Private day-schools involve a much smaller risk, and in these large numbers of well-educated women are now at work. In a place too small to support a high school, schools of this kind often supply all needs; but, oddly enough, they seem to flourish best where they exist side by side with good public schools. Bedford is an instance of a town well supplied with both. Sometimes the head-mistress takes a few boarders, and is thus enabled to provide better premises. The fees range from about £12 to £30 per annum, and the curriculum is not unlike that of a high school, though the more expensive subjects, such as certain branches of science, are often omitted. The Junior and Senior Local Examinations and those of the College of Preceptors are a good deal used by these schools, and help to keep up a standard, where a regular external examination is not practicable. Small, cheap day-schools still abound, though happily in nothing like the old numbers. Even these have undergone some improvement, though rumour maintains that _Mangnall’s Questions_ and _Child’s Guide_ may still be found here, if we only dig deep enough. The lowest class of private school is attended by children who ought to be in the public elementary schools. The extinction of these, which is rapidly proceeding, can only be hailed with general satisfaction. Much has been said of late about the necessity of finding a place in any general system of education for private schools, but surely their proper function is so clearly defined that there is no fear of a day dawning when they are no longer needed. A further increase in cheap public day-schools may lessen the numbers, and it is hardly to be expected that in ten years’ time the present conditions, under which 70 per cent. of our girls who are receiving secondary education are in private schools, shall still prevail. The true function of the private school is to offer an educational luxury to those who can pay for it, and on these lines, without coming into competition with public school work, it is likely to develop. The more public schools are established in a district, the greater becomes the field for first-grade private schools. This is well illustrated by the case of the United States, where the universal diffusion of the public schools seems to favour the growth of private ones. They can charge high fees, because the public schools are always available for those who cannot afford these. They can try experiments and adopt new methods, because they are not subject to the rigid direction and supervision to which public schools are liable. A great deal of the preparation for college falls to them, and they enjoy a very different reputation and position from the Prussian private schools, which are obliged to adopt the same ‘code’ as the public. Cheap schools, to be efficient, must receive help with their finances; such help can hardly be given to private schools while they retain the freedom which is one source of their strength.