356 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCA TION. 
und that every girl of spirit would leave the room on the appearance of the assistant 
sommissioner in it. Another replied to a letter asking permission to visit the school: 
« T am sincerely sorry to find that ministers have nothing better to do than to pry into 
the ménage of private families, as 1 consider my establishment, which has been in exist- 
ence thirty years and always held the highest position.” 
The commission reported in 1868. It is unnecessary to dwell in detail on the char- 
acter of the report as regards girls’ schools. It is sufficient to say that with but few 
axceptions, such as the Quakers’ School at York, the North London Collegiate School, 
and the Ladies’ College, Cheltenham, hardly any girls’ schools were reported upon as 
supplying their pupils with a liberal education. One of the chief causes of the defects 
in girls’ schools was the want of suitable preparation for the profession of teaching on 
‘he part of governesses. ‘My poverty and not my will consents” might have been the 
motto of all but a very small proportion of the women who embarked upon this honor- 
wble and difficult profession. Another reason for the low standard of education in girls’ 
schiools was the indifference of parents and the public generally to anything in girls’ 
sducation beyond what was showy and attractive. As a consequence of this want of 
interest in good education, nearly the whole of the educational endowments of the country 
had been appropriated for boys. The report of the commission afforded a solid founda- 
tion of fact on which the reformers of girls’ education have industriously built. Public 
attention was thoroughly aroused, and plans for improving the education of girls sprang 
up in a variety of directions.. Very much was done to repair the injustice done to girls 
'n the matter of endowments by the labors of the Endowed School Commissions, now 
merged in the Charity Commission. 
Meanwhile Miss Davies’ committee, formed in 1862, took up, as I have just said, as 
‘ts first piece of work, the opening of the local examinations of the University of Cam- 
sridge to girls. These examinations are for young people of the school age; the juniors 
must be under fourteen and the seniors under sixteen ; the examinations are held simul- 
taneously in different local centers all over the country and in the colonies. When first 
sstablished they were for boys only ; in December, 1863, an experimental examination for 
girls was held in London, at which, with the consent of the Local Examinations Syndicate 
at Cambridge, all the regulations enforced in the case of boys were strictly observed. 
The next year a memorial signed by more than one thousand teachers of girls and many 
other influential persons was addressed to the vice: chancellor of the university, on the 
subject of opening the local examinations to girls. The reply was favorable, but the 
matter had to be referred to a vote of the senate. On March 12, 1865, Miss Davies 
received a telegram from Mr. Markby, secretary of the Cambridge Local Examinations 
Syndicate: «“ Send up all you can to-morrow—voting at 12. Opposition organized.” On 
March 18th he wrote as follows : ¢* Fifty-five to fifty-one, so we are successful ; it was a 
lose contest. I got votes enough to turn the scale just before going into the Senate 
House.” Cambridge was thus first in the field as regards English universities to open 
any of its examinations to girls ; Oxford very shortly afterward opened her local exami- 
nations 2lso. The chief point to be remarked is that, owing chiefly to the strong views 
sntertained on the subject by Miss Davies, exactly the same examination papers were 
used for boys and girls and exactly the same regulations were observed for both, except 
at first, in the case of Cambridge, the names of the girls examined were not given. Miss 
Davies has always been a very stanch opponent of any special university examinations 
for women, or of any variation, in the case of women, of what the university requires 
trom the men who offer themselves for the tripos examinations. Difference on this sub- 
ject is the chief difference between those who have guided the fortunes of Girton and 
Newnham respectively. 
The labors of Miss Davies’ committee having been successful in opening the local 
axaminations to girls, she immediately afterward began to project the idea of a college