C. 8. 77 Course of English Studies.
20. With the exception of the Preparatory School (246 boys) the instruction throughout this College (to the remaining 880 boys) is given in the English language, and has been for twenty years. I do not know on what evidence the Committee makes the remarkable statement (Para. 21) that "in Queen's College Chinese has always been the actual medium of instruction". Never, in surprise visits, nor from reports of English masters, have I found that my strict rule has been disregarded, that in Upper and Lower schools the use of the Chinese language may only be resorted to in explanation of exceptionally hard idioms and in Translation lessons. That the Committee recognise the former difficulty is apparent from their recommendation (Para. 21 E.) "that English masters should know Chinese for the purpose of teaching," though it is to be noted that no provision for this has been made in their Financial recommendations (Para. 77).
23. I found on my arrival in 1882 that the Chinese possessed a very limited English vocabulary. History provides terms of war and politics, as well as of usual domestic occurrences, births, deaths, and marriages &c. Shakespeare requires employment of all the commonest phrases in connection with matters of every day life, as well as in expression of emotion and humour; the explanation of these being given in ordinary modern conversational English appears to me to be highly instructive.
24. As to the study of Mathematics, which at its highest stage in the College (with rare exceptions, at intervals...