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accorded to certain candidates, especially to such as have held the junior scholarships, and certificates of former examinations are taken into account. The examination is in arithmetic, geometry, and drawing. 4. Finances. In 1894-95 grants were made to polytechnics and colleges amounting to £18,455 (£9,635 in ordinary grants, and £8,820 in extraordinary). The School of Applied Art and other institutions received £4,805 in ordinary grants, and £2,590 in extraordinary. In that year the Board expended on technical education £41,998, and reserved for the same purpose £58,714 —a great part of which has since been disbursed in accordance with promises made during the year and fulfilled when the necessary conditions were complied with. The London Technical Education Gazette, published monthly (4,500 copies), is the official journal of the County Committee. Chapter IV.—The Polytechnics. Section I. — Charity Commission. All endowments for education or charity are entrusted to the administration of local committees, subject to regulations made by a central .controlling body for all England—the Charity Commissioners, So far as these regulations affect education they require the approval of the Education Department. There were in London in 1883 many foundations which had come to be out of use or needed definite organization. "The City of London Parochial Charities Act, 1883," brought these under the control of a special Charity Commission. Under this Act nine great new institutions for technical education have been founded in London since February, 1891. The preliminary negotiations occupied seven years, because the Commission resolved not to act alone in founding institutions, but only to aid in founding them, and as a condition of aid, required that voluntary contributions equal to the amounts it was prepared to give should be forthcoming, and also that local bodies, such as the County Council, should show their interest in such institutes by granting subsidies. As a rule, the Commission contributes to the first cost of establishment, and also makes annual grants. These nine institutions are: Bishopsgate Institute, St. Bride Foundation Institute, Cripplegate Institute, Northampton Institute, Borough Boad Polytechnic Institute Battersea Polytechnic Institute, South-western Polytechnic Institute, North-western Polytechnic Institute (for which the Commission promises £5,000 a year, besides £30,000 for first establishment), Northern Polytechnic Institute (£5,000 a year, and £25,000 towards first cost). Further, a number of established institutions, such as the People's Palace, the City Polytechnic, and the Begent Street Polytechnic, have had their existence secured by grants. Twenty-six institutions in London have derived such advantages from the operation of the Act of 1883. In 1895 the gifts of the Commission to parochial charities in London amounted to about £160,000. The latest project relates to Sir John Cass's Technical Institute. It includes a section of primary studies and a section of trade instruction, and the grant will be £6,000 a year. Section II. — The Polytechnics in General, and the Central Committee. The polytechnics in London are not to be confounded with such schools of engineering or of arts and manufactures as in France and in some other countries which go by the name of Polytechnic Schools. The London Polytechnic Institutes, by means of evening classes, furnish to persons employed during the day in business or industries the opportunity of elementary instruction in the sciences, arts, and trades, with special reference to local industries. In 1893 the central committee of the City Parochial Charities took counsel with the City and Guilds Institute and the County Council's committee of technical education, with a view to the co-ordination and supervision of the polytechnics and of institutions receiving grants from the parochial charities, and to the attainment of a common system in the distribution of grants, the procuring of returns, and the conduct of examinations. A joint committee was set up to attend to these matters. The Science and Art Department co-operates with this committee by furnishing it with extracts from the reports of the Government Inspectors. The City and Guilds Institute expects that this new organization of elementary technical education for young people already at work will be the means of securing a better preparation of students for the Finsbury College, which is a school of secondary technical instruction, and for the superior curriculum of the Central Technical College. In 1894-95 the expenditure under this scheme was, for eight polytechnics, with 27,000 students in 1,250 classes, £90,000. These institutions provide about nine-tenths of the evening instruction in trades classes in London, and three-fourths of the scientific instruction given in evening classes. Their art schools are in the front rank. Immense progress has been made in the past five years, and especially in the two or three years during which the County Council Committee has been at work. In 1895 the polytechnics in London were Begent Street Polytechnic, Borough Boad Polytechnic, Battersea Polytechnic, Chelsea Polytechnic, Woolwich Polytechnic, Birkbeck Institute (a section of the City Polytechnic), City of London College (another section), People's Palace, and Goldsmiths' Institute. The last two receive no grants from the County Council. The Northern Polytechnic, Northampton Institute, Wandsworth Technical Institute, and Norwood Institute were in process of construction. Institutes of the same rank, and subject more or less to the same rules, are the Shoreditch Municipal Technical School, St. Bride Foundation School, and Whitechapel Craft School. Mr. Llewellyn Smith, in his report, reckoned that the annual loss in carrying on a polytechnic institute is on an average £5,000. All these institutions admit to their trade classes no one who is not already working at the trade to which the class he attends is related. They would not dare to break this rule. To do so would be to arouse the violent opposition of the artisan class. The trades-unions are very watchful, and would strongly object to any artificial increase of the number of artisans with the consequent reduction of wages.