they were unable to pay rewards to the children or result fees to the teachers, on the same scale as at first proposed. This was a serious difficulty. During the past six months several educational bodies had been trying to lay the matter before Parliament, and also before the public attention; among the memorials was one signed by the Belfast Ladies' Institute and the Ulster Association of Schoolmistresses. There had been for some time the hope of getting an additional grant out of the Church surplus, to supply the increasing requirements of the work, and Lord O'Hagan, in the Upper House, and Mr. O'Shaughnessy, in the House of Commons, had taken charge of the question. Mr. O'Shaughnessy had obtained the 21st of March, and afterwards the 18th of May, for the debate, but the necessities of the Government had on both occasions interfered with it. Meanwhile, Lord O'Hagan had passed a smaller measure through the House of Lords. During the first year after the Intermediate Education Act came into operation, the expenses had not absorbed all the income, and there was thus a sum lying to the credit of the Commissioners, which would supply the deficiencies of 1881, but this could not be touched without Parliamentary power.

Mr. BYERS said that the sum required to work the Intermediate Education system properly this year was estimated at £14,471, and of this about £9,000 was required for the girls' share. Between £6,000 and £7,000 was due to the teachers in results fees. These fees were very necessary to the hard working teachers, particularly the country schoomistresses who have in many cases incurred additional expenses to meet the requirements of the Act. The Report of the Commissioners had stated that there was sufficient money to meet the requirements of the boys but not for the girls. Another point of great importance was that the same standard of education should be kept up for the girls as for the boys. The Intermediate Board proposed to alter it many ways, the girls were to be excluded in future from examination in Trigonometry and Applied Mechanics, and the place of these studies was to be supplied by Domestic Economy and Botany. It had

also been proposed to have a different standard of marks. These changes were not made by desire of the teachers and would in many respects inconvenience them greatly. In many country districts there were only mixed schools, and in them a different standard of education for the boys and girls would be difficult to obtain. In other places the teachers at boys' schools also taught the girls' schools and any change in the teaching would be uneconomical. In so poor a country as Ireland even having to procure different lesson books for boys and girls was a serious additional consideration to the parents. Moreover the Royal Irish University demanded the same standards of education from men and women.

Mrs. BRYANT said that the same experiment of changing the standard of education for boys and girls had been tried by the Senate of the London University when establishing their General Examinations for Women, which occupied somewhat the same place as Matriculation. The boys had Chemistry and Geometry, and the girls Botany and Geography; but it was found on trial that the girls did not take the Botany, and subsequently these special Examinations were swept away.

After some further discussion, the Conference drew up and passed a resolution to circulate for signature among Irishwomen the following Memorial to the Board of Intermediate Education in Ireland.

MY LORDS ANd Gentlemen,—We acknowledge with much gratitude the advantages which the Intermediate Education system has conferred upon the girls of Ireland, and the consideration with which your Board has administered it with regard to them. But we have learned with much regret that changes have been made in the programme of your examinations, which create a difference in subjects and standards between the boys and the girls who present themselves as candidates. Several societies of ladies engaged in promoting the higher education of women, as well as eminent men, have earnestly protested against these changes. We urge that you will take into consideration the desirability of restoring the girls to the place you gave them in 1879. We feel that as all the great English Educational Examinations are the same for men and women, and for boys and girls, any difference will put Irish women at a great practical disadvantage, and we desire to add our earnest entreaties that no rules shall be laid down which shall in any way make the examinations unequal in value to girls as compared with boys, either in regard to their educational or their pecuniary value.-We remain, &c.

A Committee was appointed to circulate this Memorial for signature. All inquiries may for the present be directed to Miss Drew, 17, Southampton Street, Fitzroy Square, W.C., and to Miss Tod, I, Upper Phillimore Gardens, Kensington, W.

WOMEN'S PROTECTIVE AND PROVIDENT LEAGUE.

Miss FRANCIS POWER COBBE Presided at the Annual Meeting, held at the Freemasons's Hotel, on July 1st. In her opening address the lady president congratulated the League on the progress it had made, and referred with approval to the proposed appointment of female inspectors. The report, read by the Hon. Sec., Mrs. PATERSON, showed that £1,210 had been subscribed by members since the formation of the League, and £475 expended in grants in times of sickness.

Mr. G. PALMER, M.P., moved the adoption of the report, and Mrs. Chas. MACLAREN, in seconding, said she hoped the time would come when the only limits to a woman's career would be the limits of her talents. The Rev. S. Hansard, Mr. Adolph Smith, and Miss Wilkinson, Sec. of the Upholsteresses' League, also addressed the Meeting.

MISS NORTH'S GALLERY AT KEW GARDENS.

Perhaps no contribution which has been made of late years to science, will become more deservedly popular than the sketches which have been lately presented to Kew Gardens by Miss Marianne North. We have before now called the attention of our readers to the wonderful artistic gifts and indomitable perseverance and courage of this lady. She has visited in the pursuit of her art, Brazil, California, India, Japan, Borneo, Java, New Zealand, Australia, and has with indefatigable love of nature copied the wild plants, giving with careful accuracy the manner of growth and the landscape peculiar to each plant, and in some cases the manner in which it is collected.

She must have travelled over hundreds of miles of solitary country, full of perils from wild beasts, and wilder men, from reptiles, and from all the dangers to which the passage through the solitude of forest and of

mountain must give rise in these uncivilised countries.

Now, she has given these sketches to the Royal Gardens in Kew, and that the public may have the full benefit of them, has built a gallery, 50 feet by 25, which is adorned by these pictures. Over the principal entrance door is the great Victoria Regia, and directly in front is a group of the sacred plants of the Hindoos, which are of surpassing beauty. Here and there animals are introduced, but only to illustrate more forcibly the vegetation. The crowds who daily flock to Miss North's gallery are curiously contemplating the wondrous vegetation, with some of which they have, perhaps, been familiar in their own wanderings or exile. Indeed this new Botanical Picture Gallery will form one of the greatest attractions to Kew Gardens, and draw thither an immense number of scientific people from all parts of the world. Already, the catalogue informs us, one of the botanical studies was of such interest that Messrs. Veitch, the nursery-gardeners, have sent out a messenger to the wild lands in which it grows to bring back a specimen. Miss North is again starting on her travels, and this autumn will visit South Africa, still further to increase her collection. It is impossible for science to be illustrated in a more graceful and attractive way than Miss North has done.

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

Miss E. A. Ormerod, F.M.S., consulting entomologist to the Royal Agricultural Society, has been appointed special lecturer on Economic Entomology at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester.

A contemporary paper says of her with well merited enthusiasm "Miss Ormerod, the learned and graceful writer on the insects injurious to the farmer, has been publicly acknowledged as a great benefactor to the agriculture of the country by her successful endeavours to extirpate the turnip fly. The honest farmers of Norfolk have presented the indefatigable persecutor of their enemy with a vote of thanks and a gold medal, and the Agricultural Society has named her

Consulting Entomologist to the Society. In short, there is no honour and no blessing that the astonished Norfolk farmers would not shower down upon the woman who has devoted her whole energy and talent to the destruction of a bitter enemy who had threatened to destroy the means by which they live."

It is not a little instructive to see the practical matterof-fact use which women are making of their scientific studies. Science is to them the handmaid to philanthropy, and a zealous consideration for the general welfare, and thus they bring their great gifts and energy to the service of the public.

WOMEN'S EMIGRATION SOCIETY.

The annual meeting of this society was held on June 6th, at Grovesnor House, the residence of the Duke of Westminster.

The chair was occupied by Sir H. BARKLY, who, in opening the proceedings, said that during the past year the association had been instrumental in sending a considerable number of women to the colonies. Unfortunately, however, it had not received the financial support from the public which it deserved, and funds were much needed.

Mrs. W. BROWNE, the Hon. Secretary, then read the Report, which stated that during the year 108 emigrants had been sent out, and 42 cases were in hand. Information had been sent to 1,486, and 202 persons had come before the Committee. Of those sent out 58 were servants, and 50 belonged to the professional and shopkeeping classes, nearly two-thirds of those who had passed through the hands of the society during_the year having gone to Canada and Queensland. Free passages had been obtained for 17; 31 had been assisted either entirely or in part by loans; and 60 paid for themselves or were paid for by friends. Until last spring only one local branch existed, but three more had recently been established. Favourable accounts had been received from many of the emigrants, and several ladies who had gone out as governesses had obtained situations worth from £70 to £100 per annum. In the principal Canadian towns satisfactory arrangements