Royal Masonic Institution For Boys, Wood Green.

E . C . Isborn ; History , " Layard's Nineveh , " P . Treleaven Geography and Mapping , " Dyer's Pompeii , " E . P . Jones ; General Attention to Studies , " Bartlett ' s 40 Days , " W . A . Glass ; General proficiency , " Guillemen ' s Heavens , " Edwin P . Jones ; Mental Arithmetic , " Boswell ' s Life of Johnson , " H . J . Dentou ; Proficiency iu Drill , "Forester's Corsica and Sardinia , " Henry J . Ashton .

Second Prize , value 10 s . 6 el . each , " Giant Cities of Bashan , " William R . Gouelie ; " Motley's Dutch Republic , " G . W . Martin ; " Cox ' s Ancient Greece , " Claudius J . Jones ; " Life with Esquimaux , " G . W . Martin ; " Robinson Crusoe , " James H . Powel ; " Old Forest Ranger , " E . P . Jones ; " Life of Wellington , " F . Treleaven . The talented artistes taking part in the concert in the

handsomest manner volunteered their valuable services . On the presentation of the prizes for " English composition and Grammer , " Bro . Binckes said : These prizes are given by Bro . Rev . Dr . Goodwin , himself the head of a most distinguished school , who felt a very strong interest in this institution , had examined the pupils some four years since , and who hael been kind enough to pay another visit for the same purpose this year , and who I am sure , in any words he may think proper to address to us , will speak truthfully and impartially on subjects of which he is so competent a judge .

Bro . Kev . Dr . Gooelwin , —Eeverend sir , ladies and gentlemen , — I will not tell you and this meeting , as is frequently done on such occasion as the present , that I am unaccustomed to public speaking , because my appearance would testify against such a statement . But although I am not unaccustomed to public speaking , I am very much accustomed to the duty of teaching and examining boys in schools . Without any flattery to your institution I may declare that I never was more leased with

p the result of an investigation into the educational fitness of youths than I was with my examination of the boys of this institution last week . I hael given , as you have already been informed , two prizes to be competed for by them , the one in English composition and the other in English grammar . I sent up to the master three or four subjects , out of which at his option he might select one for competition . Considering the

youth of the boys , I was never more pleased than with their attainments in composition . 'The prizes for English composition anel grammar , have both been gained , pre-eminently hy the same pupil , Edwin Price Jones . I look upon that as a very remarkable and most interesting feature in the proceedings of this year ' s examination . There are three classes of people of whom we see specimens every day of out- lives . The first is men who are an fait at conceiving theoriesbut whose theories are

, perfectly useless because they are wholly impracticable . The second class is that of men who conceive right theories , but who unfortunately for themselves and the world , have not the gilt of putting them into practice . The third class is those persons who are not only able to conceive good ideas , but also to reduce them to practice . The youth to whom I refer is a perfect

specimen of this third class . One of the subjects sent to the master fur his selection was , "A Visit to the Zoological Gardens . " The author begius his essay upon his subject as follows : — " I have never paid a visit to the Zoological Gardens , and therefore must draw upon imagination for a description , " —a very proper commencement . AU those who are acquainted with boys will know that there is a great difficulty iu getting them to come to the point . I was gladhoweverto find this boy do soand

, , , perceive that _ the imagination , as well as other mental faculties , is cultivated in this school . In my opinion no curriculum of eelucation is complete , which leaves out of consideration that faculty of the _ mind . The speaker quoted several passages from the paper in evidence of its merits in various particulars , anel then proceeded : —The essay is a perfect one in every part in orthographypunctuation and and I am lad to be in

, grammar , very g a position to give tho two prizes to this meritorious youth . He last year took two prizes for geometry and arithmetic , proving that the moral conveyed in the maxim "take care of the pence and the pounds will take cure of themselves " is as true in schools as in commercial finance . Take care of thei ittle boys , and the big boys will take care of themselves , while the converse is equalltrue . Do not take care of little b

y your oys , and you will see what your big boys will come to . With the experience I have of the past and present ot this school , I can honestly and confidently express my conviction that there is no school in the land which for educational position surpasses the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys . How the marked improvement I witness has been effected it is not for me to say , but I

cannot refrain from stating , without any wish to be invidious , that having examined the pupils in this school four years ago , and having been acquainteel with its status then , and seeing what its status is now , knowing what I do of the subjects of the University Local Examinations , that at the forener date there was not a boy who would have had the shadow of a shade of a chance of passing satisfactorily , whereas there are now several

who do so with the greatest success , one , Harry William Wildman , having been placed absolutely first of 1 , 165 junior candidates at the last Cambridge examination . There must have been a cause to proeluce this great change , a change which has given this school a position as widely different from its former position as is the East remote from the West . With reference to the prize for elocution the award of -which was reserved till the close of the programme , Bro . Binckes

said , — "This prize , Bro . Chairman , has been placed in my bands by a very worthy and liberal supporter of the institution , Capt . J . Wordsworth , V . P . of West Yorkshire , with a request that I would award it as I pleased . As no prize had been offered for elocution I determined to allot it for that subject , and I thought it would stimulate to higher efforts those of our young friends whose names are associated with the recitations we have just listened to , if it were offered as a reward for the best delivery to day . But how to decide ? Will you yourself act as arbiter , or in the spirit of gallantry will you leave the decision in the bands of our fair visitors . ?

la consultation with the chairman and Dr . Goodwin the names of William Andrew Glass , and Edward George were selected , and of these Glass was chosen by the majority of the suffrages of the ladies . The chairman then in the kindest manner promised to provide a prize for George . The reverend chairman then rose and said , Ladies and Gentlemen , —My first duty in aeldressing you , after the very pleasing occupation in which we have been engaged for the last two

hours is to offer you my apologies for appearing in this place toelay , inasmuch as until a few days since , I hael no idea whatever , that I should have had the gratification of even being present at this meeting . It so happened , however , that having to make an arrangement with my friend and Bro . Binckes with regard to a sermon to be preached in my church on the 25 th of this month , that be informed me of Bro . Calleneler's inability to come from Manchester to preside on this occasion ; and

he there aud then asked me to take the place which was to have been filled by Bro . Cullender . My answer was " anything that I coull elo for this Institution I was always happy to do . Failing your getting better help than I can give , I will , God willing , be at my post on that day , " and hero I am to apologise to you for being here , and also to thank you for your attendance to take part in so interesting a matter . It is undoubtedly oxpectcel of me that I should say something as chairman to-day , with regard to the Institution . It is therefore , with very peculiar pleasure that I go back to a time , nowseveral years ago . when the Institution was first brought under

my notice , anel the importance of the education of the male children of our Masonic brethren , was , I may say , forced upon my mind . When I came to look at the state of things at that time , I was at once persuaded that it was utterly impossible that what then existeel could last . True enough the Institution had then been in existence for many years , even before the commencement of the present century ; but the brethren of that day and afterwards , went on in a sort of jog-trot way , and the

system they pursued was as bad as could be conceived . The plan adopted was for the parents and friends to look for schools wherein to educate their children in the vicinity of their own homes . Their parents might send them were they pleased . The names ot the school masters where given to the committee of the day , and generally speaking they passed muster with that committee , and little more was beard of tho childrens ' progressthough it is true that examinations were

, occasionally held , at some of which I assisted , and I can safely say that nothing worse can be conceived than the state of things thereby disclosed , the lessons in writing , dictation , French , & c , heing so . badly done that I think I may say that I never met with greater inaccuracy in the whole of my experience . Exhibitions such as these , however , roused a determination amongst the friends of the Institution to obteeia a b \ ca in which the

p children should be housed , properly educated , anel practically fitted for the lives which were before them . I will not detain you by narrating how the means for raising this building were set on foot , but the project has been carried out by indomitable industry , which in this country never fails of attaining its