Item 42 - Letter from T. W. Jex-Blake to Henry Sidgwick

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Announces his approval of the proposed substitution of French and German for Latin or Greek in the Previous Examination, but questions the contention on page 283 of the Cambridge University Reporter [in which the report of the Syndicate is to be found] that it is vital that the student should satisfy the examiners in translating from English both into French and into German. Does not believe that more than half the boys in English public schools can learn two dead languages with advantage to themselves, but adds that 'for boys capable of high culture [he regrets] to see either Greek or Latin dropped.' Believes that translation from the mother tongue into either a classical or modern language should be required by a university from a student, 'even in a Little Go or Previous Examination.'