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trustees, and on the law of arbitration and awards; the law of partnership, and the principles of the law relating to executors and administrators. Languages. —ln all the classes in modern languages the students are taught from the first to speak the language they are studying, and in conducting advanced classes English is spoken as little as possible. Attention is paid to correct pronunciation, and the application of the language to business requirements is considered of the first importance. Vivd voce classes are held for advanced students to acquire a knowledge of the technicalities, customs, and formalities of shippinghouses, and to become conversant with the equivalents in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish of colloquial phrases and terms, and of the names of the great variety of goods shipped to and from Manchester. Much has been said at the recent conferences in London and Paris upon the subject of the superior instruction given in French and German schools in relation to commercial education. The Record, in discussing this subject, gives the following account of " A French Practical Commercial School" : " The school is established on the principle of practical and individual tuition, and is an exact reproduction of a French merchant's office, with desks, counters, drawers, files, copying-press, telephones, and various other counting-house requirements, together with a model bank, post-office, railway parcel-office, &c There are almost complete collections of specimens of the work of old and of new and actually existing firms. The Municipal Council of Paris, finding the teaching so thorough, gives a subsidy of £100 per annum to this particular school, and the Minister of Commerce pays for the education of twelve pupils annually. An idea of the value set upon the students of this school may be gathered from the fact that on an average ten applications are received for the services of every pupil. The aim of the school is to prepare students rapidly, and at little cost, for commercial, industrial, banking, and financial careers; and most of the students of this school are the sons of business-men, paying, according to the character of the course taken up, from £2 to £6 per quarter. " The courses of study are so organized and arranged that students may join at any time. There is no entrance examination. The ordinary course of study comprises four distinct sections, each being complete in itself, and the period devoted to each may range from three months to a year. The fee for any one section is £2 ; for any two sections, £3 10s. ; and for the full course, covering four sections, £6. First section: Preparatory section for young students having no notion of commercial matters. Introductory commercial knowledge : the study of commercial documents ; arrangement of correspondence; copies of letters; postal and telegraphic service; mental arithmetic, &c. Second section: Elementary course for adults, including students from the commercial schools who already possess some theoretical knowledge, and office employes. This course takes up the ordinary correspondence and communications required in an office, with a study of the different methods of book-keeping, commercial arithmetic, and correspondence. Third section: Higher section practical work for book-keepers desirous of completing their business knowledge ; the regulations governing business-houses, entries and closing-up of accounts, bankruptcies, balance-sheet, schedules, inventories. Fourth section : Practical work for students who have passed through the previous courses, and others, such as heads of business-houses ; the study and practice of special information applicable to certain professions and industries." In addition to the above, there are special courses in foreign languages, banking, accountancy, exchange, commercial law, commercial geography, history, arithmetic, shorthand, and typewriting. The school is provided with a library of reference-books on commercial subjects, with a small commercial museum, and also with a collection of packing-cases, showing the various types in general use both for home and export trade. The school receives foreign students, and was last year attended by about five hundred students. There is a separate ladies' department organized on similar lines, but having lady teachers. School Museums.- —The French merchants attach considerable importance to these museums, which show, in the clearest possible manner, by means of samples and specimens, all kinds of products in their natural or raw state, and the various phases through which they pass from the raw to the manufactured state. Museums are attached to all schools of commerce as an essential, and are looked upon as a means of education, and of enlarging the ideas of the students. They are very general throughout France, and the samples and specimens have been presented to the schools by merchants and manufacturers; it is the exception for a school to have to purchase a set. "The professor largely utilises these specimens in giving his lessons. Supposing, for instance, that cotton is the subject of study, the different varieties of this textile are submitted to the students for examination; they are asked to notice the length, colour, and strength, &c. Then the professor shows the vegetable which produces it; the countries that cultivate it. Afterwards he makes known the different trade classifications of the product, its use, and the principal markets, adding some statistical data as to its production and commercial importance. In addition to this, the students are taught how to submit products and samples to chemical and mechanical tests, and how to observe them under the microscope to detect fraud, &c. In this way, by means of object-lessons on all kinds of merchandise, illustrated by actual specimens obtained from the school museum, the business-man of the future is equipped to give an accurate description of any article, and qualified to find out for himself the reason why his own goods are being supplanted at home and abroad by goods of home or foreign manufacture." My suggestions are that an effort be made to give additional training in languages, mathematics, and shorthand in our secondary schools; that special commercial sections be formed in connection with evening continuation classes in the larger centres; that the Victoria University College give a special course of work in the higher branches of commercial education; and that the chambers of commerce take this question into serious consideration, and assist the technical committees in the formation and support of commercial classes, and provide scholarships for each district.