THE COLLEGE OF PRECEPTORS.
March 30th, 1887.
The associated teachers who, under the name of the College of Preceptors, have for above forty years laboured to raise the standard of middle-class education, deserve praise and honour for what they have accomplished. Without Government aid or grant, and unpatronized by dignitaries of Church or State, these learned and patriotic men have succeeded, by training teachers, establishing examinations, and granting certificates, in acquiring a reputation and influence now very generally recognized. Their work is truly of national importance, and this His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales declared when he readily assented to formally open the new building of the College, in Bloomsbury Square, on the 30th of March, 1887. This College is self-supporting, and the cost of the erection and equipment of the new building was defrayed out of savings that had accumulated in the hands of the treasurer during the previous seven years.
A very large number of persons interested in education assembled in the lecture-hall to witness the ceremony, among whom were Sir Lyon Playfair, Sir Richard Temple, Mr. Lyulph Stanley, the Dowager Lady Stanley of Alderley, the Presidents of several societies, and the Head Masters of Harrow, Charterhouse, and Merchant Taylors' Schools, of Marlborough and Dulwich Colleges, and of Christ's Hospital.
On the arrival of the Prince of Wales, accompanied by the Princess of Wales, and their daughters Princesses Victoria and Maud, an address was presented by the Rev. Dr. T. W. Jex-Blake, President of the Council. The Prince, in replying, said:—
"Dr. Jex-Blake, Ladies, and Gentlemen,—It gives the Princess of Wales and myself great satisfaction to have been able to accede to the request of the council, and to open the new building of the College of Preceptors. I am reminded, by your reference to the circumstances that this building is opened during the year of the Queen's jubilee, of the many and important improvements that have taken place in Her Majesty's dominions during the last fifty years, and especially in the advancement of education among all classes of the people, a share of which progress is due to the excellent work undertaken by this self-supported institution.
"For over forty years the College of Preceptors has exercised a marked and growing influence for good upon the education given in some of our endowed schools, and more particularly in the numerous private schools for boys and girls which are an important feature in the educational system of this country. The value of your work is sufficiently shown by the high reputation of your examinations and by the constantly increasing number of your candidates, and I sincerely congratulate you on the results you have achieved. In the further development of the work of training teachers you have before you a future of great usefulness, for there can be no doubt that the provision of properly-trained teachers for middle and higher schools is almost, if not quite, as necessary as for our public elementary schools.
"The key of the building which you have presented to me I shall retain as a memento of this ceremony, and in declaring this building open I fervently hope that the influence and teaching which will go forth from it may tend to improve and to raise to a yet higher standard the education given in the private and secondary schools of our country. I declare this building now open."
The Royal party were afterwards conducted through the building, the arrangements of which are justly admired. The entrance corridor is wide and lofty. On one side of it there is a club-room for members, and on the other the secretary's and clerks' offices. The council-room is large and handsome, and the lecture-room occupies the whole of the second story, and is surrounded by book-cases capable of holding 10,000 volumes.