The college has a look of antiquity, which is particularly pleasant in a land where almost everything is spick-and-span new; but the rooms I thought low and stuffy, and the walls and passages had a neglected plaster-broken appearance.  There are some very fine old trees in the green, which, throwing their shade over the time-worn building, help to give it a venerable appearance.  A new school of science has just been built by the liberality of Mr. Lawrence,[AL] late Minister of the United States in this country; and I may add that the wealth and prosperity of the college are almost entirely due to private liberality.

As the phonetic system of education has been made a subject of so much discussion in the United States, I make no apology for inserting the following lengthy observations thereon.  A joint committee on education, appointed to inquire into its merits by the Senate, in 1851, reported that there was evidence tending to show—­“That it will enable the pupil to learn to read phonetically in one-tenth of the time ordinarily employed.  That it will enable the learner to read the common type in one-fourth of the time necessary according to the usual mode of instruction.  That its acquisition leads the pupil to the correct pronunciation of every word.  That it will present to the missionary a superior alphabet for the representation of hitherto unwritten languages,” &c.  A similar committee, to whom the question was referred by the House of Representatives in 1852, state that during the past year the system had been tried in twelve public schools, and that, according to the testimony of the teachers, children evinced greater attachment to their books, and learnt to read with comparative ease; and they conclude their report in these words:—­“Impressed with the importance of the phonetic system, which, if primarily learnt, according to the testimony presented, would save two years of time to each of the two hundred thousand children in the State, the committee would recommend to school committees and teachers, the introduction of the phonetic system of instruction into all the primary schools of the State, for the purpose of teaching the reading and spelling of the common orthography, with an enunciation which can rarely be secured by the usual method, and with a saving of time and labour to both teachers and pupils, which will enable the latter to advance in physical and moral education alone until they are six years of age, without any permanent loss in the information they will ultimately obtain.”

One gentleman of the minority of the committee sent in a very strong report condemning the system.  He declares “the system is nothing but an absurd attempt to mystify and perplex a subject, which ought to be left plain and clear to the common apprehensions of common men.”  Further on he states, “No human ingenuity can show a reason for believing that the way to learn the true alphabet, is first to study a false alphabet; that the way to speak words rightly,