This Report was published in December 1893, by the United States Bureau of Education at the government printing office, Washington, and has since been published by "The American Book Company," New York, and sold by them at the nominal price of 30 cents (gold).

This Committee represented various grades of schools and different sections of the country. It contained such men as President Eliot, of Harvard University; Dr. Harris, Commissioner of Education; President Angell, of the University of Michigan; Head Master Tetlow, of the Girls' High School, Boston, and others whose names are almost as well known.

The object of the Committee was to provide for "conferences of school and college of teachers of each principal subject which enters into the programmes of secondary schools in the United States and into the requirements for admission to colleges-as, for example, of Latin, of Geometry, or of American History-each conference to consider the proper limits of its subject, the best methods of instruction, the most desirable allotment of time for the subject and the best methods of testing the pupils' attainments therein."

The Committee divided its work into nine conferences as follows: 1. Latin; 2. Greek; 3. English; 4. Other Modern Languages; 5. Mathematics; 6. Physics, Astronomy and Chemistry; 7. Natural History (Biology, including Botany, Zoology and Physiology; 8.

History, Civil Government and Political Economy; 9. Geography (Physical Geography, Geology and Meteorology). Ten men whose scholarship and experience made them most prominent were selected for each conference, and they submitted special reports. These sub-reports were made the basis of a general report by the Committee of Ten and of a course of study covering four years. The suggestions made in these sub-reports as to the best methods of teaching various subjects are very valuable, and well repay the most careful study. The suggestions are based not only upon a survey of American schools but also after much critical investigation of the schools of England, France and Germany. With the exception of the remarks concerning the teaching of Latin and Greek all else is of interest to school teachers in China. It is safe to say that the Report contains the latest and best suggestions concerning the arrangement of courses of study and methods of teaching.

The course of study recommended by the Committee is divided into four tables according to the number of languages pursued. The classical course includes three foreign languages, one of which is modern; the Latin Scientific two foreign languages, one of which is modern; the Modern Languages two foreign languages, both of which are modern; and the English course, which contains only one language, which is either ancient or modern according to the students' choice.

In a recent account given by Dr. Peabody, of the Educational Exhibit at the World's Fair, Chicago, it is stated that "one of the charts in the German exhibit told an impressive story. An account in the nature of debits and credits kept with the kingdom of Prussia showed on one side the census of children of school age to the number of more than five million souls; upon the other side there were accounted for so many in each department, so many excused for cause, so many sick, all save less than one thousand, whom the truant officers had not found." If China were to begin in earnest a system of education for all children how easy it would be for her with her paternal system of government to make an equally good showing.

"In the same line of saving time in education is the necessity for reduction in time given to arithmetic and geography. These studies are generally made as uninteresting as possible, a mere dry grind, studied for their own sakes, instead of as an adjunct to other more profitable learning. Is it not a shriveling of a child's mind to make him do a few thousand sums' in arithmetic as mere arithme

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tic, when just the same processes of calculation could be made part of some other study? For example natural philosophy and chemistry allow opportunity for half the work necessary in arithmetic, and book-keeping will supply a good part of the text. The same is true of geography, except in its bare outlines, and this should be the adjunct of history, learned as part of history, in which case it will be remembered; as it is, history has to be left out that children may commit to memory the names of a lot of rivers and capes and capitals."-N. Y. Independent.

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ERRATA:-15 dollars reported on June 11th as from C. I. M., Chin-chou, Kansuh, ought to have been from I. P. M., Chin-chou, Manchuria.

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