CETERA DESUNT [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR - ,7-Mr. Fowler's
letter on this subject, though apparently, as you point out, an appeal for even more money, is at least deserving of consideration ; and as Hon. Sec. of an Association that has been trying for many years to make higher education less expensive, especially in India, where its cost is largely prohibitive, I feel bound, with your permission, to indicate how we hope to lighten the burden to the parents. Our idea was to make the pupils pay for their own education by their own subsequent work ; but now, in India at any rate, it is proposed to make children cultivate a garden as part of their education, and so earn as much for their parents in the form of garden produce as they would earn in some casual occupation, so " earning while learning," and not ceasing to learn, as they do now, at too early an age. There is no reason why an agricultural or horticultural life should be one of " unintelligent drudgery." Even the completely illiterate ryot is by no means unintelligent : quite the contrary. Let us try to combine manual with mental education.—I am, Sir, &c., J. B. PENNINGTON.
3 Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W.
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