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CHAPTER VIII. RUGBY
STATEMENT
I. FOUNDATION
RUGBY SCHOOL, or, as we feel bound to call it, the Free School of Lawrence Sheriff, was founded in the year 1567 by Lawrence Sheriff, grocer, of London. The nature of the School was described by him in a deed called his "Intent" as "a free grammar school, to serve chiefly for the children of Rugby and Brownsover, and next of the places adjoining". The property which he left for the purposes declared in his "Intent" was given partly by a legal conveyance in the form of a bargain and sale, dated on the 22nd of July 1567, partly by his will bearing the same date, and partly by a codicil to his will dated the 31st August in the same year. The property is described as consisting of all his lands in Rugby, Brownsover, and the county of Warwick, the third part of a close of pasture ground in Gray's Inn Fields called the Conduit Close, and £50 in money. This was also by the same "Intent" charged with the establishment and support of four almsmen, two from Rugby and two from Brownsover, for ever. It does not appear that he was in possession of any Warwickshire lands beside those in Rugby and Brownsover.
In the course of the first hundred years following the execution of these instruments the growth and even the existence of the Institution were seriously threatened. The survivor of the two trustees named by the Founder is said to have applied to his own benefit the property in Middlesex. After several vain attempts made by successive Masters of the School, who drew their stipends in part from this estate, to recover it by legal proceedings, it was at last rescued, with all arrears of rent, through the Report of a Commission issued under the Great Seal in the year 1614.
When the London property was thus recovered, dangers of the same kind were impending over part of the Warwickshire estate. The descendants of the first lessee for life of the Brownsover property, from which the remainder of the School income was drawn, claimed and exercised rights of ownership over the estate, on the alleged ground that the rent of £16 13s 4d, at which the Founder had leased it, constituted the whole interest taken by the School in that estate. A second inquisition was taken, therefore, in the year 1653 at Rugby, in consequence of which the nets of the lessee were declared to be a usurpation, and restitution was ordered and made, with payment of arrears, amounting to £742 8s 4d.
Since the report and order of the second inquisition, the property left by Lawrence Sheriff has been applied to the uses of the Charity without disturbance.
II. REVENUES
At the foundation of the School the annual income of the Charity, consisting in the rent of £16 13s 4d from the Brownsover property, and £8 from the Middlesex estate, amounted to £24 13s 4d. The Rugby property producing no rent consisted in a mansion which the Founder appointed as the Master's residence, and ground on which he desired that there should be built "a fair School House", close to the mansion, and four neat lodgings for the four almsmen. Of the annual income £12 was to be paid to the Schoolmaster, and £6 11s 4d in salaries to the almsmen.
After the lapse of more than two centuries from the foundation a new era of financial prosperity dawned upon the School.
The Conduit Close of Gray's Inn Fields, of which eight acres belonged to the Charity of Lawrence Sheriff, lay at the time of the foundation half a mile without the city walls. Within 16 years of the foundation was passed the famous Act of Queen Elizabeth, followed by repeated proclamations to the like effect in the same and following reigns, which forbade the erection of any houses within three miles of London. In obedience to laws, however, stronger than statutes and proclamations, the Conduit Close was reached by the growing town, and let in the year 1702 on a long building lease. During the continuance of this lease, in the year 1748, the clear yearly revenue of the whole estate amounted to £116 17s 8d, of which £63 6s 8d was paid to the Schoolmaster, and
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£3 13s 4d was expended on the almsmen; but on its falling in in 1780* the annual rental of the Middlesex estate alone amounted to £1,880 7s 0d.
In 1807 the total annual income derived from the Middlesex and Warwickshire estates amounted to £2,032 18s 0d from the former, and £91 17s 6d from the latter. The accumulation of capital derived from fines on renewal had reached the sum of £43,221 7s 1d, the interest on which raised the annual revenues to £3,421 8s 3d, while the expenditure amounted only to £1,690 11s 3d.
The real value of the London estate continued to rise till within the last 40 years, during which period it has again steadily declined; partly in consequence of the decreasing popularity of Lambs Conduit Street (in which name are now to be found the only traces of the old Conduit Close) and its neighbourhood as a place of residence, and partly in consequence of the deteriorated state of the houses† on which the rent is taken. Indeed, although‡ since no fines are now taken as formerly they were on the renewal of leases, the yearly rent has not fallen, yet the actual value of the property is estimated to have diminished by 30 per cent since the year 1821. There is no present definite prospect of improvement.
The income from the whole property, estimated on an average taken upon that of the last seven years amounts to £5,653 14s 11d, of which £255 3s 0d is annually expended on the twelve almsmen who now represent the four almsmen for whom the founder made provision, and the remainder upon the general support of the Charity and the School.
Two Surveyors are appointed by the Trustees at moderate annual salaries for the two estates. Two receivers also collect the rents and profits. Both give adequate security, and render annual accounts which are carefully audited by the Trustees at their annual meeting. In these arrangements both the letter and the spirit of the Statute 17 Geo. III. ch. 71. are complied with.
III. VISITORIAL POWER
The School has no Visitor,§ but the Lord Chancellor, acting summarily, possesses large statutory powers over the management of its revenues, and the interpretation of its laws under the statute 17 Geo. III. c. 71.
IV. PERSONAL CONSTITUENCY OF THE SCHOOL
The School consists of a Board of Trustees, a "Schoolmaster", Assistant Masters, a Chaplain, and the Boys of the School.
V. THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES, THEIR CONSTITUTION AND POWER
The Founder appointed two Trustees, to whom, beside certain temporary powers of building, repairing, and appointing the Schoolmaster, he confided the duty of so conveying and assuring the estates which he had vested in them according to law, "that his Intent might have continuance for ever". In the year 1614 a new Board of Trustees, consisting of 12 gentlemen of Warwickshire, was appointed by the Court of Chancery, in whom the estates were vested. The Board, having died down to a single Trustee, was again renewed by the appointment of 12 Trustees by a Decree of the Court of Chancery in 1653, with more definite duties and powers.
The existing Trustees are a self-electing body, consisting of 12 gentlemen (actually of Warwickshire and the neighbouring counties), who are the successors of a Board, which was appointed and invested with a corporate character by an Act of Parliament passed in the year 1777. At that time, under the prospect of the improvement in its financial condition to which we have alluded, the whole institution was placed on a
*In the answer 10, Part. 11. of the Trustees as to the income and expenditure in 1778, some error must, we apprehend, have crept in. It is impossible that the total income can have been £135 per annum only, and the salaries of the two Masters £63 6s 8d and £80 respectively. This would make £143 6s 8d of expenditure, beside the support of the almsmen and all other expenses. The first order in the Act of Geo. III. provides that, "One or more ushers be appointed by the Trustees" &c. &c., "and that there be paid to the usher or ushers to be appointed such annual sum not exceeding £80 each, as the Trustees shall think fit."
†Some of the houses in 1861 were so much out of repair that rents, in the nature of ground rents only, were taken on the leases then given.
‡Little is known us to the system of leasing adopted before 1821. It is believed, however, that fines on renewal were taken only on the leases of 1821. - Answer I. 1.
§Carlisle, who wrote upon the information, it would seem, of one of the Trustees, the late Head Master, Dr. Wool, and the late Master of the Lower School, Dr. Bloxam, describes the Chancellor as Visitor.
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new basis, and the existing Trustees were reappointed, with new and well defined duties and powers. The person who is said to have been chiefly instrumental in this chance was Sir Eardley Wilmot, himself then a Trustee of the School, and Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. Penned it is said by him, an Act was passed which, although modified by two subsequent Statutes as to some financial details, still, in all grand points remains the fundamental law of the School.
Under this Act of Parliament the Trustees are empowered to carry out all the rules and orders contained in the Schedule of the Act relative to the government of the School, subject, however, to a reference to Chancery in all questions as to the application of surplus income and in all doubts as to the construction of general rules.
Such are their general administrative functions, but they have also in reference to the School powers of a higher kind, that is general powers of legislation for the School. The decree of 1653 enabled those at that time appointed to establish and alter or add to such "orders for the behaviour of the Schoolmaster and Scholars as should be consistently kept", and this power was fuIIy preserved and perpetuated in that section of the Schedule which has provided that they should make "at their Annual Meeting in August such rules and orders for the better regulation of the School and the Masters and Ushers thereof as they should think proper, all which rules and orders should be observed by the Masters and Ushers". They have in fact legislative powers almost unlimited over the management of the School.
Exercise of Power by the Trustees
Their administrative functions as to disposing of income they appear to have exercised in general with due caution not to exceed their powers, referring usually to the Lord Chancellor or to the Legislature before ordering any new kind or degree of expenditure. The exceptions to this course have been rare, and commonly, it would seem, accidental. The superintendence, however, formerly exercised by the Lord Chancellor in financial matters, appears in practice to have been recently exchanged for that of the Charity Commissioners.
The special duties of administration with which they are charged by the Act they perform with various degrees of activity. They actually choose as well as nominate the "Schoolmaster", whom they can dismiss at their will and pleasure. Possessing the same power as to the Assistants, they use it, but in a less active manner. They actually nominate, and would if necessary dismiss, those to whom as Trustees they pay a stipend, although in both points they commonly take the advice of the Head Master. Those not paid by stipend are usually appointed as well as selected by the "Schoolmaster", and would (in case of necessity) be dismissed by him, subject, however, in both cases to a reversal of his decision by the Trustees. Their power of "electing" to the Exhibitions of the School they have for very many years virtually surrendered to the judgment formed by examiners from Oxford and Cambridge on the comparative proficiency of candidates tested by an examination.
Their power of making rules they have exercised on some points. Regulations have been frequently framed as to the numbers of the School, the ages of the boys admitted or retained in the School, the charges for board, and various kinds of instruction, the nature of the examination for Exhibitions, the value of the Exhibitions, the conditions of their tenure, and similar matters the precise range of which is somewhat undefined. In the framing of such rules they appear to have been frequently, if not usually, guided by the opinion of the Head Master. Much active vigilance on their part to secure attention to them when made known will never be necessary, but instances, however unfrequent, are not absolutely wanting which indicate that the adoption of some effectual method of promulgating from time to time their regulations for the benefit of those who are bound by them would be advantageous.
Regulations framed by the Trustees for the internal management of the School have been very rare: this management they have in practice delegated to the Head Master, with the reserve of a power to rescind what he may have done, and to refuse their sanction, if they shall think fit, to any alteration of the existing system which he may propose to carry out. With the view of admitting this interposition, all important changes which he may project are submitted to them before being carried into execution. The relation existing between the Trustees and the Schoolmaster has always been that of confidence. Interposition on their part has been, to say the least, unusual, and the present Head Master can call to mind no instance of it within his experience.
The powers confided by the Act of Parliament to the body of Trustees, of framing general rules and regulations for the School, we do not propose to take away. Although
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in matters of school government and discipline the Board of Trustees has commonly left the initiative to the Head Master, yet he has framed his projects with the knowledge that the power both of originating and modifying general regulations, and therefore of reviewing all measures proposed, lies with them. This is a condition which we do not deem it advisable to destroy. The consciousness that any scheme suggested is open to rejection, cannot but add, we think, to the circumspection with which measures are framed, and to the maturity of deliberation on which they are proposed for adoption. In this way a power of making rules or reviewing them, however rarely exercised, has probably aided (and may still aid) in improving the character of arrangements with which it has never directly interfered. Even, therefore, where not made use of, it is not necessarily inert. It is very possible, too, that from time to time, questions may arise involving considerations not confined within the usual routine of school administration, to which the fresh and independent judgment of Trustees assembled together from a distance, may be actively applied with advantage to the School. According to the testimony of the present Head Master, the presumed existence and vitality of such a discretionary power in the body of Trustees perceptibly increases public confidence in the government of the School, and greatly strengthens the hands of the Head Master in carrying out whatever has received their sanction. It would be a matter for great regret, if the possession of such powers to establish and modify general rules should ever lead to interference with the Head Master in his actual administration of them. But at Rugby, where the Trustees, residing at a distance from the School, are not likely to be solicited for unnecessary interference, and where existing traditions would strongly discourage it, we do not think it desirable to divest them of any of those legislative powers which they now possess, in order to exclude the possibility of their encroachment upon functions essentially different. On some points, however, distinctly to be described in our recommendations, in which we desire that the judgment of the Head Master should be final and supreme, we deem it advisable to exclude their interposition. On other points again to which we desire that they should constantly and peculiarly turn their attention, we shall recommend that they charge themselves with direct and active responsibilities.
VI. THE HEAD MASTER, HIS QUALIFICATIONS AND POWERS
The "School Master," at the first foundation of the School was intended by its Founder for ever to be "a discreet and learned man, chosen to teach grammar; and if it conveniently may be, to be a Master of Arts, to be called for ever the Schoolmaster of Lawrence Sherriff".
In the year 1777 it first became a necessary requirement* that the Head Master should be "a Master of Arts of Oxford or Cambridge, a Protestant of the Church of England". It was directed also that "in the choice of such Master regard shall be had to the genius of such Master for teaching and instructing the children; and a preference shall be given to such as are duly qualified and have received their education at this School". In fact no Rugby man has since 1777 been elected Head Master, though it is due to Rugby itself to observe that it has given many most distinguished Head Masters to other Public Schools. We think, however, that here, as in other cases, there should be no restrictive rule or usage affecting the choice of the Head Master, and we shall, therefore, recommend the formal abrogation of the provision above referred to.
The Head Masters have in fact been educated, often at Eton and Winchester, and in some instances at other places of education both in and out of England; a circumstance which accounts not only for the composite character of its system of instruction and discipline - in which the institutions both of Winchester and Eton can distinctly be traced - but also for the general pliancy with which it has constantly met changes, and accommodated itself to the bent of every able Head Master who has ruled it.
We have already described generally the nature of that delegated authority which the Head Master derives from the Trustees, to whom he is responsible for the discipline and instruction of the whole School. He has (as above stated) usually appointed, and has the power to dismiss, subject to an appeal to the Trustees, all the Assistants but the seven senior Classical Masters. He assigns the division which each Master must teach, and, although this power is in some degree fettered by a usage which gives the forms in the Lower and Middle School to the Assistants, according to their seniority, yet it is quite unrestricted
*That none of these statute rules as to the qualifications of the Head Master have been repealed, appears by the Answers to 5, 1, Part II. taken together.
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either by custom or feeling as to the highest divisions, the teaching of which is usually considered the most important. The boarding-houses, also, now kept only by Assistant Masters, are given by the Trustees at his recommendation; but as those who stand highest on the list in order of seniority are understood to have a claim to these as they become vacant, this apparent patronage places no real power in his hands. For the discipline of the Form and boarding-house entrusted to him each Assistant is responsible to the Head Master. Other powers incidental to his office will disclose themselves in the sequel.
VII. ASSISTANT MASTERS, THEIR NUMBER, QUALIFICATIONS, AND POWERS
The School at its foundation had, and was intended for ever to have, but one Master. It had existed almost a century when the possibility of an Usher being required by the multitude of Scholars was first contemplated and indeed contingently provided for by an order of the Court of Chancery in 1653. There is some extrinsic evidence in the history of the town that there were more Classical Masters than one in the year 1707; and, as the School in 1748 was described to be not only a benefit to the neighbourhood but of public utility, it has been inferred that the number had then still further increased. It is certain that in the year 1780, within three years after the passing of the Act 17 Geo. 3. three Assistant Classical Masters, payable by salary from the Trustees, were appointed all of whom were, according to the Act, "competent to teach Latin and Greek", although not necessarily Masters of Arts. In 1800 the number of Classical Assistants had reached five. In the year 1818, when the School ranked second amongst all the public Schools of England in numbers, it was considered a laudable peculiarity that each form or division had its Classical Master, whose time was devoted to it: there were then nine Assistant Masters to 391 boys. In 1826 there appear to have been seven to two hundred and thee boys; in 1838 nine to upwards of 350 boys; in 1848, 12 to 490 boys. The number of Classical Assistants is now 13; that of Assistant Masters in all subjects combined, except writing, drawing, and music, is 18 to 463 boys. The Assistant Classical Masters have for very many years, by the custom of the School, been graduates of Oxford or Cambridge.
They constitute a distinguished body of teachers, the members of which are often selected to fill educational posts of great importance throughout the country.
The power which we have described as delegated to the Head Master by the Trustees, he has, by a spontaneous practice on his part, shared with the Assistants, and especially with those directly concerned in the matter under consideration. About once in a month all are called together. Then any usage or rule of the School can be brought under consideration, and any administrative measure of importance which calls for a decision becomes a matter of consultation, before the close of which the opinion of every Master is separately taken. This practice commenced on the accession of Dr. Arnold to the School Mastership. It is not surprising that, called upon to administer a School to which he was personally a stranger, the traditions of which he was not disposed either rashly to disturb or unreasonably to maintain, he should have constantly had recourse to the knowledge and experience of those around him to whom its usages were familiar. But that he should consistently have maintained in after years what he had so begun must be ascribed in great measure to those fixed opinions on the principles of government which he held and that general love of equality which marked his character. Whatever may have been the motive for the establishment of this usage, it has, subject to some fluctuations in its degree, prevailed ever since, and to its maintenance, not only in moments of difficulty, but in the steady tenor of School life, much of the effective and harmonious working of the School is generally attributed. We would recommend no change on this point.
In addition, however, to the privilege of his consultative voice at the Masters' meetings, each Assistant Master possesses also confessedly a large discretion as to the books which he shall use in teaching his Division, and practically also as to the amount of work which it shall be put through in the half year. This tradition of the School, which, by giving play to the tastes and habits of individual Masters, certainly may help to conciliate them to their labour and to give it life, is perhaps becoming more and more alien to a system in which divisions are organized in parallels, and promotion depends in part upon general examinations addressed to large portions of the School. That it may have the effect too of breaking the continuity of a boy's studies in some subjects, and so wasting effort in some degree, as well as of losing some other benefits which might be derived from a coherent and general scheme of instruction, we think is suggested by a careful examination of the School work, of which a return has been made
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to us. Now that so much influence is given to each Assistant Master in determining the general arrangements of the School both as to teaching and discipline, compliance with individual discretion in the instruction of particular classes, may be more easily sacrificed without infringement of liberty. Such organization of the studies as has recently moulded into a general cycle the historical teaching promises to cast the whole classical instruction, including the kinds and quantities of composition, and the authors to be construed and learned by heart throughout the School, into such a form as will secure to the boys, in addition to the good teaching and useful work of which they have now the benefit, also the very best methodization of both.
VIII. BOYS IN THE SCHOOL - THEIR NUMBER
The total number of boys in the School is* 463, distributed into three Schools, called the Upper School, Middle School, and Lower School. Of these 171 are in the Upper School, 226 in the Middle School, and 66 in the Lower School.
109 were admitted in the course of twelve months ending at Christmas 1861, 114 quitted during the same length of time ending at July 1861; 12 were admitted into the Upper School, 71 into the Middle School, and 26 into the Lower School. Not more than about one-third part of those applying for admission have been admitted. 51 quitted the Upper School, 54 the Middle School, 9 the Lower School.
IX. CLASSES OF BOYS
The School consists of two classes of Boys: Foundationers or those entitled to certain privileges in the way of gratuitous education, and Non-foundationers or those who receive the general benefits of their board and all their education at fixed charges.
1. Foundationers - Their Number and their Qualification
There are 61 Foundationers. The School was founded solely for the purpose of teaching grammar freely "to the children of Rugby and Brownsover and next of the places adjoining". But no evidence laid before us indicates what precise meaning was given to the words "places adjoining" for two hundred years after the foundation. By the Act of 1777 these words first received a definition in the clause which gave the privilege of the foundation to "all boys of any town, village, or hamlet lying within five measured miles of Rugby, or such other distance as the major part of the Trustees present at any public meeting should ascertain, regard being had to the annual revenues of the trust estate for the time being."
Under this Act, therefore, the limits of the privileged ground lying beyond Rugby and Brownsover, were to be set by the discretion of the Trustees, taking into consideration the pecuniary resources of the school. In pursuance of this power the bounds were within three years extended by the Trustees to ten miles within the county of Warwick, and left at five miles in the adjoining counties. Nor has the geographical part of this description of the privileged district ever been altered; but in the year 1830, in consequence of constant and large immigration into the town of Rugby on the part of families who settled there temporarily in order to avail themselves of the education given on very easy terms, the Trustees made an order prohibiting generally the admission of any boy to foundation privileges before his parents should have completed a two years' residence within the limits of the foundation. This order was subsequently supported by the Court of Chancery on the hearing of a petition made against it; and in the year 1851 the Court of Chancery itself made an order empowering the Trustees to extend the qualifying time of residence from two to four years, if they should consider it necessary, regard being had to the number of Scholars on the foundation, and to the income and expenditure of the Charity. The Trustees have not as yet exercised this power.
There are now beside the 61 Foundation boys in the School, six others who may be regarded as candidates for admission so soon as their parents shall have completed the two years residence now always necessary.
2. Foundationers - Their Privileges and Social Position
The privileges to which Foundationers are entitled have been defined and increased by several authorized regulations made since the foundation of the School. Under the Founder's Intent they are entitled to instruction in grammar and Latin freely. Under
*The present tense refers generally throughout this account of Rugby to no later period than the summer or 1862.
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the Act of to 1777 Greek, Latin, writing, and arithmetic, and the Catechism. By subsequent orders of the Trustees, passed with the sanction of the Court of Chancery, they have been gratuitously supplied with all the classical instruction given in the School classes, with class instruction also in Modern Languages, Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Drawing.
They are not, by any regulation or order, entitled to private or extra tuition of any kind: in this respect they stand by express regulation on the same footing as to payment as other boys.
The Trustees have also paid for each of them annually, one pound three shillings for warming and lighting the schools, and three shillings in support of the chapel choir.
The social position of a Foundationer, as such, in the higher forms, is undistinguishable from that of a boy who pays fully for all the benefits of the School.
The sons of persons in the town who happen to belong to a class in society decidedly inferior to that of the mass of boys in the School, having to encounter always (as boys from a greater distance might not) the knowledge that they were born and bred in an inferior position, are naturally at a disadvantage. This is likely to be felt quite distinctly if their manners or conduct are such as to impress their school-fellows with the sense of a substantial difference between them. This particular class of Foundationers is numerous only in the lower School, through which, from their inferior preliminary education, they rise slowly, often leaving before they can reach the Middle School at all. Exactly one-third part of all the Foundationers at Rugby are in the Lower School, of which they also make up nearly one-third part. Rather more than one third part of the Foundationers are in the Middle School, of which they form only about one ninth part; and rather less than one third in the Upper School, of which they constitute more than one eighth.
It is impossible that Foundation boys living as they do, when not in the School or at exercise, within the walls of their parents' houses, should be influenced quite as fully as other boys by the society and discipline of public school life. Even their opportunities for study, and their temptations to idleness, are somewhat different in character. It is creditable to boys of this class who reach the higher part of the School, as well as to their families, that, although obtaining access to their education on terms so very advantageous, they make very fair use of their opportunities. If in obtaining the highest distinctions they fall slightly below the other class of boys, it also appears that in the steady race of progress through the School they maintain at least an equal rate of speed with them.
X. QUALIFICATIONS FOR ENTERING OR REMAINING IN THE SCHOOL
No boy is admitted into the School until competent to learn Latin, and boarding-house masters commonly reject boys under 12 years of age. There is no minimum age, however, fixed by the rules of the School. It is otherwise as to a maximum, No boy can return to School after his nineteenth birthday. There is one boy in the School above 19, and only nine below 12 years; 248 boys, or more than one-half of the whole number, are between 15 and 17 years of age. No boy who has reached the age of 16 can be admitted into any form below the Fifth, nor at any age be admitted into any form above the Fifth. Boys already in the School, on failure to reach the Middle School at 16, or the Sixth Form at 18, are required to leave unless the Head Master, after inquiry made, deems it right to suspend the rule on special grounds. It is observable that these regulations, so far as they rest upon the principle that no boy shall remain when he has been utterly and hopelessly thrown out in the fair competitions of the School, are not to be found elsewhere than at Rugby. Even here they are softened by numerous exceptions. The backwardness of the lowest Foundation boys probably accounts for some anomaly on this point, and for this backwardness there appears no remedy quite consistent with their present claims upon the School.
XI. GENERAL ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOL
The School is distributed for the purposes of instruction into four schools, the Classical, Mathematical, Modern Language, and Natural Philosophy Schools.
XII. ARRANGEMENT OF THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL
The Classical School is divided into three sub-schools, called the Upper, Middle, and Lower Schools. Each of these again is divided into forms, which forms are again distributed into divisions. In the whole School, consisting of the three sub-schools, there is now a series of 12 such divisions. These 12 divisions, however, do not form 12 classes. In some cases numerous divisions form but one class before one Master,
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while in other cases one division is broken up into two classes before two Class Masters. The Lower School furnishes an example of several small divisions in one class before one Master, and the Middle School contains several instances of one large division broken up into two classes, each with its own Class Master. Two such classes are called Parallel Divisions.
The following table exhibits the arrangement of the School which we have describer}:
It may be said to be a general rule that boys in two parallel classes of the same division do the same work, as they hold the same rank in the School. It appears to be the fact also that one class, if containing more than one division, also does the same work through all the divisions.
The first institution of parallel classes took place in the Head Mastership of Dr. Tait, now Bishop of London. Some difficulties incident to the practical working of such a system probably occasioned its discontinuance, until it was revived by the present Head Master, who seems to have no reason to apprehend serious obstacles to its maintenance. It belongs to Rugby only amongst the nine Public Schools comprised in our inquiry, but more than one school of reputation lying out of this circle has adopted it.
XIII. NUMBER OF BOYS IN EACH CLASS IN THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL
It will appear from the table that the 463 boys, all of whom necessarily learn Classics, are taught in this department by 14 Masters (one of whom, however, gives a substantial portion of his time to the Mathematical School). Each Master, therefore, instructs upon an average 33 boys in one class. The actual distribution of the boys, however, deviates in particular instances considerably from the average number given to each Master. The lower classes of the School commonly fall below it, in consequence, probably, of the variety in attainment often to be found in the same form, and the need of personal superintendence produced by tenderness of age. The upper classes, with one exception, exceed it. The largest class under the Sixth Form contains 38 boys, the smallest 22. The Sixth Form itself, holding 42 boys, and taught by the Head Master, cannot fairly be compared with the rest, because the superintendence of Composition in the Sixth is shared between three teachers. Dr. Temple considers the average number somewhat too high. It will be seen, however, from inspection of other parts of our Report, that it is lower than the average of other growing public Schools, though higher than in those which have recently declined.
XIV. AGES OF BOYS IN THE CLASSES OF THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL
The average age of the boys in the highest division of the Lower School is 14 years and 8 months; that of the highest division of the Middle School is 15 years 9 months; that of the highest division below the Sixth Form is 16 years 8 months. Thus the average age in each of these three parts of the School differs from that of the parts below and above it as nearly as possible by one year, while the age allowed by the laws of the School to every boy for reaching each part of the School is one year and four months above the average age at which each is actually reached. Although this seems a sufficient allowance in consideration of backward boys, yet it appears necessary also to make numerous exceptions in their favour. On the other hand, a very clever boy will reach the Middle School in two years and nine months, and will gain the Sixth Form one year and nine months before his legal time shall have expired. The oldest boy in the Lower School is five months older than the youngest boy in the Sixth Form, although separated from him by eight divisions out of the twelve of which the whole School consists.
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XV. NUMBER OF HOURS SPENT IN TIlE CLASS-ROOMS OF THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL
The time which each boy spends in the class-rooms during the week is on the average throughout the Upper School somewhat more than 14 hours; throughout the Middle School somewhat more than 12 hours; through the Lower School, 18 hours and a half inclusive of the preparation which takes place in school.
XVI. SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION IN THE CLASSES OF THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL
Classical instruction includes the Latin and Greek languages, History, comprising the history of the Jews, Greece, Rome, and England, and Divinity. About one hour in the week is given to the class instruction in history and geography; two hours to divinity except in the Sixth Form, where three hours are devoted to it; and the remainder to the Classical languages, that is generally to the construing, repetition, and occasional translations. The rest of the Classical work, consisting in composition, is done commonly out of school hours.
The Classical languages are taught by means of construing or oral translation, and learning by heart, in every division of the School. The elements of both languages are taught concurrently in the lowest division. The boys in the lowest Forms construe the Latin and Greek grammar and exercise books, consisting of easy sentences in both languages; they also repeat the two grammars largely.
1. Order in which Authors are construed and taken with the Class Work
Each division in the School commonly construes some Latin or Greek author not done in the division below it; in this way some change is given to a boy almost in every division as he passes up the School. The following table gives a view of the order in which authors were taken into the school work, and of the division in which each was added in the year ending July 1861.
2. Mode of Construing in the Classes
Three methods of construing are made use of in the School, the construing proper, translation, and free translation. The construing proper consists in rendering word for word into English; the translation consists in rendering sentence by sentence closely; the free translation is a spirited rendering of a whole passage or sentence inconsistent with close translation. In the lowest part of the School, the construing prevails both as to Latin and Greek. In the middle part of the School it is retained as to Greek, and is commonly exchanged for translation as to Latin. Translation and free translation prevail as to both languages in the upper parts of the School. In the highest Forms the Master himself often finishes the lesson by what may be called a model translation.
3. The Testing of the Knowledge of Grammatical Forms and Constructions in the Classes
The parsing of authors in a manner suited to the progress of the boys in each Form prevails through the whole School.
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4. Verbal Repetition in the Classes
It may be here stated in connexion with the translation of Greek and Latin authors, the masterly performance of which depends much upon command of the English language, that English poetry is repeated by heart in the lowest, the middle, and the higher Forms, but not in the highest.
The learning of Latin poetry by heart does not commence in the very lowest class, but in the next above; this when begun is continued into the Sixth Form. Neither Greek prose, nor Latin prose, nor Greek poetry appear to be learnt by heart at all.
We are of opinion that the system of repetition might be extended to these, or to some of them at least, with advantage. The verbal repetition of grammars, or parts of grammars, appears to be continued in many of the higher Forms, and deserves, we think, to be made universal. It is a commendable part of the Rugby plan of teaching that verbal repetition is not merely enforced by lessons, but is carried into the periodical examinations and contributes to promotion again in this way.
5. Divinity in the Classes
The Divinity work at Rugby is mainly if not exclusively Biblical. Portions of the Bible are committed to memory through the Lower, Middle, and a great part of the Upper School. Poetical portions of it, and select passages from the New Testament, are learned by heart in the lowest Forms, and the historical matter of both Testaments is assiduously committed to memory by all the upper Forms of the School. Parts of the New Testament are read by them in the Greek. In the highest divisions, as we have seen, the Apostolical Epistles are also studied in the original language.
6. History and Geography in the Classes
Historical and geographical explanations of all books construed in class are required from boys so soon as they pass out of mere exercise books into authors; that is, in all divisions but the lowest. In addition, however, to the historical and geographical matter incidental to the perusal of the classics, which at the usual rate of school reading is necessarily slight, there is given an hour's lesson in history and geography in each week throughout the School. The whole range of this subject has commonly embraced Jewish, Greek, Roman and English history, taught however intermittently, and therefore with some degree of irregularity, nearly up to the present time. Of late a scheme has been framed by which a boy who shall have been at school for three consecutive years in the summer of 1864, will have passed through three such courses of classical, Jewish, and English history, as will, if remembered, give him a complete view, though of course not a deep or minute one, of each subject. He will also have constructed maps representing the world on a small scale, with Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, the British islands and colonies, more minutely.
Whether so wide an historical cycle brings its various subjects round with sufficient frequency in an ordinary school career to give each subject sufficient hold upon the mind, and whether under this point of view the exclusion of the modern subject would be a useless sacrifice, are questions which naturally suggest themselves.
7. The Substance and Matter of Books committed to memory in Classes
Boys in all the divisions are expected to remember the substantial contents of authors read primarily for the sake of the language, and in the highest Form an analysis of such matter is required often from the boys, and is often given also by way of model by the Head Master to his class.
8. Method of teaching the Classes
In the calling up of boys in class Class-masters appear to pursue no one method. In some classes every boy will be called up to do a short part nearly every lesson; a week, however, is no very uncommon interval between one call-up and another, and ten days, or even a fortnight, will sometimes elapse between two callings of the same boy, an interval which strikes us as somewhat too long, even although in these cases the trial, when it comes, is longer and more searching. It may be observed, however, that these calls are so irregularly timed as to baffle the calculation of idlers, and that the practice of constantly handing about mistakes for correction, and of dodging by questions, serves in great measure to expose would-be idlers, as well as to keep up a general interest in the work going on. The repetition, as may be collected from Mr. Blake's evidence, is sometimes heard like a construing lesson in this respect, all the class sitting with closed books
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and being required to correct errors, while a few are pitched upon as the Class-master may please to select them, to stand up and repeat. It hardly need be observed that in teaching masses of boys such matters are well worthy of the consideration which such an arrangement proves to have been given to them.
9. Composition in the Classes
The composition is usually done out of School. It consists of translation and original composition. Written translations from the classical languages into English, although set here and there,* hardly form a part of the general system of the School below the Sixth Form. In that Form they are often set; judiciously so in our opinion, for, although oral translation is a most useful exercise in the English as well as in the classical languages, it can rarely cultivate that finer perception of the force and propriety of English words, idioms, and phrases which is exercised by the more premeditated and deliberate method of writing. Written translations from English into Latin prose are required from the very bottom of the School to the top. From translations into Latin verse only the very lowest class is exempt. Translation into Greek commences in the middle class of the School, but, unlike Latin, it assumes the form of verse as well as of prose from the commencement. No original composition of any kind is exacted from the boys in any division below the highest form of the Middle School, that is, from any but clever boys below the age of fifteen years and six months, and then in very slight quantities. Indeed, it is not uniformly required lower than the Upper Division of the Fifth Form, when boys are usually approaching to seventeen years of age. It is even then, with very few exceptions, confined to Latin up to the Sixth Form, where English essays are composed. The writing of English verse in ordinary school work appears to be unknown. We should regret to be obliged to think that the occasional cultivation of a form of writing which requires the exercise of faculties often given in no mean degree to youths of seventeen and eighteen, untrammelled by the fetters of a dead language, would be impracticable.
A boy in the highest Form of the School (and such on an average are between seventeen and eighteen years of age) will have written in the course of the year about eight letter sheets of English essays, fifteen letter sheets of Latin essays, and about three hundred lines of original Latin verse. Such will have been the amount of his original composition. He will have translated about four hundred and fifty lines of English into Latin verse, and about six hundred lines of English into Latin prose; he will also have turned about four hundred lines into Greek verse translations, and four hundred and eighty lines into Greek prose.
Those acquainted with the state of public education thirty years ago, will be struck with the great increase during recent years of Greek over Latin, and of Translations over original compositions in this School. A boy will have written in the course of a year, above one thousand nine hundred lines in the form of translation into the classical languages; an amount which, acting simply on our own judgment, we should have pronounced sufficient, if well selected and done with diligence, to produce very accurate scholarship; if done with zest as well as diligence, enough to produce refined and elegant scholarship, and if done at all, but done neither with industry nor taste, enough to impose no inconsiderable penalty for the want of both. But the distinguished Rugbeans whom we examined join the general cry for more translation, and call to remembrance with regret the "utter miseries of original composition". No wish is expressed for its extinguishment, and from the opinion that the Latin essays may be somewhat too numerous or long, we do not dissent. But the utility of this form of composition depends much upon the topic which is selected for treatment, as its acceptability also depends much upon the character of the mind called upon to do such work. Certainly it gives a discipline in many respects which no amount of translation can confer. As the demand for translation arises mainly out of the requirements of the Universities, and as there is no reason to fear that a school such as Rugby will be slow to follow the system of the Universities, we do not apprehend that the Head Master of Rugby will fail to modify this part of the system, if it is faulty in itself as well as unfavourable to candidates for University honours.
XVII. TUTORIAL SYSTEM
Classical instruction is not given solely in class. The tutorial system has long existed at Rugby, having been introduced probably at the latter end of the last century, either by
*Mr. Lee Warner, we apprehend, in his evidence must allude to translation vivâ voce, or to the Sixth Form practice.
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Dr. James or Dr. Ingles. both Eton men, and Fellows of King's, and successively Head Masters between 1780 and 1806. Since the election of Dr. Arnold, the same system appears to have existed in a higher degree. Before his time each boy necessarily had a tutor, whose chief if not sole duty consisted in the correction of his exercises until he reached the Fifth Form. Then the most difficult work, that is the Greek play and Pindar, were construed before him in preparation for school. There was not then necessarily or even usually any purely tutorial work. The tutor was the pioneer to the class work. Since the time of Dr. Arnold, the classical tutor appears to have combined the old tutorial work at Rugby, judiciously modified, with the private business of the pupil-room at Eton. In the former capacity the tutor still looks over and corrects some of the composition set by the Form Master, who himself corrects the remainder. The exercise corrected by the tutor is shown up subsequently to the Form Master in duplicate, one copy of which shows both the boy's original performance and the tutor's amendment of it, while the other is a fair copy of the exercise in its perfect state. The Form Master directs his attention to both copies, chiefly however to the rough one, that he may estimate the work and give marks accordingly. The exercises corrected by himself he estimates us well as corrects. The more modern portion of the tutorial work, which every boy above the Lower School, although not directly compelled, virtually finds it necessary to take, consists mainly in construing lessons for two hours at least in each week. This instruction, although distinct from class work, yet becomes a part of the half-yearly examinations, and as such contributes to promotion. No class-work lessons whatever are construed before the tutor. It must be observed, however, that private tuition, or that part of the tutor's work which most nearly resembles the private business of Eton, has little of a private character at Rugby. It is given to classes nearly as large as, and much more promiscuous in proficiency and attainment than, are the classes of the School, inasmuch as all the pupils of the Middle School are formed into a single class, and all the pupils of the Upper School are gathered into another class, to go through these lessons before the tutor. In such lessons it seems almost impossible that the tutor should address himself to his pupil in his individual character either morally or intellectually. The older form of tutorial work, the correction of exercises, has a more truly private character than the specially private tuition. The objects really attained by this mode of instruction are two; first, the establishment of a permanent relation between every boy in the School and some one of its Masters from the beginning to the end of his career, during which his progress may be observed, and the development of his character watched, and his general interests cared for. The second end attained by the prevalence of this instruction in the School is the impulse thereby given to the Tutor to maintain an acquaintance with the work of all the forms in the Upper and Middle School and with the varieties of manner by which the work of each part is accommodated to the boys who are taught in it. Dr. Temple has expressed the opinion that for these purposes the whole tutorial work, as now established, is indispensable.
This kind of instruction adds two or three hours weekly to the time which each boy spends under classical teaching.
XVIII. SELECTION OF TUTORS
All the tutorial work of the School is limited to nine of the Assistant Masters, of whom the boarding-house Masters are five. The boarding-houses contain upon an average forty-six boarders each, and as every boarder is compelled to take his boarding Master as his tutor, and as no tutors are permitted to receive payment for more than fifty pupils, it must follow that there cannot be more than four or five paying pupils to any Master keeping a boarding-house, beyond those actually boarding with him. In respect, therefore, to five out of the nine tutors there can be little room for choice. The parents of those who board with the Head Master and the non-classical Assistant Masters have the ostensible privilege of selecting the tutor for their sons, but this freedom is again limited by the law which forbids any tutor to take more than fifty paying pupils, and by the custom of assigning particular tutors to particular boarding-houses with which they are not otherwise connected. The choice, therefore, would be much limited in all cases, even if the parent had the will and knowledge to make a choice. Foundationers, whose parents, living in the town, are probably acquainted with the reputation of the different Masters in the capacity of tutor, appear to have some advantage in this respect.
The admitted disparity in the abilities of different tutors, the high degree in which a boy's career through the School, and even at the Universities, is affected by the qualities of his tutor at School, and the slightness of the opportunity given for a real and free choice, are certainly facts tending seriously to abate the amount of advantage which is
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ascribed, at Rugby as elsewhere, to this relation. We are not, however, so convinced that the tutorial system, if allowed to exist in its present highly developed form, could be more satisfactorily arranged as to propose any specific changes with confidence. One palliative for these as for other inconveniences and inequalities as to School teaching lies within the reach of hands which will, we doubt not, apply it - very great care in the appointment to every Assistant Mastership, as it may become vacant.
XIX. PRIVATE CLASSICAL READING
Although the class instruction and the so-called private tuition constitute all that can be called classical teaching, yet they do not constitute all that has to be learnt. A boy is required or encouraged to prepare and to teach himself something beyond what is learnt for the hearing either of Master or Tutor. He is required to bring up for examination in the Classical School, at least once in the year, one subject of history and one subject of geography, which he has mastered by his own reading in the holidays. The thorough performance of this part of his work is guarded by a strict examination and by the considerable effect which it has on each boy's promotion.
XX. INDUCEMENTS TO INDUSTRY IN THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL
The stimulants by which the boys in the Classical School are urged to second the efforts of the Masters in teaching are five: 1st, Promotions in the School; 2nd, Distinctions; 3rd, Prizes; 4th, Scholarships; 5th, Exhibitions.
1. Promotion
The School is arranged, as we have seen, in an ascending series of divisions, the heterogeneous names, broken order, and sometimes inconsequent numbers of which, bear testimony to frequent changes and auditions, which in the course of years have only left vestiges of their original titles and relations to each other.
A boy, on application for admission to the School, is examined and placed in that division of the Classical School, not higher than the Fifth Form, for which his attainments seem positively to qualify him, after which, his promotion to a higher position in the School depends upon his classical proficiency, as compared with that of his schoolfellows. This promotion appears to be two-fold, first, promotion to a higher place in his own division; secondly, promotion to a higher division. Until he reaches a certain point in the School (the upper division of the Fifth Form), the former of these takes place daily, and even at every lesson; in the upper division of the Fifth or part of it monthly. In all cases it appears, however, that promotion from division to division involves also change of place in division.
1a. Promotion from Division to Division by Examination
There are four promotions in the year from division to division. Two of these are concurrent with two examinations, which are held throughout the School in June and December, and two take place at the two intervening quarters. Those concurrent with or immediately following the half yearly examinations are determined in part by a record which the Class Master keeps of marks given to each boy's performance in all the lessons of the half year, and in part by marks given to each boy's performance at such half-yearly examination. Each record has an equal weight in these promotions. The Masters do not at either of these examinations examine classes which they teach.
The June Examination
In the June examination the Upper School is examined together by the same papers of questions, each paper being prepared by one of the Classical Assistants, according to arrangement amongst themselves. All the Middle School at the same time is similarly examined together, by the same papers and questions. The June examination therefore turns upon the points common to the work of all the forms in each such School in general, and the superiority of those in the higher forms is maintained by their superior manner of doing the same work.* The promotion however of all the divisions in the Upper and Middle School really depends on a combination of two totally different tests - the performance of each boy in the whole form work valued by the judgment of the form Master, and the performance of each boy in the work common to the Upper or Middle Schools, as the case may be, valued by the judgment of the whole staff of Masters. In this examination the Lower School takes no part.
*This plan, however, appears to be occasionally modified by addressing special papers to special forms to meet particular cases.
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The Christmas Examination
The examination at Christmas consists in separate examinations given to each form in the work of the half year by two masters, both strangers to the forms which they examine. Here the promotion depends upon one test applied by two different judgments: that of the Class Master and that of two strangers forming decisions on the half-yearly work.
Peculiarity of the June Examination
This system of examination serves a purpose beyond that of determining the places of boys in the School. But, partly with this view, a peculiar plan of marking has been devised and applied, which extends the competition beyond the limits within which it is usually confined in trials for promotion at public schools. The boy with the lowest number of marks for his half-yearly class work in every division in each school, is assumed to have won, in the course of the half-year, marks equal to those of the highest boy in the division immediately below him; and every other boy in the same division is assumed to have gained as many marks beyond this number, as his actual marking by the Class Master has given him beyond the marks of such lowest boy. With this balance, therefore, in favour of all but the lowest boy in the higher division, and against all but the highest boy in the division below, the boys of both divisions enter the examination room to be examined. At the close of the examination the marks gained by each boy in the examination-room are added to the marks with which he commenced the examination upon the principles just explained. If, therefore, any boy promoted from the lower divisions can, in spite of his disadvantageous start in the examination, win so many marks beyond those of any boy in the higher division as will give him a superior number of marks on the whole for form work and examination work thus computed, he is entitled to take rank and place above him at the commencement of the next half year. It is conceivable, therefore, although not probable, that a boy on this trial for promotion may not only gain promotion but cut his way far up into the division into which he is promoted. It is both possible and not improbable that the best boy in the division below may overtake those who have been least successful in the division above, and so not only gain promotion but commence his career in the form above in a higher place than many boys who have been in it for some weeks. This system has the advantage of giving a double stimulus to all the classes. The highest in each class, who would otherwise work only against each other and in order to keep their places against those immediately below them, now work also to gain upon those in the division above. The lowest again in each division who would otherwise work only against each other, and to beat those immediately above them, work now also in apprehension of those in the division immediately below them. In fact, the artificial wall separating one class from another is lowered, although not entirely broken down.
b. Promotion from Division to Division by Class Work only
The promotion at the intervening quarters depends entirely upon the marks given by the Form Master to the work of the several boys in form, i.e. upon one test applied by one judgment. This marking by the Class Master appears generally to be either simple or complex, according to the place in the School which the class holds. Throughout the Lower School places are taken at each lesson; throughout the Middle and Upper Schools places are not taken at each lesson, although in some classes boys are re-arranged in this respect at the end of each month. Where places are not taken a simple system of marking prevails; where they are taken, experience has shown the necessity of adopting and combining two methods, for it has been found that a boy may do his work badly and yet by a lucky answer gain places. Some marks, therefore, are usually given for the place which a boy holds at the end of a lesson, and some are reserved for general performance in the course of it.
That the promotion of boys in each division should not depend solely upon an examination conducted by strangers, who might do imperfect justice to the steady exertions of a boy in learning the lessons and digesting the Form Master's instruction, or, on the other hand, solely on the estimate of a Form Master, whose close personal relations with all the boys might sometimes mislead him on the single point of comparative intellectual proficiency, seems highly reasonable. But the application of different principles of promotion at different periods of the year is an arrangement, the ground of which it
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would be more difficult to discern, were it not conceivable that time spent in elaborate examinations may trespass too seriously on the work of teaching to admit of four such trials in the year. It may also he good economy to turn each of the half-yearly examinations to some ulterior account beyond mere promotion, and this secondary purpose may be such in each case as to give a distinctive character of its own to each examination.
c. Promotion through the Parallel Divisions
A school consisting of nearly 500 boys properly taught, must of necessity contain many classes, which, if they are placed in one series of divisions, ascending in one line from the first form to the sixth, will present, according to Dr. Temple, to all who enter the School in the lower half of it, the prospect of so many steps before they can reach the top, as may dishearten many boys disposed to work, yet not brilliant in ability. On the other hand the clever boys, capable of rising rapidly through the School, will run through each division, one after another, so fast as to be subject to a frequent change of Masters, and therefore to a constant change in style of teaching. It has been found to be the effect of this that almost as soon as the peculiar method of each individual Master begins to make a good and clear impression on the pupil, he is withdrawn from it and transferred to another class under another teacher, with whose style of teaching he will just become familiarized when the same process of initiation into the method of another teacher must commence again. In order to remedy these inconveniences at Rugby, that arrangement of the School was adopted which has been already described, and by which two classes are considered as parallel in position and equal in rank to each other. Thus placed and regarded they are two distinct divisions for the purpose of teaching, and two parts of one and the same division under every other point of view. Such they are in regard to promotion. No boy in his ascent through the School is promoted out of one parallel into its fellow parallel - he is promoted into one only of two parallels from the division next below - he is promoted out of one of two parallels always into the division next above.*
It must be observed, however, that the classes parallel to each other are considered as separate divisions in one point. The members of one parallel do not compete against the members of the other, as members of the same division would. In every trial for promotion an equal number of boys is selected for promotion from each parallel.
This system of promotion through parallel classes appears to be as yet imperfect. It gives some boys an advantage over others under two points of view: first, in regard to the parallels into which they are promoted. It is clear that each boy cannot under this system take the teaching of each Class Master as he rises through the School. Yet the Class Masters are not equal always in efficiency or reputation for efficiency. With this the boys are so far impressed that much solicitude is often felt to be promoted into one of the parallels rather than into the other. There is "a rush made into one parallel". This rush is indeed moderated, and directed by the judgment of the Masters themselves - perhaps chiefly by the Head Master. By some authority and by some method of decision unknown to the boys themselves (and therefore considered a state secret), every boy promoted into a parallel division has the parallel class in which he shall take his seat on promotion allotted to him. In this way boys sometimes believe themselves to be put at a disadvantage.
Again, in regard to promotion out of the parallels, there seems to be, at present, an imperfection more certain and appreciable. The competition is always between boys in the same parallel. Yet if the boy third, for instance, in order of merit in one, parallel, is, as he may be, superior to the boy who is first in another, he has a natural claim to prove his superiority and obtain his promotion before him. It would in itself be fairer, therefore, as between one boy and another, that boys standing in the same rank by whomsoever taught should win their way to a higher rank and more advanced work by their proficiency alone, without regard to the fact of their having studied in one class rather than another. The extended competition, too, which would be
*Where this division immediately above consists in a single class, boys from both parallel classes below are promoted into it at every promotion. When the division above consists of two parallel classes, promotion takes place into it from the two lower parallels in the same way at the mass examination, but neither parallel above is filled up exclusively from either parallel class below. The two parallels below and the two parallels above are considered as single divisions for all purposes, so that boys who were all in the same parallel class below may be distributed into two parallels above, and boys who were in different parallels below may find themselves in the same parallel above.
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thus afforded by the parallel system, might be numbered amongst the positive advantages which its adoption would confer on a large school. But it is not difficult to assign a reason for an arrangement which in itself appears to limit the action of the competitive principle, where its perfect freedom would, in many points of view, be beneficial. This competition of parallel classes might sometimes assume the character of competition between the Masters teaching them, and so possibly produce jealousies not favourable to the effectual management of the School. Until these difficulties, however, are got over the system is certainly restricted, where it might, as it seems, advantageously be free.* It may be added too, that in so far as such freedom would in itself tend to disclose the inequality of Masters in knowledge, ability, industry, or skill, should such exist, it would, wherever it can safely be established, first place a check, not only on rash appointments to masterships, and afterwards on careless performance of the duties attached to them.
There is no part of the general system by which the Classical School at Rugby is conducted that is more distinctive, or hears more evident marks of care in its arrangement, than the promotion through the School. The title to promotion is very simple, being that of comparative proficiency alone; but it is also very comprehensive, including as it does even the art of drawing. The tests of proficiency in Classics alone are various and numerous: the application of them is frequent. The freedom of movement in promotion is more complete than at any other school under our review. At the same time it is also more elaborately guided and directed for the purpose of encouraging the progress of less able boys without any sacrifice of the test of comparative merit, and also of moderating the speed of the more clever and industrious by arrangements which will further mental progress while they moderate the rate of progress through the classes.
The system of parallel divisions, which we regard as still imperfect, we believe also to be beneficial in its present state to Rugby, as it would he generally to large schools, and as soon as it can gain safely its full development it will constitute a very important improvement in their organization.
d. Time spent in each Division in the Classical School
The time which a very clever and industrious boy will expend between his promotion into a division and his promotion out of it in the higher part of the Classical School is about four months. A slow and indolent boy, on the other hand, will take three times as much time for the same amount of progress; that is, about one year. The average length of stay in a division is about seven months in the upper part of the School, and between five and six months in the lower.
2. Prizes for Examinations in the Classical School
A prize is given to any boy in every form throughout the School who obtains a first class in the final examination at Christmas, either in Divinity, Classical Scholarship, History, or Geography; a second class also contributes to entitle its winner to a prize, and therefore some further distinction in one of the subsidiary schools is requisite to give full effect to this lower degree of distinction. A prize for the best examination in Divinity of the value of three guineas is offered to the competition of all forms below the Sixth, and to the Twenty one of the same value for the best examination in the Greek Testament.
3. Scholarships for Examination in the Classical School
Two Scholarships (instituted by the liberality of the Masters, who tax their income for the purpose) of the value of £30 and £20, are annually awarded for pure scholarship, shown in the mastery of set portions of Classical authors and of writers on Classical criticism. They are open to all boys who have not reached the Sixth, or only reached it within the six months preceding the examination.
*In one way already the parallel classes, which generally are excluded from direct competition with each other, are here sometimes necessarily admitted into it. Those who are promoted from two corresponding parallels into any one division above them, meet there to contend against each other. In measuring their strength against the strength of the same antagonist division above them, they are also necessarily measuring their strength against each other, and their relative positions are recorded by the number of places which they can severally win. This struggle is avoided, where the division above also consists of two parallels, by the practice of drawing lots. The lower parallels at the June examination select by lot the particular parallels above with which they shall severally compete.
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4. Prizes for Composition
The following table exhibits the prizes given for Composition:
There is thus annually offered in prizes at Rugby for Classical and English composition £60 8s 0d. Of this sum £43 12s 0d is given for original writing, and £13 13s 0d for translation - an inversion of the degrees in which the two forms of composition are practised generally through the School. Forty-one pounds ten shillings is bestowed on prose, and twelve guineas on verse - proportions in accordance with the general tendency of the teaching. English original prose composition, however, holds the very first and greatest place in the prize list, whereas in the exercises of the School it occupies the least space. The absence of any prize for Greek prose of any kind, for Latin verse translation, and for English translation of any kind, and the comparative insignificance of the prize for English verse, are, we think, deficiencies which the funds of the School might not disadvantageously supply. We are aware that the prizes are the expressions of individual predilection, as much as of any public or authoritative discretion. But as they have a great effect in directing the industry and forming the habits of the youths towards the top of the School, we think that the Trustees, with the assistance of the Masters, might with advantage keep a watch upon the growth of this part of the system, with a view of giving the due proportions to its parts, and maintaining the general practice of the School and the public rewards offered to the highest class, so far as advisable, in harmony and keeping with each other.
5. Exhibitions to the Universities
The bestowal of Exhibitions at the University was not and could not be any part of the original design of a Founder who left only £24 per annum for the support of a School and a general Charity. But in 1777, when the institution became rich, seven Exhibitions, of the value of £40 per annum, were at once most wisely established and placed at the disposal of the Trustees by Act of Parliament. To this number the Trustees themselves, considering perhaps the good of the School to be a sufficient sanction for such an act, added seven more within a few years on their own authority; thus raising the number to fourteen. In 1807, about twenty years afterwards, the Board obtained sanction for this act of their predecessors in an order of the Court of Chancery, which confirmed the past augmentation, and further authorized an addition of seven more Exhibitions, together with an increase in the value of each of the fourteen Exhibitions to £50 per annum.
Again, in 1814, power was given by* Act of Parliament to raise the number of Exhibitions from fourteen to twenty-one, and to further increase the value of all. The power to augment the value was not exercised till the year 1821, nor was the number actually increased till 1826. From that time to the year 1854 there were twenty-one Exhibitions (three of which were elected to annually), of the value of £60 each, tenable for seven years at either University. At present, under two distinct orders of the Charity Commissioners made in 1854 and 1859, the Exhibitions are tenable for four years only instead of seven, and their value, instead of being uniform, varies according to the place of the candidate in the examination by which they are awarded.
*It appears to have been the practice of the Trustees to obtain legislative sanction for the Acts directed by the Court of Chancery which would permanently affect the expenditure. The account given of the Exhibitions, in the answers of the Trustees, states only the manner and time of obtaining authority to increase the value and number of Exhibitions, but such authority was rarely made use of as soon as obtained.
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The manner in which the Exhibitions have from the first been awarded is honourable to the Trustees. Although the words of the Act of Parliament which created them left the election of the Exhibitioners in the hands of the Trustees, they appear never to have nominated. At first a preference was given to Foundationers similar to that which still prevails at Shrewsbury; and only in default of a sufficient number of such candidates, were non-Foundationers elected according to the results of a competitive examination. Gradually the preference disappeared, and for very many years, both classes of boys have entered into the same arena, and won in the same manner by their comparative proficiency. This proficiency, too, from a date so old as the year 1806, has been ascertained by two Examiners sent from the two Universities, and appointed by the Vice-Chancellor of each.
Five Exhibitioners are now regularly chosen every year to fill five Exhibitions of the several values of £80, £70, £60, £50, and £40, tenable for four years, on the single condition of residing at some College or Hall in Oxford or Cambridge during that time. The examination is open to all who have been members of the School for three years. Beside the work of the half-year, candidates are required to bring up for examination some Classical author prepared entirely by themselves, and to translate into English passages of Greek and Latin not before seen, in addition to composition in the Classical languages. When the holder of an Exhibition ceases to fulfil the required conditions, the remainder of his Exhibition is offered to competition at the annual examination.
The sum of £960 from the funds of the School is annually appropriated to these Exhibitions. We are of opinion that they have been of essential advantage to the School, both as inducing parents to send intelligent boys to it, and as affording a powerful stimulus to industry in the highest Forms.
XXI. IMMEDIATE RESULTS OF THE TEACHING IN THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL
Within the last 10 years Rugby has obtained at Oxford 35 first classes in Moderations, and 22 Classical first classes in the final schools; 3 Ireland Scholarships and 3 Hertford Scholarships; 2 Latin Verse prizes; 1 Newdegate; 1 Sacred Poem prize; 1 Latin Essay; 2 Arnold Historical and 2 Denyer Theological Essay prizes. It has succeeded in obtaining, beside University distinctions, 19 open College Fellowships, 41 open College Scholarships, and 7 open College Exhibitions*. At Cambridge it has obtained 6 first classes in the Classical Tripos, one of whom stood first, one was bracketed with two others in the first place; 1 first class in Natural Science; 1 Craven, 1 Davis, 1 Person, 1 Bell Scholarship; 1 Camden Latin Verse prize; 1 Greek Epigram; 1 Greek Ode; 2 Chancellor's Medals; 1 Moral Philosophy prize; 13 open Fellowships; 6 of which were at Trinity; 3 at St. John's; 18 open Scholarships; 12 at Trinity; 4 at St. John's; 1 at Caius; 1 at Pembroke.
We apprehend this list of distinctions to be such as, whether considered in reference to the number of boys actually in the School, or the number which in one year it sends to the Universities, evinces its general teaching of the Literæ Humaniores to be absolutely unsurpassed - its training in exact Scholarship to stand within the first rank, and its practice of composition not to disentitle it to a very honourable position amongst Public Schools.
XXII. MATHEMATICAL SCHOOL.
MATHEMATICAL MASTERS - THEIR NUMBER AND QUALIFICATIONS
Arithmetic became a part of the instruction given at Rugby in the year 1780.
The method of providing Mathematical Masters for the School has varied greatly during the course of the present century. In the decennial period between 1820 and 1830, two Masters, neither of whom had taken degrees in either University, taught the whole School, containing for most of the time less than 200 boys. These gentlemen were not invested with any authority entitling them to respect out of School, and were entrusted with very limited powers to maintain order or exact attention in it. The progress of the boys was almost unnoticed by the Head Master or tutors. The hours spent in the writing School therefore were too often hours of idleness and confusion with
*Perhaps it may be said with an approximation to truth, that out of all the men whom Rugby has sent to Oxford in the last 10 years; about 1 in 4 has gained some open College Scholarship; nearly 1 in 5 has taken a first class in moderations; 1 in 9 has taken a first class in the final Schools; 1 in 60 has gained the Hertford Scholarship; 1 in 60 has gained the Ireland Scholarship; 1 in 95 has carried off the Latin verse; 1 in 95 the Historical Essay, founded in Arnold's honour; 1 in 190 has gained the English verse prize; not one has followed Arnold's example in carrying off the Chancellor's prize for the best English Essay.
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many boys, and must have been, therefore, also hours of disappointment or of nonchalance with those appointed to teach them.
Dr. Arnold, soon after his accession, placed the teaching of the higher branches of arithmetic and mathematics in the hands of his Classical Masters, all of whom, we are informed, taught classics and mathematics. Soon after Dr. Arnold's death, in 1842, his successor, Dr. Tait, gradually altered the system, by appointing within the next five years (during which the School rose to 491) two efficient Mathematical Masters for the whole School, whose time was devoted to the subject. At the present time there are two Mathematical Masters, both of whom are distinguished graduates of Cambridge, and have no other duties than that of instructing the Upper and Middle Schools, while a writing Master and his assistant teach mathematics and arithmetic in the Lower School. There is also a third Mathematical Master (Senior Wrangler of the year 1859), who, although teacher of natural philosophy also, gives as much as three hours and a half in each week day on an average to mathematical instruction alone. One of the Classical Assistant Masters, too, teaches mathematics for about seven hours in the week, and the Head Master gives some assistance to his own form in this subject.*
XXIII. ARRANGEMENT OF MATHEMATICAL SCHOOL
The arrangement of the Mathematical School is partly dependent upon the arrangement of the Classical School. The four main subdivisions of the Mathematical School have the same names, and contain the same boys as do the corresponding portions of the Classical School.
That is to say -
1. Sixth Form.
2. Upper School.
3. First and Second Upper Middle Schools.
4. Third Upper Middle and Lower Middle Schools.
5. Lower School.
So far the places of the boys in the Mathematical School depend upon their places in the Classical School.
Each, however, of these sub-schools is again subdivided into classes called sets, (numbered first, second, third, and so forth) which do not respectively correspond either as to the number or the order of the boys contained in each of them with the divisions or classes of the Classical School. For instance, at the present time the boys in the highest and smallest classical division of the Upper School, called the Twenty, are scattered through no less than five of the seven Mathematical sets in the Upper School. On the other hand, boys in the lowest classical division of the Upper School are dispersed through all the Mathematical sets of the Upper School.
The number of sets in each Mathematical School is not absolutely fixed, but to a certain degree depends on the aptitude of the boys at any given time to be classified and taught in more or fewer groups. At present the Sixth Form is divided into four, the Upper School into seven, the first and second Upper Middle School into seven, the third Upper and Lower Middle into four; the Lower School into five; so that the Mathematical School consists of seventeen sets, answering to but not absolutely corresponding with, the classes of the Classical School.
XXIV. GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE TEACHING IN THE MATHEMATICAL SCHOOL
The Lower School is taught arithmetic by the Writing Master or his assistant. The four lower sets out of five in the Lower Middle School take two hours instruction from the Mathematical Master and two hours from the Writing Master; but on reaching the fifth and highest set of the Lower Middle School boys pass into the hands of the Mathematical Masters exclusively. The principles of arithmetic, however, are taught by these Masters throughout the School directly in the lower sets, indirectly by means of examination papers in the higher.
Each boy in the School on the average passes three hours a week in the Mathematical Classes.
XXV. PRIVATE TUITION IN MATHEMATICS
Those who want to cultivate this branch of knowledge to a higher degree than their opportunities in class will allow them, take private tuition in it. If it be found
*See Mathematical Table B.
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necessary for the purpose of giving time but not otherwise, boys are allowed to drop some of the work with their Classical Tutor, and when above the Fifth Form to leave off all Latin versification with the consent of the Head Master, Form Master, and Tutor. In 1861 there appear to have been 106 boys learning mathematics by extra private tuition. The private tutor in mathematics gives three hours in the week to his pupil, who must also spend some additional time in preparation.
XXVI. INDUCEMENTS TO INDUSTRY IN THE MATHEMATICAL SCHOOL.
1. Promotion in the Classical School
As each boy's promotion in the Classical School depends upon mathematical proficiency to the extent of twelve marks in the hundred reckoned for promotion, the desire to gain rank and the privileges attending it in the Classical School must be reckoned as giving a certain degree of impulse to the mathematical work of every boy in the School.
2. Promotion in the Mathematical School
As a separate list of the boys according to their order in the Mathematical School is published periodically, it may be fairly supposed that their promotion in the Mathematical School considered simply by itself must have also some effect in keeping up the industry of boys in this department. This promotion, however, is dependent in part upon the promotion in the Classical School, inasmuch as every boy, however backward and low he may be in the Sets of Mathematics, moves up into a superior part of the Mathematical School so soon as he has gained promotion into the corresponding part of the Classical School; and however high may be his position in the Mathematical Sets, he cannot advance into a higher part of the Mathematical School, until his promotion into the corresponding part of the Classical School permits it. But, on the other hand, not only does he move upward from set to set in every part of the Mathematical School while he remains there, according to his proficiency, but, so soon as he receives his classical promotion into a higher part of the School, he alights, so to say, in a higher or lower set in the corresponding part of the Mathematical School according to his mathematical attainments. Thus, while A is kept in the Upper School sets until he call reach the sixth form in Classics, yet so soon as he does so, he will find himself at once in the first and not in the last set of the Mathematical sixth form, if his mathematical attainments fit him for its teaching. Again, although B, an inferior Mathematician in the same Upper School, will be moved even from a lower mathematical set into the Upper School in mathematics so soon as he gains his classical promotion into the sixth, yet he will fall into the lowest set of that form.
3. Distinctions and Prizes
At every Christmas examination, all the forms are examined in Mathematics by the Mathematical Masters, and to those who chiefly distinguish themselves in each Classical division, first and second classes are awarded, each of which possesses half the power of the corresponding distinction in Classics towards procuring for its winner a prize of books. Twice in the year, also, that is, in April and November, a prize is offered to the competition of each main division of the Mathematical School for Mathematical examinations, the subjects of which are made known for some months before the contest takes place, in order to afford time for preparation. £19 19s is annually given (chiefly at the expense of the Mathematical Masters) for this purpose.
4. Exhibitions
Mathematics form a part of the examination for the exhibitions.
XXVII. IMMEDIATE RESULTS OF THE TEACHING IN THE MATHEMATICAL SCHOOL
It is considered by Mr. Mayor that boys come to Rugby from preparatory schools ill prepared in arithmetic, and that those who have passed through the Lower School have not employed time enough on it to gain a satisfactory knowledge.
By means of class teaching alone, an average boy on leaving Rugby will have gone through arithmetic, algebra to the end of the progressions and the first four books of Euclid.
By means of private tuition in Mathematics, a few boys are enabled to understand the Differential Calculus before quitting school.
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Those who intend to compete at Woolwich are obliged to leave Rugby for special preparation. But the Woolwich standard is considered by Mr. Mayor as altogether above boys of 18 who have not studied in a special school for Mathematics.
It is the general opinion of the Head Master that the study of Mathematics is at Rugby prosecuted with as much success as that of Classics, when the amount of time given to each is taken into account.
Rugby, during the last ten years, has sent to Cambridge 12 Wranglers, including two in the first 10, and three in the second 10; and to Oxford, five first class men in the final Mathematical Schools, and two senior Mathematical Scholarships; a list which places it in regard to Mathematical honours amongst the most successful Public Schools.
XXVIII. SCHOOL OF MODERN LANGUAGES
History of the School of Modern Languages and its Masters
The modern languages have been taught at Rugby since the year 1800, when a salary of £30 was given by the Trustees to a gentleman to teach French, gratuitously to the foundationers then twenty-seven in number, and for an extra charge to other boys whose parents might desire them to learn French. On the erection of new school buildings in 1800 a small room was devoted to this branch of instruction. This system seems to have continued with very slight changes for nearly thirty years, when Dr. Arnold arranged that each Classical Master should teach it to his form as a regular part of the curriculum compulsory on all at a charge of £1 17s 10d* for every boy in his class. From the time of his death to the present moment the method he instituted has been gradually reverting into a much improved form of the old system.
His successor, Dr. Tait, first modified this arrangement by introducing a Teacher of Modern Languages to whom any Classical Master desirous of relief from this part of his duties might transfer them by paying the whole or part of the pecuniary consideration which he received for it. At the present time almost all the teaching is confided to two Modern Language Masters, each of whom teaches both French and German. The senior of these is an English gentleman educated at Rugby and Oxford, who by residence in France and Germany for five years of boyhood, acquired his first familiarity with the two languages. For some time he appears to have been the sole appointed teacher of Modern Languages, having been materially assisted by Mr. Arnold and Mr. Moberley, two of the Classical Masters. The necessity for this assistance has almost passed away, however, since the appointment, in the year 1859, of the Second Modern Language Master, a Prussian gentleman who received his education in Belgium. French is thus taught by two Masters with neither of whom it is his native language, but we have every reason to believe that the pronunciation and all other parts of the subject are well taught One teacher at least understands the temper of English boyhood. Both have undergone the discipline of a Classical education, and can enter into the difficulty of adapting foreign muscles to the articulation of French words and foreign minds prejudiced, so to speak, by their native idioms, to the peculiar constructions and phrases of the French language. The Assistant Masters teaching French are invested with all the authority of Classical Assistants both in and out of school.
Dr. Arnold's motives for his arrangement appear to have been two, the first, the wish completely to incorporate the instruction in French with the curriculum of class teaching; the second, the desire to give this instruction without that risk to the discipline of the School which would be involved, as he thought, in the committal of the department to Foreign Masters. In this arrangement he distinctly limited his prospect to the acquisition of Foreign Languages as dead languages during the stay of boys at school, believing that no method of instruction whatsoever would communicate the power of speaking them fluently, or pronouncing them well, and that, as a basis on which to raise these accomplishments subsequently, his own plan was the "least bad". To exact from the accomplished Classical Masters of the year 1836, selected without reference to knowledge of French, the duty of giving grammatical instruction in a language, for the correct teaching of which the Grammaire des Grammaires is not a superfluous instrument, was perhaps the requirement of a man ready to do wonders himself, and sanguine in his expectations from the zeal and versatility of others. The plan may be regarded as a failure, but that decides nothing as to the propriety of teaching a foreign language by Classical Masters. This, in fact, resolves itself into the different question whether it would be expedient to require from candidates for Classical Masterships the knowledge and skill
*This is the sum apportionable to Modern Languages out of the total sum of £5 13s 6d, of which an account will be given hereafter.
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requisite to teach a Foreign Language. Dr. Temple thinks that it would not, mainly for the reason that it would very inconveniently narrow his area for the selection of assistants.
XXIX. ARRANGEMENT OF MODERN LANGUAGE SCHOOL
The Foreign Language School at Rugby is arranged upon the same principle as the Mathematical School, and consists in a series of divisions identical with those of the Classical School, each of which is again broken up into a series of sets in which boys are arranged according to proficiency. These sets, less numerous than the Mathematical, amount to nineteen, thus throwing the whole School into somewhat larger classes. The actual arrangement of the boys in the sets of this School more closely corresponds with their position in the Classical School than does their arrangement in the sets of the Mathematical School, although there is the same freedom of movement and promotion in both; a fact which indicates a greater degree of correspondence between the aptitude of boys to learn modern languages and that to learn classics, than between their aptitude for either of these studies and their aptitude for mathematics.
Places are taken in these classes for correctness of pronunciation, as well as for correctness of knowledge.
XXX. SUBJECTS TAUGHT IN THE MODERN LANGUAGE SCHOOL
Every boy at Rugby learns two Modern Languages without extra payment, unless his parents choose that he should substitute for these the study of Natural Philosophy. On the first introduction of the second Modern Language into the school course, boys were taught French only up to the top of the Middle School, and German only throughout the Upper School. Experience, however, convinced the present Head Master that such a plan tended to obliterate most of the knowledge of French which they had gained without effectively conveying much knowledge of German. Boys now commence the study of French so soon as they are admitted into the School, and add the study of German so soon as they have made sufficient progress in French.
French and German are taught in all the sets of the Sixth Form and Upper School, and in the higher sets of the Middle and Lower Schools; French only in the lower sets of both. At the present time there are only 27 boys in the Lower School who do not learn German as well as French. These last read a primary French grammar and Gase's First French Book. The highest sets in the Sixth Form read Göthe's Travels, and Voltaire's Plays, and write exercises both in French and German. French works are occasionally read in the Classical School, when the subjects falling within the range of Classical studies are best treated in some French author. Tocqueville's America has been recently read in the Sixth Form as a part of the historical class-work.
XXXI. TIME SPENT IN THE CLASSES OF THE MODERN LANGUAGE SCHOOL
The work done in class amounts to two hours per week, exclusive of preparation throughout the School. The present Masters concur both in desiring a third hour, and in confessing at the same time their inability to perceive how it can be spared from other studies.
XXXII. PRIVATE TUITION IN MODERN LANGUAGES
Those boys who are so backward as to be below the teaching given to others having the same position in the Classical School, are required to take private tuition. It would appear that about twenty may be reckoned as the number of such pupils during one half year. Those whose parents desire them on any account to take a greater amount of instruction than that given in the classes are permitted to do this, and this extra instruction, for which a fee at the rate of £6 6s per annum is paid, is if necessary facilitated by exemption from tutorial work and classical versification.
XXXIII. CONVERSATION CLASSES
Since the appointment of a second Language Master, classes for holding conversation have been instituted for the benefit of the more advanced boys. To these only boys who have reached the first set in the Upper School group, or taken private tuition, are admitted, and they only, at the discretion of the Master. The Sixth Form may claim admission to them by right. No fee is paid, the lesson being regarded us the privilege of those who are proficients. At first this work consisted in actual conversations. But the embarrassment
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which attends attempts to do in public that which would with difficulty be done at all, stood in the way of progress; and the lessons have of late assumed a different character. Foreign books are read off without translation of any but the most difficult phrases; English passages are read off into French, and grammars written for French Schools are mastered, and all that passes between master and boy is spoken in French. Two hours in the week are given to this. The time not being allowed for in the School arrangements is in fact abstracted from games and amusements; were it otherwise, the number of pupils, which now does not exceed eight, would, in the opinion of the Master, be eight times eight.
The "conversation class" has practically settled down into the highest form of instruction of which the boys are capable, who are not quite ripe for instruction by conversing.
XXXIV. ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE STUDY OF MODERN LANGUAGES
1. Promotion, Classes, and Prizes
The most regular and constant stimulant given to the study of Modern Languages is the weight which they have in affecting promotion in the Classical School, where eight out of each hundred marks reckoned for promotion are obtained by Modern Languages, in accordance with the principle that the same encouragement by promotion should be given to every lesson in every subject taught in the School. As the boys are also promoted within each division of the School of Modern Languages solely according to proficiency, this must produce some degree of competition. The limits which are set to the freedom of this promotion are identical with those established in the Mathematical School. The School List, too, of boys in each part of the Classical School, numbered in their order of merit as modern linguists, is published. The same arrangements are made as to the bestowal of classes and prizes for Modern Languages at the Christmas examination as we have already described in reference to Mathematics.
Three prizes, two of the value of £3 3s each for the Upper School and one of the value of £1 1s for the Lower School, are annually given by the Head Master and Senior Assistant Master, for general proficiency in Modern Languages.
Three prizes, two of the value of £2 2s and one of the value of £1 1s are in the course of institution for the competition of the Upper and Middle schools twice in each year. They are offered for the most accurate knowledge of the French and German grammars by the two Assistant Masters.
2. Exhibitions
Modern Languages have also a certain weight at the examinations for the Exhibitions. But classical examiners set the papers, and as a general impression prevails that these tell very slightly on the result, this formal admission to partnership in the chief emoluments given by the School can tell but slightly on the study.
XXXV. IMMEDIATE RESULTS OF THE TEACHING OF MODERN LANGUAGES
The study of Modern Languages is not in either University tested by examination at the degree or any earlier period of the student's career, otherwise than by Scholarships given out of the funds of the Taylor Institution, none of which appear as yet to have been won by Rugbeans. The teaching of Public Schools is not therefore submitted to the same criterion in this as in other branches of instruction. The only candidate who proceeded direct from Rugby to the competition at Woolwich, passed successfully in French; all the candidates for direct commissions from Rugby but one, also succeeded in the examination in French. One succeeded also in German as well as in French. In French, as might be expected, greater progress is made than in German, because the latter is commenced later and is certainly more difficult. Although, however, boys at Rugby rarely attain the art of speaking either French or German with facility, it lies within the knowledge of one of the Masters much interested in this subject that boys who learned French and German entirely at Rugby could read and speak fluently after a few weeks residence abroad. The facility gained even in reading is not very considerable, for although some in the highest form would prefer often to take a historical lesson in a book like Tocqueville (if they had good opportunity of preparing it) to any other form of receiving the same instruction, scarcely any could take up a French newspaper and read it with pleasure. It is not the practice of the better Classical Scholars in the School to make use of commentaries written by famous German critics in their own language.
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XXXVI. NATURAL PHILOSOPHY SCHOOL
Natural Philosophy became a subject of instruction at Rugby in the year 1849, just at the period when the University of Oxford, while remodelling and expanding its system of instruction, established a School of Physical Science in which examinations for a degree were held, and three scales of honour were awarded to meritorious candidates. To Dr. Tait is due the credit of supporting at Rugby this movement of the Universities, by providing, for the benefit of any boy whose parents might wish him to learn Natural Philosophy, a tutor exclusively devoted to that branch of learning. During the Head Mastership of Dr. Goulburn this office became attached to one of the then existing Classical Masterships, and is now assigned to one of the Mathematical Masters. In the year 1859 the Trustees of the School with exemplary liberality built a Physical Science Lecture Room and Laboratory, and partially furnished both, at the cost of more than £1,000, withdrawn from the capital belonging to the School. Those on the Foundation receive this instruction without payment, and no fee is paid for them by the Trustees, on the ground that their outlay in building a lecture room and laboratory and partially furnishing them entitles them to take credit for the fees of Foundationers without actual payment.
Boys in general are not admitted to Lectures in Natural Philosophy until they reach the Middle School. The present Teacher has established this practice in the belief that boys before the age at which they commonly reach that point in the School are not well qualified for it. Nor are boys in any part of the School compelled to learn it. It is, in fact, regarded as a substitute for Modern Languages, to which parents may have recourse if they think fit. This alternative, too, is encumbered with the condition that an extra fee of £6 6s per annum, not required for the teaching of Modern Languages, must be paid for instruction in Physical Science. It is formally permissible, however, to learn both Modern Languages and Physical Science, and some boys at the present moment actually take instruction in both, but the practice is discouraged, probably as being supposed to distract the mind with too many pursuits.
XXXVII. ARRANGEMENT OF THE SCHOOL OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
In analogy with the organization of the Schools of Mathematics and Modern Languages the main divisions of the School of Natural Philosophy correspond with those of the Classical School. The sub-schools, however, in this department are few and comprehensive, being only two in number, one of which embraces the Sixth Form and whole Upper School, the other the whole Middle School. Again, they are not subdivided into sets or classes as are the sub-schools in Mathematics and Modern Languages. Each division or sub-school is taught together in one class, in which the boys are arranged in order corresponding with their divisions or classes in the Classical School. The single class of the Sixth and Upper School division contains 29 boys; that of the Middle School contains 12, inclusive of a single boy from the Lower School, whose age and general intelligence seemed to qualify him for the study. It has been the practice of the Lecturer, instead of forming his pupils into smaller classes for class instruction, to draft off into the laboratory the most proficient without making any extra charge for it, while the rest are listening to lectures more suited to less advanced boys.
XXXVIII. SUBJECTS AND METHOD OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY TEACHING IN CLASS
The instruction given in this School during twelve months ended July 1861 consisted entirely of subjects formerly comprehended under the name of chemistry, i.e. chemistry and electricity. Lectures, following the arrangement and explaining the details of some approved text book, such as "Fownes' Chemistry", are given twice in the week to each class. They are illustrated by experiments and diagrams, and brought home to individual boys by questions put to test their understanding of the lecture. Notes taken at the time of the lecture are subsequently expanded into reports drawn up by the boys out of school, and containing sketches of the apparatus. These are shown up once in a fortnight at least, and are then corrected by the Lecturer, as a classical exercise might be by a tutor. At the close of every seventh lecture a paper of questions is set on the matter of that and the six previous lectures.
XXXIX. NUMBER OF HOURS SPENT IN NATURAL PHILOSOPHY CLASSES
The hours spent by each boy in class are two in the week beside the work already described, which may be termed rather digestion of what has been, than preparation of what is to be taught.
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XL. PRIVATE TUITION IN
Every boy learning Physical Science in class may become also, if his parents wish it, a private pupil, or Laboratory pupil. If he is a Foundationer this costs him nothing; if a Non-foundationer, an extra fee of five guineas, beside that paid for class instruction, is taken. This payment seems rather to confer the privilege of using the laboratory at all hours than to involve any very definite kind or amount of extra instruction. The number of such private pupils seems to vary greatly and suddenly at different seasons. It amounted to two only between October and Christmas 1860, and to eight between Christmas and June 1861.
XLI. ENCOURAGEMENTS TO THE STUDY OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
1. Promotion
Promotion in the Classical School is affected by the examination in Physical Science in the ratio of eight to a hundred marks given in all subjects.
2. Promotion in Natural Philosophy School
It appears possible for boys to gain and lose places in the two Natural Philosophy classes, yet this movement is so restricted in extent, and is so sluggish, that a very marked effect on the industry of the boys can hardly be ascribed to it.
3. Distinctions and Prizes
To boys who distinguish themselves in the Natural Philosophy branch of the Christmas examination in any form, either a first or second class is awarded; the value of which, in contributing to a prize, is equal to the same grade of honour in any other branch except that of pure Classical Scholarship. Seven first classes and four second classes were awarded at the Christmas examination of 1861.
A prize for Practical Chemistry is given annually by the Assistant Master in this School to the best analyst in the Rugby Laboratory. He also gives a prize to all boys who, in his papers of questions, gain 75 per cent of the maximum number of marks. A handsome prize of £10 for Natural Science formerly established has recently been abolished.
4. Exhibitions
Natural Philosophy forms one of the subjects for examination for the Exhibitions. The Classical examiners are responsible for this part of the examination, but are at liberty to obtain assistance in setting papers, and appreciating the work if they think it necessary. Occasionally they avail themselves of this. An Assistant Master of a well known school in the neighbourhood on a late occasion did the work and reported upon the general proficiency of all the boys under examination.
XLII. IMMEDIATE RESULTS OF THE TEACHING IN NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
One first class has been obtained by a Rugbean in the Physical Science School at Oxford in the last ten years, and one first class in the Natural Science Tripes at Cambridge, and one first "Honours" in Experimental Science at Dublin. No first class at Oxford has been obtained within the last seven years. The Examiner at the last examination for Exhibitions reported the examinees as fairly well up in the Chemistry of the non-metallic elements.
Out of five candidates for direct commissions from Rugby four offered themselves for examination in the natural and experimental sciences, and of these, three failed in them, and one succeeded. The single candidate for Woolwich did not take them up.
It is impossible to feel that the immediate results are as yet quite proportionate to the place which is now formally given to the study in the arrangement of the School, and to the expenditure which the Trustees have devoted to it.
XLIII. DRAWING AND MUSIC
Boys may learn drawing, for which all except Foundationers pay an extra fee of £4 4s per annum. Foundationers are compounded for by a salary of £20 per annum, paid by the Trustees. In order to secure the services of a thoroughly efficient teacher, a Drawing Master, resident in London, has been selected to teach the School; he pays visits to Rugby for the purpose of giving instruction. In 1860 he had 49 pupils. For
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the purpose of encouraging the study, not only are first and second classes awarded in this art at the Christmas examination, and prizes given to the best performances, but so much weight is allowed to it in promotion, that a promising draughtsman may win three or four places in the course of the year by his skill. The Head Master and the Drawing Master together conduct these trials.
Out of five candidates for direct commissions from Rugby three succeeded and two failed in drawing.
Music is also taught, as an extra, for £4 4s per annum. The Trustees do not pay this fee for Foundationers. The instruction is usually conveyed by singing lessons; but instrumental music can be cultivated. No less than 42 boys were learning in 1860.
It is satisfactory to observe that even so many as 91 out of 463 boys should at the present time be devoting some of their leisure to the practical cultivation of Art. We do not doubt that a more general practice of the art of Drawing will be found not only to harmonize both with the classical and scientific elements of the education at Rugby, but further to develop the faculties which are requisite for a perfect appreciation of the Greek poets, and are favourable to a precise realization and rendering of the Greek authors in general.
The part already taken by the School in the musical portions of the Church service in chapel, indicates that the instruction is effective as well as popular, and gives promise, that, if more generally cultivated, it would be made use of to express the highest feelings of the purest moments passed at School.
XLIV. TOTAL TIME OF WORK
The time of a boy at Rugby School, thus allotted in the compulsory school work to attendance before his teachers in each week, amounts on an average to -
In order to estimate fairly the amount of actual occupation in these branches, there must be added time for preparation of ordinary lessons, and time for composition, consisting ordinarily of three exercises in the week, beside compositions written expressly for the tutor. The habits and abilities of different boys will of course so seriously affect the amount of time expended in this manner, that no perfect account can be given of it in a school in which the great bulk of the work is prepared privately, when and how a boy may choose. Dr. Temple is of opinion, however, that on no day in the week need a boy work altogether more than between eight and nine hours; that his work usually amounts to much less; while on half holidays, of which there are three in every week, a boy has much time at his disposal. A distinguished Rugby scholar considers eight hours the time given on a busy day by a studious boy to his studies.
XLV. RUGBY EDUCATION AND THE ARMY
Of six candidates for direct commissions who underwent the necessary examination without any intermediate instruction in any other place, five succeeded and one failed. Of 21 candidates who had received intermediate instruction after quitting Rugby, 17 succeeded, 4 failed.
One Rugby candidate only has offered himself at Sandhurst, and he with success, after intermediate preparation.
At Woolwich only one candidate direct from Rugby has offered himself for the competition, and he without success. Out of 20 Rugbeans who competed after intermediate preparation, six succeeded and 14 failed.
XLVI. PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Games
There is contiguous to the School a good "school close" of more than thirteen acres of grass on a light soil. It is open on three sides, and contains a gymnastic ground, good racquet courts; and close to one side of it is a good cold bath of spring water, which has for many years been devoted to the boys.
The management of the school close, and the regulation of all games, are committed to an assembly called the "big side levee", consisting of all the boys in the upper school
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led by the Sixth. This assembly imposes the taxes to be paid by all for the support of these amusements, subject to the condition of its members paying twice the amount levied on the Middle and Lower School, and of the taxes being approved by the Head Master.
The games in vogue at Rugby as at other public schools are football, cricket, and racquets. The studious boys join in these heartily. Football is played with great spirit. Those who have won their way into the Sixth make a point of sustaining the honour of their form in a match with the Fifth, a much larger form; and the head of the School being ex officio head of football must always be in the game. At cricket too they are often able to play against the rest of the School. Any influence, therefore, which happens to arise from prowess in these games, falling as it does to the lot of those who are already distinguished in school work, cannot raise any rival authority to that given by intellectual proficiency. The Sixth and upper boys however do not monopolize the school close by "the big side" at football. On all the half holidays in winter, with the exception of four, the lower boys play their own matches, sometimes to the number of three or four at a time, while the great game is going on on the main part of the ground. A great cricketer at Rugby would play a "big side" for three days in the week for three hours, and about two hours on the other days.
Rugby being in the centre of a fine hunting country has long had its amusement called "hounds" and its "runs". Many years ago some of the Sixth form boys carried hunting whips and wore red coats, and, though acting with great consideration to the smaller boys, carried on this mimicry with such spirit as to produce serious illness on some occasions by the exertion. This caused the suppression of the game once at least for some years. At the present time the runs are limited, and for the longest of these (about twelve miles in length) only those who have a doctor's certificate can enter. The usual run is five or six miles.
At a short distance from the town of Rugby, and separated from it by a few fields, flows the river Avon, which, though at this point not very distant from its source, and still inconsiderable in size, offers good bathing places. Two of these are devoted to the boys of the School. To one, where the water is shallow, the smaller boys, and those who cannot swim, are compelled to resort, under the care of bathing men, who attend to prevent accidents, and are paid by a small charge on the parents of all. When boys have learned to swim they are "promoted" to deep water. At a point where the stream called the Swift (into which Wycliff's ashes are said to have been cast at Lutterworth) joins the Avon, and deepens as well as widens its bed, the swimmers have full opportunity of perfecting themselves in this art, the possession of which is almost universal in the highest forms of the School.
There is a rifle corps at Rugby School, containing 93 boys, and at the time of our visit there were 16 or 17 more who went through the preparatory drill, being as yet under the requisite age. No one is compelled to join, and the rules concerning attendance are settled by the boys themselves. In the year 1861 Rugby carried off the Ashburton Shield at Wimbledon in the face of a good competition amongst public schools, and they have maintained the second place in the same contest in both the years which have intervened between that year and the present time. The precision and smartness with which they went through their drill on the day of our visit shows that their skill in shooting had not been bought by a sacrifice of the more athletic exercises connected with the use of the rifle.
Once in the year matches in various athletic exercises are decided. The prizes are supplied by subscriptions amongst the boys, and are not won without assiduous practice.
XLVII. LODGING
Boarding Houses
The 396 boys who in the year 1861 were boarded at School, were distributed through eight boarding-houses, inclusive of the School-house, which forms a part of the block of School-buildings, and is kept by the Head Master. This house was designed, and for some time made use of, for the reception of 50 boys, but by means of repeated additions within the last 40 years, which have not increased the lightness or symmetry of the edifice, has been made to contain 73 boys; it is by much the largest boarding-house in the School.
The remaining seven boarding-houses, all now kept by Assistant Masters, contain on an average 46 boys each; the largest holding 50, and the smallest 42 boarders. In these are provided dormitories of various sizes, in which a commensurate number of boys sleep, amounting to sixteen in the most capacious bedroom of all, and to two in the smallest.
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Separate from his bedroom each boy has a study, which, while in the Lower or Middle School, he is liable to share with one or (in exceptional cases) with two other boys, but of which, on entering the Upper School, he becomes sole occupant. Brothers are always put together; others are associated at the discretion of the boarding-house Master, who takes into consideration their place in the School, age, and character, and also humours the wishes of the boys, as much as is practicable, in their choice of companions. The usual size of a study is seven feet square. In each study in a boarding-house a small fire is kept. The studies of the School-house, which for many years, not being artificially warmed in any way, were apt to become comfortless cells in the cold winter months, are now warmed with hot air, which serves the purpose fairly well. Boys in the Middle and Upper Schools prepare their lessons in their studies. Those below the Middle School learn them commonly in School, and in the presence of a Master. Each boy provides his own study furniture, usually by taking that which he finds in the study from the last tenant at a valuation, on which the boarding-house Master keeps a check.
XLVIII. DIET
At half-past eight in summer, and half-past seven in winter, that is before first lesson in the latter case, and after it in the former, a simple breakfast is taken. At half-past one, all the year round, is served dinner, consisting of butcher's meat and vegetables, preceded sometimes by soup, never by fish, and never exchanged for poultry - a judicious arrangement where animal food is given only once a day. Tea follows dinner within a few hours; and at half-past eight is served a supper of bread and cheese.
The arrangements would perhaps be nearer to perfection if the chief meal in the day at Rugby followed at proper distance, instead of preceding, the hours devoted to the strongest bodily exercise. But the course which is most eligible in one point of dew may possibly be objectionable in others.
As the charge for board at Rugby is moderate, so is the dietary simple. It certainly does not incline too much to a high scale; yet, aided by a brisk country air, it seems sufficient not only to support a studious life, but also one in which athletic exercise at cricket, racquets, "hounds", and football in its most combative form, is constantly taken.
XLIX. HOURS, DAYS OF REST, AND HOLIDAYS
The hours of rest or recreation during the half year vary with the character of the day, or which there are four kinds, whole school days, half holidays, Sundays, and days out.
All the boys are at all seasons expected to go to bed at 10, except the Sixth Form, who are sometimes allowed to sit up till 12, a practice of doubtful expediency, in which, however, we have no reason to think that they are unduly indulged. For nine weeks in the midwinter season they are expected to rise at 7, to take their breakfast before exposure or exertion at half-past 7, and to present themselves in school at 8. During the rest of the year they get up at half-past 6, are in school at 7, and work for an hour and a half before breakfast. There are three whole school-days usually in the week. Of the four-and-a-half or five school hours on a whole school day, three occur before the dinner hour (half-past one), and one hour and a half after it. Never more than two school lessons occur close together. The break of an hour and a half is always given between dinner and the next school lesson. A similar interval occurs between the last school lesson before dinner and that meal. These arrangements are not injudicious, but the necessity (if such exists) which compels the tutors to add another hour of work by tutorial lessons between half-past 11 and half-past 1, greatly diminishes the last of these intervals, and sometimes crowds the exertion of a whole school day's work somewhat heavily into the earlier hours. There are three half-holidays usually in the week; every third week there is a fourth. The school lessons are fewer on such days, there being none after dinner. But a composition exercise generally claims some of the vacant hours, and private tuition in classics or mathematics often occupies a part of the afternoon.
There are no whole holidays, but once in the half-year boys are allowed, on the request of parents, to leave for two days and a half, and of this permission one-third of the boys avail themselves. On Sunday one hour is spent in School over a lesson of Divinity.
The holidays occur twice in the year, at Christmas and Midsummer. This arrangement for two instead of three holidays in the year is traditional at Rugby, and is besides preferred by Dr. Temple as the best economy of time, gained, as he thinks, without any undue tax on the health of Masters or boys. Boys have a holiday task in History to prepare during their vacations, such as amounts to no more than a reasonable pastime. But preparation for the Rugby Scholarships is also thrown by present arrangements necessarily and designedly into the holidays. This is a serious encroachment, we think, of study upon
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the domain which belongs naturally to the cultivation of health of body and mind. If the examination for this could be deferred for some weeks after the close of the vacation, the change would in this point of view be beneficial.
L. DISCIPLINE - DISCIPLINE BY MASTERS
The discipline of the School is administered in part by the Head Master alone, in part by the Assistant Masters, in part by the boys themselves.
The Head Master only awards the severest punishments, expulsion and removal. He also alone inflicts flogging.
Removal is an act of the parent, required by the Head Master on account of the boy's misbehaviour. Expulsion is the decree of the master pronounced in the boy's presence, and is applied to the worst offences of the bigger boys. Recourse is had to it not oftener on the average than once in the year.
A flogging is given for serious offences of an immoral character, such as lying, bad language, or persistence in any misconduct. The Sixth Form is exempt from it by law, the Fifth by the courtesy of the School; grown-up boys in general are punished in some other manner. It rarely occurs so often as eight times in the year.
The Assistant Masters enforce the discipline of the School usually by reporting to the Head Master cases which they think sufficiently serious to call for his animadversion, or by giving impositions to write out, or learn by heart, both of which are equally common. These are traditional punishments in the School. Two yet remain to be mentioned of more recent introduction, and more limited in their application. Boys in the lower school are sometimes locked up in solitary confinement for an hour or two in one of the school-rooms, particularly if they have neglected work on which during that confinement they can occupy their minds. A caning may also be inflicted on the hand of boys in the lower and middle school to the extent of half-a-dozen blows for gross and frequent inattention to school work by the Master who hears the class. This does not occur more than five or six times in the course of the half year. Although in the earlier part of this century, when caning was practised in private schools, it would have surprised and perplexed a Rugby boy to receive any corporal chastisement other than that of the rod wielded by the Master formally appointed to execute the law upon culprits, yet caning is said to work well, and there is no reason to think that stupid boys are exposed to ebullitions of impatience.
LI. DISCIPLINE BY BOYS
1. Monitorial Power
The discipline of the School, however, is not administered by the Masters only. Discipline at the time when it is most needed, that is, out of school hours, appears to he administered chiefly by the Sixth Form, or as they have always been called at Rugby "Præpostors".
This system, as the peculiarity of the name, "Præpostor", in part testifies, is of ancient date in Rugby School. Dr. Arnold supported it, and endeavoured to give to it a somewhat more religious and less traditional and boyish tone. But in the time of Dr. Wool, predecessor of Dr. Arnold, who had been educated in the College at Winchester, it was fully developed, and on the whole exercised beneficially in maintaining discipline, and most beneficially in repressing tyranny. The latter evil was more frequent and formidable in those days, when the disinclination to subject boys to the disgrace of removal from public schools left within them many whose idleness, hardness of character, advanced age, and loss of hope and good name in the School, often combined to make them "bullies". As such are more rarely to be found in schools now, the power of the Præpostors at Rugby has little exercise in this direction; but they enforce obedience to all school rules. and put down ill practices of any kind, such as the frequenting of public-houses, turbulent conduct, drinking or smoking. For these purposes they are armed with power to set impositions to boys in all forms below the Sixth, inclusive even of the Twenty, and to inflict personal chastisement on any boy below the Fifth by not more than five or six strokes of a stick or cane applied to the shoulders. As the use of the fist is forbidden, they commonly carry canes when they are on duty at "calling over", which they use on such occasions in the Master's presence and on the spot. In the cases where the rarer punishment of "licking" is resorted to, it is inflicted in private, or before the Sixth, or, for the worst kind of offences, before the whole boarding house; nor will any degree of age or size on the part of a junior warrant him in personally resisting such chastisement. The use of it, however, is held in check
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by the right of appeal both to the Sixth Form and Head Master, which, as soon as made, arrests a Præpostor's hand. Such appeals are rare, but they occur occasionally, and in the case of appeal to the Sixth Form no less than in that to the Head Master, abuse of power finds, as we are informed, no support. It has been observed that the reversal of the judgment of the Sixth Form by the Head Master has not been known to occur. Although the powers of the Sixth Form are large, yet there are offences with which a Sixth Form boy would not feel competent to deal, but which he would immediately report to the Head Master. The Sixth Form, although strictly charged with superintendence of the forms below itself, is also a check upon the members of its own body, and the same offence for which a Sixth Form boy would punish a lower boy, he would report if committed by a colleague to the whole Sixth Form, on which the Sixth Form, as a body, would request the Head Master to degrade or remove him. This extends even to smoking.
We are of opinion that the monitorial power, if permitted to exist at all, could scarcely be guarded from excess or abuse with greater care than it is at Rugby. The greatest evil which is supposed to result from its exercise is its occasional effect upon the character of the boys who possess it. This, however, according to Dr. Temple, amounts only to a temporary self-importance of manner which soon disappears, and perhaps even the slight Pharisaism which monitorial authority has been observed by others to engender in characters not quite congenial with their position, may also lead sometimes to the gradual but real assumption of good habits.
2. Fagging
A special instrument of discipline for all who go to school at any time before they can be placed in the Fifth Form is the Fagging. This consists in the duty of performing services for the Sixth Form, some of which are fixed and others occasional.
Only the Sixth Form can exercise this power; the three divisions next below them, containing nearly 130 boys, are exempt from the service of being fagged, but are not admitted to the privilege of fagging. The fixed services consist in sweeping or dusting the studies of the Sixth, attending the call of the Sixth at supper for half an hour, and even of the Fifth Form at supper in some houses, making toast for breakfast and tea, and in attendance at games. At cricket a Sixth Form boy may call upon any fag to field for him, if he chooses to exercise a right which by custom is dying out. At football, all fags must attend; but they are no longer restricted to the cold and dispiriting task of goalkeeping, but may take such part in the game as the highest boys do. Even from this a medical certificate countersigned by the House Master and head boy in the house, give exemption. In the "runs", too, "hounds" and "brook leaping", they are compelled to take part, but under similar precautions, to ensure a fit state of body for the exertion. In fact, fagging at games seems almost to have resolved itself into a peculiar method of making physical education compulsory, in all cases in which there is no reason to apprehend evil effects upon the health from the compulsion. It has probably been a subject of consideration at Rugby whether the total abolition of fagging out at cricket would unnecessarily shorten the apprenticeship in the less exciting but not useless practice called "fielding".* The Sixth Form have the power to send boys on messages. In all these points the traditions of old days have been modified to the comfort of the younger boys.
LII. RELIGIOUS TRAINING
The regular work of the School conveys, as we have seen, much religious knowledge, which is also communicated by the Tutors to every boy during five or six weeks before his Confirmation, in extra lectures.
The religious services which the boys attend on Good Friday, Ascension Day, All Saints' Day, Ash Wednesday, and on "Lawrence Sheriff's day", are held in the Chapel of the School.
Before the year 1814 the boys resorted to the parish church for religious worship. In that year the Trustees obtained powers to build a Chapel, which was accordingly erected close to the School, and has since received several additions made for the purpose of increasing its capacity and improving its appearance. In it have been placed monuments to Head Masters, to Assistant Masters who died in the service of the School, and to boys who died at school, or afterwards in the field of battle.
*The Harrow rule as to cricket fagging appears well calculated to preserve it from abuse without entirely abolishing it.
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Soon after the building of the chapel a Chaplain was appointed, with a sufficient stipend; but Dr. Arnold, desirous of improving such an opportunity of moulding the character of Rugby boys, on the first vacancy applied for, and was appointed to, the office, for which he took no remuneration. In continuance of the same practice the Head Master still preaches once every Sunday. He also addresses the candidates for Confirmation there twice or thrice in the week on topics suggested by the Catechism; and whoever may volunteer to attend the chapel on the Saturday evenings before the administration of the Communion (which occurs three or four times in the half year) has the opportunity of hearing him. There are three services of moderate length in the chapel on Sunday, at which all must attend, i.e., morning service without Litany, Communion service, and the evening service. The boys give the responses heartily, and join very effectively in the singing, as we know from personal observation.
There is no daily service in the chapel. Dr. Temple informed us upon this point that he thought it possible that the religious feelings of the boys might be "outrun by daily attendance", and thus be less prompt at the Sunday services. Prayers, however, are read each morning before all the boys assembled in the School, and at night in each boarding house.
The period of confirmation, including the time immediately before and afterwards, appears to be one at which the religious feelings, not only of those actually confirmed, but of the School generally, receives a very perceptible impulse. About this time there are sometimes as many as 250 communicants. As the attendance at the Communion is left to take its own course, no boy being questioned or remarked upon, so great a number indicates the presence of a strong religious feeling in the School, which subsides gradually, but perceptibly, until the rite of Confirmation is again administered.
On Sunday the boys in the upper part of the School rest from all serious intellectual exertion till the evening, and the day is passed in hearing a lecture, attending Church, walking in the country, and strolling about the School close.
LIII. MORAL TONE OF THE SCHOOL
The moral and religious training of the boys at Rugby is considered by the masters as the end of a Rugby education paramount to all others. The tutors aim at this in their intercourse with their pupils, and the Sixth Form are looked up to by the younger boys, though still in the character of boys, yet as the guardians of the School's good name. These feelings having been fostered for years, have produced a sound and good public opinion, especially as to truthfulness and the kind treatment of each other. A Rugbean of a few years standing at Cambridge told us that he should have been glad in his days to see a more general disinclination to show up stolen passages in the School exercises, but Dr. Temple is of opinion now that deception of a Master by the use of a "key" would be disdained by an "upper School" boy. A general silence is studiously kept at the moment of private prayer; profane or obscene language is so far disapproved that a Sixth Form boy would, in a very bad case, report it to the Head Master. Smoking is generally condemned as affectation; drinking as bravado.
LIV. SCHOOL CHARGES
Having described the number and nature of the educational and other services which are rendered to every boy in the School at Rugby, we proceed to show in what way these are charged and paid for.
LV. NECESSARY CHARGES
1. Charge for Board and Lodging
Every Non-foundationer or Foundationer admitted into a boarding-house is charged the fee of £2 2s on his entrance and the annual sum of £52 10s for lodging, board, and attendance. This sum seems to have been fixed twenty years ago by the Trustees in lieu of a smaller charge, which at the time when boarding-houses were not generally kept by Assistant Masters amounted to £44. The amount which we have mentioned does not include either tea or sugar, which cost £2 2s 3d and may be taken to be universal charges; nor the coal required for the study fires, and supplied to each boy at the rate of £2 16s in all the houses but the school-house, in which the studies are warmed by hot air at the cost of the Head Master. To these must be added the annual sum of 16s for candles and 10s for the boy's library in the house, although not strictly boarding expenses. The charge, therefore, made to each boy for board and lodging is
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not uniform in the School. At the school-house it is £54 18s 3d, and elsewhere it is £58 14s 3d per annum, in addition to £2 2s for entrance fee, in both cases.
2. School Instruction
For the ordinary and necessary curriculum of School instruction, including class work in classics, mathematics, and modern languages, every boy in the School is charged the annual sum of £16 5s 6d, beside £1 10s for the Writing Master.
LVI. OPTIONAL CHARGES
1. Private Tuition in the Subjects of School Instruction
For those additions to the ordinary amount of work done in the various subjects of the curriculum which with a greater or less degree of freedom may be taken or declined by all boys, the following charges are made,
Private Tuition
In Classics | £10 10s |
Mathematics | £10 10s |
Modern Languages | £6 6s |
Laboratory Instruction | £5 5s |
2. Extra Tuition, or Tuition in Extra Subjects
There are certain subjects which are in themselves charged for as extras by fees for extra tuition. These are:
Natural Philosophy | £58 14s 3d |
Drawing | £16 5s 6d |
Music | £10 10s 0d |
Drill | £5 9s 0d |
Dancing (variable) | |
LVII. NECESSARY MISCELLANEOUS CHARGES
Every Non-foundation boy pays to the Writing Master £1 10s per annum; for the choir in chapel and the use of the Sanatorium £2 15s; for fire and light in the School, lists of the School, and attendance at bathing £1 4s. The total amount of these is £5 9s.
The necessary annual expenses therefore of education at Rugby, including the charge of board and lodgings, and exclusive of books and stationery, at an Assistant Master's house are as follows:
Charges in Assistant Master's boarding house | £58 14s 3d |
School Instruction | £16 5s 6d |
Classical Private Tuition* | £10 10s 0d |
Miscellaneous Charges | £5 9s 0d |
| †£90 18s 9d |
The amount is by £2 16s lower in the School-house.
LVIII. EMOLUMENTS OF HEAD MASTER AND ASSISTANT MASTERS
The various school charges which we hare described, as made on account of boys instructed and boarded in the School, contribute to the remuneration of the Head
*This has been given as an optional charge above, for it is such by regulation; but see our observations on "School Charges".
†To this annual outlay is to be added the payment once for all of the following necessary entrance fees:
School | £2 2s 0d |
Boarding House | £2 2s 0d |
Classical Tutor | £1 1s 0d |
| £5 5s 0d |
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Master and Assistant Masters. They do not, however, constitute the sole source of their remuneration, which is derived in part also from stipendiary payments out of the annual revenues of the School. We proceed to combine in one statement an account of these several charges, including the occasions and authorities by which they were established, and have been augmented to their present amount; the sum which they produce; and the several salaries which this sum now furnishes to the Head Master and every Assistant Master in the School, except the Writing and Drawing and Music Masters.
1. Emoluments of Head Master
The stipend appointed by the Founder for the Master of his School "for ever", whom he expected to be a Master of Arts, honest, discreet, and learned, was £12 per annum. For almost a century following the School suffered too much from actual or prospective losses of property to increase this amount. But in 1653, when both estates had been recovered and secured, the Court of Chancery ordered that the surplus revenues over and above the existing stipends to School Master and almsmen, and the expenses of management should be divided in the proportion of 2 and 1 between the Master of the School and the almsmen, unless the multitude of scholars should necessitate the appointment of a Second Master, whom the funds of the Institution must pay. By virtue of this order probably the stipend reached nearly £40 per annum in 1669. It required more than another century to creep on to £63 6s 8d, at the end of which time the Head Master derived also some emolument from Non-foundation boys. In the year 1780, however, which inaugurated a new era of financial prosperity to the Institution, the Head Master's stipend was raised by Act of Parliament to £113 6s 8d, at which point it now stands. But concurrently with this addition, and the requirement of some additional qualifications in the Head Master, it was provided that he should receive from the funds of the Foundation a sum of £3 for each Foundation boy in the School. Within 30 years, i.e., in 1808, this £3 was raised by the Trustees, with the sanction of the Court of Chancery, to £5. By the same authorities, in the year 1828, it was further advanced to six guineas. A fee of £6 6s for School instruction had then for many years been paid to him by each Non-foundationer in the School. He had also been receiving, since the year 1812, when the School buildings were finished, above 50 boarders at about £44 per annum. This charge also was raised about 1842 to £52 10s. The number of boarders also more than once increased since that time, has now reached 73. In this way, and by these steps, have stipend, boarding-fees, and School instruction fees reached their present amounts as constituent parts of the Head Master's salary.
2. Emoluments of Assistant Masters
Meanwhile the payments of the Assistant Classical Masters gradually assumed the same shape. So early as 1653, the approaching necessity for enlisting the services of an usher was contemplated, and the revenues of the School were made chargeable by an order in Chancery with a stipend for his support. In the year 1780 the Act of Parliament already quoted provided for the payment of any sum not exceeding £80 per annum (to be fixed by the Trustees), out of the revenues to as many ushers as the Trustees might appoint; in pursuance of this statute three ushers were appointed, one at £80 and two at £60 per annum. The number of ushers had been raised to five, and the salary of each was £80 per annum in 1805. In the year 1823 the Court of Chancery empowered the Trustees to increase by £40 the amount of the stipends of the Assistants, who might have served in that capacity for ten years, and in 1826 the Assistant Classical Masters were, in pursuance of powers given by an Act of Parliament then passed, further remunerated by the augmentation of the salaries of all to £120 per annum without any condition as to length of service.
In the year following these payments were further augmented. In the year 1828 the Court of Chancery, on application by the Trustees, empowered them to pay out of the revenues the sum of £6 6s for the "School instruction" of each Foundation boy in the School; and at the same time the Trustees made an order for the payment of the same sum by each Non-foundationer. These fees were to be divided amongst the Assistant Classical Masters as the Head Master should think fit.
Concurrently with this order, the charge of £6 6s which each Non-foundation boy had been accustomed to pay for private classical tuition was partially raised by an order of the Trustees, the actual effect of which has been that the Assistant Masters now receive £10 10s from each Non-foundationer for private tuition in classics.
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So far all the allowances to the Classical Assistant Masters were given to them simply as teachers of classics. In a few years, however, a fresh addition was made to their payments, on another ground. Some time between the year 1829 and 1835 the Trustees ordered the sum of £3 15s annually to be divided amongst the Head Master and Ushers, in such proportion as they should think fit, for teaching Mathematics and Modern Languages, both of which had then become a part of the work of the classical divisions in School; and the same sum they ordered to be charged to the parents of all Non-foundationers on the same account. This payment the Assistant Classical Masters have virtually ceased to receive since the year 1843, having from that date gradually transferred the duty of teaching Mathematics and Modern Languages to professed teachers of these subjects.* The fees themselves, however, are still paid in the first instance under the original orders as fees to the Head Master and Ushers. The Masters in Mathematics and Modern Languages now also take private pupils, and are admitted to the privilege of keeping boarding-houses, and, by a very recent order of the Charity Commissioners, the Trustees have been empowered to pay the same amount of salary (£120) to one of the mathematical, as, 35 years ago, was granted to each of the classical assistants.
In the course of these arrangements connected with the teaching of Mathematics and Modern Languages, and during the time when Dr. Arnold was at the head of the School, then, as now, flourishing in point of numbers, the Head Master liberally surrendered £2 of the £6 6s paid to him for the school instruction of each boy; and this was, in consequence, added to the other sums payable to the Assistant Masters.
In this manner have the official salaries of Assistant Classical Masters, of Head Master, and Assistant Masters in Mathematics and Modern Languages become in part payable by the same method and out of the same general fee, amounting to £16 5s, paid directly on behalf of each boy, for all the regular school instruction given in the three branches of Classics, Mathematics, and Modern Languages. This fee, subject legally to the control of the Head Master, as to a part, and to that of the Head Master and Assistants as to the remainder, has been thrown by them into a common fund, and is distributed according to common agreement.
The Classical and other Assistant Masters of the School, therefore, have now five distinct sources of official income, only one of which, however, is common to them all. First - The stipend of £120 from the Trustees, given by Act of Parliament to seven Ushers, when there were only seven Ushers in the School. Second - The profits of boarding-houses, which, since the time of Dr. Arnold, have been committed to the keeping of Assistant Masters only. Third - School instruction fees paid on behalf of each boy in the School. Fourth - Private tuition fees. Fifth - Extra tuition fees.†
LIX. AMOUNT OF EMOLUMENTS OF HEAD MASTER AND ASSISTANTS
The total sum divisible amongst the Head Master and the Assistants, exclusive of the Writing Master and Drawing Master, appears to be £20,353 4s 6½d. Of this sum stipendiary payments by the Trustees constitute £1,073 6s 8d. School instruction fees are stated at £7,554 13s 4½d; tuition fees, varying in amount, paid to the private tutor in classics or other subjects £6,248 14s 6d;. and boarding profits of eight boarding-houses £5,476 10s. The last item cannot, from its very nature, be given with pretension to perfect accuracy. It is, however, based on the two scales of boarding profits; the one, according to the Head Master's estimate of his profits on each boarder in the school-house at £17 10s per head, applied to the school-house; and the other, according to an estimate which we formed upon the general effect of evidence not perfectly consistent with itself, of profits in the Masters' houses at the rate of £13 per head.
The Head Master, then, receives £113 6s 8d as stipend; £1,322 12s from fees for School instruction, £1,277 10s from profits of board, and £243 12s from fees for entrance into School; making a total of £2,957 0s 8d, in addition to a handsome residence, good garden, and four acres of pasture ground.
For the 18 Assistant Masters, therefore, there remains £17,396 3s 10½d., giving an average of about £966 for each of the 18 Assistant Masters, an average which in point of liberality may be very favourably compared with the sum divisible amongst all the Assistant Masters at most other public Schools.
*See above, section on the History of the School of Modern Languages.
†One Assistant Master only, the Teacher of Natural Philosophy, derives his official income, as such, from the extra tuition fees and laboratory tuition fees; but as he is also a Mathematical Master, no special return has been sent to us of his profits in the former capacity.
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This sum is not, however, equally divided between all. The stipends, the boarding-house profits, the fees of classical private pupils, and private pupils in Mathematics, Modern Languages, and Natural Philosophy, are received exclusively by those who keep boarding-houses and take pupils. The sum, too, of £16 5s 6d paid for School instruction, and divisible amongst themselves and the Head Master, was made payable to them from the commencement, partly as the Head Master, and partly as they themselves and the Head Master should see fit; and has been allotted, therefore, as it would seem, by common consent in fixed and unequal shares.
The following Table, we believe, will give a fair* conspectus of the official salaries of each of the 18 Assistant Masters in all branches of intellectual instruction, as made up of all the sources of emolument which are open to each.
Head Master
£2,957 0s 8d
Thirteen Classical Assistants
|
Three Mathematical Assistants
Two Modern Language Assistants
|
Natural Philosophy Assistant
The salary of the teacher of Natural Philosophy appears to be included in that already ascribed to the second Mathematical assistant.
LX. TOTAL OF EMOLUMENTS OF HEAD MASTER AND ASSISTANTS
It should indeed be here observed that the actual income which the Head Master and each Assistant Master receive from the School, they do not devote exclusively to their own use. The Masters have, with great liberality and public spirit, spontaneously
*The salaries of Masters are calculated as though the average share of boarders actually fell to each boarding master. This, of course, is not the actual fact, but every Classical Master, with one exception, has more than the average, and he, in addition to the salary of £120 pupils' fees, and profits of 42 boarders, holds a Rugby Fellowship of the value of £100 per annum, which is not reckoned in the columns given above.
†There is a difference of one pound between this item and that in the Rugby Returns made by the School. It is produced by an error in the casting-up of the sums given in the columns of the Table furnished by the School.
‡One boarder beyond the average of 46 in the Assistant Masters' houses.
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imposed upon themselves, by a system of taxation, consisting of a considerable percentage on all incomes above £400, a contribution to various objects which they deem conducive to the welfare of the School. These appear to be at the present time three scholarships of £30 per annum, and three of £20 per annum, held by the boys in the School, several prizes, the printing of examination papers, and a salary for a School Marshal.
These bestowals of part of their income are spontaneous on the part of the Masters as a body, no less than any other acts of generosity by which, as individuals, they deprive themselves of the personal advantages which their money, if retained, would give them. We do not therefore reckon these gifts as deductions from their receipts. They are made to the School as freely as they would be to any other object for which the Masters might, as a body, subscribe. On the general expediency, however, of maintaining and extending this system of taxation for the purposes to which it is now applied we shall speak hereafter.
OBSERVATIONS.
1. CONSTITUTION OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
There is no School in which the Governing Body owes so much of its character to external circumstances and authority as it does at Rugby.
As this School has passed through many phases of development into its present condition and importance, so through the first of these the character of its Governing Body followed it, changing at one time its personal, and at another time its legal, character, in general accordance with the fortunes and character of the School itself. In the sixteenth century, for some years after the School was founded, it was a day School for two or three villages. At the same time its Trustees were but two in number, the personal friends of the Founder, and the Trustees of his will, possessed of powers both provisional and constituent to carry out his intentions.
From the opening to the middle of the seventeenth century, a period during which the School property was twice rescued from destruction, Rugby was slowly emerging from what may be called the merely parochial phase of its existence as a school for the children of Brownsover and Rugby into its second form as a School "for the places adjoining", in a sense rather more extended than that in which the Founder had used the words. It was becoming the provincial school of a neighbourhood more comprehensive than a few villages. Twice within this period, in pursuance of the Report of a Commission under the Great Seal, twelve gentlemen of the county of Warwick were invested with the office of Trustees. Their character and position seemed to ensure the safety of its funds, and their connexion with all parts of the county made them fit guardians of the interests of all who could, by possibility, for many years to come, resort to it for care, instruction, and training. It may be here observed that the constitution of the Board of Trustees, as framed by the Court of Chancery on the first of these occasions, was such that within 40 years it died down to a single individual: it was then re-made rather than resuscitated by the Court of Chancery, which appointed twelve new Trustees at a stroke, giving to them at the same time powers over the School extensive and well defined.
At the opening of the fourth quarter of the eighteenth century the School had already become one "of public utility"; it had become a provincial School of a reputation extending not only through the neighbouring villages, but through a considerable part of the adjoining counties. It had also gained the prospect of great wealth, and therefore had attained the possibility of further expansion. At this time the aid, not of the Court of Chancery, but of the Legislature, was invoked. By it the legal status of the Board was raised into that of a corporation. Very distinct duties, and powers very ample over the discipline, instruction, and instructors of the School, were assigned to it by enactment, and it was also placed in a peculiar relation to the Court of Chancery as the guardian of the revenue and the exponent of all doubts arising on the interpretation of its laws - even of such as had been framed by the Board itself.
The constitution, therefore, of the Governing Body of Rugby School is not the work of its Founder, but of the Court of Chancery and the Legislature, acting from time to time upon its condition and circumstances in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Up to the year 1777 the body of Trustees was a purely provincial Board. At that
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time, however, although the personal composition of the Board was not immediately changed or affected by its reconstitution, the powers of election by which it was to be perpetuated in future were such as to exclude all provincial or personal restrictions. To the existing Board was given the legal power and opportunity of filling each vacancy which occurred by any fit person. The seats on the Board, therefore, as they became vacant, were now in effect open to persons residing in any county. It is impossible to say with confidence how far those who framed or passed the measure designed or expected that such permission and freedom would have the result of largely extending the area of country from which the Trustees would be selected, or of bringing into the Board, with the election of new members, new names and associations. Certainly the permission given has not been very largely accepted, and the opportunities offering themselves for widening the sphere of choice and greatly altering the complexion of the Body have not been taken to the fullest extent.
There has, indeed, within the last fifty years, been some extension of the local area from which, by usage, the Trustees have been selected. They are no longer gentlemen of Warwickshire only, but of some adjoining counties also. There has, of course, been a corresponding increase in the number of families from which the Trustees have been and actually are selected; but the Board still exclusively represents the landed gentry of the neighbourhood.
In truth, the peculiar method of election prescribed by the Act, that is, self-election, appears to have contained within itself a certain tendency towards personal succession as a guiding principle in the choice of new Trustees. Under such circumstances, several causes conspire to confine the choice within a single neighbourhood, and to direct it somewhat constantly upon the representatives of the same families. It is but natural that the influence of old associations should tell with some force on the several members of a body who have long acted together. Familiar names naturally recur to the thoughts first, when the suggestion of fit persons for such all office is being made; and this suggestion is likely to pass into choice in proportion to the paucity of those who are qualified by accidental circumstances for the office at all. It is not matter of great surprise, therefore, to find in the list of the actual Board of Rugby Trustees, nearly one half of the names of those persons who held the same honourable position in the eighteenth century; and some of which must have appeared on the list of the Board as first created in 1654. There is a tendency in the very principle of election therefore which was adopted (too strong for any permissive words which may admit a wide and more varied choice) to give to such a Board something of an hereditary, and something also of a territorial and provincial character. Nor do we hesitate to say that in such conditions we discern some advantages. The territorial qualification secures a high and even useful type of character for such an office, through the general guarantees which it affords for perfect integrity, and for knowledge of the principles on which property should be managed, through the facility of access given by it to local opinion and information, and through the variety of experience gained in similar places of education, which it brings together. Of the hereditary tendency, also, it may be said that it increases the interest which each Trustee feels in his position, by opening an additional source of pride in the welfare and fume of the institution over which he presides. Of these good qualities the School has had the benefit. The property appears to have been managed with a fair measure of prudence, at no unreasonable expense, and with the most scrupulous personal integrity. The increasing revenue, too, was well saved and well spent, and if it is possible to descry any decline in the circumspection and sagacity which has directed any part of the outlay of income in the last forty years, this seems traceable to a disposition liberal towards the teachers of the School, and confiding in the judgment of the Head Master.
While, however, we acknowledge the existence of such advantages, we perceive it also to be nothing less than probable that similarity of position, education, pursuits, proprietary interest, local and personal connexion, should give a complexion to the whole somewhat uniform and exclusive, and such as it is advisable to diversify and enlarge, particularly when reference is made to the past history and actual position of Rugby School.
It was certainly in reference to the local position of the School that the gentlemen of Warwickshire were selected as its Guardians and Governors. That local position then consisted not merely in its local site, but in its local connexion, local utility, and local reputation. In relation to all these points, the Board of Trustees created by Chancery was in truth then more wide and comprehensive than the School itself which they were appointed to represent and protect. Now since the time at which the personal constituency of the Board of Trustees was first designated (1614), the character of the School itself, as well as its general position, have so changed as to preserve no other than an historical identity with the School of the sixteenth century. Even since the last reconstitution of
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the Governing Body, and the last limitation of its powers and duties, the School has been developed to a degree which approaches metamorphosis. It has risen from the position of a provincial School to that of a public School, and in efficiency and general reputation is second to none. Its scholars have twice in the present century reached a number that has placed it next in rank to Eton. It has become in fact a national institution, as being a place of education and a source of influence for the whole kingdom. In all points it has long since far outgrown the area from which the Trustees are now taken. But as it instructs everywhere, is known everywhere, and exercises an influence everywhere, although geographically a midland county School, we conceive that its moral extension from the centre to the limits of the kingdom might be directly recognized in the constitution of the body which governs it, both advantageously for the School, and in perfect consistency with the design of its own original construction. We are desirous that the present spirit and character of the Rugby Board of Trustees should be perpetuated; but we think it necessary to the existence of these in the most useful form, that other elements should hold a place in the same corporate Body, with sufficient power and strength to affect its acts and decisions. We are of opinion that if one-half of the whole Board of Trustees were selected without regard to any place of residence, but with exclusive reference to their qualifications for aiding in the government of a great public School, this modification of its present structure would not give to it too universal a character, or uproot the associations by which it has long been bound to the county in which its Founder planted it. We think, too, that this extension of the field of choice should not be merely permissive and possible, but should be constantly illustrated and carried out by the selections actually made, Experience, however, has given us some reason to doubt whether the hereditary and local principle of choice which is apt to lurk in the principle of self election might not, however unconsciously, still narrow in practice the sphere of choice which had been extended in law. Some guarantee, therefore, might now with advantage be taken for the disconnexion of some part at least of the Beard of Trustees from the midland county neighbourhood within which all the members of it are now to be found. The simplest and surest means of effecting this which presents itself to us for consideration is some change in the method of election. If, for instance, the election of one-fourth part of the Board were confided to the Crown, such an infusion would, without destroying its provincial character or damaging its constitutional independence, impart to it somewhat of that national complexion and spirit which the School itself, entrusted to its care or control, has already assumed. But we are unwilling to recommend a measure which could possibly have the effect of lessening that sense of unity and that perfect degree of fellow feeling which may have hitherto accompanied the proceedings of a body the members of which now owe their common relation as colleagues entirely to their confidence in and good opinion of each other. We deem it, therefore, better that the discretion of the self-electing Board of Trustees should be directly guided by legislation as to the conditions on which the election to some of the vacant places is to be made, than that it should be excluded from any part of its accustomed sphere of action with respect to them.
The point of view, however, from which we have hitherto been regarding the constitution of the Governing Body, is not the only one on which it now invites modification.
Constant increase in the numbers of the School, and constant extension of the area from which these numbers are drawn, have been accompanied by numerous additions to the subjects and kinds of instruction given in the School itself. When Rugby was founded, and indeed at Rugby for two centuries after it was founded, grammar constituted education, and grammar meant Latin. But since the time at which the constitution of the present Board of Trustees was settled and defined, under the category of grammar have been added Greek, French, and finally German: Arithmetic has not only been introduced but has grown into Mathematics: while under the title of Natural Philosophy has been introduced a branch of knowledge of which the most indistinct rudiment cannot be perceived in the original curriculum of the School teaching. By this development indeed Public School education as a system of instruction may be said to have maintained itself in popular favour, and it seems desirable, if not necessary, not merely that this enlarged system should be maintained, but that each branch of knowledge should be cultivated in a degree proportionate to its value and in proper subordination to the general scheme of teaching. It will be still necessary to require from the Head Master in the School in most instances such remarkable eminence in the distinctive, traditional, and main branches of knowledge as will not often be compatible with a corresponding excellence in those which will still hold a second rank in importance. Under such circumstances it appears to us desirable that the Governing Body should contain within itself a power of watching, superintending, and controlling in some degree the general system of instruction without continual recourse to advice from without, or absolute dependence on the
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suggestions of the Head Master. We shall also recommend that it should exercise this power by the actual performance of certain duties and functions connected with the education of the School with which up to this time it has not charged itself. In addition, therefore, to those general attainments which are likely to distinguish gentlemen of territorial influence and liberal education, it becomes of some importance to enrol amongst the Trustees a few whose pursuits and method of life will have given them a special inclination for such duties. They not unnaturally devolve on the Governing Body of a great School of the highest class at this point in the history of national education, and they will certainly be required from it if the recommendations in which we have defined the special functions of the Trustees and Governors of the School shall be carried into effect.
With the view, therefore, of encouraging the occasional election of Trustees unconnected with the counties immediately surrounding the School, and with the view, also, of securing the constant presence of some members on the Board who have long and successfully devoted their attention to literary or scientific pursuits, we shall recommend that four out of the twelve Trustees be always chosen on account of generally acknowledged eminence in literature or science. We shall recommend, also, that one at least of these four be always eminent for literary and one at least eminent for scientific attainments and distinctions.
II. PRIVILEGES OF THE FOUNDATION
We have already described the purpose for which the School was founded, the benefit which it was intended to convey, the persons for whom that benefit was destined by the Founder, and the pecuniary resources by means of which it was supplied
It is necessary here only to add that the direct annual expenditure on the education of the boys who, under the name of Foundation boys, are the actual recipients of this benefit, amount, in fees and salaries to the present staff of teachers, and light and fuel in the Schools, provided for Foundationers only, to £2,392 11s 5d. This item does not include the expense incurred partly on their account for the annual support of the religious services of the School, the maintenance of the fabric generally, and similar objects.
Now, the changes which have supervened in the course of three centuries seem to have gravely disturbed all the relations and circumstances on which the intentions of the Founder were built, or on which they operated when he called the School into existence.
First, the boys for whom he designed a free education are not now fairly represented by the class which, in the course of time, has succeeded to their place as recipients of that benefit.
Secondly, the benefit which he designed for the objects of his benevolence is not identical in nature and extent with that which is now bestowed.
Thirdly, the relative value of his several estates, which appears in some measure to have influenced him in selecting the persons for whose benefit the proceeds of his property were applied by him, has been reversed by the action of time and circumstance on the places in which they are situate.
First, then, the persons designated by the Founder as the objects of his bounty were "children of Rugby and Brownsover chiefly". There can be no doubt that under that designation the Founder intended to indicate persons in those villages, who, from the circumstances of their birth as children of the inhabitants of Rugby and Brownsover, and born therein, seemed to him fit objects of such a charity. Now the great mass of Foundation boys living at Rugby, and receiving as such a free education, are not "children of Rugby" at all. They were not born there, neither were they born of parents who in the full sense are inhabitants of the place. They are for the most part the sons of parents, who, resorting to Rugby so soon as it becomes necessary in order to provide gratuitous instruction for their families, quit the place when this object has been attained. Such a course is natural, and in many instances laudable, but it by no means constitutes their children members of a class answering the description of the persons for whom the Founder intended such a benefit.
Even those who so far answer the words of the Founder's description as to be in the full sense "children of Rugby", can scarcely be deemed children of the Rugby for which he was providing. At the time of the foundation Rugby was a small town, containing but 69 houses, and somewhat more than 300 souls. For nearly three centuries it increased gradually and naturally in proportion to the growth of the population in the kingdom. In the year 1831 the number of its inhabitants had reached 2,500, and the number of its houses was about 500. About that time commenced what may be called the railway period, which almost founded the town anew with a different character. It had been hitherto the market town of a small agricultural district, it became thence-
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forth a centre of the midland railway system. Its progress has been impelled at a new rate in a new direction. Its population, the number of which it required nearly 100 years to double, now passed through the same degree of change in 10 years. It contained, at the census of 1861, 1,500 houses and 8,000 inhabitants. It has grown mainly by immigration of strangers. In fact, it is now a new town, consisting in new houses and new inhabitants, having new occupations and sources of support, planted upon the site of that in which Lawrence Sheriff founded a school, which he devoted to his fellow townsmen and their posterity. The very "children of Rugby", therefore, are now scarcely the children of the Rugby of Lawrence Sheriff.
Again, the boys designated are "children of Brownsover". Brownsover, in the Founder's intentions, stood at least abreast with Rugby. While Rugby has so much changed in the course of generations as no longer to resemble the Rugby of the days of Lawrence Sheriff, Brownsover has preserved its primitive character as a rustic and obscure village; and possibly, while Rugby mainly consists of persons who have immigrated within the last forty years, even the names in the Brownsover register of births, deaths, and marriages, might be found to some extent identical with those who, in the same place, lived and died during the Founder's days. There are, therefore, at Brownsover, not only children of Brownsover, but children of the Brownsover of Lawrence Sheriff. Now, of the "children of Brownsover", there is not one on the Foundation of Rugby School. The Foundationers, therefore, from Rugby, taken as a class, not being children of Rugby in any true sense, and being only connected by a few years' residence with the Rugby which is totally altered from the Rugby of the Founder, now receive all the benefits of his Foundation. The children of Brownsover, on the other hand, being truly the children of Brownsover, and being, moreover, the children of a Brownsover which fairly represents the village for which the Founder designed such benefit, take no advantage now from the Foundation, and are as though the Founder had left nothing for their behoof.
Secondly, this discrepancy between that destination which the Founder intended for such benefit as his School could bestow, and that which it now actually receives, is made more wide and glaring by the difference between the amount and character of the education bestowed now and that given formerly. Free instruction was originally given in Latin Grammar only; now, a considerable amount of teaching in Latin, Greek, French, German, Arithmetic, Mathematics, History, Divinity, Natural Philosophy, and the Art of Drawing, is freely bestowed; thus has the spirit of change so affected both the education given and the boys who take advantage of it, that as the Foundationers have more and more lost the character of those whose benefit was intended by Lawrence Sheriff, so the benefit conferred actually upon these has grown to be more and more in excess of the benefit which the Founder designed.
Thirdly, in perusing the Instruments by which the Founder originally conveyed his estates and declared the purposes for which they were to be used, we are struck by the relation subsisting between the local position of the estates on the one hand, and the local description of persons for whose benefit they were to be applied on the other. Three estates were conveyed altogether; two of these passed under the legal form of conveyance called a bargain and sale, concurrently with the execution of which the purpose for which they were given was declared by a distinct instrument called the Founder's Intent. This declaration of his intent affected only the estates thus conveyed, and some money bestowed by his will, which he also made and executed concurrently with these.
By an after-thought of the Founder, as it would seem, and certainly by means of a codicil to the same will subsequently executed, a third estate in Middlesex of much less value was bequeathed to the same Trustees, and a direction was given that it should be devoted to the same purpose as the two estates previously conveyed.
The two estates first conveyed were, the one an estate in Brownsover, out at lease; the other, property in his possession at Rugby, which he desired to be retained in the hands of his Trustees for actual use. In accordance with the position of these two estates, described, generally, as lands in Warwickshire, they were, by the contemporary instrument called his Intent, applied to the benefit chiefly of children of "Rugby and Brownsover, and next of places adjoining".
Now the value of the land in Brownsover alone amounted to twice that of the property in Middlesex. Whether the value of the Rugby estate was more or less than this must be matter of conjecture. It is not too much to suppose that the value of the Brownsover and Rugby estates together amounted to at least three times that of the estate in Middlesex. At all events, it cannot be disputed, that as all the benefit of the Foundation was originally bestowed on Rugby, Brownsover, and its neighbourhood, so the estates out of which the benefit originally issued were confined within the same
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bounds; and that the subsequent addition of other property out of that district only increased the original gift by a fraction not very large. So far, therefore, as the Founder's original intention can be ascertained through his acts, the locality to which the benefit was given was identical with that, out of which the benefit mainly proceeded. Now, time has not simply changed, it has reversed the value and importance of the estates which now support the School. The estates in Warwickshire, which once supplied by far the largest part of the whole income of the School, now produce in the way of income, but one part out of forty-six. The estate in Middlesex, which was given as an afterthought, and produced but an inconsiderable portion of the whole income, now produces forty-five parts out of forty-six. That which was the after-thought, and the accessory, has now become so far practically the whole that, if all else were withdrawn, the benefit proceeding from the Institution would not be practically diminished. Originally, therefore, the boys of Warwickshire, educated by the Institution, were educated out of the proceeds of the Warwickshire property. At present the boys of Warwickshire, who are more highly educated than their predecessors, are instructed out of the proceeds of the London property. The national and metropolitan site of the property bestows all and receives nothing; the provincial site bestows comparatively nothing and receives all.
Whatever advantages, therefore, existing arrangements may secure, adherence to the original intent and purpose of the Founder is not one. Whatever disadvantages could now result from casual disturbance of the existing system or its deliberate readjustment, a violation of the Founder's intent would not be one.
It should here be observed, too, that while that part of the School property situate in the country, and originally constituting its main bulk, has shrunk into a very small fraction of the whole, and that which is in London, on the other hand, once a comparatively small portion, has attained to such a value as makes it virtually and practically the whole, the School has within itself undergone changes precisely or nearly the same in character. The local and provincial part of the School, the boys of the privileged districts, who were first the sole element, and then for many years the chief element, of the School, have sunk into a place and proportion comparatively small. The boys of the nation, on the other hand, or, as the returns express it, "from all parts of the British dominions", for many years not to be found in the School at all, then for several years existing there in small numbers and as an accessory element, have grown into the bulk and body of the School. In this point the School itself has quite ceased to be the School of the Founder's time. And as in this point so in most others. It is unnecessary to recapitulate either the subject matter or the phases of a change which we have already once in great part described. It is enough to observe that as with the town of Rugby and the Rugby estates, so with the School at Rugby. It is no longer either socially or intellectually, either in kind or material, the school which Lawrence Sheriff planned and lived to see. This change, too, is effected, it is not in course of progress, nor is susceptible of arrest - it is complete.
Under such circumstances a conjuncture like the present suggests to us to accept those conditions in the character and position of the School as affected by time, which are the most complete, unalterable, and, we may add, generally beneficial, and so to adapt to these all the arrangements of the School (amongst which is the bestowal of gratuitous education) as to impart the greatest efficacy to the whole Institution.
Rugby then has become, by the care and integrity of its Trustees, the ability of its teachers and scholars, as well as by the improvement of its pecuniary resources, a great English Public School, in which the highest kind of education is given generally to large numbers of the upper classes of society throughout the land, and in which also, it is and can continue to be given gratuitously but to a few of these.
The question therefore occurs, if we accept the present character and position of the School, who shall these few be, in such a School as Rugby has become? An answer, we believe, is suggested by the best form which time has given to similar institutions in Schools of a similar character. It is no mean credit to Rugby to have grown until it can fill a place similar in position, if not in extent, to that held by Winchester and Eton. The Founders of these Schools, in a manner more grand and extensive, held in view the same end as the London Grocer, who founded Rugby, and aimed at it by the same specific means, free and charitable education. In those ancient schools time has at length modified the form and application of this benefit into instruction and maintenance of promising scholars, selected according to the degree in which they can give guarantees for the fulfilment of that promise, selected, that is, according to their proficiency, ascertained by competitive examination. Rugby cannot do so much as such Schools, but according to its means it can do the like, so long as experience shall continue to show what it is now
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showing, that such an application of endowments is on the whole the best. That it is now the best we believe to have been sufficiently proved by recent experience, and to have been sufficiently attested by the evidence of those connected with schools in which the system has been tried. But lest the true character and extent of the advantage likely to result from a system, in which boys on the Foundation are selected in this manner, should fail to meet with full appreciation, if declared only in a general way, we would draw attention to some of the various methods by which it is likely to act beneficially wherever it is adopted.
In the first place, gratuitous education so given confers a greater benefit than if offered to all locally qualified. The education costs no more to the School when given to select than when given to privileged persons; but the benefit itself becomes far more valuable to its recipients, The very principles, on which the advantage is bestowed on select recipients, find out the persons who are most apt to profit by it, and therefore increase the amount of such advantage. That education which is an uncertain boon when given to the dull and unprepared, or a moderate boon when given to the ordinary schoolboy, when bestowed on the apt and the proficient becomes, in every case, a sure and considerable blessing. Those industrious habits which established his proficiency, and that natural aptitude which enabled him to win the advantage, empower and dispose him to improve and make use of it to the uttermost.
In the second place, that gift which is casually or arbitrarily given to favoured claimants, if it does a benefit to the recipient, yet produces no return to the School; but the gift bestowed according to attainments, reacts greatly to the advantage of the institution which confers it. Boys of proficiency, industry, and natural talents, are thereby necessarily attracted to the School. On such the School-teaching tells with two-fold effect, and when the school course of such boys is terminated they issue forth to become, at the Universities and elsewhere, the successful competitors for honours and emoluments, and for the general respect which such distinctions must give. As it is neither natural nor possible to apportion credit with strict accuracy of distribution between the talents of the scholars who learned in the School, and the qualities of Masters who taught them, the attainments and honours of the scholars necessarily reflect, perhaps in an excessive degree, distinction on the School in which their instruction was given. The School gains credit; boys flock to it for instruction; with increased numbers come boys of higher promise and greater talents than the average. Again, the parents who are most anxious and have been most careful in training their children confide in it and seek it out. Many good materials are hereby supplied to it. Such Schools can thus afford to impose strict and wholesome rules, both in matters of discipline and instruction, such as will eliminate the grossly idle or backward, as well as those whose example is dangerous to the rest. Meanwhile, the Foundation boys are a leaven to the whole lump. Their higher qualities of intellect and character are felt and acknowledged in the School - furnish good examples, and help to awaken in the other boys good faculties which otherwise might have lain dormant The whole School as a mass rises in tone and character as well as in reputation. Better Assistant Masters, too, are naturally attracted to a School in which the number of scholars allows the payment of larger salaries, and in which also the talents and knowledge of the teacher find a responsive material in the quality of the boys who are instructed. Thus, as it appears to us, does the substitution of a class of Foundationers selected for ability and attainment set in motion many causes which greatly improve the condition of the Schools in which they are elected.
Perhaps it may be observed of Rugby, that without this advantage hitherto it has gained a great reputation and still preserves it. Its teaching has been good, its Scholars comparatively successful in the Universities. But it must be remembered that its struggle henceforth will be more arduous, and the same degree of success more difficult of attainment. It has, without this advantage, competed for many years with Schools which also had it not. But recent changes have now bestowed it on some of its competitors. All the gratuitous education given by Eton, Winchester, and Westminster, and part of that given at Charterhouse, has now for some years past been awarded by competitive examination. If any one Public School however be surrounded by a system of Public Schools, so to speak, each of which is attracting to it the best talents and proficiency and the most industrious habits which the boyhood of all England can supply, such school is exposed to the action of causes which tend to draw away from it good materials. If the best talents and proficiency of the kingdom are drawn to Winchester and Eton, they are so far to a certain degree drawn away from Rugby and Harrow. The former will tend to exhaust the best raw materials, so to say, of all Public Schools. Those greater powers, whether in the form of natural ability, or acquired mental habit, which, under one universal system of indiscriminate gratuitous education, would be
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distributed casually amongst all the Schools, will now rush to those whose system selects and rewards them. They will no longer drift hither or thither, as the case may be, and be cast on this or that point, as chance may direct, but be drawn into a steady current which will laud them all, or nearly all, upon the favoured spots. If any School, therefore, possessing funds for gratuitous education, perseveres in bestowing them upon objects arbitrarily or indiscriminately taken for the purpose, it undertakes to contend against heavy odds in its struggle not only for honour but for efficiency: and it may well be doubted whether its teachers and masters, pledged to such a system, will long maintain their success, or always keep the hope and the heart to maintain even their endeavours.
We are of opinion, therefore, that the local qualification should, in course of time, cease to confer any advantages, and also that the general benefits of gratuitous education at Rugby should be awarded according to the result of a competitive examination. Our recommendations connected with this subject will be found in the summary which follows our observations.
III. RUGBY FELLOWS
By the Act of 1777, in anticipation of much increased pecuniary resources, it had been provided that in the case of the removal of any usher on account of old age or infirmity, the Trustees might allow him any annual sum not exceeding £40, determinable at their will and pleasure. Fifty years afterwards, this cautious provision for masters was increased by the Act of 7 Geo. 4. c. 28, which empowered the Trustees to establish endowments in the nature of Fellowships for life, or any less period, and to any amount not less than one hundred nor more than three hundred pounds per annum, for the benefit of ushers who might have served ten years. There are, at the present moment, five such Fellows enjoying these endowments, four of whom appear to have received them on quitting the School after a moderate length of service, (i.e., about 15 years on the average) for which they were not incapacitated by sickness or old age. One of the masters also received the stipend, after 10 years' service, while still performing the duties of his office. These five Fellows or quasi Fellows receive altogether £700 per annum from the School revenues. Save as recipients of their annual allowance, they have, with one exception, no place in nor connexion with the School. We have no reason to doubt that all to whom these stipends have been awarded did useful and conscientious service to the School, while filling the position of Assistant Masters, and were elected to the position of Rugby Fellows in conformity with the true meaning of the language in which the Act of Parliament authorizing such appointments was framed.
This institution, regarded simply as an existing part of the whole structure of the School, is an anachronism and anomaly. It is an institution with a collegiate title annexed to a school, which has nothing collegiate in its history, spirit, or general character. But, viewed in connexion with the actual condition of the School at the time when the Trustees applied to Parliament for legislative sanction to establish it, it resolves itself into a questionable expedient. It was intended apparently to serve the purpose of attracting to and retaining in the service of the School Classical teachers at a time when its great popularity as a place of education had somewhat declined, and the emoluments belonging to the office of Assistant Master had been diminished in consequence. This character which we believe it to bear as a fact in the history of the School excuses rather than justifies its establishment. In this case, the expedient appears to have proved unnecessary. Within four years other causes acted to bring back the School's former prosperity, and with this prosperity came the command of all those sources of profit which bring good Masters and keep them. The institution might, so far as concerns the purpose with which it was enacted, have been well left thenceforth to an otiose existence upon the Statute-book until some good opportunity should occur for repealing it. After several applications successfully made by Assistant Masters for salaries or pensions to which this Foundation had entitled them, the Trustees became alive to the evil which threatened the revenue. The danger, no longer distant, of absorbing almost a fifth part of the annual income of the School in this manner has induced them to pass a resolution not to grant such endowments in future except in special cases. To the letter and the spirit of this we have not the slightest doubt that they would now adhere, and it certainly seems possible that in a very few extreme cases the permission given by the Act of Parliament might be turned to good account. But the Statute has not hitherto been perverted; it has been simply made use of. It was clearly the purpose of the Act to initiate a general system for the benefit of Assistant Masters who should have served ten years, under which as much as £1,000 per annum might be devoted to this object. The language of the Act, therefore, is in our opinion too broad to admit of a beneficial application, unless restricted by many limitations and conditions, of which the Act itself
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gives no hint. The Trustees are left by its language without any guidance as to the nature of the special cases to which it should be restricted, and are not supported by any suggestion that it should be restricted to special cases at all. We are of opinion, therefore, that as the general purpose of the Act is impolitic, it is not desirable to retain it for the sake of its possible application with beneficial effect to rare and extreme cases, of which it gives no indication, and for which it was not made.
We shall, therefore, recommend that so much of the Act of Geo. 4. as empowers the Trustees to establish endowments, in the nature of Fellowships, for life, or any less period, for the benefit of Ushers who have served 10 years, be repealed.
IV. STIPENDS PAID TO MASTERS OUT OF THE REVENUES OF THE SCHOOL
Amongst the sums annually paid out of the revenues of the School is one of £1,073 6s 8d, consisting in salaries to the Head Master and the Classical Assistant Masters for the regular curriculum of education given in the School.
When Rugby School was founded, it was founded to give a free education, and no other. Unlike many other foundations of the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, its design appears not to have comprehended the instruction of any other scholars than those whom it could instruct gratuitously. A class of boys corresponding with the pensionarii, commensales, and alieni of Winchester, Eton, and Westminster, and the "foreigners" of Harrow and Charterhouse, appears to have been unknown to Rugby in its earlier days, and was certainly not comprehended in the Founder's design. The whole instruction of the School, and all the labour of its teaching, were bestowed upon Foundation boys. To pay the Master a salary was the simplest method of paying for the instruction of such Foundation boys, and to provide such salary out of the School revenues could be nothing more than to provide gratuitous education for that class of scholars. It mattered not whether all the boys in the School were thus provided for in the gross, or whether for each boy in the School a specific sum was paid by the Trustees for the Masters engaged in his instruction. The gross sum in the one case, and the sum total of specific payments in the other, would make the remuneration of Masters for teaching boys on the Foundation. This payment in gross for all by a salary was the simpler and more practicable plan, and the Founder therefore first, as the Trustees afterwards, defined the amount of salary which would be sufficient for this.
But in course of time great changes have been effected. Another class of boys, as the reputation of the School increased, was admitted to participate in the teaching, and this upon conditions entirely different. They were to receive an education like others, but not to receive gratuitous education. Each was to pay for himself.
Now, it was no part of the actual intention of the Founder to supply education to this class. It may be assumed, therefore, for the present, that the funds of the School given to supply it with teaching have been applied professedly to support the education of those on the Foundation. From this point of view there can be little doubt that instruction should have been thereafter given so as to meet the following distinct principles: first, the teaching power or number of Masters should increase in proportion to the growth of the School. We have already described in our statement the manner in which this principle was satisfied. Secondly, the cost of this increase should have been defrayed by that class of boys which occasioned it, if it was occasioned by one class only; if it was, on the other hand, occasioned in part by both classes, the expense should have been shared between the two classes of boys in the proportion in which each received the increased amount of instruction.
This principle, however, appears to have been hardly recognized from the first, and in course of time to have been directly violated. The growth of the School has consisted mainly in the growth of the Non-foundation part of it. As the reputation of the School has spread, the area from which the boys have come to the School has extended itself, and the number of boys in such area has also increased. The numerous counties surrounding Rugby, taken together, must necessarily have contributed far more to the growth of the School than the mere neighbourhood of Rugby. The increase of Masters, therefore, has been necessitated chiefly by the increase of Non-foundationers. Now, the original arrangement under which a salary was provided out of the funds of the School for the first Master, when the whole School consisted of those entitled to gratuitous education, was adopted in regard to the second, third, and fourth Masters provided for the School when three-fourths of the School must have consisted of those who were bound to pay for their own instruction. In the latter part of the 18th century, when it appears that the School had become not only a benefit to the neighbourhood, but of general utility, that is, when it had not only educated Foundationers, but also
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received many boys not connected with the Foundation, three Assistant Masters were provided, who must all have been required chiefly or solely by Non-foundationers. Now, for these Assistant Masters provision was made by one salary of £80 and two salaries of £60 each, payable out of the revenues of the Foundation. In the year 1809, when there were only 35 Foundation boys in the School, there were no less than five Ushers, each of whom received £80 per annum from the funds of the Foundation. In the year 1823, when there were no less than seven Assistant Masters to a School containing but 202 boys, of whom not many were Foundationers, the Trustees applied for and obtained power from the Court of Chancery to grant to these and all future Assistants who should remain 10 years in the service of the School £120 per annum.
Since that year no further demands have been actually made upon the revenues of the School for salaries to Assistant Masters. The Trustees have not even exhausted the powers which they asked for and obtained in the Act of 7 Geo. IV., by extending its provisions to more Assistant Masters than seven - a number which has practically limited the extent of this demand upon the revenues. Now as the later and very numerous additions to the staff of the Classical Masters have been unattended by any grant of salary by the Trustees of the School, the gross inequality between the payments made on behalf of Foundationers and on that of Non-foundationers, perceptible in 1826, would naturally have disappeared before the present time. The subsequent growth of the School itself, and the subsequent increase in the number of the Classical Masters from seven to thirteen without any contribution in the way of salary from the revenues of the School, would have redressed the balance, and reduced the payments out of the School revenues to a sum proportionate to the number of boys entitled to gratuitous education. But long before the excess of this particular item of payment from the revenues could be thus reduced, and, indeed, soon after the first payment of the £120 salaries to the Assistant Masters, another cause of anomaly had arisen in another and distinct form of payment from the same funds.
When the Non-foundation boys were first introduced into the School, and were called upon to pay for the education which they received, it is clear that this payment could be made only in the form of a separate pecuniary contribution from each boy resorting to the School. Their education could not be paid for by any salary to the Masters on their behalf, inasmuch as there was no common fund representing the class which could be made available for such a charge. Each must pay through his parents, and each contribute his quota in the form of fees. But as necessity compelled the payment by Non-foundationers in the form of fees, so the convenience arising from the more elastic character of this method of payment appears to have induced the Trustees to apply it to their own disbursements. At first this was done merely as a method of increasing salaries, and was confined to the Head Master. In the year 1780, £2 was first given to the Head Master for the School instruction of every Foundationer, in addition to his salary. This augmentation may in itself have been reasonable, but the system was eventually continued in apparent forgetfulness that it was a mere additional mode of payment. At first the salary was not forgotten, and although the fee of £2 received frequent additions in the course of the next 40 years, yet it was not brought to a perfect level with the fee paid by Non-foundationers, for whose instruction no stipend was given. Thus, when the fee for Non-foundationers had reached £6, that for Foundationers amounted only to £5. But at length the true character of the payment was in practice lost sight of. For although the Head Master received a stipend of £113 for the School instruction of Foundationers, yet the fees paid to him on their account were, in the year 1828, raised from £5 to £6 6s, the exact sum which had long been paid by Non-foundationers, in respect of whom no stipend to the Head Master was paid.
The effect on the revenues of the School of this confusion would not have been very great; but it was accompanied by an act involving a similar deviation from principle, which has made such demands upon the revenue important as well as anomalous. From the year 1780 to the year 1828 the Assistant Masters received stipends from the Trustees, as we have seen, which increased with the growth of the School, both in number and amount, more or less regularly, till they reached the sum of £120 for each Classical Master in the School. For the Foundationers no fee at all was paid to them, apparently in consideration of their salaries thus at various times bestowed and increased. From the Non-foundationers, on the other hand, they received a tuition fee of £6 6s, which it was compulsory on all Non-foundationers to pay. Thus, with them at least, the old distinction between the payments by stipends for Foundationers and by fees for Non-foundationers was for many years preserved, even although the balance between the demands on the revenue of the School, and those on parents for the instruction given at Rugby was imperfectly maintained. But at the same moment at
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which the Head Master's fee was thus anomalously raised to £6 6s, a fee of £6 6s was at once created, and taken out of the revenue annually, as a payment to Assistant Masters for every Foundationer in the School. These fees have been subsequently raised, although under less questionable circumstances and conditions, to nine guineas and a half.
The correct course of proceeding with regard to the Head Master's payments, we conceive, would have been that of maintaining the fee of £5, or even a lesser sum, as the equivalent to the £6 6s paid by Non-foundationers, or the abolition of his salary. The correct course of proceeding in regard to the Assistant Masters would have been either abstinence from creating any charge on the revenues of the School on behalf of Foundationers, or the abolition of the existing salaries of £120.
The divergence from the line which the financial arrangements of the School should in strict propriety, as it seems to us, have followed, was probably in some measure favoured, if not occasioned, by two circumstances which affected the condition of the School during the whole or part of the period in which it took effect. The moment when Assistant Masters received their first stipends from the Trustees, and when the Head Master received his first fees from the same funds, inaugurated a season of great financial prosperity to the School. For forty years its income increased, and capital was amassed in the shape either of money or buildings. Outgoings were not sensibly felt; means of applying revenue did not suggest themselves. In such a period, applications for increase of salary or payments of other kinds to the instructors of the School would naturally be entertained somewhat more favourably than if the revenues had been sinking or stagnant, or even slowly and gradually thriving. But towards the close of the same period, and before the revenues of the School had shown any serious signs of diminution, a temporary crisis in its fortunes as a place of education had disclosed itself. The number of its scholars, which had placed it next after Eton only, in this respect, for a time rapidly declined. The ordinary resources of its Masters were seriously affected, and recourse seems to have been had to the revenues of the School to repair losses which its teachers were suffering through the great diminution in the payments contributed by the whole class of Non-foundationers. Between the years 1818 and 1828, the stipends of Assistant Masters paid by the Trustees rose from £80 to £120 per annum, and their instruction fees from nothing to £6 6s for each Foundationer.
The sum of fifteen guineas and a half now passes from the revenues of the School for the general course of instruction given to each Foundationer by Head Master and Assistants; a just and convenient arrangement in itself, but one which in fact, so soon as it was adopted, made the payment of stipends to the Masters superfluous, and should, it appears to us, have been accompanied by an entire abolition of the former and older method of payment by salary. In truth the salaries paid by the Trustees already balanced the fees paid by the parents of the Non-foundationers, and, to add to this method of payment for Foundationers, another, more convenient in its form, but precisely the same in its effect, was in truth but to pay out of the revenues of the School twice as much for the education of those entitled to receive it gratuitously, as was given for that of those admitted on the terms of paying for it. And such is the present effect of the arrangement. The sum paid in salaries by the Trustees amounts to not less than fifteen guineas and a half for each Foundationer educated in the School; the sum paid in the form of fees by the Trustees amounts to fifteen guineas and a half for each Foundationer educated in the School, and thus the same education; which, so to say, is sold by the School for fifteen guineas and a half to every foreigner who applies to it for education, is bought by the School at the rate of thirty-one guineas for every Foundationer whom it seeks to educate. That which each parent purchases from the School for fifteen guineas and a half for Non-foundationers the School purchases for Foundationers at thirty-one guineas. If any plea drawn from the temporary condition of the School at any time be urged in excuse of the adoption of such an arrangement, it is in our opinion such as could not be really maintained by just reasoning. But any such temporary condition of Rugby School has long since passed away. Such a plea is now not only insufficient but inapplicable.
It becomes here advisable, perhaps, that we should consider the question from another point of view. It may be urged that the salaries paid by the Trustees are not, in fact, specially assignable to the education of those on the Foundation, but in their effects contribute to the benefit of all, and are to be regarded as a means of lowering the expense of excellent teaching to all who may resort to the School. Such a view, even if we could regard it as historically correct, would not reconcile us to the arrangement. The only ground on which such a system can be justified positively is one which, we apprehend, will condemn it comparatively. The resources of Rugby School are
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limited, and that they may become more limited than they are now, is to say the least a possibility suggested by the evidence. It seems not enough to expend them beneficially; they should be so expended as to secure the highest benefit which prudence can obtain from them. No arrangement, therefore, can justly recommend itself which does not promise the most beneficial result. Still less can one do this which is neither most beneficial nor in perfect accordance with the Founder's intentions. It was not the object of the Founder to offer to all comers instruction either wholly or partially free of charge, and it is not the effect of such an arrangement, in our opinion, to further in the best manner the cause of education in general.
We believe it to be better for the country that the mass of boys who resort to the School, as distinguished from a special class of boys admitted for good reasons on terms peculiarly advantageous, should pay duly for the benefits which they receive. Education is, in an economical point of view, an investment of money, which in most cases will bring a return of money in good time. Under such a point of view it is unwise to expend the resources of a great School, in raising the amount of interest on the money of those who send their sons to Rugby, above that which the general market in which education is to be purchased would give them. Education in a higher point of view is an employment of money to gain a benefit, moral, social, and intellectual, to those or (what is the same thing) to the children of those who lay it out. These benefits are so well appreciated now, that it is quite unnecessary to give promiscuously any bounties on such an application of capital. But the cheapening of education by contributions of the School to Non-foundationers is such a promiscuous distribution of bounties. Rich and poor, good and indifferent, will all alike take advantage of it, for it must avail to the benefit of all who happen to apply to enter sons at Rugby, and this whether they desire such bounty or not. Such a bestowal of the funds of the School, therefore, is in some cases thankless and superfluous. There is abundance of money in the country to purchase a Rugby education, if desired; abundance of good sense and good feeling in the owners of money to lay it out in purchasing its full worth in education at its real value. If the education at a School be good, it is not necessary artificially to cheapen it; if it be other than good, or even less good than it might be, to do so is in truth to give a bounty upon inferior training and instruction. Nor is there an absolute freedom from danger that such a bounty might, in the long run, and with schools of average excellence, tend to produce, as well as to conceal, a decline in the quality of the education given. That there is no such risk incurred at Rugby at the present moment we are indeed quite convinced. But all regulations and arrangements made for a long course of time, and applicable to a class of institutions, must be estimated apart from individual cases and particular seasons.
It may be considered, however, that the Masters of Rugby School, regarded as a body of men giving all the instruction required by the boys, do not, on the whole, receive more than their character and services deserve. If so, it would not, under any circumstances, be expedient to reduce the sum divisible amongst them to lower figures. But, independently of this, it is clear that for the present, and under existing circumstances, such a reduction is not to be recommended. The maintenance of each existing Master's actual salary depends upon the maintenance of the whole amount in its integrity, and it would be inconsistent with justice that the official income of any individual Master should be abruptly lowered below its customary amount. If, therefore, the payment of £1,073 6s 8d, hitherto paid in the form of salaries by the Trustees to them out of the School funds, be discontinued, it is necessary that the same amount should be provided from some other source.
We think then that this burthen of stipendiary payments to Masters should be lifted from off the revenues of the School, on which it unfairly is laid, and be re-distributed in an equitable manner between the School revenues and the parents of Non-foundationers.
We shall recommend therefore accordingly that the stipends now paid to Classical and Mathematical Masters and to the Head Master be no longer paid to them out of the revenues of the School; but be raised out of fees annually payable on account of each boy receiving instruction in the School, by the Trustees on behalf of all Foundationers, and by parents on behalf of all Non-foundationers. We shall also recommend that no such stipends be paid hereafter to Masters not now receiving them.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION AT RUGBY
In the course of our account of the actual condition of Rugby School we have interspersed, remarks, some of which are applicable to the system of instruction at Rugby. On points so adverted to we do not think it necessary to dwell here.
We proceed to other topics connected with the same subject.
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V. QUALIFICATIONS FOR ENTERING AND REMAINING AT SCHOOL
The standard of attainment required on admission to the lowest part of the School is low; but, consistently with the objects held in view by the Founder and the existing rights of Foundationers, it does not appear practicable to raise it for that class.
The Foundationers are entitled by law to free instruction in Grammar and Latin; it would be difficult, under such circumstances, to exact even a limited knowledge on their part upon entrance to the School of that which the School itself is expressly instituted to teach them, the Latin Grammar. Under existing circumstances, therefore, it seems necessary to organize the School for teaching Foundation boys the rudiments of the Latin language, and to admit them if found capable of such instruction. In regard, however, to all other boys at Rugby who are not Foundationers, we see no sufficient reason for exempting them from the effect of our general recommendation respecting the entrance examination.
But, however rudimentary may be the teaching of the youngest Foundationers under such a system, this will, of course, be consistent with the exaction of a fit degree of knowledge in proportion to age, from them as well as from other boys of every age in every part of the School. Want of attainment is not necessarily backwardness, as neither is mere attainment forwardness. The School can maintain or even heighten its standard of attainment relatively to age, although its positive standard for the admission of Foundationers be lowered almost to zero. A School containing younger and more ignorant boys than any other School in the kingdom may still be one whose standard of proficiency in relation to age is higher than that of any other. We would suggest, therefore, the propriety of the School raising the present standard of age for the Middle School so soon as, without a shock to its system or harshness towards those already in the School, this change can be effected. We are also of opinion that a limiting point might also be advantageously fixed for entrance into the Upper School as well as into the Middle School and Sixth Form.
This general rule, however, is one which, in accordance with the principles upon which it is framed, and indeed for the very purpose of observing those principles, should not be applied to all cases, and in the same way. The rule as it has been explained, and as it can be most reasonably justified, rests upon two grounds. In the first place, it is undesirable that a boy should continue to waste time and effort upon a system of instruction for which he is by nature or inveterate habits inapt. In the second place, it is undesirable that a boy whose mental habits or capacities have disabled him from making reasonable progress in study should linger long amongst those who are his equals in knowledge, his superiors in ability, and his inferiors in bodily strength and in general maturity of character. Now, so long as the only study in the School is that of Classics, so long is position in the Classical School the only test of industry, ability, and attainment in a School like Rugby, where promotion follows proficiency alone. If a boy's place in the Classical divisions is exceptionally and extremely low, his intellectual condition in general, so far as the School can test it, is proportionately backward; his mental habits proportionately unpromising of any success in the School studies, and of a nature likely to be the reverse of favourable, directly and indirectly, to those around him. But, in a school where the subjects of instruction are numerous, there is a possibility that exceptional backwardness in one study of the School may be consistent with reasonable or even good proficiency in others. But such proficiency, if existing, must rescue a boy from the inferences that his capacity is quite unsuited to the studies of the place, or that his intellectual or moral habits in general are such as are likely to make his career useless to himself and prejudicial to those about him.
Now the system of instruction and promotion, as it exists at Rugby, already, in some measure, and as we recommend that it should exist hereafter in a more perfect form, furnishes ample means of testing the true condition of every boy in this respect. Proficiency in every branch of knowledge studied in the School will be recorded, and we think it but reasonable that any shortcoming in his classical knowledge or industry, if counterbalanced by positive and general success, or proved diligence in the group of subsidiary subjects, should avail within certain limits to relieve him from those consequences which would follow the proof that his studies cannot thrive, or that his society and example will be the reverse of beneficial to those around him.
We think, therefore, that where a certain position in the Classical School is usually required at the attainment of a given age, some amount of time in excess of the common standard should be allowed to boys whose marks in the School examinations or place in the free promotion through the classes indicates that their backwardness in the one subject is attended by corresponding progress and advance in others. We shall accordingly, when we suggest the age at which the several positions in the Classical
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School should be ordinarily attained, also suggest the amount of qualification in other pursuits which should exempt a boy from a strict application of such general rule, as well as the length of time during which such qualifications should have the power of conferring a dispensation from it.
VI. SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION IN THE MODERN LANGUAGES SCHOOL
The first part of our Report contains several general recommendations concerning the organization of the School of Modern Languages, which are applicable to Rugby. We will confine our observations, therefore, to points of a less general nature.
We have in our statement of the condition of the Modern Languages School alluded to the difficulties which have been already felt in providing for instruction in two Modern Languages, and we doubt whether even the present arrangements will be found to deal quite satisfactorily with these. The old system of not commencing German until French was dropped, led, we do not doubt, to the result complained of, that French was forgotten and German not learned. It appears to us, however, that while the remedy which has been devised for this state of things is good in itself, it has been applied in a manner which will fail to give it that full efficiency which it otherwise might have.
The old rule established at Rugby seems to have been this, that no Modern Language but French should be learned before reaching the Upper School, and that no Modern Language but German should be learned afterwards. One faulty part of this arrangement was, in our opinion, the definition of the time at which the teaching of the second language should commence. It seems clear that the adoption of the second language should not absolutely have depended upon the part of the Classical School into which a boy, by virtue of classical attainments, might have advanced himself. But it seems also clear that some given time should be fixed for the addition of the second language, and that this point should be fixed generally by the degree of proficiency attained in the first. If it be necessary to continue the instruction in the first language concurrently with that given in the second, in order to avoid obliteration of the first by disuse, it is also necessary to have made a very decided and secure progress in the first before adding the second, in order to avoid both the distraction which may impede the acquisition of either, and the confusion which will render useless such acquisition as is made. It is difficult to believe, with an allowance of two hours only in the week to be divided between two languages, both known very imperfectly, either that much apparent progress will be made, or that the progress apparently made will settle down into distinct and valuable knowledge. It naturally suggests itself, therefore, to ask whether the Rugby system, in abandoning the practice of dropping either language entirely at any time, and in shaking off the peremptory rule that when the Upper School is reached the second language must be added, has not swerved into the danger of teaching two languages together before either is sufficiently known to bear the necessary loss of time and the distraction of mini which the pursuit of both together must involve. This is certainly a practical point on which the teachers of the School can, when they have maturely considered the facts, form a good judgment.
There are now but forty-seven boys in the whole School, who do not learn both French and German. In this number are comprised none in the Upper School, not one-quarter of the Middle School, and not one-half of the Lower School. Now, it appears to us, after consideration of the evidence given at Rugby concerning the state of proficiency in the Modern Languages, difficult to realize the fact, that all who now learn two languages in the School, can have attained much proficiency in either of them. It is difficult to conceive that boys who leave the Sixth Form unable to read with pleasure a French newspaper, could while in the Lower or Middle Schools have known the elements of the first language as soundly and distinctly as it was advisable they should, before taking up the second. We would invite a serious consideration of this point. We do not think it right to prescribe or even to suggest the order in which the two Modern Languages should be taught. We believe that it will be wise to allow entire freedom of selection to the parents. But, as it must be desirable that either, or both if learned at all should be learned well, we are of opinion that such a standard in the knowledge of the first should have been reached before adding the study of the second as will admit of the preservation of the first in the memory without the devotion of much time to it, or much toil to its cultivation. These remarks admit of application only in that part of the School in which variations and discontinuances of work are not as yet permitted.
When the second division of the Fifth Form is reached, extra time may be taken
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for Modern Languages, and therefore also a second Modern.Language, such as would have oppressed and distracted the mind before, may be commenced, without the same evil consequences. And we cannot but think that the arrival of this period, at least in the case of most boys, might be awaited with advantage for that purpose.
We shall hereafter propose the adoption of some specific measures for the encouragement of the studies in the Modern Languages School.
VII. NATURAL PHILOSOPHY SCHOOL
Rugby School is the only one amongst those constituting the object of the present inquiry in which Physical Science is a regular part of the curriculum. At Winchester, at Eton, at the Charterhouse, and at Harrow, opportunity has for some time been given to the boys to hear lectures in that branch of knowledge, or to pass voluntary examinations, or to compete for prizes. But in the system at Rugby there are these distinguishing features, that it is assisted by the appointment of a University Graduate residing at the School to give lectures in it constantly; that a peculiar time is set apart for these, and taken into the usual School hours; that the subject forms a substantial portion of the periodical examinations, the result of which tells in the same degree as Modern Languages on promotion in the School; that the time-honoured distinctions of first and second classes have been conceded to it in the Christmas examination; and that in the contest for exhibitions in the University a paper containing questions upon it is set before the candidates. The Trustees of the School too have been liberal in providing £1,000 out of their capital to erect a convenient School and Laboratory. There are, however, some arrangements, as might be expected, in the Natural Philosophy School which we believe to be susceptible of improvement for the purpose of securing to the study that position which the Governing Body of the School has already testified its inclination to give to it.
We are not disposed to recommend that the ordinary student in Physical Science at Rugby School should receive more than two hours instruction weekly in the form of lectures from the teacher or teachers of that subject. But the manner in which the School is grouped for the purpose of receiving that instruction we regard as defective. The whole School is formed into two classes only, the one consisting of all the boys of the Upper School, the other of all the boys in the Middle School. Amongst those in the Upper School are some who are just commencing the study, and others who have been regular students in it for three years. Under such circumstances the two weekly lectures given to this class are in fact addressed to students in every degree of proficiency between the state of those who have given attention to the study for nearly three years, and those who have given to it not so many weeks. We conceive that in this subject, as in all others, no lecture can be fully beneficial to students desirous of constant progress, which is not adapted to their degree of proficiency in it. The subject itself, the manner of teaching the subject, the degree of detail in which information should be given, the amount of explanation which should accompany the statements of the teacher, the kind of statements which it is necessary or advisable to make, or allowable to take for granted as the common property of him who teaches and him who is taught, the degree of technicality in language which it is safe to employ for the sake of saving time, the nature of the illustrations, the difficulties which it is wise to disclose or to keep out of sight, the principles which it is desirable to illustrate by experiments or to leave to mental recognition - these and many other points in a lecture on a subject, and nearly everything in the examination on a subject, must, we believe, depend upon the knowledge and intelligence which those who are taught bring at each lecture into the lecture room with them.
We are of opinion, therefore, that opportunity should be given for the division and arrangement of the Physical Science School (which at present contains only two sets, while that of the School of Mathematics is distributed into 27, and that of Modern Languages into 19) into classes more numerous and more nearly approaching to correspondence with the several grades of proficiency which the students may possess.
In effecting this, however, it is necessary that none of the time which each student passes in the lecture room should be diminished. Two hours instruction from the lips of the lecturer, and by demonstrations on the lecture, appears by no means too much for any student who is in earnest. It is clear, therefore, that the teacher must have many more hours to bestow upon aiding the instruction of his pupils than the four hours which he now divides between the Upper and Middle Schools.
Under present arrangements, however, any considerable increase in the number of hours given to teaching Physical Science is impossible. The teacher of Physical Science
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is teacher also of Mathematics, in which branch of knowledge, having taken the most distinguished degree at Cambridge, he is much and usefully employed; and so unequally does Physical Science share the attention of the single Master, whose cares are divided between it and Mathematics, that considerably more than three-fourths of the time which he devotes to class teaching must be given to Mathematics, and the remainder only is left for Natural Philosophy. In his private tuition a similar disproportion is observable between the requirements of these two different subjects. Under such circumstances, he feels it impossible to bestow more time on Physical Science than he actually gives to it. We are therefore led irresistibly to the conclusion that the two functions should be separated, and that the Physical Science teacher should not take part in the Mathematical instruction or indeed any other branch of instruction in the School.
We are also of opinion that although the parent of any boy at Rugby School is permitted to make his choice between instruction in Modern Languages and instruction in Physical Science, yet this alternative is in practice so presented to him as to divert his choice generally from Natural Philosophy .
In the first place, Modern Languages and Mathematics are taught to each boy in class at no additional expense beyond the payment of the ordinary School instruction fee of fifteen guineas and a half, which all are required to pay. Natural Philosophy, on the other hand, if learned, must be paid for as an extra by an entrance fee and an annual payment of five guineas. In this way, as in the theory of the School system, Physical Science is considered rather as a substitute for Modern Languages than as an alternative subject, so is it an expensive substitute. It of course needs a strong preference on the part of the parent to induce him to choose a costly, when he may accept a gratuitous course of instruction. Nor is this the only disadvantage which Physical Science, as an alternative, has to contend against under the present administration of the School. It has almost passed into a rule that no boy in the Lower School who does not show special aptitude for the study, or more than common maturity of mind, shall be admitted as a student in the Physical Science School. All, therefore, entering Rugby below the Middle School, necessarily commence their career in another branch. They have no choice. When, therefore, the option, under the disadvantage, as we have seen, of extra payment, is given to such on reaching the Middle School, they must already have made some way in Modern Languages. To transfer themselves from a study in which progress has been made, is of course a waste of time in all points of view. It is to begin a struggle anew with elementary difficulties, when elementary difficulties have already once been conquered. It is, in fact, to sacrifice the labour which has been gone through and the time which has been spent. It is possible that parents, under such circumstances, may elect to continue and carry out a course which they might not have elected to commence, and decline to commence a study which they would at an earlier hour have preferred to enter on. Practical life itself contains many inducements to fix the preference of parents on Modern Languages. Social life, commercial life, some departments of official life, and the inexhaustible amusement of travelling, all put in a claim for the prosecution of this study. It is therefore less necessary to give an artificial direction to choice in its favour, or, to impose pecuniary drawbacks on other studies.
The evidence which has been given by those well acquainted with Physical Science, not only as a subject of personal study but also as a matter of class instruction, tends to prove that lectures may be given such as the younger boys in Rugby School may listen to with interest and improvement, and that the subject is one which, from its material nature and its susceptibility of illustration by outward and sensible proofs, is not only not alien from but positively more adapted to the natural comprehension of the young than are the more abstract rules of grammar and arithmetic which they are now called upon to remember and apply. We are of opinion, therefore, that boys even in the lower forms of the School may advantageously be permitted to receive School instruction in the elements of Physical Science. Lectures treating such topics as may be suitable to beginners, and handling them in such a considerate style of statement, explanation, and illustration as may divest them of unnecessary difficulty, will perhaps be a more wholesome and agreeable relief to the learning and application of grammar rules and to the technical working of arithmetic than any other studies, and will furnish a most salutary exercise of many faculties which at such an age are ripe for cultivation.
VIII. PRIZES AND REWARDS TO ALL THE SUBSIDIARY BRANCHES OF INSTRUCTION
While some encouragements are provided at the expense of the School funds in the shape of prizes for various kinds of excellence in the Classical School all the rewards
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given throughout the year for successful study in the subsidiary branches are supplied by the teachers in those departments. Of the share which the subsidiary Schools now receive at the annual award of Exhibitions we shall speak hereafter. But one important part of the encouragement which such pursuits should receive, is that which will reach the students more frequently than once in the course of their career, and that "once" quite at the close of it. This encouragement, we believe, would be more effectual if given in part at least out of the funds of the School, and by the Trustees who are its Governors and representatives, than if bestowed solely from the private resources of the teachers. Greater weight, we think, must attach to rewards given by those who superintend the whole system and are not specially interested in the success of any single department, but represent the authority and judgment of the whole School as a place of education, than to rewards which are due to the liberality of individuals personally connected with the welfare of the specific study which they encourage. Nor do we think that it would be always right that individual Masters should give as much as it might be right that the several subsidiary studies should receive in the form of reward. We would therefore commend it to the attention of the Trustees to consider whether, in addition to the share in the Exhibitions to which these subjects may fairly be entitled, some other rewards in the way of prizes may not advisably be supplied out of the School revenues. We do not suggest that such should be more in number or in value greater than may be in keeping with the degree in which the opportunities given for studying them at School may permit their cultivation.
IX. EXHIBITIONS AT THE UNIVERSITIES
At the present time, the Exhibitions given to successful candidates on leaving School, are awarded by two Examiners, one from each University, somewhat on the same principles which decide the promotions from form to form in the Upper School. With a view to reward school work, all the subjects comprised in the curriculum of the School are also included in the examination, and have a claim to be reckoned in the estimate of each candidate's merits.
We think that there are points as to which the present system might advantageously be altered.
We believe that when a single reward is proposed for attainments, many in number, and different in kind, one of two consequences must follow. If to each several subject a specific value and a definite portion of marks essential to success is assigned, it must follow that failure to attain the required standard of merit in any one, will destroy the effect of extraordinary excellence in all the rest. Moderate, well sustained merit in all will gain a victory over the most brilliant performance in many, under such a system; its tendency, therefore, a tendency strong in proportion to the number of subjects included in the examination, is to encourage a multitude and variety of attainments, and the moderate cultivation of each, rather than concentrated exertion, and marked excellence in any. For those who enter into such a competition, it will always be an object to keep down excess of attention to one branch, lest it should withdraw its due measure of attention from another. The competition, therefore, on several subjects is thus lowered in degree. Those, again, who are conscious of inferiority in one or two points will decline the contest, although in the subjects to which they have attended their information may be accurate and extensive. The competition is, therefore, in such subjects also narrowed as well as lowered by the exclusion of many competitors who are likely to be the foremost, and all the benefits, both of competition and reward, are so far lost to them in the prosecution of their studies. While, therefore, such a reward encourages industry diffused, it in some points of view discourages concentrated industry in those who would gladly apply it. Such are the consequences of combining subjects, where each subject has a definite and necessary effect on the result. If, on the other hand, each subject is not protected by a necessary quota of marks there will be a constant tendency in such a system toward the encroachment of one pursuit on the legitimate share of another. Should this encroachment be constant and habitual on the part of some favoured subjects, the less favoured subjects will soon become nominal ingredients in the examination: and such we have reason to believe is the position of Modern Languages, and therefore of Physical Science in the examinations for the Exhibitions now. If tradition and custom do not prescribe the kind and measure of encroachment, it will be capricious and variable according to the tastes and pursuits of the Examiners of the year, and will be apt to carry with it all the evils of uncertainty and disappointment. In most instances and by the general rule of the weaker going to the wall, the greater subjects will overbear the lesser, and although
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the proper amount of work be set by the Examiners in the examination, the work actually done will not tell proportionately, and, not telling, will soon cease to be actually done.
For these reasons we think that the amount of encouragement now proposed to be given to each of many subjects by one Exhibition would be better secured to them by several Exhibitions for several subjects. There will in such a system be a better security that the reward proposed for each will actually reach it, and will be known actually to reach it, and will therefore act as a constant and perceptible stimulus to give time and labour to it. Proficiency in one such subject is sure of its prize. The boy who is conscious of it, having no fears of forfeiting by inferiority in other pursuits what he might be entitled to for this, although not able to grasp all subjects, is stimulated to use all his exertions in mastering some. Such an appropriation of the particular Exhibition to the particular subject will both introduce new competitors, and will encourage the concentration of work. In both ways it will really tell upon its cultivation.
In considering what this appropriation shall be, and upon what principle it shall be made, we of course turn to the great divisions of work now recognized in the School, Classics, Mathematics, Modern Languages, and Physical Science. We think that there should be a separate examination and separate Exhibitions for each, an alteration, it may be observed, which will not change the subjects for proficiency in which Exhibitions are now given, but only the method in which the share of each is to be assigned to it, and the claim of every candidate for such share is measured and tested. If the tendency of such a new arrangement be somewhat towards concentration of study and division of labour, this tendency will not be carried to the mischievous extent of producing narrowness and speciality in the general education of the School. The system of promotion throughout the School to the Sixth Form, and the Sixth Form work itself, favours and will favour breadth and diffusion. For many reasons, some degree of concentration, and some sensible degree of progress and mastery of certain specific branches of knowledge, will have become a requisite at the age of eighteen or nineteen, and will give a better discipline than the distraction of many pursuits claiming equal attention could do. The economical arrangements of the contests will hold this spirit of concentration and division in sufficient check. To Classics by themselves we would assign Exhibitions less in value than are the present Exhibitions. To the subsidiary subjects we would give considerably less than to Classics, and every competitor should be allowed to carry away two Exhibitions in two different subjects. One Exhibition, therefore, only, and that in the subsidiary subjects, will not satisfy the ambition of many. The Exhibitions for the Classical competition will not always give content to the very best Classical scholar. If then he can carry away the highest Classical Exhibition in conjunction with another in one subsidiary subject, he will gain the same pecuniary advantages as he could at the present time take by winning the highest Exhibition given for one examination in every branch of knowledge. If, on the other hand, he fail to do so, he will still have carried off a high reward for his classical attainments with which to commence his academical career: and it must be observed in reference to this point that his position at the University as a classical scholar will now be one of great advantage, when compared with that of a Rugby Exhibitioner ten years ago. The Universities now so teem with open college Scholarships for Classical attainments, that according to Dr. Temple it is rare for a Rugby Exhibitioner not to add a Scholarship at the University to his Exhibition from School. Under such circumstances, if it should indeed be the result of an alteration in the method of awarding Exhibitions, that the best Classical scholars of the school will lose some slight advantage by it at Rugby, we can by no means deplore this effect. Such an event would indicate that under the present system Classical Scholarship takes off in effect all the School Exhibitions, and that the other and lesser branches although allowed their share of the competition are virtually excluded from the success. This would be just the condition of things which we should be glad to modify, and on which our proposed alteration would act according to our desire.
There is another arrangement connected with this competition which deserves consideration from the same point of view.
When the practice of examining the Sixth Form was instituted so long ago as the year 1807, two Examiners were appointed by the Vice-chancellors of Oxford and Cambridge annually to conduct the examinations. At this time the Classical Languages and Scholarship were the sole subject of examination. At the present time Scholarship, Divinity, History, Mathematics, and Modern Languages and Natural Philosophy, are subjects of the examination; but the number of Examiners and the method of appointment
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are the same. Both Examiners are responsible for the whole conduct of the examination, and for the decision on every part of it.
It cannot be expected that one Examiner will be often well acquainted with all the subjects of the present comprehensive examination, and it is not desirable in any case that valuable prizes should be awarded by gentlemen not well acquainted with all the branches on which they examine. In the present state of education the gentlemen selected for this important office are likely to have a greater range of knowledge than the Examiners of fifty years ago. But even in the actual state of the Universities they are likely to be more eminent for classical and mathematical distinctions than for those which the recent changes in education are gradually introducing into public schools. The combination, therefore, of so many and such extensive demands upon the knowledge of an individual Examiner must very commonly act to the disadvantage of the less important topics of examination. Such will be the tendency of the examination, if the Examiner performs all his duties in person. But it must not unfrequently happen that the Examiner so distinguished will feel himself embarrassed by the multitude of subjects; and although any disinclination which he may feel to undertake to decide between the merits of candidates in matters in which he has less personal interest is met on the part of the School by permission to intrust such duties to a substitute, this system of delegation does not appear to be arranged on any definite and satisfactory principle. It seems clear, besides, that the responsibility of deciding on the claims of candidates for distinctions and emoluments should not be separated from the personal knowledge and estimate of their performances. Yet this will be the case if the Examiners (as they appear often to do) repudiate the personal conduct of the examination. If they do not, the result will often be unsatisfactory. The conscientious feelings which induce them personally to perform all duties for which their payment is given, will not at once qualify them to perform all with equal efficiency, and less confidence will therefore often be felt in the decision upon those studies in which the Examiners take the least interest. In truth we think that the arrangement is obviously defective, and would at some cost to the revenues be well modified by the annual appointment of one Examiner at least in each of the three subsidiary branches of instruction. Two might still be given with good effect to the Classical department.
X. FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIPS AND EXHIBITIONS AT SCHOOL
We have already stated our opinion as to the principle on which the funds of the School left by the Founder for the purpose of bestowing one kind of gratuitous education, should in the nineteenth century and under all the altered conditions of life which the lapse of three centuries has produced, be administered.
In carrying out this principle, two things are involved; first, the withdrawal of funds from the support and maintenance of benefits now conferred on one class of boys; and secondly, the transference of them in one way or another to expenditure for the benefit of another class of boys. The process of withdrawal must at least accompany, if it do not precede, the process of bestowal.
Now the process of withdrawal is evidently one which may affect the rights of individuals, and therefore it must be so conducted as not to interfere with the just claims and expectations of any one. Parents at Rugby have sons 'at the School whom it will be impossible to deprive of their privileges. Parents not having sons there at present may have settled at Rugby with a view of sending them so soon as they shall be qualified by residence. In fact, the personal interests of individuals may have been in several conceivable ways embarked on the present system, so that its sudden and peremptory extinction would lead to loss and disappointment. It is probable that so fundamental a portion of the School constitution may have gathered round it interests or expectations which it is well to treat with some tenderness. We propose therefore that the local privileges of the Foundation should be withdrawn gradually and slowly; that they should be first limited and afterwards extinguished. We should desire to see the number of Foundationers reduced to 25 in the course of 10 years, and to none in the course of 20 years from the present time, and would leave it to the Governing Body to frame and apply such measures as to the admission of Foundationers henceforth as it may be advisable, in order to accomplish each of these changes within the times prescribed for their completion in the fittest manner.
Now if this change in the application of the School revenues is to be attended with due benefit to the School in general, a simple transference of the privileges of one class of boys to another which is ultimately to take their place will be insufficient. The existing
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advantages of the one class are great, now that they are given in respect of a qualification which is sometimes accidental, which can always be attained without expense, implies no personal qualities, natural or acquired, and confers no benefit whatever on the School into which its possessors are admitted. They will, however, become insufficient when awarded on account of proficiency gained by an expensive preliminary education, and of personal qualities and attainments such as are within the reach of few and will bring credit and wholesome influence to the Schools which receive them in return for the pecuniary benefits which they receive. In such cases it must be admitted that there is a reciprocal competition. As the youths are in fact competing for the privileges of the School, so are the Schools themselves competing for the advantages which able, proficient, and well conducted scholars will carry into any places of education in which they shall take their instruction. If there be no approach to some equality in the advantage offered by a Rugby Scholarship compared with that to be secured by a Scholarship at other Schools, the institution will fail in its main object, that of attracting to the School its due share of the most proficient scholars.
Now the pecuniary value of a Rugby Foundationer's privilege does not appear to be such as will suffice, in the face of such Scholarships as those of Eton, Winchester, and Westminster, to attract to Rugby the most promising boys who would be competent to win them by competitive examinations.
If Scholarships therefore be established, the sum of money saved to the revenue by the extinction of three places on the Foundation will not be more than sufficient to raise funds for the support of a single Scholarship: and it must follow that a slow process of extinguishing local privileges will involve a far slower process of creating Foundation Scholarships. Meanwhile the School will suffer and continue to suffer, perhaps, to such a degree as it may take years fully to recover from. It is necessary, therefore, in our opinion to throw a bridge over the space which separates the present from this future, and to provide a set of Scholarships immediately, which the slower process of conversion now recommended, will gradually add to and finally absorb. For this purpose we have a fund at the disposal of the Trustees created by means of that recommendation, which advises the substitution of payment to the Masters by instruction fees for payment by Foundation stipends. This measure, if carried out, wiiI immediately restore the annual sum of £1,073 to the revenues of the School; and on this fund no claim is as yet made. We shall recommend therefore that it be applied annually to the support of Scholarships and other endowments in the nature of Scholarships of which we shall recommend the establishment without delay.
At any other time perhaps we might be content to leave our recommendation in this skeleton form, proposing the institution of such endowments without further suggestion than that they should be awarded by competitive examination, open to all boys not exceeding the requisite age, and tenable up to the close of a boy's career at Rugby.
Since, however, some of our recommendations (in that respect no more than co-extensive with the inquiries with which we have been charged) are directed immediately to the subjects of instruction given in the Schools, and to the importance due to each in their curriculum, we deem it but consistent with the general scope of our inquiries and suggestions, to recommend with somewhat greater distinctness the principle on which such encouragement should be distributed amongst the several branches of learning taught in the School.
It appears to us that the remarks made upon this subject, in reference to the Exhibitions awarded on quitting school for the Universities, are, although confessedly in a less degree, also applicable to those tenable at school. We do not desire to stimulate subsidiary studies by artificial encouragements disproportionately large, nor to assign to them a pecuniary or outward value of any kind greater than their relative importance as branches of education in the School will bear out. But we do feel, as we have before stated, that a given amount of time and money is apt to produce in these subjects less effect than in the case of the main intellectual pursuits of the School. This tendency, which we desire to arrest, must be constantly borne in mind in the application of all new stimulants, and therefore in the distribution of all new endowments and rewards.
Stimulants such as these are attractions to the spirit of rivalry, industry, and enterprise, which, if drawn strongly to one quarter, and to one quarter alone, will in the same degree desert all others in which their presence is not invited by adequate objects, nor measured by public tests, nor rewarded by any definite and valuable success. The general demand professedly made on time and industry at public schools is even now high, and the scheme of instruction which we propose tends to raise it. Rewards will not, we may be sure, in the first instance merely create industry, they will attract and take possession of the industry which exists; and this process is one which withdraws it
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from one subject by absorbing it into another. So far encouragement of one study alone is discouragement to all others. If all the studies, therefore, of a school continue to need all the attention now given to them, so far such partial rewards are impolitic and dangerous. For this reason, therefore, the introduction at Rugby of that system of pecuniary stimulation which exists at other Schools should, we think, from the first carry some incitement into every branch of knowledge regularly taught. It is as easy now to distribute to all as to give to one. We shall recommend, therefore, first, that twelve Scholarships be immediately created of the value of £60 each, three of which shall annually be offered to the competition of all boys, wherever educated, under the age of 15 years, in a classical examination, tenable for four years if the successful candidate shall remain so long at school; and secondly, we shall recommend that twice the same number of Exhibitions, being of the annual value of £25 each, be immediately created, each of which shall be in the same manner annually awarded for the greatest proficiency in each of the subsidiary subjects of the School teaching. In the case of these Exhibitions, awarded as they will be to subjects of less width and importance, susceptible of acquisition by boys not necessarily proficient to an eminent degree in Classics, nor having given always such long and patient labour to these as success in the classical subjects will render necessary, we think it may be desirable to impose some safeguards and conditions to ensure the satisfactory working of the scheme so far as it concerns them. We shall endeavour to secure a fair proficiency in Classics as one condition for entrance into the competition. All other provisions which it occurs to us to suggest will be found in the body of our recommendations which close this Report, and will, we apprehend, in general on the face of them sufficiently disclose the grounds on which they are framed. The chief of these is that which would confide to the Trustees, when duly informed on the subject, a limited power of withdrawing from successful candidates an advantage so soon as they shall be discovered persistently to pervert it to purposes inconsistent with the objects for which they are established.
This recommendation is founded on the results of experience gained in regard to University Scholarships similarly awarded. In some cases successful competitors in what may be called the side lines of instruction having won the means of credit and maintenance have been observed to stop short in their career; to turn aside from the path in which they had succeeded, in order to pursue their way in some line of study the subsequent uses of which promise more profit or advantage for the future. Yet one main end of such endowments is the encouragement and support of students in the studies for which they have shown aptitude and industry. A Scholarship or Exhibition so won and so used is, in reference to such ends, rather a prey than a prize, and may, we think, so soon as it has fully assumed that character, be justly and advantageously reclaimed for transference to hands which will not misapply it, if general arrangements can be devised for effecting this.*
*A general prospective estimate of the income and expenditure of Rugby School, under the alterations as to expenditure proposed by our accompanying recommendations, before the Fellowships shall be vacated and before the local privilege shall be extinguished, but after it is limited:
†The items marked thus are new, or involve expenditure different from that which they now cost; all others are as at present. The actual and present expenditure is given in the Answers of the Trustees.
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XI. TAXATION OF MASTERS FOR RAISING SCHOLARSHIPS AND OTHER PURPOSES
The Masters of the School at the present moment tax their incomes, derived from stipends, fees, and profits, to the amount of more than £500 per annum. This taxation assumes the form of an income tax, graduated according to the amount of each income, and it serves the purpose of supporting* Scholarships, providing school-rooms, printing examination papers, and of other less important acts for the benefit of the School.
We cannot but applaud the public spirit from which this course of practice has emanated, as well as the liberality with which it has been sustained. It has now for some time subsisted, and from the shape which it has taken, seems likely to become an institution of the School. Regarding it as such, we must confess that we question its expediency, and deprecate its extension. The salaries of the Masters supplied by the charges of the School, should, it seems to us, be applied actually to the object for which they are ostensibly given. The remuneration for their time and trouble as Assistant Masters of the School, if inadequate, should be increased, if adequate, suffer no diminution direct or indirect, if excessive, be directly diminished. But they should not we think be systematically applied, while bearing the character of salaries, to other and quite distinct general purposes of the School. The proper amount of salaries for Masters is as necessary an element in the welfare of the School as any other, and no other purposes should be furthered to the sacrifice of these, or by encroachment on them. From this point of view, it is hardly desirable that Scholarships or school-rooms should be provided out of salaries. It is possible indeed that for a season the public spirit and liberal feeling of the Masters might make them insensible of the loss, and give them back in pride and satisfaction, what they may lose in income. But a system so organized will in the course of a few years take the mere form of a law, and the payments will pass into simple charges on salaries established by custom. If therefore the salaries actually paid are reasonable in amount, the effect of diminishing them will be matter of regret. If, on the other hand, the salaries will, consistently with the welfare of the School, bear diminution, we are of opinion that this should, so soon as existing interests will permit, be effected directly, and surely and definitely by the lessening of their receipts, rather than by subjecting them to burthens, which will reduce them indefinitely, and indirectly, and insecurely. So far, therefore, as such payments are to be regarded as leading to an habitual abatement of salary, we consider them as inexpedient on one of two grounds.
Again, as means of providing resources for public objects connected with the welfare of the School we think this method unadvisable. If such purposes are desirable objects in School management, the money which is requisite to meet them should be directly and specifically appropriated to them from the funds on which the burthen of them ought to fall. Whether these funds should be the payments of the boys or the annual revenues of the School itself is a second question, which does not affect the manner in which the application is to be made. From whatever source derived, it cannot effect any good purpose that they should first assume the form of payments made to Masters, and on reaching the Masters' hands then be by them invested with a totally different character, as contributions to Scholarships, school-rooms, and similar objects. Nor is the inexpediency of the arrangement limited within the range of these considerations. It is advisable that the various functions of School management should be properly distinguished in themselves, and properly distributed to the various functionaries of the School. We think that as teaching and training are and should be the work of Masters, so the endowment and the creation of Scholarships and the assignment of funds for their support more properly fall to the Trustees. That they should in much of this take counsel with and ascertain the opinion of the Head Master, who will represent the opinion of the teachers in this part of their work, is and will be reasonable. But their character as a Governing Body, and the general duties which we have ascribed to them as such, point them out as the persons to arrange finally such matters. What Scholarships it is desirable to endow, and in what subjects, are considerations falling within that part of School economy which we have intrusted to the Governing Body. If, however, taxes, voluntary in their nature, are raised for these objects by the body of Masters out of their own money, at
*Since these remarks were written we have been informed that Scholarships of greater value than those of which an account is given in the evidence, have been established at Rugby in the form of gratuitous board, supplied at the expense of the boarding-house masters. Such were awarded for the first time, by competition (after due notice in the public newspapers), in October 1863. The advertisements announcing this offer appeared after our recommendations on the subject of Scholarships at Rugby had been agreed on by us. We consider, however, that our remarks in the text will apply strictly to these recent acts of liberality on the part of the Rugby Masters.
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their own discretion, the power to ascertain and fix the proper application of these payments, and the due degrees and proportions in which they are to be applied, naturally accompanies and will accompany the act of raising them, and seems a reasonable equivalent for the pecuniary loss which they occasion. It is difficult for A to prescribe to B in what manner he shall apply money which is thoroughly his own, and which he has a right to give or to withhold as it pleases him. But it will be impossible for Trustees to assign importance to studies, if the pecuniary means by which the several studies may be encouraged are in great measure at the disposal of others than themselves. The ultimate, if not the immediate, result to which such an arrangement tends, is in our opinion this, that the Assistant Masters will really organize and arrange the system of pecuniary encouragements, including their amount and their application. In this way such a method of meeting the necessities or improving the efficiency of the School out of the contributions of Masters tends to disturb the balance of School government, by indirectly drawing a portion of the functions and responsibilities of the Governing Body into the hands of the teaching body of the School.
Such a duty, too, not only more fully belongs, as we conceive, to the sphere of duties assigned to the Trustees, but in the long run will, we believe, be more likely to meet with satisfactory fulfilment in their hands, both as to the amount of money so applied, and as to the particular objects for which it is given. All experience of schools, as of other institutions, teaches that it is not expedient to trust, through a long course of years, the discretion of raising funds for public objects to private individuals, at whose expense they must be raised. At some seasons, with some tempers, the very delicacy of such a position will have the effect of urging them to excessive liberality; in the end, and with the majority of men, the discretion will be exercised by those who exercise it to the detriment of the objects for which the money is required. Acquiescence in such a system would lead also naturally to great looseness and uncertainty in the apportionment of incomes to the teaching staff. These encouragements will, although actually at first and afterwards ostensibly supplied out of their own salaries, eventually be furnished out of some other fund. The outgoings from income must in the end be reckoned as drawbacks to the incomings, for it is impossible that money passing through the hand should be long regarded as money lodged in it. The estimate of such outgoings too, in their nature uncertain, and varying possibly with the temper and habits of the individuals, must be wide and loose, and being based on such uncertainty, will commonly result in waste.
But at Rugby, in addition to the general sum of school charges which has been recommended to the keeping of the Governing Body in all schools, the Trustees are possessed of a good annual income applicable to the general interests of the School. Under such circumstances, we should deprecate the commencement and institution of a system which will throw upon the income and the discretion of the body of Assistant Masters the burthen of devising, organizing, and supporting arrangements and objects conducive to the general prosperity of the School, and claiming the attention and support of its Trustees. We are of opinion, therefore, that the practice of self-taxation by the staff of Masters for the creation and support of Scholarships and other such institutions and objects connected with the general organization and support of the School should not be extended beyond its present limits, nor assume any other than a temporary and provisional form.
XII. SCHOOL BUILDINGS
Dr. Temple has strongly urged the propriety of adding to the buildings at Rugby School. We consider that the Trustees of the School, having frequent opportunities of meeting upon the spot as well as of acquiring in other ways a knowledge of all details connected with the subject, are in a better condition than ourselves, informed only by means of one short visit to the place, to come to a final decision upon such a subject. We would, however, state a few facts and make a few observations which we think may not be immaterial, as part of the ground-work for a judgment upon this point.
The present buildings were erected to provide teaching room for upwards of 320 boys. Such was the number when the final plan of the building was made, and then an increase, and not a decline of the School, was confidently anticipated by all connected with the building arrangements then made. Within a few years from that time 391 boys were taught without difficulty, we believe, or complaint. The School now exceeds considerably the number actually taught or provided for when the building was erected. This, in itself, makes it probable that some more accommodation is now required. It should be observed, on the other hand, that boys to a far greater extent formerly than now spent their time in the rooms in which they were taught. For more than
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20 years after the building was erected every division in the School but two learnt and prepared the School work, as well as said it, in the Schools. It was a consequence of this arrangement that for every one hour now spent in School, about an hour and three-quarters was formerly passed in the same place. It need hardly be observed, therefore, in regard to sanitary considerations, that the atmosphere included in the school-rooms is liable to very little more than one half of the deterioration by each class taught in them to which it was subjected when the schools were built. Again, when the schools were built, the Trustees were in possession of a vast accumulation of capital, and possessed a large and increasing income; at the present moment they have little or no capital, and their prospects as to income are not such as to encourage the imposition of heavy charges upon it for the future. Dr. Temple appears to rest his proposal for additional buildings chiefly upon a contemplated increase in the number of Forms and Masters, coupled with the necessity of assigning a separate room to each class. As the proportion of Masters to boys at Rugby is not below the average of public schools, but above it, and as it would be necessary to sacrifice some part of the total amount of each Master's income in order to raise the number of teachers, we have not taken upon ourselves to advise such an increase of the teaching staff. It may be observed, too, that under the increase of non-classical studies which we have suggested, more time will be placed at the disposal of the Classical Assistant Masters than they have hitherto had. But, although the classes be not actually increased, we are led to infer that their number is now too great for the room allowed, in the same proportion as the number of classes exceeds the number of class rooms. Dr. Temple seems to lay it down as a principle that two classes should, under no circumstances, occupy the same apartment. Were it otherwise he considers that the "big school" might afford room for many who now seek accommodation elsewhere. We are ourselves aware that there are great advantages for teaching, and some advantages for learning, in the system of allotting single rooms to single classes. Much weight is no doubt due to the considerations put forward in Dr. Temple's evidence on this point. It is further not to be forgotten that to enable those branches of instruction of which we recommend the introduction to be well taught, some additional and separate accommodation will be required. At the same time the following facts and considerations have also some hearing on the question. All the teaching of all the classes at Winchester School has for centuries been conducted in one room; the same has been the case with other Schools for long periods of time. In the "big school" at Rugby five classes were accustomed both to learn the lessons and to be taught simultaneously. In all these Schools there has been a considerable amount of efficient teaching. There is no doubt that the tendency of recent years has been to provide a greater degree of seclusion for boys and masters. Boys were accustomed to learn surrounded by their companions, and classes were wont to be taught surrounded by classes. When this was the case, the mere hum and noise around them did not distract their minds so long as they were not actually interfered with and molested. They have been gradually secluded within private studies for the purpose of learning. While it was the main object of this arrangement, we believe, to secure them from positive molestation, it has been the effect of it, probably, to make them sensitive to slight disturbances, of which boys in past times would have been even unaware while studiously employed. The same tendency, too, which has secluded the boys while they learn is now acting to separate them while they say what they have learnt. But it may admit of doubt whether in both these respects Schools are not moving faster than the world, for which they are a preparation, has followed or will be able to follow them. It is necessary at the Bar, and in other careers of life, and in the Houses of Parliament, that much mental work should be done of all kinds, amidst many outward causes of distraction. It would be matter of regret if Public School life should in any way disqualify boys for the conditions under which they must do their work as men. If, therefore, care should be taken not to put difficulties between the young scholar and the acquisition of knowledge, it must be remembered also that difficulties may be artificially created by enlivening sensibility, and may be unnecessarily strengthened by shrinking too much from a timely discipline. The question is one, however, upon which we do not feel called upon to pronounce a decided opinion; more especially because, while we do not see our way to the charging the cost of additional buildings upon the School funds, we do not think it within our province to indicate any other mode of raising the necessary funds, however conceivable it is that such mode may easily be found.
XIII. THE SCHOOL CLOSE
We are of opinion that there is no external matter connected with the management of the School which deserves more attention than the extent, airiness, and position of the
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School Close. Not only the health, but the intellectual and moral tone of the School are directly and intimately connected with all these points. That the boys should live as much as possible, when not at School work, in the open air, in active bodily exercise, with minds amused, in the presence of each other, not dispersed and not crowded, not hidden, yet not watched, is most desirable. That they should grow up able to cope with all other school-bred men in all manly pastimes is also very advisable. It is desirable, therefore, that the School Close should be extended reasonably as the School grows larger. On this point the Rugby boys have, we believe, no general reason to complain. We think, however, that the small portion of ground still reserved to the Head Master, although lying within the natural limits of the School Close, should, as soon as due consideration for the comfort of the Head Master himself will permit, be devoted to the use of the boys. A more substantial fence might be raised, if necessary, on the limits of the Close in that direction.
XIV. SCHOOL CHARGES
The remuneration now provided for all the duties which the staff of Rugby Masters performs for the benefit of the boys, consisting of general care and superintendence, moral supervision, and instruction of an kinds and in all subjects, consists, as we have seen, of five kinds of payment: First, boarding-house profits; second, stipends from the Trustees; third, fees for school instruction; fourth, fees for tuition in extra subjects; fifth, fees for private tuition in subjects of school instruction.
1. Boarding-house Profits
In the charges made for board we do not propose to make any alteration, as the rate has been settled by the Trustees, and the amount is moderate, and although some items connected with them might, without great impropriety, be added to the general charge, and so included under one head of payment, yet the separate statement of expenses which are essentially different in kind is not unadvisable. It has indeed been suggested by Dr. Temple, merely as one alternative method of increasing the School receipts, that this charge should be raised. We are of opinion, however, that whatever claims may be with propriety made upon parents for further contributions, it is not advisable that they should be presented to them in this form. Boarding fees are confessedly indirect payments to Masters for their services in the work of education, and there attach to them therefore some of the inconveniences which it is very difficult to separate from all indirect methods of remuneration. It is also not easy even for those who fix their amount to do so with certainty that they are precisely accordant with and proportionate to the undetermined services which they actually remunerate. We shall also have occasion to point out other inconveniences which at Rugby naturally attend the receipt of these profits by Assistant Masters keeping boarding-houses. For such inconveniences indeed we do, as we hope, provide a sufficient remedy; we deem it however unwise to extend the action of a system which is so far open to objection that by its natural tendencies it leads to difficulties and unfairness.
2. Stipends
3. School Instruction Fee
4. Extra Tuition Fees
It is the object of some observations which we make elsewhere to point out that a portion of the Masters' payments for the instruction which they give in the ordinary curriculum of the School has in recent years fallen unduly on the revenues of the School. We recommend accordingly that in future all which the Classical and Mathematical Masters now receive by way of stipend, and therefore draw solely out of the revenues of the School, being in fact a remuneration for a benefit which every boy equally receives, should hereafter be paid by a uniform contribution on behalf of every boy in the School. But in order to effect this change most conveniently, it is desirable that such contribution should be added to and included in the charge for "School instruction" made upon parents for the Non-foundationers, and upon the Trustees of the School on behalf of Foundationers.
Again, in our observations upon the Natural Philosophy School which will be found elsewhere, we express our opinion that, as Natural Philosophy is by the present arrangements of the School considered a substitute for Modern Languages, it would be no more than reasonable even under the present organization of the School teaching, that the adoption of such substituted subject should not unnecessarily involve any expense beyond that required for the instruction in the place of which it may be taken, and certainly that under such circumstances both should not be paid for, as at present they
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sometimes are, where only one is learned. We also express our opinion that it is unadvisable, both in an educational and in a general point of view, that of three courses of study all holding the same position as parts of the School teaching, and having the same effect on a boy's place and progress, two should be provided for by a general charge for instruction, and the third be taught only on the payment of an "extra tuition fee". Inasmuch, therefore, as the charge for instruction in Mathematics and Modern Languages made on behalf of every boy is included in the charge for "School instruction", we are of opinion that the teaching of Natural Science should be paid for no longer by an "extra tuition fee" but by the same charge for School instruction. We are also of opinion that this charge may be made on account of Foundationers as well as Non-foundationers.
At the present time, indeed, no charge is made on account of the former in any form, for reasons which we have already stated. But as the demand which Foundationers will make upon the trouble and time of the Teacher of Natural Philosophy may be now augmented, we propose that the Trustees should be hereafter charged in the School instruction fee payable by them on account of Foundationers for the teaching in Natural Philosophy as parents are charged for Non-foundationers.
As with the extra tuition fee in Natural Philosophy, so with those for Drawing and Music: since our recommendations include amongst them the suggestion that Drawing and Music, as alternatives between which a choice should always he given, be taught to all boys as a part of the regular curriculum of the School, it will be desirable to give to these payments a new character corresponding with this change. We shall therefore recommend that the extra tuition fee of £4 4s now paid both for Music and Drawing by all Non-foundationers, and the extra tuition fee of £4 4s paid by Foundationers for Music, and the stipend of £40 by the Trustees for the extra tuition of Foundationers in Drawing, be commuted for salaries raised out of the charge for School instruction which wiII (as now) be made on the parents of each Non-foundationer for Non-foundationers, and also, as is not the case now, on the Trustees of the School for Foundationers.
Thus the changes which we propose to effect in the organization of the instruction given in the School will involve the further consequence of extinguishing the second and fourth heads of payment which we have enumerated at the commencement of this section. It will convert all stipendiary payments on the part of Trustees and all extra tuition fees (except those for drill and dancing) into constituent parts of one charge for School instruction.
But this conversion of stipends and extra tuition fees into one denomination of charge, different from either, must, in the latter case, be accompanied by a second process which is not necessary in the former. The stipends constitute a sum which we do not propose to alter. £1,073 6s 8d is to be converted into the same amount of fees for school instruction. On the other hand, the fees for extra tuition are not simply to be converted into a new denomination; they must be seriously altered in amount. The payment for instruction in Natural Philosophy at present raised by fees for extra tuition, amounts only to £199. For the instruction of Foundationers the instructor himself now receives no fees nor payment at all. The whole sum, therefore, now paid for Foundationers and Non-foundationers to the teacher of Natural Philosophy is, to the extent of the whole amount of the fees payable for Foundationers, inadequate. Now, however, only one teacher gives a small part of his time, and 41 boys out of 463 are all whom he has the trouble of teaching. When, therefore, the instruction shall be given by two Masters devoting their whole time to it, and shall be given to all boys in the School, that which would now be an adequate payment for one Master teaching a few boys will become totally inadequate for two Masters teaching 463 boys. The sum, therefore, to be translated on this account into the form of "school instruction fees" demanded from each boy must be increased to so much as will produce remuneration for two teachers instructing regularly the whole School. In order to ascertain this amount it will perhaps be advisable not to take any ideal or even conjectural standard of payment, but to adopt for our guidance the sum already considered requisite to remunerate properly the teaching of the School in the other subsidiary branches of knowledge with which we propose to co-ordinate the teaching of Natural Science. The sum now actually realized by the teaching of Mathematics at Rugby, exclusive of arithmetic, is £2,567 2s 10d, divisible amongst three Masters. The sum realized by the teaching of Modern Languages is £1,523 7s. 7d, divisible amongst two Masters. This gives to each Master in these two subsidiary Schools the average income or £814 2s 1d. It is not in our opinion desirable, now that Natural Science is taught in the Universities, to claim less in the way of general cultivation from the teachers of Natural Science than is required and obtained from those who instruct in Mathematics and Modern Languages. Yet if we pay less in the way of remuneration, we must
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also claim less in the way of cultivation. The standard of payment should therefore be the same. Now if we allot payment to the Physical Science teachers at the same rate, this will call for £1,628 4s 2d. But a considerable portion of this payment of Mathematical and Modern Language teachers is derived from fees for private tuition, a source of payment which will be open, perhaps, in some degree, to the teachers of Physical Science. We apprehend, therefore, that it will not be unsafe to provide, out of the "fees for school instruction", for £1,200 to be given for the present in the form of two salaries, one of £700 and the other of £500 per annum, to the two teachers of Natural Science, to be appointed for the School. Thus the present payment for Natural Philosophy by "extra tuition fees" must be converted into "school instruction fees", not the same in amount, but exceeding it by about £1,000. The same double process must also be effected in the two cases of Music and Drawing. The aggregate sums now paid by Non-foundation boys for extra tuition in Drawing, and by all boys for extra tuition in Music, together with the stipend paid by the Trustees for the drawing lessons of Foundationers, must be considerably exceeded in estimating the sums which will be required for each of these when converted into the form of charges for school instruction. Now the number of pupils in each branch amounts to about 45 boys in each; i.e., to 42 in one and 49 in the other. The aggregate of fees taken in both these branches, if all boys were paid for by extra tuition fees, amounts but to £382 4s; and as some of these boys who learn Drawing are paid for by a stipend on the part of the Trustees, the aggregate is probably somewhat less than this. When, however, a large part of the School shall learn one or other of these arts, and the teaching is therefore given to very many more boys, although in a manner more systematic and economical as to time and trouble, the burden which such an arrangement will throw upon the charges for school instruction cannot, we think be estimated at less than £600. This may be distributed in the form of salary between the two teachers, in such proportions as the Trustees of the School may find expedient.
In order, therefore, to meet the demands produced by the conversion of "extra tuition fees" for the teaching to a few, into "school instruction fees" for the teaching to all, of Physical Science, Music, and Drawing, the school instruction fees must be raised by £2,873 6s 8d per annum. For this purpose we shall recommend that the charge for school instruction made upon each boy at school be increased by six guineas, to be paid in the case of Foundationers by the Trustees of the School. As the present sum of 15½ guineas, now charged for School instruction, is distributed between the Head Master and the Assistant Masters in the Classical, Mathematical, and Modern Language Schools, in proportions which have been settled recently, we do not propose to disturb these arrangements. We shall recommend, accordingly, that of the whole sum of 21½ guineas thus to be charged on each boy, the sum of 15½ guineas be paid into the "school instruction fund" to be distributed amongst Masters as heretofore, and the six guineas now added to this be applied primarily to those payments which we have above specified. The total sum by which the additions of £6 6s to the payments of 463 boys will increase the existing amount of the fees for school instruction, is £2,916 18s; and therefore is fully sufficient for the purposes to which we have assigned them.
The specific recommendations connected with this subject will be found amongst the body of recommendations following our observations.
5. Fees for Private Tuition in all Subjects of School Instruction
The present charge for private tuition in classics to Foundationers and Non-foundationers is 10 guineas per annum. It is now nominally optional with the parents of any boy to take or decline private tuition. In the exercise of this option formally allowed by the regulations, however, they are virtually restricted by the practice of the School. It is very difficult for any boy above the Lower School and below the Sixth Form now to decline the tuition, inasmuch as the work done in private tuition forms an important part of the School examinations for promotion in class, and as such has marks assigned to it which no boy could afford to sacrifice who had any desire to compete with others on fair terms of equality. In the Sixth Form the inducement to take this kind of instruction is not so cogent, but it is such as few parents, we apprehend, will resist. On this point it appears to us that the practice of the School has deviated from the spirit of its rules. At the present time, as we have seen, a fee of nine guineas and a half is paid for every boy to the Assistant Masters directly on account of "school instruction". The charge of this sum of nine guineas and a half was first allowed, and is still warranted, by two distinct orders of the Trustees in respect to Non-Foundationers - the one made in 1828 and allowing the charge of £6 6s for school instruction in classics,
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and the other, said to have been made a few years afterwards, allowing for school instruction in Mathematics and Modern Languages an additional charge of £3 13s 6d.* Before the year 1828 boys paid no fee for school instruction to any Assistant Master. The only fee paid to Assistant Masters by parents consisted in a charge of £6 6s for private tuition made on the parents of all Non-foundationers. Now, concurrently with the order which created the charge for school instruction payable to Assistant Masters by the parents of Non-foundationers, was issued a regulation with regard to private tuition. This directs that "private tuition in future be optional with Non-foundationers as well as with Foundationers". It is difficult to resist the conclusion that it was the intent and effect of these orders made at the same moment, as interpreted both by their language and the circumstances under which they were framed, to substitute for the compulsory payment by Non-Foundationers of £6 6s to Assistant Masters for private tuition, the compulsory charge of £6 6s for school instruction payable to the same. The provision respecting private tuition which accompanied it at once explains this intention, and seeks to carry it out by ordering that it be optional with every boy, Foundationer or' Non-foundationer, to take private tuition or not in future. It also clearly intended that neither Foundationers nor Non-foundationers really choosing to take it should be exempted from paying for it.
The practice of the School, therefore, has drifted somewhat from the letter and intent of these regulations, especially in this, that it has, by its arrangements, cramped the freedom of the option which was undoubtedly meant to be a perfect option to take or decline private classical tuition.
In another point also the regulation has failed to maintain its hold upon the practice of the School. The old fee of six guineas for compulsory private tuition of Non-foundationers was retained for the future optional private tuition of all boys in the Lower School; and it was increased to £10 10s for the boys in the Upper School alone: but it is now customary to charge the higher sum for all.
By these anomalies, as well as by other difficulties attending the settlement of this question, we feel ourselves embarrassed in our endeavours to offer a satisfactory recommendation. Under all the circumstances of the case, however, we are of opinion that this charge should still be made generally on all boys. We think that the staff of Masters should be maintained in its present state of efficiency. If, however, it were now left fully and strictly an optional point with all parents to take or decline this form of instruction, and so to adopt or avoid this form of charge, the remuneration of the Classical Assistant Masters would probably fall in amount; and such a diminution of the fund divisible amongst them, by lessening the present inducement to accept the office, might gradually lower the attainments of the body of Assistant Masters.
Regarding also the fee of ten guineas for private classical tuition in the Lower School, which, by some accident, has in course of time been substituted for six, in the same light as a payment to Masters by which boys throughout the School gain an advantage in the superior character of those who instruct, we shall recommend that this charge be formally legalized.
We think also that the private tuition fee should be retained in its present form as a charge distinct from "school instruction". It is very desirable on financial grounds, and with the view of sparing further encroachments on the revenues of the School, still to maintain the distinction which the Trustees of the School drew, in the year 1828, between this form of charge and that for "school instruction", although we abolish the difference between them as optional and compulsory payments.
But although we propose to leave the sum of £10 10s undiminished as a separate charge for private classical tuition, we are of opinion that at a certain point in the career of every boy in the School it might be made to assume a more general character than belongs to it as a fee for private classical tuition.
Side by side with this private tuition in classics, which has already become in effect a compulsory charge, there exists in the School, as we have seen, a system of private tuition in all the subsidiary branches of knowledge - i.e., Mathematics, Modern Languages, and Natural Philosophy, for the three different charges of £10 10s, £6 6s, and £5 5s respectively. These various payments exist by the practice of the School under that really optional form with which the Trustees intended to invest the private classical tuition; and as voluntary payments for voluntary modes of instruction they are now often made. In such cases, usually both kinds of instruction are taken - the private tuition in classics, and the private tuition in such subsidiary branch as the parent may
*The same orders which warrant the charges of £6 6s and £3 13s 6d to Assistant Masters for the school instruction of each Non-foundationer, direct the payment of £6 6s and £3 13s 6d out of the revenues of the School for the school instruction of each Foundationer.
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choose. The fee therefore for private classical tuition is paid as a matter of course, together with the fee chargeable for private tuition in the subsidiary branch of knowledge which is selected. The expense of the two forms of private tuition, when one of them is Mathematical, is £21. When one of them is in Modern Languages, the expense of the two is £16 16s. When one of them is Natural Philosophy it is £15 15s.
Now we elsewhere recommend that there should be organized a system of variations in the instruction of the higher Forms of the School, by which boys adhering to a certain regular curriculum in the main may yet study the subsidiary subjects taught in the School, and Classics themselves also in various degrees. By this arrangement the regular instruction of the School will consist in the highest Forms of two quite distinguishable portions; the one a fixed portion which all take, the other a variable portion which is taken or declined according to circumstances. Now at the present moment this very system exists in a limited, partial, and exceptional form. In some cases parents may successfully apply for permission that their sons should discontinue a part of their classical tuition, in order that they may be better able to afford time for private tuition in some subsidiary subject. Five guineas in such case is abated from the classical private tuition fee. and the whole fee for the other kind of private tuition is exacted. This system is limited and exceptional, as being permitted only in a few exceptional cases. It seems limited and partial, as being applied apparently in favour of some branches of learning only, and not of others. But instruction, so far as it is now allowed to be variable, has this character given to it always by means of private tuition. The private classical tuition makes way for private Mathematical tuition, or for private Modern Language tuition. It is by means of the adoption of one, and the diminution of the usual amount of another kind of private tuition, that the studies of a very few are allowed to vary from those of most.
In organizing this plan of variations by a system where it is now an exception, and in giving it generality of application to all branches of study where it is now reserved for some only, we see no reason for departing from the present practice, so far as it makes the private tuition in Classics the yielding point of the Classical system. In accordance, however, with the distinction which we have alluded to in the instruction itself, the payment for instruction may fairly divide itself into two distinct forms of charge; the one representing that amount of teaching which is constant, the other that which is variable. The constant part is mainly represented by the School instruction fee as it stands; for the variable portion we may find a representative by casting into one general and systematic payment all those fees which are now given for private tuition in all branches, and by assigning all or the chief part of this as a fee for the variable part of the instruction in all the variable studies. Up to that point indeed at which boys shall be permitted to discontinue some studies in order to prosecute more freely others, all these various fees for different kinds of private tuition may retain their present distinct character; but at such point all may disappear as distinct charges, and merge into one common payment, which all boys will make chiefly on account of that part of their teaching which then becomes variable in its character.
Now, if we take the average amount of all the three payments for private tuition in the three subsidiary branches of knowledge, and add this to the fee for classical private tuition when reduced by one half, this will give as nearly as possible 12 guineas. Twelve guineas, accordingly, represents the average amount which would be payable by boys if allowed on the most favourable terms now known to the School to substitute teaching in any subsidiary branch for part of the classical teaching. In addition, therefore, to the recommendation that the fee for private classical tuition should in the Lower Fifth Form assume the character of a fee payable generally for all the variable instruction which a boy thenceforth may receive, we would suggest that under this new character it should be increased from 10 guineas to 12, or such other sum as the Trustees of the School may fix.*
The destination, however, of this payment, when made, presents another point for consideration. Once paid in, it may be disposed of as convenience may suggest. The whole £10 10s is now paid to the classical tutor in ordinary cases. This would clearly not be a convenient allotment of the £12 12s fee, which is a compensation for other services than his. But there are two other modes of disposal not open to this objection.
*It will be observed, that this method of charging for private tuition in all branches by one gross sum does not apply to any cases in which a boy does not discontinue one kind of instruction for another, but simply adds to the normal curriculum of private classical tuition private tuition in some other branch. It may still be necessary, hereafter us now, for boys to resort to private tuition for a limited time to enable them to arrive at a proper balance between their attainments in different branches of knowledge where accident or neglect has thrown them behind.
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The fee may all be paid at once into the instruction fund, to be thence distributed as the Masters themselves may agree and the Trustees may approve, or a part of it may be retained by the Classical Tutor, and the remainder so paid in, or it may be at once distributed in portions corresponding with the claims of the several Assistant Masters as ascertained by the same authority. Even if it should be found hereafter advisable to pay all Masters all their salaries in the form of stipends from a common fund, this payment may pass, as well as School instruction fees and the tax on the boarding house profits, into the School instruction fund for the same purposes.*
*NOTE A. We subjoin, as an illustration, one arrangement under which we conceive that it might maintain its character as a distinct and direct source of remuneration to Assistant Masters:
If our scheme for the arrangement of the variable studies of the School be examined, it will be seen that the Classical Tutor's duties will amount, in one contingency, to no more than general superintendence over the pupil and over a slight amount of his composition; and never to less than this.
Let the annual sum, therefore, of £4 4s be supposed to represent this minimum, and be in all cases still paid as a private tuition fee to the Classical Private Tutor.
Let the remaining £8 8s represent the payment for all the variable tuition which it is possible to receive, and as such let it be paid into a fund to be called the Eight-guinea fund. This variable instruction in effect corresponds to two distinct allotments of the pupil's time, one of two hours, and a second one of two hours. If the boy gives up all his work with his Classical Tutor but the residuum which we have described, he gives up both these portions. Now, let the sum of £4 4s represent each of these portions, i.e., the tutorial lessons as one, and versification and composition as the other, and be paid to the teachers of those subjects to whom the boy may transfer such one portion of time. If he take for the tutorial lessons two hours in Modern Languages, let the £4 4s be assigned to the teachers of Modern Languages, £4 4s will so remain in the £8 8s fund. If the boy then take two hours of instruction in Mathematics instead of his Latin verse and Greek composition, this will give such remaining £4 4s to the teacher of Mathematics; if, on the other hand, the second two hours as before go to his composition in Greek and versification, it will be reasonable to assign to the Classical Tutor, whose trouble will thus be diminished, though not to the fullest extent, the sum of two guineas in addition to the four which he has retained. If, on the other hand, the pupil instead of diminishing the amount of his classical instruction at any time increase it by two hours' work the sum of £8 8s might be paid to the tutor out of the £8 8s fund. In all these ways will the whole time of the pupil be exhausted and the whole fee of £12 12s be distributed in correspondence with the employment of his time. Such is one way, though not necessarily the least exceptionable one, in which the fee might he disposed of.
NOTE B. Of the following tables, one shows the necessary annual expenses of a boy in a boarding-house at Rugby School, for board, school instruction in all subjects, and other school charges, as proposed by us; the other shows the expense of the same course of study on the existing scale of charges.
Items new in kind or differently charged are marked thus †.
1
Annual expenses which would be necessary with the same curriculum of studies under the existing scale of charges:
2
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XV. THE EMOLUMENTS OF THE ASSISTANT MASTERS
It appears to us that the total sum divisible amongst the Masters for the instruction given in the School, being upwards of £20,000, is not inadequate to that purpose, and contrasts very advantageously for the Rugby Masters with the total sum applicable to the same purpose at Westminster, Shrewsbury, Charterhouse, St. Paul's, and Merchant. Taylors'. We are also strongly of opinion that the proportion of this which falls to the share of the Head Master, being somewhat under £3,000, exclusive of the advantage of a handsome residence rent free, is very far from excessive. It is gratifying further to observe that in the distribution of the remaining funds amongst Assistant Masters, the emoluments of those who teach two out of the three subsidiary branches of knowledge are not stinted in favour of those who give classical instruction. While the average emoluments of the 13 Classical Assistant Masters are £966 9s 2d, those of the three Mathematical Masters are £877 11s, and those of the Modern Language Masters is £755 12s. We are of opinion, therefore, that if any such difficulty as that which the Head Master already finds reason to apprehend be ever more decidedly felt in procuring and preserving to the School the services of men distinguished in all branches of knowledge, this will not be due to the insufficiency of the funds appropriated to each branch of this service. To exclude the possibility of this evil, however, it is necessary not only that the annual sum assigned to each branch should be liberal in itself and fair in its relation to the rest, but also that it should be distributed wisely amongst the individual Masters who constitute the staff of Assistants.
It will be seen that the plan upon which the official incomes of individual Assistant Masters at Rugby is fixed, is generally not that of dividing equally between all, but of giving a larger salary in respect of seniority on the list, and also of considering comparative length of service in the School as constituting such seniority.
Now while we regard this plan as good, the manner in which it is now carried out at Rugby we consider as susceptible of amendment.
The two great principles upon which salaries for Masters in the same branch of study should be regulated appear to be these. 1st. That good talents and attainments may be attracted, retained, and duly stimulated for the service of the School; and, 2nd, that a just remuneration be given at each point and place in a Master's career corresponding with the services rendered. It will be difficult to secure the first of these without securing the second also, or to fail in the last without also losing or greatly risking the loss of the first. But they are two distinct points to be secured, and therefore both should be borne in mind distinctly in making arrangements for the settlement of the School salaries.
In both points of view we believe the system of increasing salaries in accordance with degrees of seniority to be reasonable and expedient. It is not unadvisable under the first point of view that there should always lie before the Master the prospect of an improvement. That something should be left to hope for and expect would be desirable solely on the ground that this feeling, on the whole, does not diminish contentment, while it increases and enlivens work. Under the second point of view the same course recommends itself. Knowledge becomes greater, more precise, and more ready at hand; skill increases, and judgment is almost acquired through experience. The School, therefore, as receiving more from the senior years than from the junior years in the period of vigorous life, may reasonably give more in return.
But we are of opinion that the plan upon which such increase of salary is given to seniority should be settled in conformity with certain rules.
We consider it desirable, in the first place, that the difference between the two extremes of the scale of payment for instruction in the same branch of knowledge should not be excessive. It seems to be required of those who take a Mastership in Public Schools in which the tutorial system exists, that they should be capable almost from the first of presiding over the studies, in the most effective manner, of pupils in the highest forms, It is also necessary (if they are to rise by seniority to the enjoyment of higher salaries) that they should bring such talent and knowledge to the lowest place on the list as will fit them in due season to occupy efficiently the highest. Now, if the remuneration offered in the first years of work be very slight, this may discourage men of the first ability from accepting such a position, although leading to greater advantages. For this reason we think that an alteration should be made in the scheme of payment, whenever the senior group of Assistants receive, on the ground of mere seniority on the staff, such a remuneration as nearly triples the salary of the juniors teaching the same branch of knowledge, and qualified to succeed eventually to the same stipends.
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Again, we are of opinion that there should be a regular graduation in the scale of payments between the highest and lowest, and that the steps in such a scale should not be very few and very high. If judgment and knowledge, as distinct from industry and talent, be the qualifications, which are in effect paid for by increase of salary according to length of service, it is desirable that the remuneration should increase proportionately to the growth of these qualities. Since these qualities, then, must receive some accession constantly and gradually, it is clear that great and sudden augmentations are (if deserved) but payment for past services, which has been deferred to the time of augmentation. But if the moment of such increase depends upon the occurrence of vacancies by retirement or death, it must be always, in reference to any individual Master, not only sudden, but very uncertain in point of time. To one it may come after many years of service, to another after a few, to another possibly not at all.* It is the necessary effect of such inequality in the length of times preceding its arrival, that the same work of the several Masters will have been differently compensated. He who succeeds after six years will in effect, and in the end, have received a considerable amount of salary over and above him who succeeds after twelve. He who fails to succeed at all will have received a salary still more disproportionately slight.
We are of opinion, therefore, that the scale of payments increasing with seniority should not be so adjusted that the improvements in this respect may meet the Master once or twice merely in the course of a long career at the School, and then by such great accessions of income as must make vast differences in remuneration for services which are scarcely to be distinguished. We think that it should rise by gradual, and not rare additions, which constantly adapt themselves to the service, and are frequently attained, as well as always hoped for.
Now neither of these principles, on the observance of which the efficiency of such a system depends, appears to be quite sufficiently regarded in any department of instruction at Rugby. In the first place the amount of difference between the salaries of those at the top and those at the bottom of the list we consider too great. The difference which distinguishes the salary of the senior Classical Assistant from that of the junior is the difference between £1,617 and £340. The interval which separates the average stipend of the five senior Classical from that of the five junior Classical Assistants is the difference between £1,558 and £573 per annum. The same fault is, perhaps, to a certain degree exemplified in the salaries of the Assistants in Mathematics, of whom the first senior takes £1,412 2s 11d, the junior £586 5s 6d. But it is much more glaring in the payments to the Teachers of Modern Languages, in which department the junior of two receives but £286 13s 4d, while the senior, who is next above him in order, receives £1,234 10s 11d.
Further, as the distinction between the two extremes of juniority and seniority is too great in two out of the three branches of teaching at least, so do the steps by which the incomes rise from the one extreme to the other strike us as injudiciously few and sudden. In the Classical School, while the salary of the Master fifth in seniority appears to amount to £1,428 5s 9d, that of the Master next below reaches £870 5s, and that of the seventh and eighth not £800. In the Modern Language School the junior teacher, on his promotion, would rise at once from £286, which he receives now as second Assistant Master, to £1,200, which is the official income of the first.
Probably these apparent defects in the distribution of salaries are not arrangements deliberately approved, but anomalies, partly produced by the manner in which the system has grown up, and partly resulting from the peculiar sources of payment from which Masters derive their remuneration.
As schools increase in numbers, or as subjects of instruction assume importance which they have not been previously considered to possess, it is found necessary at some point of time to add to the number of teachers instructing the School. Before any change, however, in the number of Masters is carried out, the fees of pupils or other emoluments will often have reached a high annual sum, the entire benefit of which must have hitherto gone to existing Masters. Under such circumstances, as it may not be expedient on the one hand to add to the expenses of the boys frequenting the School by raising the amount of fees, so on the other it would be hardly deemed considerate or fair much to reduce the income of those Masters already on the establishment for the purpose of raising salaries for any in-coming teacher in the same branch of knowledge. The desired arrangements, therefore, can often only be effected by providing just so much for the new teacher as may induce some one of sufficient ability to accept the post. The salaries,
*Dr. Temple states in his evidence that some Masters reach in two years the same position which others attain after ten years of service.
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therefore, of different Masters may often, under such circumstances, present the motley effect of very liberal arrangements resulting to the benefit of some and of close bargains made with others. At Rugby the number of Classical Masters, Mathematical Masters, and Modern Language Masters has been gradually for several years on the increase from both these causes, and this may in some degree explain the history of the present distribution of salaries. But the chief cause of the disparity appears to lie in the very nature of the main sources of remuneration from which Assistant Masters are paid. There are but seven boarding houses in addition to the Head Master's house, all now kept by Masters. Each contains as many, on all average, as forty-six boarders. The profits of each boarder may be put on a moderate calculation at £13. Each boarder again is a private classical pupil: this adds £10 10s more for each boarder. It is impossible to put one house under the control or in the possession of more than one Master. Here, therefore, are seven Masters, each deriving on an average from the profits of board alone £586 more than their colleagues. At the present moment the five senior Classical Masters have possession of five such houses. The senior Mathematical Master has another. The senior Language Master has the seventh.
Such circumstances tend at once to explain the origin of the defects to which we have adverted, and also to increase the difficulty of amending them. We shall, however, recommend that, so soon as due consideration of existing interests shall permit, these defects should be removed; and we shall endeavour also to point out the manner in which the existing obstacles to their removal may be overcome.
First, then, we are of opinion that the two extremes of difference of income, the highest and the lowest, should be separated by an interval somewhat less wide than that which distinguishes £1,600 from £340. Sixteen hundred pounds is a sum larger than that which falls to the share of the Under Master at Winchester, which much exceeds that of any of his colleagues on the staff of Assistants. No Assistant at Westminster, Shrewsbury, Charterhouse, Merchant Taylors', or St. Paul's is nearly so well endowed. We shall, therefore, recommend that so soon as existing interests shall cease to forbid such an arrangement, no Classical Assistant Master shall receive more than £1,400, and none less than £500 per annum.
Again, in order to obviate the inconveniences resulting from excessive differences between the salaries of individual Masters of nearly the same standing in order of seniority, and excessive changes of income to the same Assistant Master on slight changes of position, we shall recommend that the interval between the highest and lowest incomes of Classical Assistants be graduated by making successive scales not fewer than four in number, none of which shall be applicable to fewer than two Masters, or more than four, and none of which shall exceed that immediately below it by more than £300 per annum. We shall recommend an arrangement similar in its general effect, but not in each detail, as to the salaries of Non-classical Assistants.
Now, although it will be impossible to carry out these rules under the system at present in action as to boarding houses, the profits of which fall entirely into the hands of the Masters who keep them, yet this consideration does not appear to us as one which need permanently hinder the contemplated arrangements. The profits of boarding-house keepers are now confessedly indirect payments of Masters. This is one of the chief objects aimed at in the withdrawal of boarding houses from the hands of any but Masters. It is also the object which has determined the actual distribution of them amongst Masters. A boarding house is attached to the school-house (although the Head Master takes no pupils) in order to provide him with a salary suitable to his position as such. The other boarding houses are assigned to senior Assistant Masters in order that they too may receive an increase of income on arriving at the position of seniors on the list. The boys who are in the boarding house and receive tuition from the boarding Master pay for it as such, and the boarding Master therefore has nothing to claim from the boy on this ground. The mere trouble of providing board and lodging would be sufficiently met by a lower profit. If, then, the profit of boarding be regarded as a means of giving a higher payment to the senior Masters, it is clear that it should be made an instrument for giving no higher payment than reasonably and fairly accords with their claims on the School as seniors. If it in any way have the effect of paying to the seniors more, and to other Masters less than is consistent with the best interests of the School, it is desirable that the arrangement should be so modified as to provide the proper amount of remuneration for all the Masters of the staff. We think, therefore, that as soon as equity permits each Master to be appointed to a boarding house should be called upon to receive the appointment on condition of deriving a less profit from each boarder than boarding-house Masters now take. This end will be effected if each such boarding Master retain a portion only of the profits of board for his own use, and account for the
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remainder to the general School Instruction Fund out of which he and the whole staff of Masters are paid as such. The balance thus paid over will in fact place in the hands of the School the means of apportioning the incomes of the Masters in a manner most conducive to the interests of the School.
We shall accordingly recommend that, in order that such graduations of income as we have described may meet with no permanent obstacle in the magnitude and paucity of the boarding houses at Rugby, each Assistant Master hereafter to be appointed to a boarding house contribute the annual sum of £6 for each boarder in his house to the School Instruction Fund. We shall also recommend that this School Instruction Fund be distributed to those keeping boarding houses and taking pupils - and to those not keeping boarding houses but taking pupils - and to those neither keeping boarding houses nor taking pupils - in various degrees to be determined in part by their standing in the School, and in part by the amount of income which they can fairly be considered to derive as Assistant Masters from other sources than the School Instruction Fund, as may seem advisable, but in a manner consistent with the general principles which we have just laid down upon the subject.*
CONCLUSION OF OBSERVATIONS
Amongst the several aspects which a great endowed School presents to inquiry and consideration, not the least important is that which it offers as the possessor of property. Under this point of view arises the question how far this material wealth, in whatever degree it may exist, is converted into a moral power for the purposes of education. This depends much upon just views of economical questions, much upon general views of education itself, and much also upon the nice adaptations of means to ends with which changes in social life are constantly interfering. Now the growth of Rugby School as an institution endowed with property has not been overlooked. The great opportunity for improving and enlarging its plan in the 18th century was seized and made good use of. Since that time its resources as they have increased have also been undoubtedly applied with the single purpose of conferring benefit on the School, although not invariably with the effect of conferring the greatest benefit which the circumstances placed within reach.
All this notwithstanding we have thought that a gradual application of nearly one-half of its resources different from that which has hitherto been made will hereafter be conducive to its efficiency and necessary to its reputation. In conformity with this conviction, we have recommended measures neither few nor unimportant.
We have also, in consideration of the various changes produced by lapse of time in the character and teaching of the School itself, and with a view to further its highest interests, recommended some change in the constitution of the Board of Trustees. At the same time it is gratifying to us to be able to acknowledge not in words only, but in a practical manner, that integrity and economy in the administration of funds, that breadth of view in matters of education, and that liberality of temper in personal relations with able Head Masters of the School, which have characterised the dealings of this body. The change therefore which we have recommended - a change slighter both in character and extent than we have advised in the case of other schools under our review - is the least which appeared to us correspondent with the growth of the School itself both in numbers and
*Of the two following tables, A shows the actual salaries of the several Assistant Masters, B will illustrate by a single example the manner in which a sum slightly less than that now divided amongst them might be allotted to each in accordance with the rules recommended by us for observation in future.
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in national importance, as well as with the expansion and complexity of its instructional system.
In introducing our recommendations upon these various points, we have thought it right to redeem our pledge given in the first part of the Report to rely upon the reasons which we might offer as one chief source of authority for all measures which we might advise. To the general principles, therefore, and historical considerations connected with the School which could throw light upon the merits of each question before us we have explicitly adverted.
While, however, our attention has been given to describing the condition of this School, to remarking upon some of its details, and to devising some measures for its improvement, we cannot fail to have derived general impressions which neither our account of the School itself nor our explanations of measures recommended have given us full occasion to express. Nor, on this occasion, do we propose to declare them at length. To a few leading features, not indeed peculiar to this School, but all specially observable here, and which have attracted our attention, it will be enough to advert.
A Head Master, whose character for ability, zeal, and practical success promise to make him conspicuous on the list of Rugby Head Masters; a staff of assistants who combine with skill, ability, and knowledge such a lively personal interest in the School as induces them to make habitual sacrifices for its welfare; a system of mental training which comprehends almost every subject by which the minds of boys can be enlarged and invigorated; a traditional spirit amongst the boys of respect and honour for intellectual work; a system of discipline which, while maintaining the noble and wholesome tradition of Public Schools that the abler and more industrious should command and govern the rest, still holds in reserve a maturer discretion to moderate excess, guide uncertainty, and also to support the legitimate exercise of power; a system of physical training which, while it distinguishes the strong, strengthens the studious and spares the weak; a religious cultivation, which, although active, is not overstrained, but leaves something for solemn occasions to bring out: such are some of the general conditions which have presented themselves to notice during our investigation. They go far also, we think, to explain that public confidence which the School has for many years possessed, and never since the days of Arnold in larger measure than at the present moment.
SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS
With the exceptions which we are about to mention, all the General Recommendations (Part I. pp. 52-55,) appear applicable to Rugby. Recommendation XXVII, so far as it provides that the charge for instruction shall cover tutorial instruction as well as instruction in School, is in our opinion unsuitable to this School. In applying also the General Recommendations III and V, respecting the powers to be assigned to the Trustees and the Head Master respectively, we shall introduce, as will be observed, a slight modification.
1. That the Trustees of Rugby School be twelve in number, and be persons qualified by their position or attainments to fill that situation with advantage to the School.
2. That of this number four be elected on account of generally acknowledged eminence in literature and science, in such manner that there shall be always one such Trustee at least, when the full number of four is complete, eminent for scientific and one at least for literary attainments or distinctions.
3. That the Trustees proceed as soon as convenient to elect four additional members qualified according to Recommendation II, and that the whole number of the Trustees be thus temporarily raised to sixteen; that vacancies occurring among the four new members be filled up from time to time as they arise; but that no vacancies occurring among the twelve existing Trustees be filled up till the whole body has been reduced below twelve.
4. That six do constitute a quorum whenever the whole number of Trustees is complete, and that whenever it is not complete, a proportion of not less than one-half of the existing number of Trustees do constitute a quorum.
5. That the Trustees possess all the powers which by the General Recommendation III it is proposed shall belong to the Governing Bodies of other Schools; and further, the power to make all such rules and orders respecting the government and discipline of the School (except on points hereinafter specially reserved to the Head Master) as by virtue of the original instrument creating the Board of Trustees, or any Act of Parliament now in force, they are authorized to make; that the Head Master have power generally to maintain discipline and administer the government of the School, subject to all such rules and orders as aforesaid. That there be reserved specially to the Head Master power to appoint and dismiss all Assistant Masters in the School, to regulate the divisions
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of the classes, and appoint the work to be done, and the books and editions of books to be used; to administer the punishments; prescribe bounds; appoint the days for holidays and half holidays in the school time, and arrange the times at which the work in school in the several subjects of instruction is to be done.
6. That either drawing or music be taught to every boy for the first three years after his admission into the School, but if at the expiration of three years he shall not have reached the Upper Division of the Fifth Form, then until he shall reach such division. But in either case he shall be at liberty to continue to receive instruction in either music or drawing after the expiration of such period.
7. That the instruction in Physical Science at Rugby consist in two main branches; first, Natural Philosophy, consisting in Chemistry and Physics; the second consisting in Comparative Physiology and Natural History, both animal and vegetable.
8. That the arrangements recommended by Recommendation XIII of the General Recommendations to be made for the discontinuance of some portions of the school work, in order to give more time to others, be so made as to begin to take effect in the second division of the Fifth Form, and that the portion of the classical work to be discontinued may, as now, consist either of part of the classical compositions, or of the two classical lessons with the Tutor, or of both these portions of the classical work.
9. That no boy in the School be permitted at any time during his stay at School to omit or discontinue the study of more than one of the three subsidiary studies, Mathematics, Modern Languages, and Physical Science.
10. That the teachers of Physical Science be not required nor permitted to teach any other branch of knowledge in the School than to that or those for which their salaries as teachers of Physical Science are paid to them.
11. That, so soon hereafter as it shall be practicable to give effect to such a rule, no boy be admitted into or allowed to remain in the Lower School after 15 years, nor in the Middle School after 16 years and 6 months, nor in any form below the Sixth Form after 18 years of age, unless the aggregate marks of such boy, as obtained by class work and examinations in an the subjects of classics, mathematics, modern languages, and physical science, be such as to exceed the average aggregate marks of those in the lowest division or form in the Classical School, in which, by the rules of the School, be ought at his age already to stand, in which case he may be allowed to exceed the proper age by a period not longer than three-quarters of a year, or such other time as may be settled by the Trustees.
12. That the annual sums hitherto paid by boys learning Natural Philosophy, £5 5s, Drawing, £4, Music, £4, be discontinued, and that no extra sum be paid on account of the regular instruction given in any of these branches of instruction.
13. That twenty-one guineas and a half be paid annually by the parents and guardians of each boy not being a foundationer for School instruction.
14. That twenty-one guineas and a half be paid annually by the Trustees on behalf of each foundationer for School instruction.
15. That these annual sums paid by parents and Trustees constitute a "School instruction" fund.
16. That the annual stipends hitherto paid by the Trustees of the School to the Head Master, seven Assistant Classical Masters, and Mathematical Master, be paid annually to the present Head Master, the present seven Senior Assistant Classical Masters, and the present Senior Mathematical Master, out of the School Instruction fund.
17. That the sum of fifteen guineas and a half, hitherto paid for School instruction, and distributed amongst the Masters of the School in certain settled proportions, and to a reserve fund as now constituted, be henceforth paid out of the School Instruction fund, and be distributed amongst the Masters in the same manner and proportions, and then form a reserve fund for the benefit of Masters as heretofore.
18. That from the residue of the School Instruction fund there be paid annually to two teachers, to be appointed to teach Physical Science, the sum of £1,200, of which £700 be given as a salary to a teacher of Chemistry and Physics, and £500 be given as a salary to a teacher of Physiology and Natural History.
19. That from the residue of the School Instruction fund an annual sum of £600 be paid to two teachers of Music and Drawing.
20. That no Head Master hereafter to be appointed, and no Master hereafter attaining a position among the seven Senior Classical Masters, receive any annual stipend, either from the Trustees or from the School Instruction fund.
21. That no Senior Mathematical Master hereafter to be appointed, or succeeding hereafter to that position, receive the annual stipend of £120, now paid by the Trustees, and made payable out of the School Instruction fund by these regulations.
22. That the annual sum of ten guineas now legally payable by every boy above the
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Lower School who takes private Classical tuition be henceforth payable by every boy in the School for Classical tuition till he reaches the second division of the Fifth Form.
23. That on and after reaching the second division of the Fifth Form every boy henceforth pay the sum of twelve guineas, or such other sum as the Trustees of the School may fix; for private tuition, to be distributed as the Trustees, after communication with the Head Master, shall settle.
24. That the sum of ten guineas now payable annually for private tuition in Mathematics, and the sum of five guineas payable for private or Laboratory instruction in Natural Philosophy, and the sum of six guineas payable for private tuition in Modern Languages, be not paid for any extra instruction by these Recommendations recommended to be given in any such branches of knowledge to a boy on or after reaching the second division of the Fifth Form, on account of his discontinuance of any subject of instruction taught in the School.
25. That all the sums now paid to the Head Master on account of entrances, and of his share of the School Instruction fund be paid to him, and be charged with the same payments to other Masters as heretofore; but that all payments and fees payable to him on account of any number of boys beyond 470 be not received by him, but be paid into the School Instruction fund: and that the amount of all sums now paid by him to Assistant Masters, so soon as he shall cease to make such payments, be also remitted by him into the School Instruction fund.
26. That there never be less than three Classical Masters to each hundred boys in the School.
27. That so soon as the number of the School shall reach 480, an additional Assistant Classical Master be appointed.
28. That the number of boys in the School at one time do not exceed 500.
29. That the salaries or pecuniary remuneration of the various Masters teaching in the School, be always and entirely furnished out of the payments made by or on behalf of the several boys educated at the School, and not directly out of the revenues arising from the property of the School.
30. That as the present arrangement of the salaries of the Assistant Masters appears susceptible of improvement, particularly in regard to the existing difference between the pecuniary remuneration of the Senior Assistant Masters keeping boarding houses, and that of the Masters immediately below them not keeping boarding houses, some different arrangements be adopted in future, for payment of Assistant Masters, applicable to such as may hereafter be appointed to keep boarding houses, and that these arrangements be based upon the following principles:
First. That no Classical Assistant. Master receive more than £1,400 per annum, and that none receive less than £500 per annum;
Second. That the interval between the lowest income of any such Master and the highest income be graduated by successive scales of income, such as will be suitable to various degrees of rank and standing amongst the Assistant Masters;
Third. That there be not less than four distinct scales of income for the whole group of thirteen Assistant Masters;
Fourth. That no one scale of income exceed that immediately below it by more than £300 per annum, nor apply to more than four Masters.
31. That, in order that this graduation of incomes may meet with no obstacle in the paucity and magnitude of the boarding houses at Rugby, each Assistant Master appointed to a boarding house contribute the annual sum of £6 for each boarder in his house to the School Instruction fund; and that this School Instruction fund be distributed to those Assistant Masters keeping boarding houses and taking pupils, and to those not keeping boarding houses but taking pupils, and to those neither keeping boarding houses nor taking pupils, in various degrees, to be determined in part by their standing in the school, and in part by the amount of income which they can fairly be considered to derive as Assistant Masters from other sources than the School Instruction fund.
32. That the income of no Assistant Master in the Mathematical or Modern Language School exceed that of the Assistant Master next below him in order of seniority by more than £400, where the number of Assistants is above two, or by more than £500 where it is two only, and that Assistant Masters in these several Schools, keeping boarding houses, contribute the annual sum of £6 on each boarder to a fund to be made use of in carrying out this regulation.
33. That the Trustees of the School, before any new appointment to a boarding house is made, settle a scheme of payments, framed upon the principles just laid down, and applicable to all Assistant Masters hereafter to be appointed to boarding houses, who, in the opinion of the Trustees, have no equitable claim to be exempted in consequence of their present position on the list of Masters.
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34. That the Trustees have power to amend from time to time, as the interests of the School may require, any scheme, by whomsoever framed or settled, which may have been framed for the payment of the Masters.
35. That no separate annual charge be made on any boys for any Writing or Arithmetic Master hereafter to be appointed, but that a proper annual charge on such account be added to and become a part of the general charge for School instruction.
36. That the Trustees do not henceforth pay to the Head Master or to any Assistant Classical or Mathematical Master the annual stipends hitherto paid to them respectively, or any annual stipend.
37. That the Trustees of the School cease to award or to have power to award to persons having served as Masters any annual payments as stipends in the nature of Fellowships.
38. That the Trustees do not pay any stipend to any Writing or Arithmetic Master hereafter to be appointed.
39. That the Trustees do not henceforth pay any stipend to the Drawing Master, for whom a salary is now otherwise provided.
40. That the number of boys at School at any one time entitled to the benefits of the foundation by reason of residence, at Rugby, or within a certain distance from Rugby, or within the county of Warwick, be gradually limited to 25; and that the Trustees do make provision for effecting this gradual diminution in such manner as not to defeat the reasonable claims of individuals who may have settled in the neighbourhood for the purpose of availing themselves of such privilege; provided, that this limitation be carried into full effect before the month of August 1873.
41. That this local privilege be entirely abolished in a manner to be arranged by the Trustees, who shall take steps to carry into full effect the total abolition of this local privilege before the month of August 1883.
42. That there be created at Rugby School, 12 Scholarships and 24 Exhibitions, and that they be entitled respectively "Sheriff Scholarships" and "Sheriff Exhibitions".
43. That the Sheriff Scholarships be of the annual value of £60 each, and the Sheriff Exhibitions of the annual value of £25 each, and that these sums be paid out of the annual revenues of the School.
44. That of the Sheriff Scholarships three be filled up annually by competitive examination in Classics, open to all British subjects under the age of fifteen years, and tenable for four years at Rugby School.
45. That of the Sheriff Exhibitions, six be filled up annually by competitive examination open to all British subjects under fifteen years of age, and tenable for four years at Rugby School.
46. That of the six Sheriff Exhibitions annually awarded, two be given to the greatest proficiency in French or German or both; two for the greatest proficiency in those branches of Physical Science which are taught at Rugby School; and two for the greatest proficiency in Mathematics.
47. That no boy be entitled to compete for such exhibitions who, if at Rugby School, is not already in the Middle School, or who, if not yet at Rugby School, shall not pass such a preliminary examination in Classics as will entitle him to a place in the Middle School.
48. That it be in the power of any boy to offer himself as a candidate for such exhibitions in two different branches of learning, and no more.
49. That any boy on the foundation of Rugby School be entitled to obtain by competition a Sheriff Scholarship if under the age of fifteen, and in such case he shall vacate his place and privileges on the foundation.
50. That any boy on the foundation of the School be entitled to obtain one Sheriff Exhibition, and no more, without vacating his place on the foundation.
51. That the number, nature, and value of the Sheriff Scholarships and Exhibitions annually vacant and to be competed for, together with the general terms of the competition, be advertised in the public newspapers annually three months before the examination takes place.
52. That the number and nature of any Scholarships or Exhibitions accidentally vacated before the expiration of the four years during which they may be commonly held at the School, together with the general terms of the competition, be also in the same manner advertised three months before the examinations take place, if possible; and if this be not possible, then as long before as is practicable.
53. That the Trustees on being satisfied after a report made jointly by the Head Master and the Masters teaching Mathematics, Modern Languages, or Physical Science, as the circumstances may require, that any boy holding a Sheriff Exhibition has ceased to endeavour seriously to maintain his proficiency in that branch of knowledge for the
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encouragement of which the exhibition of which he enjoys the benefit was founded, have the power at any period not being less than one year from the time when such exhibition was awarded to declare such exhibition "open to challenge".
54. That in the event of the Trustees declaring any exhibition of any boy open to challenge, any other boy who has been at Rugby School for one year, not being of greater age than the boy whose exhibition is declared open to challenge, or any boy whosoever, being under the age of fifteen years, may at the next examination held in the School for the Sheriff Scholarships and Exhibitions, offer himself as a candidate for such exhibition, which shall be awarded by a competitive examination, at which the boy actually holding the same shall be also admitted to compete.
55. That any exhibition which has been so challenged shall be held by the successful competitor for the remainder of time during which it might have been enjoyed, if it had never been declared open to challenge.
56. That the examiners appointed for the examination of candidates for exhibitions at the University shall take such part in examining for and have such voice in awarding the Sheriff Scholarships and Exhibitions as the Trustees of the School shall think fit to order; and, to aid this arrangement, the examination for Sheriff Scholarships and Sheriff Exhibitions shall take place about the same time with that for the University Exhibitions.
57. That the election of Sheriff Scholarships and Sheriff Exhibitions commence forthwith and be continued in succeeding years by the election of such number of Scholars and Exhibitioners as has been herein appointed for annual election; and that the annual sums of money herein saved to the revenues of the School by transferring the payment of the Head Master and seven Assistant Classical Masters from the revenues of the School to the School Instruction fund, be applied to this object before all others.
58. That the Trustees be empowered to increase the number of such Exhibitions and Scholarships, in case such a course shall appear to them desirable, as they shall find the revenues of the School liberated by the gradual diminution of the number of Foundation boys, and by the final extinction of that local privilege.
59. That the existing arrangements affecting the value and number and nature of the Exhibitions offered to competition to boys quitting Rugby School for the Universities be modified in order to give a better and more effective encouragement to the studies of the School.
60. In lieu of five Exhibitions of the value respectively of £80, £70, £60, £50, and £40, all and each yearly offered for mixed attainments in many branches of knowledge, the same yearly sum shall be given as follows: There shall be three yearly Exhibitions of the respective values of £60, £50, and £40 awarded annually to the highest proficiency in Classics alone; two Exhibitions of £30 and £20 respectively to the highest proficiency in Mathematics alone; two Exhibitions of £30 and £20 respectively for proficiency in Modern Languages; and two Exhibitions of £30 and £20 respectively for proficiency in Physical Science.
61. That it be in the power of any boy to compete for any two Exhibitions assigned to two different branches of knowledge, and to hold any two such of any value together.
62. That the Examiners for the Exhibitions at the Universities be henceforth five in number. That there be two Classical Examiners, one Mathematical Examiner, one Examiner in Physical Science, and one Examiner in Modern Languages. That a sum not exceeding £25 be given to each Classical Examiner, and that a sum not exceeding £20 be given each Examiner in the three other branches.
63. That competitive examinations requiring a serious amount of preparation be, as far as possible, avoided in the first month of any half year.
64. That the original English verse prize be restored to its ancient value by the addition of three guineas from the School revenues to the three guineas now given by the Head Master.
65. That prizes for the translation of choice Greek and Latin passages into English, both prose and verse, and choice English passages into the classical languages be given, and if necessary, out of the School revenues.
66. That the Trustees consider the propriety of providing prizes for the encouragement of study in the Mathematical, Modern Language, and Physical Science Schools.
67. That that part of the ground now in occupation of the Head Master, immediately adjoining to, and lying within the same hedges as, the School Field, and only separated from it by a post and rail fence, be taken into and form part of the School Close, and be devoted as such to the use of the boys; and that either by placing other convenient ground of equal value, and available for the same purposes, at the disposal of the Head Master, or by other arrangements the Head Master be compensated for the loss or inconvenience which this change may produce.
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CHAPTER IX. SHREWSBURY
STATEMENT AND OBSERVATIONS
1. History of the Foundation
[Note Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, a West Midlands county sometimes referred to as Salop.]
SHREWSBURY SCHOOL is one of the many educational foundations established at or soon after the Reformation in order to supply the void caused by the dissolution of the monasteries and of the seminaries dependent on them. In 1551 the bailiffs, burgesses, and inhabitants of Shrewsbury, and "very many other our subjects of our whole neighbouring country there" (totius patriæ ibidem vicinæ), represented the need of such an establishment to King Edward the Sixth, and solicited a grant of some portion of the estates of two dissolved collegiate churches for the purpose. The King accordingly granted the appropriated tithes of several prebendal livings, formerly belonging to the churches of St. Mary and St. Chad, for the endowment of a Royal Free Grammar School. Queen Elizabeth subsequently added to this endowment the valuable tithes of the Rectory of Chirbury, and some other ecclesiastical property. Thus it happens that nearly the whole of the property now belonging to this School consists of tithe rentcharges. These produced, on an average of seven years from 1854 to 1860, £2,714 per annum; the remaining property produced only £300.
The original Charter of King Edward was to a considerable extent superseded by the indenture made by Queen Elizabeth on the occasion of her granting the living of Chirbury in 1571. The ordinances consequent upon that indenture were in turn superseded by an Act of Parliament passed in 1798; and this again has been materially modified by a scheme framed under the directions of the Court of Chancery in 1853.
In the original Charter the School is described as a Free School (Libera Schola), by which term is commonly understood a school in which education was to be given gratuitously, though Dr. Kennedy disputes the correctness of this interpretation. The government of the School was originally placed in the hands of the Corporation of Shrewsbury, and of the Visitor, the Bishop of Lincoln, whose consent was made necessary in all matters of importance done by the Bailiffs. "Before the school could be opened", however, "King Edward died. It was in abeyance during the reign of Mary. Nor was it actually opened before the 4th Elizabeth, 1562, Mr. Thomas Aston or Ashton* being the first Head Master, evidently a man of great ability and credit, since in the seven years of his mastership he entered 875 scholars, many of them sons of the best families of Shropshire and the adjoining counties, including Sydney (afterwards Sir Philip), Fulke Greville (afterwards Lord Brook), the sons of Archbishop Sandys, &c. Of Ashton's pupils, 238 only were town boys (oppidani), the rest are called alieni. If any Statutes were made at this time no record exists of them. The statutory government of the school dates from 1571. It appears that in 1569 Ashton resigned his office, and directed the studies of the famous and ill-fated Robert Devereux, eldest son of Walter, Earl of Essex. His affection for Shrewsbury school caused him to move Queen Elizabeth with success to grant to the school the tithes of Chirbury (which form about one-third of its present revenues), and to take that opportunity of constituting the government of the school on as good a foundation as could be secured."
By Queen Elizabeth's indenture stipulations were made that the Bailiffs and Burgesses
*Mr. Ashton was himself a great benefactor to the School. We learn that "he bestowed on it £120 of his own money, equal in effect, perhaps, to £1,000 in the present day." - See Radclyffe's Memorials of Shrewsbury School (1843). In 1565-6 "Queen Elizabeth made progresse as far as Country [Coventry], intending for Salop, to see Mr. Aston's play, but it was ended." - Ibid.
The following extract from Andrew Downes' dedication of his edition of Lysias "Defensio pro cæde Eratosthenis" (1593) to Robert Earl of Essex, will show in what honour Mr. Aston was held:
"Eram tibi notus in Academiâ; habebam enim ad sublimitatem tuum, ipse humilis, hanc commendationem atque aditum, quod a Thomâ Ashtono mihi quoque eradiri contigerat, qui teneros tuos suscepit annos, qui Patri tuo se totum devoverat, et magnam habuit cum familiâ vestra nobilissimâ necessitudinem constitutam, quem virum jam olim mortuum nunc ideirco honoris caussâ nomine, quia secundum Deum et parentes plurimum illi debeo: quicquid enim est in nobis literarum, aut hurnanitatis, aut ullius omnino boni, ille erlecit, ille primus auctor fuit, nec de re ullâ sic Deo gratias ago quam quod illius providentiâ talem habui præceptorem, de quo omnibus qui alumni fuerunt ejus disciplinæ gloriari licet, enim vero inter tot adversa et acerba quæ vidi in vitæ, utque expertus sum, hoc unum tamen feliciter, atque ita ut non potuit melius, evenit, quod ad præstantissimum illum virum puer sum a patre deductus."
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should apply the profits of the grant made by her "towards the maintenance of divine service to be had in the Chapel of Cliffe, in the said County of Salop, five pounds of lawful money of England"; other five pounds for the Chapel of Astley; £13 6s 8d to the Vicar of St. Mary's, and £6 13s 4d to the maintenance of a priest in the same church; and that they should "employ and bestow, for the better maintenance of the Free Grammar School within the Town of Salop, founded by the late King Edward the Sixth, all the residues of the revenues and profits of the said rectory and other the premises ... according to such orders and constitutions as shall be taken in that behalf by Thomas Ashton, clerk, now schoolmaster of the said grammar school. ... Provided always, that if the said Bailiffs and Burgesses do not well and truly accomplish the covenants and intents in these presents expressed, that then it shall and may be lawful for our said Sovereign Lady the Queen, her heirs and successors, into an and singular the premises to enter, and the same to have, receive, and retain until the covenants and intents aforesaid shall be duly satisfied, performed, supplied, or accomplished for that express mention of the certainty of the premises, or of any of them, or of any other gift or grant made by us or our progenitors to the said Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Town of Salop, or any of them, before this time, made in these presents is not made, or any Statute, Act, ordinance, provision, proclamation, or restraint to the contrary thereof had, made, enacted, ordained, or provided, or any other matter, cause, or thing whatsoever to the contrary in anywise not withstanding."
Though the language of this last clause is somewhat involved, its general meaning is clear; and, from some letters of Mr. Ashton, of which copies have been laid before us, it is plain that he was invested with nearly absolute power over the administration of the whole of Queen Elizabeth's donation, at all events, if not over that of King Edward also. We place in a note one of these letters, which throws great light upon the circumstances of the time, and which has an important bearing upon some points to which we shall presently have occasion to refer.* A controversy of some length was carried on between Mr. Ashton and the Burgesses, but finally an arrangement was come to, and an indenture tripartite was executed on the 11th February 1577, between the Bishop of Lichfield, as Visitor, of the first part, the Bailiffs and Burgesses of Shrewsbury of the second part, and the Master and Fellows of St. John's College, Cambridge, Mr. Ashton, late head schoolmaster of Shrewsbury School, and Mr. Lawrence, the actual Head Master, of the third part, in a schedule to which were set forth a body of Ordinances made by Mr. Ashton, and another body made by the Bailiffs, furnishing a complete constitution for the school.
By this constitution the chief government of the School was placed in the joint trust of the Bailiffs and the Head Master, under the general superintendence of the Visitor. A
*To the right Worshipful the Bailiffs, Aldermen, and Common Council of the Town of Shrewsbury. Feb. 20th 1573.
Where your Worships hath requested me to alter the Orders for the Assistant and to place a second Schoolmaster who may have yearly for these Six Years Sixteen Pounds, without Respect of a dead Stock for the School, the use whereof the poor Artificers of the Town should have had, I have agreed to your request, and as time will serve have satisfied the same. If you like of it, you may ingrosse it and annex it to the former Schedules. If you mislike it, correct as you think good. I will set my Hand unto it as most of you shall agree thereupon. My Life is short and therefore I would it were done out of Hand. Yet as my Duty requireth I will give you some Reason of my doing. Seeing your minds be to have the School's Money to serve only the School's use (Howsoever pity moved me to apply it otherwise) I have now done the same, yet reserving a Surplussage still, first, to the use of the School to be first served; after, as it will appear by the Orders. I reserve the Surplussage to this end, to have provision made in either University for such your Children as shall come out of the same School thither: for you see now how the poor are forced to give over their Learning and Study, for that they can have no place in neither University, in any Colledge, in Default neither the Shire nor the School aforetime hath made provision therefore. Seeing then you will have all applied to the School use, I agree thereto, and have made Surplussage first, to serve that use, neither have disannulled the Orders in the Schedules before (that only excepted of the Assistant), but reserved them to the time when the Schoolmasters are all first discharged. My reason I make or would make so large a Surplussage is this. I think all that may arise of the School's Rent is too much to go to the Salaries of the three Schoolmasters, and the Reparations of the School, for if one Schoolmaster have in the end £40, another £20, the third £10, I think no School in England hath a Salary exceeding this. And seeing we exceed others, Let us know when we be well. The principal care then is to make provision for those which shall go out from this School, for their further Learning and Study, and if the Town be benefited by the School, should not the children rejoyce to help their Fathers? And now for the dead Stock of the School of £200, this is my reason. You know that the School is old and inclining to Ruin, also casualty of Fire may happen. The Stock is ever ready without hindering the Town to build a new School. Yet this was not only my reason, which now I will declare unto you. I have considered many times with myself in what an Evil Place the School doth stand in, both for place of Easement whereby the fields is abused to the Annoyance of them that pass by there, as also for that they cannot have Access thither but that it must be by the Prisoners, whereby great Inconvenience cometh. My meaning therefore was in time to have bought that plot of ground Sr Andrew Corbett hath on the other side of the Street, and to have builded a fair School there with the dead Stock of the School, and to have had a Door through the Town Walls, and Stairs or Steps with great Stones down to Severn, where a fair House of Office might have been made, &c.
THOMAS ASHETON.
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certain amount of control over their proceedings, however, was vested in the Master and Fellows of St. John's College, Cambridge, of which Mr. Ashton was a member. Thus, though the formal appointment of the Head Master remained with the Bailiffs, the right of selecting him was transferred to St. John's, but the College were bound to select a burgess of Shrewsbury, if such could be found, and if not, then a native of Shropshire, or in default thereof a "sufficient man" born in any other county or shire, preference being given to persons educated in the School if thought worthy of the place. It was provided that the Chief Schoolmaster should be a Master of Arts of at least two years' standing, "well able to make a Latin verse, and learned in the Greek tongue". His stipend was to be £40 a year; the Second Master, from whom the same qualifications were required, was to have £30, and the Third, who was to be a Bachelor of Arts, and well able to make a Latin verse, £20. An Accidence School for young beginners was to be established in connexion with the principal school, and the Accidence Master was to have £10 a year.
The surplus of the school revenues was to be kept in a strong box under four locks. The Bailiffs and Schoolmaster were authorized to expend sums out of it, not exceeding £10 at a time, upon the repairs of the school and other specified purposes, but no larger sum was to be taken out without the consent of the Master and Fellows of St. John's. The surplus revenues were to be employed first in completing the school buildings; secondly, in building a country house to which the masters and scholars might resort in time of the plague or any infectious sickness (which was afterwards done at Grinshill), thirdly, in founding two Scholarships and two Fellowships at St. John's, for boys educated at the School; and afterwards for purchasing further Scholarships and Fellowships at either University from time to time. The preference in the elections to these Scholarships was to be given first to natives of the town of Shrewsbury, then to sons of burgesses born in the suburbs, or in the parish of Chirbury, and lastly, to all natives of Shropshire.* The elections were to be made by the Master and senior Fellows of St. John's, who were to choose "the godliest, poorest, and best learned" of those presented to them by the Head Master and Bailiffs. A scale of admission fees, ranging from ten shillings to four pence, was appointed to be paid by all boys entering the school, from a "lord's son" downwards, including the sons of burgesses, if "of ability". No boy was to be admitted "before he can write his own name with his own hand, and before he can read English perfectly, and have his accidence without the book, and can give any case of any number of a noun substantive, or adjective, and any person of any number of a verb active or passive, and can make a Latin by any of the concords, the Latin words being first given him."
This settlement, however, did not prevent the occurrence of a good many disputes between the Corporation and the College, which continued for a great part of the 17th century. At length in 1724 the Corporation attempted to oust St. John's College, and to elect a Master under the old charter, but the election was set aside by the Court of Chancery and the House of Lords.
In 1798 an Act was passed by which the government of the School was vested in a body of twelve Trustees, together with the Mayor of Shrewsbury for the time being. These Trustees were to be possessed of a certain property qualifications and were required to be resident in the county of Salop; twelve months' non-residence at any time was to disqualify a Trustee. On the occurrence of a vacancy the remainder of the Trustees were to elect three persons proper to fill it, and out of these the Corporation of Shrewsbury were to choose one. The Mayor was to be the chairman, and to have a second or casting vote at all meetings. The right of St. John's College to appoint the Head Master was retained; the preference formerly given to burgesses of Shrewsbury was done away. New salaries were assigned to the Masters, and provision made for increasing them if necessary. It was stipulated, apparently for the first time, that the sons of burgesses should be taught gratuitously. It was provided that the surplus revenues of the School should be applied to the establishment of Exhibitions at the Universities; these were to be open, first, to the sons of burgesses, then to natives of the parish of Chirbury, and lastly, to natives of Shropshire; and, failing any of these, the funds were to be accumulated for the establishment of fresh Exhibitions or, for augmenting the stipends of the clergy of the impropriated benefices, if the Governors should at any time "see just and meet occasion" to do so.
Somewhat more than ten years ago the Trustees, being anxious to increase the stipends
*It is to be observed, however, that in the agreement of Sept. 20, 1656, establishing two Exhibitions at St. John's out of the surplus funds of the School, provision is made for the election, in default of there being any candidates of the privileged classes of "such other scholars of the said free School as have or shall be born elsewhere."
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of the clergy, to make alterations as to the Exhibitions, and to provide residences for the incumbents of the school livings, applied to the Court of Chancery to frame a new scheme for the disposal of the surplus revenues. (See Mr. Peele's Ev., 791-6, and Dr. Kennedy's Ev., 78-92.) A scheme was ultimately sanctioned by the Court of Chancery in 1853, by which it was amongst other things provided that, if there were no boy of the privileged classes to claim a vacant Exhibition, the Exhibition should be open to the rest of the School. Provision was made for the admission of boys not being the sons of burgesses, and for the fees which were to be paid by them; the right of the sons of burgesses to free education, given by the Act of 1798, being retained.
We shall refer presently to some other points in this scheme, as well as to some of the directions of the Act of 1798. What we have already cited is sufficient to show the general constitution of the school trust and the relations between the Foundation and the town of Shrewsbury. It will be seen that these relations have undergone several alterations. King Edward seems to have designed his Foundation for the benefit not only of Shrewsbury, but of "the whole neighbouring country". His death, however, before the work was completed, the interruption of his plans caused by the reign of Queen Mary, and the length of time which elapsed before a regular constitution was given to the School, gave an advantage to the town which it was probably not intended by the Founder that it should have. The ordinances of Queen Elizabeth, the Act of 1798, and the scheme of 1853, have each in turn diminished somewhat of the exclusive rights claimed by the Corporation and the burgesses under the original Charter. If, therefore, it should be found necessary to make a further change in the constitution, and once more to revise the relations between the Corporation and the School, such a step will be perfectly consistent with the course which has heretofore been pursued.
The present time appears to us to be a critical one in the affairs of Shrewsbury School. The great reputation which it has acquired under Dr. Butler and Dr. Kennedy as a place of education has sustained it in spite of many disadvantages, but those disadvantages are now the more severely felt, on account of the competition of the new proprietary and other schools which have of late sprung up in various parts of the country: the very bad condition of the buildings, and the want of funds to place them in a proper state, operate more and more to deter parents from sending their sons as boarders; and the want of boys tells upon the teaching of the School, and elicits from Dr. Kennedy complaints that he cannot keep the rate of scholarship in the Sixth Form as high as when the numbers were greater. At the same time many of the inhabitants of Shrewsbury themselves are becoming dissatisfied with the position of the School, and with the regulations at present in force respecting it. A memorial embodying the views of the Corporation was presented to us on the occasion of our visit to Shrewsbury, and will be found in the evidence. The Corporation expressed their opinion that it was desirable to extend the benefits of the School, "so as to include not only a classical education, and one suited for Scholars intended for the University, or one of the learned professions, but also an education of a liberal character, adapted for and suitable to the requirements of the middle classes". They also thought it would be desirable, "without entrenching on the rights and privileges of the burgesses", to provide "an education free of charge, or at a reduced rate of payment, for residents within the borough for a certain period". The especial motive for this appears to be, the change wrought by the passing of the Municipal Reform Act, which has reduced and is continually reducing the number of the burgesses.
It was urged upon us by one of the witnesses that the free School kept away other schools, which might otherwise be accessible to the middle classes. He considered it hard that he, as a large ratepayer and an old inhabitant, but not a burgess, of Shrewsbury, should be required to pay for the education of his sons at the free School, and that he should be unable to get for them there an education suited, not for a boy going to a University but for the sons of a person in trade. This gentleman admitted that he was not competent to say whether the Founder contemplated providing the ratepayers of Shrewsbury with gratuitous education of this character; but he observed, "the state of things at the present day is entirely different from what it was at the foundation of the School, that I hardly see how it is possible to make the Founder's intention apply to it". Mr. Southam afterwards sets out more fully the kind of education he desires, and the manner in which he would have it given. He appears to wish for something like the Cheltenham or Marlborough system of a modern department, though perhaps he would hardly make it embrace so extensive a range of teaching. Whatever is given he thinks should be given gratuitously, or nearly so, to the sons of ratepayers of the town.
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Dr. Kennedy, on his part, has endeavoured to meet the demand for a non-classical education by establishing a "non-collegiate" class, in which boys do not learn Greek, nor any classical composition, but are taught Modern Languages, History, English Composition, and some additional Mathematics instead. This arrangement, however, does not satisfy the townsmen, who desire to see it carried further and placed on a more assured footing. On the other hand, the Trustees of the School, or some of them, look upon it with jealousy, as having a possible tendency to convert a school for liberal education into a commercial school. They have never sanctioned it, though they have not prohibited it, and they seem to have some doubt of its legality. Dr. Kennedy himself considers the arrangement to be still very imperfect, but believes that it would work well with adequate numbers and support from the public.
Another complaint made by some of the residents is that the School hours are unsuitable for home boarders. Dr. Kennedy states that he is unable to alter them so as to meet the wishes which are expressed on the subject. This is a question which is chiefly of importance in so far as it connects itself with the question whether the School should be mainly a boarding or a day school. Upon this point it should be observed, that the School appears to have been originally founded as a day school. Precise directions are given in the Ashton Ordinances with regard to the accommodation of the Masters and the places of study for the boys, but no mention is made of any provision for boarding or lodging the latter. On the contrary, arrangements are expressly made for the hours of coming to and leaving school in winter and summer respectively, for the time to be allowed for dinner, and other matters;* and it would seem from these provisions that the majority, if not the whole, of the boys were out-boarders. In the Ordinance relating to attendance at church, it is provided that "every parent or householder within the town or suburbs tabling any scholar or scholars" shall see that they go to church.
It appears to us, then, that there are three important points which demand consideration; namely, first, the condition of the buildings; secondly, the claim of the ratepayers in general for admission to some of the privileges of the burgesses; and, thirdly, the demand which has arisen for middle-class education at the School. It would, of course, be possible to discuss these three points separately, but we are of opinion that they are in reality closely connected with each other and with the fundamental conditions of the existence of the School; and we, therefore, propose to inquire generally what were the views of the Founders and benefactors of the School, and what are the requirements of the present day, in order that we may arrive at conclusions which may guide us in deciding upon the course we should recommend with regard to these points and to those which arise out of them.
It appears to us clear that the intention of King Edward and of Queen Elizabeth in establishing and endowing the School was to provide for the education, not only of the sons of the burgesses or inhabitants of Shrewsbury, but of the youth of the whole neighbourhood; by which we understand that the School was to be open to all who could conveniently attend it. The difficulty of travel in those days rendered it most desirable that good Schools should be established at various places, to which the sons of persons living within the district might resort. Shrewsbury, as the "chief place of an extensive and fertile district", and the place where the Court of the Marches of Wales was held, had an established position among the great provincial capitals at a time when the provincial capitals were relatively of far more consequence than they now are. "In the language of the gentry many miles round the Wrekin", says Lord Macaulay, speaking of the 17th century, "to go to Shrewsbury was to go to town". It was, therefore, natural that King Edward should select this important town for the seat of the School designed to meet the wants of his petitioners, who included, as we are expressly told, very many persons of the neighbourhood, as well as the burgesses and inhabitants of Shrewsbury itself. Positive evidence that such was its object is to be found in the facts, 1st, that the sons of many of the most distinguished persons in the kingdom, such as the sons of Archbishop Sandys, Sir Philip Sydney son of the Lord Deputy Sir Henry Sydney, and others, were sent there for education; and, 2nd, that in Ashton's Ordinances, made under the authority of Queen Elizabeth's indenture, a scale of fees
*"The scholars shall come to school in the morning from the feast of the Purification of our Lady to the feast of All Saints at 6 of the clock, and from the feast of All Saints until the feast of the Purification at 7 of the clock at the ringing of the school bell; and no candle shall be used in the said school for breeding diseases and danger and peril otherwise". The going to dinner of the scholars was to be at 11, and their coming back to school at a quarter before 1 o'clock. School was to close at half past 4 in winter and half past 5 in summer.
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is set forth, showing what sums were to be paid by the sons of lords, of knights, the eldest and other sons of gentlemen, the sons of other persons below those degrees, whether born in Salop or not, and the sons of burgesses of Shrewsbury and of other inhabitants of the town. We think it clear, therefore, that, in the view of the Founders, the School was intended for all classes, and that, though some advantage was to be given to the burgesses, it was not designed that they should have a general or exclusive right to free education for their children. That such a right was given to them by the Act of 1798 does not appear to us to be a sufficient reason for its being preserved to them now, under the altered circumstances of the present day. The right was given in exchange for the abandonment on the part of the town of the provision in Ashton's statutes that the Head-Mastership should by preference be conferred on a burgess, a provision which must have been found inconvenient in 1798, but which would now be utterly inconsistent with the maintenance of a first-class public school, since the number of the burgesses can no longer be recruited with the same ease as before the Reform Act. The same circumstance also renders it unreasonable to restrict any advantages, which it may be thought right that the townspeople of Shrewsbury should enjoy, to the limited and diminishing class of the burgesses. We agree with one of the witnesses, that whatever rights were given by the Founder to the burgesses were practically given to all natives of Shrewsbury; and we can see no reason, so far as regards the Founder's intention, why, if any privileges at all are to be retained, they should not be shared by all natives, or even by all established inhabitants of the town.
When, however, we turn from the question of the intention of the Founders to the question of the requirements of the present day, and when we ask how far it is desirable that this School should be indelibly stamped with a local character by the retention of local privileges either to the burgesses or to the ratepayers of Shrewsbury, or even to the inhabitants of the county of Salop, we cannot but feel that it would be for the general benefit that all such distinctions should be done away. Shrewsbury School is now one out of many public schools, all of which are readily accessible to boys from all parts of England. The Schools with which it comes into competition are for the most part free from local restrictions; and the advantages which their Foundations afford are open to merit without reference to parentage, place of birth, or other such qualifications. In several instances these qualifications have recently been removed; in some cases, where they still partially exist, we have recommended their abolition. We need hardly point out that to retain them at Shrewsbury alone, while they are abolished elsewhere, would place that School at a disadvantage in relation to its competitors; and that it would be in danger of losing its rank among public schools, and of becoming a merely municipal institution. This danger would be much increased if at the same time the character of the education were to be altered, if a preponderance were to be given to the "non-collegiate " over the collegiate or classical element, if the School hours were to be adapted to the convenience of the town boarders, and if no effort were made to provide for the better accommodation of boarders in the School itself. We are satisfied that it was the distinct intention of the Founders that the School should be an essentially classical one, and that, though it may not have been originally intended for a boarding school, it was clearly designed to accommodate strangers as well as residents; a purpose which in the present day can be accomplished by giving facilities for boarding better than in any other manner. We are strongly of opinion that these two features of its constitution should be retained.
We shall recommend measures calculated, as we think, to place the School on a footing of equality with the others that have been under our examination. We shall recommend that in lieu of the provision for the gratuitous education of an unlimited number of the sons of burgesses, regulations should be made for the admission of a fixed number of boys to free Scholarships on the Foundation. The number we shall suggest will be 40. At the time of our visit to the School the number of boys entitled to gratuitous education was 25, so that the proposed number will be amply sufficient to satisfy the claims of those who have a present interest in the privilege. We shall propose that these free Scholarships be entirely confined to the collegiate or classical division of the School, and that in the selection of the Scholars a preference be given for a certain number of years, to the sons of burgesses, provided they can pass a proper examination, and that the Scholarships not filled by them be thrown open to general competition. We shall further recommend that measures be taken for abolishing all local preferences after a limited period, sufficiently long to meet the case of the present generation of burgesses, who may be thought to have some inchoate claims. After that period, which might be 20 or 25 years, all the free Scholarships should be open to
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general competition among boys of a prescribed age. With regard to the education to be given in the School, we shall recommend that it be of the same general character as that which we have proposed for other schools. We are of opinion, as we have explained in the First Part of this Report, that by a proper admixture of modern with classical studies, and by a discreet use of the power of discontinuing certain portions of the classical work in order to allow more time for other subjects, an appropriate education may be given to the class of boys who go to public schools without having recourse to the somewhat cumbrous machinery of a distinct "non-collegiate" department. At the same time we do not desire in any way to fetter the discretion of the Governing Body, if upon careful consideration they see their way to the establishment of such distinct department. Of the success of such an experiment at Cheltenham and Marlborough we have already spoken, and we do not wish to object to its being tried elsewhere, provided that those who undertake it are satisfied that it can be conducted without prejudice to the classical character of the School. As matters at present stand at Shrewsbury, we think the "non-collegiate" class questionable if not objectionable, because its tendency seems to be rather to stimulate than to satisfy the demand for the virtual conversion of the School into a middle-class non-classical institution. We shall suggest, when we come to speak of the studies of the School, the safeguards by which we think the introduction of a "non-collegiate" class should be accompanied. With regard to the maintenance of the School for boarders, we shall presently point out the means by which, in our opinion, funds may be provided for the outlay which ought to be made upon the present inadequate buildings.
Before proceeding to this question, however, it is right that we should deal with some others.
2. Constitution of the Governing Body
It does not appear to us that the present constitution of the Governing Body is altogether satisfactory. The Corporation of Shrewsbury is directly represented by one officer alone, and that officer is the Mayor, whose tenure is for a single year, and who has therefore no opportunity of acquiring experience in the management of the School. Indirectly, the Corporation may be said to be represented in the Governing Body by virtue of the right which it possesses of selecting one of three candidates nominated by the remaining Governors upon each occasion of a vacancy; but this right evidently serves rather to embarrass the Governors than to give any real influence to the Corporation. Again, Dr. Kennedy points out the imperfection of the relations between St. John's College, Cambridge, and the School. The authorities of the College are not represented in the Governing Body, and are strangers to its deliberations; but they have the right of nominating the Head Master, and the Head Master is intrusted with the absolute direction of the studies of the School. Such an arrangement has a manifest tendency to produce confusion.
In our opinion it will be desirable to reconstruct the Governing Body upon principles analogous to those which we have recommended in the case of Eton and other schools, and to assign to it the same functions as we have proposed to assign to the Governing Bodies of those schools. We shall recommend that, as an ultimate arrangement, the number of 13 Governors be retained; that of these, three be named by the Corporation of Shrewsbury, one by the Master and Fellows of St. John's College, Cambridge, one by the Master and Fellows of Magdalen College, Cambridge, one by the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church, Oxford, and three by the Crown. The School having been founded and endowed by the Crown, it seems reasonable that the Crown should take precautions against any diversion of its funds from the object for which they were granted, and that, with this view, it should be represented in the Governing Body. The other four members should be elected by the Governing Body itself. As the number of the Governors is at present complete, we shall propose, as a temporary measure, that the Corporation, the three Colleges, and the Crown should each nominate one member to be added to the 12 elected Governors; by which means the number of the Body will be raised to 17; that the next four vacancies occurring among the 12 elected Governors should not be filled up, and that the following four should be filled by nominations by the Corporation and the Crown alternately, so as to establish the intended proportion between the nominated and the elected members. Thereafter every vacancy should be filled by the same authority as that by which the member whose place is to be filled was himself appointed. We shall not propose, as a condition of eligibility, that the Governors should be residents in the county of Salop, but shall recommend their being subject to the same qualifications as those which we have suggested in the case of other schools. We shall
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also recommend that they have the same powers and duties, and be placed in the same relation to the Head Master, as the Governing Bodies of other schools, subject to any exceptions which the circumstances of the School may require.
3. Number, Accommodation, and Charges of the School
It is stated by Dr. Kennedy that the greatest number the School ever reached was 295, in the year 1832; that it had fallen to 228 in 1836, when he himself became Head Master; and that it continued to decline for six years more, since which time it has been comparatively stationary, fluctuating between a maximum of 130 and a minimum of 80. At the time of our visit the number was between 130 and 140; of whom 71 were boarders.*
Of the 60 who were not boarders, 22 were entitled to free education as the sons of burgesses.
The boarders, for the most part, reside in one of two houses belonging to the Head Master, the senior boys being taken into the School-house in which the Head Master himself lives, and the juniors being placed in a rented house adjoining, under the care of a Matron and of one of the Assistant Masters. In these two houses there is room for about 70 boys, sleeping three or five in a room, and using three or four common rooms for study. Dr. Kennedy, however, provides a third house, laid out in studies accommodating four boys apiece, for the use of his senior boys. The Second Master is also allowed to take boarders, and can receive about 20; and the Master of Modern Languages has of late years been permitted to take four boarders, though Dr. Kennedy states that this is not a matter of right. The Chancery scheme declares that the Head Master and the Second Master may both receive boarders, but that the other Masters shall only do so with the consent of the Head Master. Of the boys who are not boarders, the majority, of course, live with their parents or friends, but there are a few cases in which they are confided to the care of respectable persons in the town, and attend the School as day scholars only. In these cases, as well as in those of the boys who live at home, the Masters assume no responsibility in respect of discipline out of school hours.
The School is in an airy and healthy situation, but the accommodation provided for the boarders is very unsatisfactory; and it is to this cause that the stationary and depressed condition of the School is in great measure attributed by the Trustees, an opinion in which we are disposed to agree. We do not think it requisite to enter into details; and it is fair to Dr. Kennedy to remember that the credit due to him for the high character of the School is enhanced by the consideration of any such disadvantages against which he has had to struggle. But the condition of the boys' boarding houses is undeniably defective, and that to a degree which must seriously affect the well-being of the School. Dr. Kennedy himself admits the inconvenience of the buildings; but points out, in a letter addressed to our Secretary, that since he became Head Master he has done much to improve the condition of the boarders.
The charge for board and washing, tuition, and some small fixed expenses, in the Head Master's house is about £80 a year. Extra charges, including tradesmen's bills, raise this to about £100 a year on the average. Dr. Kennedy calculates the profit on each boarder at £21, though he has been in the habit of returning it to the Income Tax Commissioners at £25.
4. Division of Forms
The 131 boys who were in the School in October 1861, were divided as follows -
Sixth Form | 22 or 16.8 per cent. |
Fifth Form | 35 or 26.7 per cent. |
Fourth Form | 34 or 26.7 per cent. |
Third Form | 31 or 26.7 per cent. |
Second and First | 9 or 7 per cent. |
This division shows an unusually large proportion of Sixth Form boys; but Dr. Kennedy finds it nevertheless difficult without a greater supply of reading boys to keep the rate of scholarship in his class as high as it should be. He complains of being obliged "to place boys in the same forms, whose degrees of knowledge and power, especially in respect of composition, are widely different, and therefore to give different kinds and quantities
*In November 1863 the number was 170, of whom 92 were boarders.
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of work to boys holding the same place and rank." In other words it may be said, that in order to work the highest form in a school satisfactorily the master ought to have not less than from 20 to 25 boys in it, and that a school of 130 boys only, cannot furnish a first class of 20 boys of tolerably equal abilities and attainments.
This difficulty must be much enhanced by the engrafting of the "non-collegiate" class upon the School, since it appears that of the 131 boys, 18 or 20 belonged to this class, and were therefore not admissible into the Sixth Form at all. The consequence is, that able boys are promoted into the Sixth Form very soon after they come to the School, and remain in it for the greater part of their stay. Mr. Graves was at Shrewsbury for five years, and for four of them he was in the Head Master's class, and he says this was not an unusual proportion of time to spend in it.
The subjects of study do not materially differ from those pursued at other schools, except as regards the "non-collegiate" class, in which Greek, and nearly all classical composition, is given up in favour of mathematics, modern languages and English composition. The amount of classical work done and the number of books read in the ordinary divisions of the School is very great; and the success which Shrewsbury men have met with at the Universities, and especially at Cambridge, proves that what they learn is learnt well. The Porson prize, in particular, has of late years been almost monopolised by them. They have not, however, gained as large a proportion of mathematical as of classical honours; nor have they been quite as successful at Oxford as at Cambridge, a greater number of the best scholars having gone to the latter University.
Mathematics and French form part of the regular school work; but though proficiency in the former is allowed to affect a boy's place in school, this is not so in the case of French, for which separate classes are however organized and separate prizes given. The præpostors, or upper ten boys in the sixth form, are allowed to discontinue their French in order to devote themselves more entirely to classics. In the case of a boy remaining long in the upper part of the Sixth Form, therefore, he would probably discontinue French for some time before leaving the School. Mr. Graves says that during his last three years he learnt French more at home than at School. Dr. Kennedy has occasionally made attempts to introduce the study of German. He has also attempted to introduce choral music, but without much success. Drawing is encouraged, and Dr. Kennedy expresses a strong opinion of its value as an auxiliary to classical study. There is, however, no regular teaching of drawing in the school, but a certain number of boys attend the Government School of Design in the town. They are mostly "non-collegiate" boys. History is taught chiefly by the use of compendiums and abridgements; but the boys are encouraged to read larger works by themselves. The course embraces modern as well as ancient history. Geography is taught from Dr. Butler's work. Natural science is not t.aught. Dr. Kennedy says that there are in the School some models and diagrams in natural philosophy, but no experimental apparatus; and that he fears there would hardly be time or staff to work this unless the numbers were much increased. It does not appear that it is taught even in the "non-collegiate" class.
Modern history appears to be the study in which the boys in the "non-collegiate" class make the greatest relative proficiency. In modern languages they do not appear to do better than, or as well as, boys in the general School. In fact the evidence shows that at present this class is rather sought as a refuge from work, than on account of the facilities it affords for particular kinds of work, and this is probably the reason why it fails to give entire satisfaction to parents.
5. Number and Remuneration of the Masters
There are now in all eight Masters, including the Head Master. Of these five only receive salaries from the Trustees; the rest are paid directly or indirectly by the Head Master. Four of them are Classical Masters, one Mathematical, one for French and German, one for writing and mapping and for accidence, and one is appointed as Tutor for all boys below the Sixth Form, and is also charged with the direction of the studies of the "non-collegiate" class.
The functions designed for this last-mentioned gentleman are somewhat peculiar. He is intended to act as General Assistant to all the Class Masters below the Sixth Form; so that whenever any Master in class observes that a boy requires special attention out of school, he may put his name down on a list of boys to be instructed by the Tutor in such department or departments of study as the Master in class may think proper. There is no such regular tutorial system at Shrewsbury as exists at Eton and elsewhere , but a very few boys have been in the habit of resorting to private Tutors, either to
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enable them to get on faster than the form work was taking them, or to assist them when they found themselves behindhand. The charge for private tuition in such cases has been 16 guineas a year. The new arrangement recently introduced by Dr. Kennedy is intended to supersede private tuition of this kind, by giving every boy, without any extra charge, such private assistance as he may appear to require. Beyond this Dr. Kennedy thinks it objectionable to carry the system of private tuition.
The amount of remuneration received by the Masters is very moderate. The Trustees pay in salaries about £870 per annum, out of which the Head Master receives £465 (including his stipend as Catechist) but pays £300 of it to the three Assistant Masters not provided by the Trustees and £52 10s to the French Master. The Second Master receives £200, the Third Master £100, the French Master £50, and the Accidence Master, £25, with a variable allowance amounting to about £30 more, for teaching writing to the sons of the burgesses. In addition to these salaries the Masters receive a share of the tuition fees paid by the boys. Every boy who is not the son of a burgess pays a tuition fee of £15 15s a year. These fees are divided in certain proportions between the Head and other Masters. The net income of the Head Master from these two sources, when the school contains 100 paying boys, may be taken at £590; besides which he has the profits of his boarding houses, which may add £1,300 or £1,400 to his emoluments, and so bring up his whole income to £2,000 a year. The income of the Second Master from salary and tuition fees is about £460, to which the profits on five boarders (his number in 1861) would add about £100. The Third Master, who does not keep a boarding house, would receive only £225; the first Assistant Master £300; the second, £200; and the third, who is the Mathematical Master, £200. To these amounts, however, some addition must be made for private pupils; and it is to be observed that some of the Assistants have rooms provided for them, and dine at Dr. Kennedy's table.
Dr. Kennedy states that the Assistant Masters have no voice by right in the direction of the studies of the School, but that "the Head Master would act most unwisely if he did not often consult them", and that in point of fact they usually meet once a week for the purpose of consultation.
6. Examinations, Prizes, and other Encouragements to Study
The principal stimulant to work at Shrewsbury appears to be the desire to obtain a high place in the School. Boys rise freely by proficiency, and Dr. Kennedy attributes the success of the School in great part to the unreserved promotion of merit. At the same time boys of inferior merit are promoted from form to form with reference to their age, conduct, and other considerations. Two examinations are held in the year, in February and in August; or, to speak more precisely, two examinations are commenced before the Christmas and the Midsummer holidays respectively, and concluded on the re-assembling of the School in February and in August. Promotions are awarded as the result of these examinations. But general promotions also take place at Ladyday and Michaelmas, and for these there is no special examination, though reference is had to the results of the examination next preceding. An account of the nature of the half-yearly examinations will be found in the evidence of Mr. Graves. The object of dividing them is, we presume, to induce the boys to work during their holidays; but from Mr. Graves' account it seems that this object is not always attained. The arrangement does not appear to us a very desirable one. The proper employment of the holidays is undoubtedly a difficult question in many cases; but we do not think it fair to the boys to propose the chief honours of the School as a reward for work done at home. In the case of a very studious and ambitious boy, such a system may prevent his taking a proper amount of relaxation in the time which is expressly set apart for it: in the case of an idle boy, it may lead to his getting private help in the holidays to cover the deficiencies of his work in the school time: and in many cases it may hinder parents from setting their sons to other work, not directly connected with their progress at School, but of a kind likely to be of much value in their education. Subject to this remark, we are of opinion that the system of examinations and of promotion as dependent thereon, is a valuable feature at Shrewsbury. We shall recommend its extension so as to include Modern Languages, and Natural Science, and to give a due amount of encouragement to proficiency in these subjects.
Various prizes, about 20 in number, are given for classical, mathematical, and other attainments, some for verses and essays, and one, which struck us as worthy of especial mention, called the "aggregate merit prize", which is given to the boy who, upon the whole, stands highest in all branches of examination, taking into account also his industry
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and moral character. Another kind of reward, which is also peculiar to Shrewsbury, and which appeared to us more questionable, is what is called "merit money", of which Dr. Kennedy gives the following account:
433. (Lord Clarendon) Will you have the goodness to explain what is the meaning of 'merit money'? - Four times in the half-year (monthly) the marks are considered; all the marks which have been given to a boy for his different work, whether that is classical or mathematical, or what we call merit marks, for punctuality at chapel, for good exercises, and various things for which merit marks are given - these are all considered, and when any merit money is deserved, a sum is awarded in proportion to the boy's place in the school. Thus the head boy has merit money for surpassing any other boy in the school; half a guinea being the amount of his merit money.
434. Is half a guinea the maximum? - It is the maximum, and that is only given to the head boy. As to the præpostors, the highest merit money they can obtain is 6s; the lower sixth, and upper division of the fifth, 5s; the lower division of the fifth, 4s; then it goes down to 3s 6d, and the little boys would only get half a crown [2s 6d] at most; they would not get the maximum unless they had all V's, i.e., all the highest marks; otherwise the merit money diminishes down to one shilling, that is the minimum. If it is a very little boy he may be pleased with the smaller coin of sixpence, but that is very seldom put down.
While we are upon the subject of examinations, we think it right to call attention to the fact that, although there is a distinct provision in the Chancery scheme, that the Scholars shall be examined every year by Examiners appointed by the Bishop of Lichfield, no such examination has in fact ever been held. The Trustees appear to be aware of the irregularity of this departure from the directions of the scheme, and to contemplate measures for establishing an examination in accordance with them. The omission is the more remarkable, because it was intended that the Examiners should report to the Trustees upon the merits of the candidates for the several Exhibitions belonging to the School, and should, in fact, select the Exhibitioners. It appears, however, that the School examinations, conducted by Dr. Kennedy himself, are so complete and searching, and command so entirely the confidence of the boys, that whenever an Exhibition falls vacant, and there is no boy who has a preferential claim to it on the ground of birth, the boys accept their relative positions in the School as conclusive evidence of their relative abilities, and settle among themselves which of them shall apply for it.
This leads us to the consideration of the next point, namely:
7. The Exhibitions
Shrewsbury is rich in Exhibitions. Dr. Kennedy gives a list of 26 (or, as it rather seems, 34) Exhibitions or Scholarships to which Shrewsbury boys have a claim. They vary in value from £10 to £63 per annum, and are tenable from three to eight years. Some of them are free Exhibitions, which may be held at any College at either University; the majority, however, are tenable at particular Colleges only, some at St. John's College, Cambridge, others at Magdalen College, Cambridge, and others at Christ Church, Oxford, or at one or two other Colleges. In nearly all cases preferences are given to the sons of burgesses, and the natives of particular parishes in or near Shrewsbury, and to natives of Shropshire. In some cases also a preference is given to the Founder's kin. Most of these Exhibitions have been founded by private benefactors; but some have been established by the Trustees out of the surplus funds of the School, according to a system of which traces are to be found in Ashton's Ordinances, as well as in the subsequent Act and Chancery Scheme.
Before offering any general remarks upon these endowments, we have to call attention to the case of one of them - the Millington Charity, which will be found stated in a memorial addressed to us by four of the Trustees of that charity, and in their verbal evidence. It appears that Dr. John Millington, in the year 1724, left certain property in trust to found Scholarships at Magdalen College, Cambridge, for boys from Shrewsbury School. When four of these Scholarships had been founded, the Trustees applied to the Court of Chancery for instructions as to the mode in which they should apply the accruing surplus of the trust fund, and were directed to accumulate it, and to invest it for the Foundation of Fellowships at Magdalen, to be appropriated to Shrewsbury Scholars. Two such Fellowships, each equal in value to two Scholarships, were accordingly founded. The Cambridge University Commissioners, however, have now consolidated these two Fellowships into one, and hare thrown that one open to all persons, wherever educated, thus depriving Shrewsbury School of the advantage which Dr. Millington apparently intended to confer upon it. The Trustees therefore consider that, as the Fellowships hare been thrown open, to the loss of Shrewsbury, it would be but fair that the Exhibitions remaining to the School should be freed from the restriction which at present confines the holders to Magdalen College, and that the Exhibitioners
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should be allowed to hold them at any College at either University; which would be a change for the advantage of the School. The Trustees propose a division of the trust fund in order to effect this purpose. We are of opinion that their desire to open the Exhibitions is perfectly reasonable, and we think that steps should he taken to give effect to it; but we shall not recommend the particular measure of a division of the trust fund, because we think that the same considerations as apply to these Exhibitions are in great part applicable also to many other of the Exhibitions belonging to the School; and we are therefore of opinion that a general measure should be adopted for setting the whole of them free from the restrictions which at present confine their holders to particular Colleges.
We are further of opinion that it would be greatly to the advantage of the School that these numerous and unequal endowments, which are very irregularly available, should be re-distributed so as to provide a fixed number of Exhibitions, falling vacant every year. The aggregate annual amount now paid in Exhibitions appears, from Dr. Kennedy's Table, to be about £1,280. If this amount were divided into Scholarships, each tenable for four years, there would be prizes to the amount of £320 per annum to be disposed of every year; and these might easily be apportioned so as to provide five, six, or seven Exhibitions, varying from £30 to £80 in value. These Exhibitions should be tenable at any College at either University. The names of the original founders should be attached to them as far as possible, and might, with a little contrivance, be readily adjusted to the amounts of their original donations*. There may possibly be some cases in which the funds from which the Exhibitions arise are held under such trusts as to give particular Colleges an absolute hold upon them; but we believe that the great mass of them could readily be dealt with in the manner we have proposed, if Parliamentary sanction were obtained.
We have only to add upon this subject, that we think all the Exhibitions should be open to the whole School, without any preferences being allowed to the sons of burgesses or others; that they should be awarded by a regular examination conducted by Examiners specially appointed for the purpose; and it is a question worthy of consideration whether a certain proportion of them should not be given as an encouragement to proficiency in Mathematics, and in Natural Science and Modern Languages.
8. Results - The Universities - The Army
Of the undergraduates at Oxford in Michaelmas Term 1861, 17 had been educated at Shrewsbury. At Cambridge there were 29. In point of the numbers of undergraduates which it contributes, Shrewsbury takes the fourth place at Cambridge and the eighth place at Oxford among the schools under our review. Of the 39 boys who left the School in the year 1861-2, 14, or 35½ per cent, went to one or other of the Universities.
In the course of the twenty years ending in 1861, Shrewsbury men obtained at Oxford, in the final examinations, 4 first classes in classics and 2 in natural science; also 3 first classes in moderations. They also gained 3 University Scholarships, (the Craven, the Ireland, and the Hertford), 8 University prizes (poems and essays), and 1 Eldon Law Scholarship. At Cambridge in the same time they gained 27 first classes in the classical tripos and 11 in the mathematical tripos, 8 Chancellor's medals, 5 University Scholarships, 15 Porson prizes, 6 Greek odes, and about 20 other medals and prizes. Within the same period 18 Shrewsbury men have obtained College Fellowships at Oxford; and of these 7 are now or have recently been engaged in the work of College tuition. At Cambridge 30 have gained College Fellowships; and of these 14 are or have been tutors or lecturers. The extent to which this small school contributes to the teaching power of the Universities is not a little remarkable.
Another circumstance which deserves notice is, that of the 15 Porson prizemen, 11 have, besides obtaining other honours, gained first classes in the classical tripos, 1 gained a second class, and 1 has not yet taken his degree. Of the remaining two prizemen, one was named as second in the competition for the University Scholarship, and was also the
*Thus the three Careswell Exhibitions, worth £60, £21, and £27 respectively, might be converted into two Exhibitions worth £54 each, which would still bear the name of "Careswell", the Taylor Exhibition worth £23, and the Oswald Smyth Exhibition worth £25, might be commuted for a single Exhibition of £48, which should alternately be called the "Taylor" and the "Smyth", in other words the Taylor Exhibition would be doubled in amount for the period of four years, and suspended for an equal period in order to bring the account right; and during the period of its suspension the Smyth Exhibition would also be doubled in amount, to be in its turn suspended on the revival of the "Taylor". Or the two Exhibitions might be put together and called the "Smyth and Taylor".
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winner of the Camden medal. We call attention to these facts, because it has sometimes been suggested that too much stress may have been laid at Shrewsbury upon the instruction of boys in Greek iambics, and it is fair to the School to point out that this training has not been of an exclusive character, but that those who have succeeded in this particular branch of scholarship have proved themselves good scholars in other branches also.
In the two years and a half comprised in the returns furnished us by the military authorities, only three boys from Shrewsbury entered the Army, either by direct commissions or through Sandhurst, and none of these came directly from the School. No Shrewsbury boys entered Woolwich in that time. Two candidates for Woolwich were unsuccessful, but there were no failures among the candidates for Sandhurst or for direct commissions.
9. Finances of the School - Mode of providing for required Expenditure
We consider it essential to the well-being of Shrewsbury that a considerable sum should be expended without delay upon the erection of new buildings. We also think that provision should at once be made for the appointment of a Master for Natural Science; and that it is desirable that some improvement should be made in the salaries of the Assistant Masters. The question, therefore, arises how far the funds of the School suffice or can be made to suffice for these objects.
The present gross annual income of the School trust may be taken at £3,100, of which £270 is derived from the interest on £9,000 funded property, and the residue from tithe rentcharges and other rents and chief rents. The expenditure in the year 1860 was £3,005 which was divided as follows:
This statement shows a rather close balance of income and expenditure, but Mr. Peele the School Bailiff, states that on the average of years there is a surplus of income of from £200 to £300. We proceed to offer some remarks on each head of the expenditure.
(1) Salaries. Under this head are included not only the salaries paid to the Masters, but that of £105 paid to the Bailiff Treasurer and Receiver. This item must be retained as a charge in its present form. As regards the other salaries, we shall propose their discontinuance, as we have done in the case of other schools, and the substitution for them of annual payments out of a school fund, to which the Trustees shall make payments in respect of the tuition of the free scholars. The present tuition fee is fifteen guineas; and, as we have proposed that there should be forty free scholars, this would entail upon the trust fund a charge of £630; but it is our intention to recommend an alteration in the rate of the tuition fee, and we therefore omit this charge from consideration for the present.
(2) Exhibitions. This head includes the payments made to the six Exhibitioners, receiving £50 apiece, whose Exhibitions have been established out of the accruing surplus of the School funds from time to time; and a payment of £67 1s 8d (or £70 with a deduction for income tax) to St. John's College, in respect, apparently, of two Exhibitions founded by deed, dated September 27, 1656; in consideration of which St. John's College gives the two Exhibitioners the same advantages in the form of rooms and other allowances as are enjoyed by the scholars of the College. This latter arrangement could not conveniently be disturbed. As regards the other six Exhibitions we shall have a proposal to make.
The Careswell, Millington, and other Exhibitions are not included in this account, as the funds by which they are supported are not in the hands of the Governors of Shrewsbury School, but in those of separate Trustees.
(3) Stipends to Clergy. The property of the School consisting almost entirely of impropriated tithes, it is of course necessary that a certain provision should be made for the remuneration of the parochial clergy. Indeed, the indenture of Queen Elizabeth
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expresses that the grant of the Rectory of Chirbury is made "as well for the maintenance of the service of God within the chappels of Cliffe and Astley" as for that of the Grammar School; and makes provision for the minister of St. Mary's Church, Shrewsbury, before providing for the wants of the School. The scheme and Order of the Court of Chancery provide that £740 shall be expended upon the stipends of the clergy in the four parishes of St. Mary's Shrewsbury, Chirbury, Clive, and Astley, and that the Trustees may expend not more than £15 per annum in the support of the schools in each of the three parishes of St. Mary's, St. Chad, and Chirbury, and not more than £5 in each of the parishes of Clive and Astley. The payments in respect of these schools are charged in the account before us to the head of contingencies and sundries. Taking them at their maximum (£55), and adding them to the stipends of the clergy, we bring up this head of charge to £795.
(4) and (5) Taxes and Rates. These two heads may be taken together at £420.
(6) Repairs. The amount set down under this head appears rather large. We apprehend that, if new and substantial buildings are erected, an annual sum of £250 will be a sufficient allowance.
(7) Contingencies and Sundries. This head includes £35 paid on account of parish schools, and £25 allowed to Dr. Kennedy for prizes. As we propose to remove the former item to the head of Stipends to the Clergy, and to make provision for the latter out of the School fund hereafter to be mentioned, we reduce this head of charge to £85.
Our estimate of expenditure, exclusive of the payments into the Tuition fund, and of the Exhibitions created out of the surplus funds of the trust, will then stand thus -
1. Bailiff's salary | £105 |
2. Payments to St. John's College | 70 |
3. Clergy and Schools | 795 |
4 and 5. Rates and Taxes | 420 |
6. Repairs | 250 |
7. Sundries | 85 |
Total | £1,725 |
Estimated income | 3,100 |
Balance | £1,375 |
If the principle of establishing a Tuition fund, and of making payments to it out of the School fund in respect of the free scholars be adopted, the first charge upon this balance of £1,375 will be the free scholars' tuition fees. It is our opinion that the fee at present charged for tuition, namely, 15 guineas a year, is too low with reference to the standard of other public schools and to the requirements of the day. The amount formerly paid was 25 guineas; it is now only 15. We propose that it should be raised to 20. This small increase will, in our view, be amply compensated by the improvements which it will enable the Governing Body to make in the condition of the School. As we propose that there should be 40 free scholars, the charge upon the Trust fund in respect of their tuition will thus be £840 a year, reducing the balance of £1,375 to £535. This charge, it will be observed, is somewhat less than the amount now paid out of the Trust funds in salaries alone; while, according to our plan, those funds are, for the present at an events, to be relieved altogether from the charge in respect of the Exhibitions, amounting to £300 a year, which we propose to transfer to the account of the tuition fund. Important as Exhibitions undoubtedly are, we regard the proper maintenance of the School buildings, and the provision of suitable accommodation for boarders, as objects of still greater necessity. The Exhibitions of which we are speaking are not, like those of the Millington or Careswell Foundations, the creation of benevolent donors or testators, and as such the subject of trusts with which there might be a delicacy in interfering; they are defrayed out of the interest of the surplus of the Trust funds accumulated during a long period of years; and as it would undoubtedly have been competent to the Governors of the School in former days to have applied a larger portion of those funds to buildings and improvements, and thus to have left a smaller amount to accumulate for the creation of Exhibitions, so now, as it appears to us, it would be perfectly reasonable, if the necessity for so doing should be clearly proved, to suspend, or even to suppress, some of those which have actually been established, in order to provide funds for remedying the defects of accommodation which have been allowed to continue until they have become a serious detriment to the School.
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Dr. Kennedy, it is true, considers that the objections urged against the present buildings are exaggerated, and contends that the houses, though "old, unattractive, and in some respects inconvenient and inadequate", are "solid, well ventilated, and shown, by long experience, to be more healthy than many places of new and elaborate construction". Yet, even he adds, that he "cannot but wish that exertion had been made many years ago to rebuild the houses, in accordance with the demands of the age"; and he regrets that a school of established position and name should have been allowed to fall into comparative decay "for want of that amount of energy which would have enabled former Trustees to borrow £20,000 for the complete restoration of the premises, providing for interest and repayment, partly by the temporary stoppage of Exhibitions, and partly by capitations."
The present Trustees are fully alive to the importance of improving the accommodation of the School. They are desirous to apply the £9,000 of funded property, which has arisen from the accumulated savings of former years, to the purchase of some property adjacent to the School, and to the erection of better houses for the Head Master and the Second Master, with proper accommodation for 75 or 80 boarders; and they state that they have submitted their plan to the Charity Commissioners, who have received it favourably. The Trustees consider that the funds at their command would not suffice for the execution of the whole of this plan at once. The purchase of the site would cost £3,000, and the plans they have obtained for rebuilding the two houses would involve an expenditure of £9,000 more. The course they propose, therefore, is to purchase the land, and to begin with rebuilding the Second Master's house, which they think requires it the most, reserving the rebuilding of the Head Master's until more funds can be raised. Amongst other modes of raising such funds an appeal to old Shrewsbury men has been suggested. Some of the Trustees think that a large sum might thus be raised, but Dr. Kennedy is opposed to the step. His scheme is to borrow a sum of £25,000 upon debentures, to add to this the £9,000 of stock, and to apply the whole to the purchase of land and the erection of buildings for the accommodation of about 200 boarders and 200 day scholars. The money might, he thinks, be borrowed on the security of the School revenues, that is to say, of the School charges, which he proposes to increase for the purpose. The Trustees, however, and the Bailiff Mr. Peele, think that the suggested security would be uncertain and insufficient, and that the money could not be raised "without charging the tithes, as any gentleman would charge his estate", which Mr. Peele thinks would be "taking too large a sum out of the fixed payments to justify a large expenditure."
It appears to us that Mr. Peele is right in this view, supposing that the Exhibitions and salaries are still to continue, as heretofore, a charge upon the trust fund, and are to take precedence of any charges in respect of borrowed money; but we apprehend that by relieving the trust fund of those charges, and substituting for them a payment to the tuition fund of £21 a head for the free scholars, the means might be provided for raising a sum sufficient to meet the most urgent requirements of the School, and to defray the expense of erecting two good boarding houses without delay. The sale of the £9,000 stock would involve an annual loss of £270; £6,000 more might be borrowed on the security of the tithe rent charges at a further cost of from £240 to £270 according to the rate of interest at which it could be obtained. Thus a sum of £15,000 might be raised at an expense of not more than £540 a year, which is about the amount of the surplus estimated to be left after paying £840 to the tuition fund. The interest on the borrowed money would, however, according to our view, be charged upon the trust funds, before the deduction of the payments to the tuition fund, so that the security would be ample, there being a clear balance of £1,100 a year* to provide for the interest on the £6,000 to be borrowed. In the event of the funds proving insufficient in any year to bear all the charges upon them, the loss would have to fall on the tuition fund; that is to say, on the salaries of the Masters and upon the Exhibitions. The salaries are low, and we should be unwilling to look to them as the means for making up a deficiency; but the Exhibitions are, as we have already observed, ample in proportion
*The estimated income was | £3,100 |
Deduct for loss of interest on stock | 270 |
Remains | £2,830 |
Deduct the charges enumerated at p. 316 under 7 heads | 1,725 |
Remains | £1,105 |
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to the size of the School, and might temporarily be reduced, should circumstances render the step necessary.
We proceed now to frame an estimate of the probable receipts and outgoings of the tuition fund. Assuming that the School contains 100 paying boys and 40 free scholars, the receipts from the former will be £2,100, and those on account of the latter £840, making a total income of £2,940. This income would be liable to diminution, on the one hand, in case the trust funds should in any year prove insufficient to support the full payment of £840, or in case the number of paying scholars should fall below 100; and to increase, on the other hand, in case the number of paying scholars should rise above that mark. We think that after the erection of proper buildings, and the adoption of other measures for the improvement of the School, it is far more likely that the receipts of the tuition fund will exceed, than that they will fall short of, the sum we have named.
As regards the charges on the proposed fund, we find that the sums at present paid to the Masters out of the School funds as salaries amount in the whole to £870 a year. The tuition fees at present received for 100 boys, at £15 15s apiece,* amount further to £1,575. The total sum at present received and divided among the Masters, therefore, exclusive of the profits derived from boarding-houses, may be taken at £2,450. It will be necessary to provide for the appointment of a Master in Natural Science, for which purpose we propose to add £250 to this estimate, so as to bring the cost of salaries up to £2,700, leaving a balance of £240 applicable to the Exhibitions and to the prize fund of £25, which is now paid by the Trustees, but which we propose to transfer to the tuition fund. By reducing the number of Exhibitions charged upon the funds of the School from six to four, the expenditure of the tuition fund would he brought somewhat within the income, as will appear by the following statement:
Income
100 paying scholars at £21 each | 2,100 |
40 free scholars | 840 |
| £2,940 |
Expenditure
Salaries at their present amount | 2,450 |
Natural Science Master | 250 |
Prize Fund | 25 |
Four Exhibitions of £50 each | 200 |
| £2,925 |
Thus it appears that by suspending two Exhibitions of £50 each, which have been created out of the surplus of former years, and by raising the tuition fee to an amount which will still be 20 per cent below that at which it stood before the adoption of the Chancery Scheme ten years ago, means may probably be found for applying a sum of £15,000 to the improvement of the School buildings without any diminution in the salaries of the Masters, and concurrently with the addition of one for physical science.
In the event of the number of paying scholars exceeding 100, we consider that the additional fees should be divided between the augmentation of the salaries of the Masters and the restoration of the Exhibitions in certain proportions, which we think it had better be left to the Governing Body to settle. We will only record our opinion that the larger part ought to be devoted to the former object, as the Masters appear to us to be underpaid with reference to the amount of work required of them. The same rule should also, we think, be followed in respect of some other payments which we shall presently propose should be made into the tuition fund.
Having thus shown in what manner funds may be obtained for the improvement of the School buildings, we come next to the consideration of the mode in which it is proposed that they should be applied; namely, in the erection of two boarding-houses, one for the Head, and one for the Second Master; and we are thus led to examine the present arrangements with regard to boarding-houses and boarders.
*Dr. Kennedy states in his Answers, II. 10, that at the time of our inquiry there were 99 boys paying this fee.
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10. Boarding-houses
We have already remarked (Section 3) that the Head Master keeps two boarding-houses, and that nearly all the regular boarders in the School are in one or other of these. The second Master has a right to receive boarders, but his house is inconvenient, and, in point of fact, he has only five. The other Masters have no right to receive boys except by the indulgence of the Head Master. On the other hand, unlicensed persons in the town receive boys as boarders, and these persons, and even the boys who lodge with them, except when actually in school, are entirely free from all supervision on the part of the authorities of the School. We do not think this state of things satisfactory. A great part of the advantage of a public school consists in the social and domestic training which the hays receive in well-appointed boarding-houses kept by Masters, or persons under the direct control of the Masters. Boys living at home must, of course, be treated on somewhat different principles. But we think that all other boys in the School should be required to board in a boarding-house under school authority; and in order to facilitate this we think that the number of the boarding-houses should be increased, as well as that their quality should be improved. We shall recommend that the "monopoly" which, as the Trustees remark, the Head Master at present virtually has in the taking of boarders, should be put an end to, and that all the Masters, whether classical or other, should be at liberty to open boarding-houses if permitted to do so by the Governors, subject, of course, to such regulations as the Governors may make. We shall also recommend that all boys not living with their parents, guardians, or near relatives in the town, be required to board at one of these boarding-houses, or at one of the Head Master's houses, for we do not propose to put an end to the rather singular arrangement by which he now keeps two distinct establishments. We shall further propose that the Head Master, and all the Masters keeping boarding-houses, pay to the tuition fund a sum of £3 per head for each boarder in their houses, which sum shall be divided among the Masters according to the scale which may be fixed for disposing of the surplus of the tuition fund. This measure will facilitate the augmentation of the salaries of the Masters, on the smallness of which we have already commented.
11. Discipline of the School, Punishments, Monitorial System, &c.
There are some peculiarities in the system of discipline adopted in this school which require notice. "One of the Masters holds the salaried office of 'Secretary for Discipline'; he keeps a book with two pages for each boy, in which are recorded his merit marks and his penal marks". Merit marks are awarded for proficiency and for good conduct. Four merit marks purchase a half holiday for their holder in the ensuing month; any number above this is rewarded by "merit money", the nature of which we have explained above (p. 10). Offences, except in the rare cases of gravity which require flogging, are punished by a system of bad marks, entailing impositions of greater or less length, confinement to school, and loss of half holidays. A school monitor is attached as a sort of clerk to the Secretary for Discipline; it is his business to collect a return of the punishments set by each Master. These are entered upon a "penal sheet", which is carried daily to the Head Master, who has thus "the opportunity of observing the principle of punishment adopted by other Masters, and of discussing it with them, if need be, with a view to justice and uniformity"; a practice which we need hardly say must be a very useful one. Flogging is administered on the average "perhaps half a dozen times" in the half year. Dr. Kennedy has only once had occasion to expel a boy in the 25 years of his mastership. He has privately dismissed a few; but there had been no case of dismissal for six years when our inquiry was made. He attributes great advantage to the use of the college cap, which he introduced about three years after he became Master, and which all boarders are required to wear, so that in whatever part of the town, or wherever else they may be, they are at once recognizable as belonging to the school. Day boys are not allowed to wear the cap, except when "under discipline". Mr. Graves states that the boarders would have remonstrated with any day boy wearing his cap except when going to or returning from school.
The Masters are assisted in keeping order and maintaining discipline by the præpostors, who are 12 in number. A boy having once gained the rank of præpostor, does not lose it even though he may lose his place in his remove at an examination. The præpostors have certain special duties to fulfil, "such as reading the lessons in chapel, and calling names"; but the importance of their position mainly results from the relation in which
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they stand to the Head Master on the one hand, and the School on the other, in matters of discipline. Dr. Kennedy calls them "a kind of senate or representatives of the School", and states, that on entering upon their office they "engage by signature, on the part of the School, to do and to prevent many things, and they fulfil their engagements". Sometimes, as appears from Dr. Kennedy's evidence, they conduct negotiations with the Head Master on behalf of the School, acting as representatives of the interests of the boys, and these negotiations occasionally lead to "compromises", by which the Head Master waives objections which he had taken to particular amusements or proceedings on the part of the boys, the præpostors on the other hand covenanting that certain conditions and restrictions attached to the indulgence shall be observed. The præpostors have the power of setting impositions to a limited extent, but they have not the right of caning or using physical means to enforce their authority, and would not be supported by the Head Master were they to do so. "Twenty years ago", says Dr. Kennedy, "I deprived a boy of his præpostorship for using a stick to punish another boy. Nothing of the kind is now done." This evidence is substantially confirmed by that of Mr. Graves, though he seems to think that the præpostors had the right to cane if they pleased. He says that he does not know of any instance of their inflicting a punishment of any kind, but adds that "their authority, whenever they chose to interfere, was always admitted". Public opinion supported it.
On the whole it appears that the monitorial system at Shrewsbury differs from that of all the other public schools. The disuse of the right of punishing distinguishes it from the system which prevails at Harrow, Rugby, and elsewhere; while the recognized position of the præpostors as instruments for the maintenance of school discipline, and the organized character of the body, distinguish it from the system, or want of system, which we have observed at Eton. The distinct recognition on the part of the Master of the representative character of the præpostors, and of their title to speak on behalf of and to seek privileges for the School is, as far as we can see, peculiar to Shrewsbury alone.
12. Fagging
There appears to be very little fagging at Shrewsbury. Four fags are allotted to the præpostors' room, and are employed in laying the breakfast things, running messages, and so forth; but there is no "individual fagging". The four fags are changed every week. On certain days in the week all boys are required to attend at football, the præpostors engaging to exempt any boy named by the Head Master as unfitted to join the game. Beyond this, there is no fagging at games.
13. Games and Playground
It is provided by the old statutes of the School, that "the scholars shall play upon Thursday, unless there be a holy day in the week, and no day else, unless it be at the earnest request and great entreaty of some man of honour, or of great credit, worship, or authority", and that their play shall be "shooting in the long bow and chess play, and no other games, unless it be running, wrestling, or leaping; and no game to be above one penny or match above fourpence, and lastly, that they use no betting, openly or covertly, but when it is found either the scholars so offending to be severely punished or else expulsed for ever."
There is now one regular half holiday in the week, Saturday; and occasional half holidays, "some of custom, others contingent (as for University prizes, &c.), which upon an average almost amount to a second in the week". There is a not very convenient playground of about three-quarters of an acre near the School, with a fives court; and the Head Master rents a cricket ground of four acres at the distance of about half a mile. It would be very desirable that the Trustees should take this burden off his hands, and should buy or rent a permanent playground suited to the size of the school. Dr. Kennedy suggests, however, that their doing so might give rise to a question "which might be a very vexed one on the part of anyone who wished to find a grievance, viz.: the question of boarders and day scholars. If the day scholars did not practically make use of the ground it would he asked why the Governors paid for it". At present he holds that the day scholars "have not the same abstract right to the cricket ground" as the boarders. This is a point to which we shall revert under another head.
The games in vogue are the same as at other schools. Besides cricket and football there is boating for those who can swim, and a regularly organized regatta, of the expense of which Dr. Kennedy appears disposed to complain. Swimming is taught by a bathing
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master. Provision is made in the playground for gymnastic exercises. A rifle corps has been established, but appeared at the time of our inquiry to be in a somewhat languishing condition. Boys are allowed to go pretty freely into the country in a northerly direction, but are forbidden to cross the river and to go into the town.
Most of the boarders and many of the day scholars take part in the games. Dr. Kennedy says that many boys of high intellectual proficiency have excelled in one or more of them, and he has no doubt that this has been advantageous to them in more ways than one.
14. Religious Instruction and Church Services
The boys attend morning service on Sunday at St. Mary's Church, and in the afternoon they attend at the School chapel, where the Head Master preaches to them. There are also early morning and evening prayers with Scripture reading and an exposition or commentary. A considerable number of boys attend the monthly Communion. Attendance is quite voluntary, and Dr. Kennedy states that while impressing the religious duty of attendance upon the boys he is careful to sever it entirely from school discipline, and does not even allow the fact of attendance or non-attendance to modify his reports of character and conduct. There are divinity lessons on Sunday and on Monday morning, and divinity papers are set in the School examinations.
15. The Day Boys - Their Relation to the Boarders and to the School generally
The number of day boys at Shrewsbury was, at the time of our visit, 60. Of these, 22 were entitled to gratuitous education as the sons of burgesses. We were informed that a much larger number would probably attend if the School hours were altered, a more suitable education given to the sons of men in business, and the privilege of gratuitous instruction extended to all the ratepayers of the town. We have no doubt that such would be the case, but as we are of opinion that the adoption of those measures would seriously injure or even destroy the school as a classical boarding school, we cannot recommend them. We must therefore regard the school as containing about 70 boarders and about 60 day boys. The relations between these two classes have now to be investigated.
Both classes of boys pay the same tuition fees and receive precisely the same instruction, "excepting the nightly Scripture readings, which are a part of family worship". In school they are very much on a footing of equality, but out of school they do not appear to see much of each other, especially in the lower part of the School. The day boys are considered to be fully entitled to join in the games, and some of them do so. They are treated as being in every respect the social equals of the boarders, and Mr. Graves, who was himself a day boy, says that if a day boy put himself forward he would always be received. At the same time, he adds, the advance must be made by him; and he tells us, as does also Dr. Kennedy, that the great majority of the day boys go home after school and take no part in the amusements of the boarders. "I have in my mind", says Dr. Kennedy, in another place, "two or three of these who are still devoted students and good men, but who would have profited for active life by more sociality and more play at school"; and he says that the day scholar "does not, and indeed cannot, obtain the full advantage of the English public school life."
We have already noticed the facts that the day boys are to a great extent exempt from the discipline of the School, though they may be, and often are, præpostors, that they are not allowed to wear the school cap except in school hours, and that though admitted to the cricket ground they are not held to have an equal right there with the boarders.
Assuming that the School is to retain its classical character, there can, we think, be no doubt of the desirableness of giving the inhabitants of Shrewsbury the opportunity of sending their sons to it as day boys, and equally little of the desirableness of bringing the day boys and the boarders into the closest possible relations. With this view, we should be disposed to invite the serious attention of the Head Master to the question whether it would not be practicable to come to an understanding with the parents of the day boys that the latter should wear the school cap at all times, and should be considered amenable to school discipline at all hours of the day, just as the boarders are. We are aware that there will be some difficulties to be overcome in making such an arrangement, and we abstain from any formal recommendation on the subject; but we
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are strongly inclined to believe that the alteration would be a beneficial one, and that the difficulties in the way would not be found insuperable.
We are of opinion that the hours of school attendance should be so re-arranged as to suit, as far as possible, the convenience of the day boys. By transposing the breakfast hour and the first school hour, or by some similar plan, the means might probably be found of accommodating a class of boys which must under any circumstances form an important element in the School.
We have no hesitation whatever in recommending that the Governing Body should rent or purchase the cricket ground, and that they should cause distinct notice to be given to the School that the day boys are absolutely entitled to use it on precisely the same footing as the boarders. Boys are very sensitive, and it cannot be expected that they will mix with entire freedom in games to which some are admitted by right and others by favour, however much it may be the wish of the Head Master to keep the distinction out of sight.
Before quitting this part of our subject we feel bound to add that we believe the extension of the "non-collegiate" element in the School, in the manner desired by some of the witnesses who appeared before us, would do more to check the growth of harmony between the boarders and the day boys than any other measure. At present the boarders look upon the day boys as their social equals; but if a large number of day boys were to be added, drawn from the middle class of the inhabitants of the town, not destined for the Universities or for any of the liberal professions, and paying little or nothing for their education, it is almost inevitable that a feeling of social inequality should arise, and while the relations between the classical boarding scholars and the non-classical day scholars would probably be stiff and reserved, the position of the classical day scholars would become an exceedingly awkward and invidious one.
This consideration leads us to revert in conclusion to the question of the "non-collegiate" class.
16. The Non-Collegiate Class
In the observations which we have made in the first part of our Report upon the "Modern" Departments at Marlborough and Cheltenham colleges, we have expressed our opinion that the risks and difficulties which must under any circumstances attend the combination of a modern with a classical school would be felt much more if the attempt were made to engraft a modern department upon an old classical institution. What we have observed at Shrewsbury, where the attempt has been made, confirms this opinion; and were the question now an open one, we should be disposed to recommend the abandonment of the "non-collegiate" class, and to advise the inhabitants of Shrewsbury to turn their attention to the establishment of a good proprietary school suited to the wants of the middle classes.
As, however, the experiment has been begun, and as Dr. Kennedy appears reluctant to abandon it, we shall offer such suggestions for the improvement of the class as appear to us to be most likely to place it on a good footing.
In the first place, we are clearly of opinion that the tuition fee to be charged to boys attending the class should be the same as that charged to the boys in the classical department of the School, namely, twenty guineas; and we consider that this should be paid by the sons of burgesses equally with other boys; the right of gratuitous education being reserved, according to the intentions of the founders, to boys in the classical school. The payment required is not excessive for the amount of instruction which the boys will receive, and when it is considered that they will also enjoy many if not all the social advantages of a public school of the first class, it will be admitted to be a moderate one. On social grounds it is extremely desirable that it should not fall below the payments made by the boys in the classical school.
In the next place we recommend, with the same object of keeping up the standard of the class, that an entrance examination be established, and that no boy be admitted into the class unless he can read and write well, and is fairly grounded in arithmetic; that the class be divided into forms, and that a system of examinations be established especially adapted to the studies pursued in them; that provision be made for the removal of boys who do not proceed with reasonable rapidity from form to form; and that a system of prizes for the various subjects of study pursued in the department be established for the encouragement of industry. We think, however, that these prizes should be offered to the competition, not of the "non-collegiate" class alone, but of the whole School. This will
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be for the advantage of the "non-collegiate" boys themselves, who now appear, from the evidence of Mr. Calvert and Mr. Bentley, to make less of proportionate and even of positive progress in their own studies than the well-taught boys in the classical school. It will also, of course, afford a useful stimulus to the modern studies of the classical school.
We further recommend that, as a special encouragement to the non-collegiate class, free studentships should be created in it, which should be open to competition, and the holders of which should be entitled to exemption from the tuition fees. It would be a misapplication of the funds appropriated to the Exhibitions, which were obviously designed from the first* for the support of young men at the Universities, if we were to recommend their being thrown open to "non-collegiates". We think, however, that it would be reasonable, as the fees paid by the "non-collegiate" boys will of course go into the General Tuition Fund, that some part of the surplus of that fund should be applied to the encouragement of merit in that class; and we accordingly suggest that before the number of the Exhibitions is raised above that to which we propose temporarily to reduce it, a limited number of free studentships, say three or five, should be established in the "non-collegiate" class, as the funds may allow; and that when the Exhibitions have been brought up to their present amount, some more of such free studentships should be founded in proportion to the means of the school and the extent of the class.
With regard to the admission of boys into the non-collegiate class from the other division of the school, we are of opinion that it should not be allowed in the case of any boy who has not reached the Fifth Form, and then only upon such application from the boy's parents or guardians, backed by the recommendation of the Masters under whose care he is, as is required in the case of boys desiring to discontinue a portion of their studies in other schools.
We suggest the following as a suitable scale of work for the "non-collegiate" school:
| Hours per week |
Classics (including Divinity, Ancient History, and Geography) | 6 |
Mathematics | 6 |
Modern Languages | 6 |
Natural Science | 4 |
Modern History and Geography | 2 |
Music or Drawing | 2 |
| 26 |
Subject to these regulations, and to such other precautions as the experience of the Head Master may suggest, we believe that the experiment of the "non-collegiate" class may be tried with a reasonable hope of success, and without injury to the classical school; but we cannot quit the subject without expressing our strong hope that the Governing Body will watch its working narrowly, and will use every exertion to prevent its resulting in any detriment to the main objects of this ancient foundation.
SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS
Subject to the exception which we have proposed to make in favour of Dr. Kennedy's second boarding-house, and which to some extent affects the Recommendation XXVIII, and to the consideration that the Recommendations relating to the studies of the School apply only to its "collegiate" branch, we are of opinion that all the General Recommendations (Part I. pp. 52-55) are applicable to Shrewsbury.
We add the following special recommendations:
1. That the Governing Body consist of thirteen members, of whom three should be named by the Corporation of Shrewsbury, one by the Master and Fellows of St. John's College, Cambridge, one by the Master and Fellows of Magdalen College, Cambridge, one by the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church, Oxford, and three by the Crown. The other four members to be elected by the Governing Body itself. The Governors at their first meeting to elect one of their number to be Chairman, and another to he Deputy Chairman.
2. That the Corporation, the three Colleges, and the Crown at once nominate one apiece, to be added to the Governing Body, which will thus be raised to seventeen
*See on this point Mr. Ashton's letter, quoted above, p. 304. note.
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members, exclusive of the Mayor, whose tenure of office is only temporary, and that there be no fresh appointment till the number has been reduced below thirteen; except that in case of the death or resignation of any of the five additional members before that minimum has been reached, the vacancy be supplied by the same authority as that by which the member dying or resigning had originally been appointed. After the number of the Governors has been reduced below thirteen, the vacancies to be filled by alternate nominations by the Corporation and the Crown, until each has nominated three members. The next four vacancies to be filled by election.
3. That the Governors should be members of the Church of England, and persons qualified by their positions or attainments to fill that situation with advantage to the School, and those nominated by the Crown should be Graduates of Oxford or Cambridge, and men eminent in science or literature.
4. That whenever the whole number of the Governing Body is complete six should be a quorum, and that when it is not complete a proportion not less than one half of the existing body should constitute a quorum.
5. That the right of veto upon the selection of the Head Master now given to the Visitor should be discontinued.
6. That inasmuch as by the arrangements made by the Cambridge University Commissioners, and acquiesced in by Magdalen College, the scholars of Shrewsbury School have been deprived of their exclusive claim to the Millington Fellowships at that College, it is just that the Millington Scholars or Exhibitioners from Shrewsbury School, should, on their side, be released from the necessity of entering at Magdalen College, and that they should be allowed to hold their scholarships or exhibitions at any College at Oxford or Cambridge.
7. That the Careswell Exhibitions, and all other scholarships and exhibitions and other emoluments to which boys of Shrewsbury School are now eligible, either primarily, or in default of other candidates to whom a preference has been given, and the emoluments of which are supplied from funds not held by or for any particular College, be held at the option of the successful candidates respectively, at any College at either University.
8. That a scheme be prepared for bringing all the funds for Scholarships and Exhibitions into one common fund, and commuting the various Scholarships and Exhibitions which are now tenable at various Colleges for various terms for a fixed number of Exhibitions worth from £30 to £80 per annum, tenable at any College at either University, and for the uniform term of 4 years, attaching, as far as possible, the names of the original Founders to the commuted Exhibitions.
9. That the right of free education at Shrewsbury School be limited to 40 boys at a time, and that these 40 be called Free Scholars, and be selected from among the sons of burgesses in the first instance, and, after these have been provided for, then by competitive examinations open to all Her Majesty's subjects under the age of 15.
10. That after the expiration of 25 years, all local and other particular rights to free education at the School be abolished, and that thereafter the free Scholarships be filled up by free competition, open to all Her Majesty's subjects.
11. That all the boys in the School be equally eligible to the several Scholarships and Exhibitions at the Universities.
12. That the tuition fees should be raised to twenty guineas, and that the Governors should pay those of the Scholars.
13. That it is expedient to suspend a portion of the Exhibitions for so many years as may be requisite, in order to meet the demand for new buildings.
14. That a sum be forthwith expended sufficient to provide a site for, and build, two boarding houses, one capable of containing not less than 60 boys to be kept by the Head Master, and one capable of containing not less than 40 boys to be kept by the Under Master.
15. That the Governors select two places for this purpose, of which the one intended for the Head Master's boarding house immediately to be erected should form part of a larger design, comprehending a plan for school buildings hereafter to be raised when funds shall be forthcoming, and the occasion for doing so shall seem to the Governors to have arrived.
16. That the Governors be recommended to raise the sum required for these purposes by the sale of the whole or part of the funded property now in their hands, and by borrowing such further sum as may be necessary on the security of the unincumbered portion of the tithe rent charges belonging to the School.
17. That the two houses which it is proposed that the Governors should build be assigned to the Head Master and Second Master respectively. That no rent be charged
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for them; but that in lieu of rent a capitation charge of £3 be made for each boarder on the annual average number of boarders. That any of the other Masters (whether classical or not) be at liberty to open boarding houses on their own account, with the permission in each case of the Governors, and under regulations to be made by them, and that they be subject to the same capitation charge of £3 per boarder. The capitation fee to be paid into the Tuition Fund.
18. That immediate steps be taken for the appointment of a Master in Natural Science, to be at once employed in the instruction of the Non-collegiate Class.
19. That the fees charged to the "Non-collegiate" Class be equal to those charged to the rest of the School.
20. That no boy be allowed to join the "Non-collegiate" Class except either on his first admission to the School or after he has reached the Fifth Form. In the latter case provision should be made upon the same principles as at other schools for allowing boys either to discontinue the higher kinds of composition only, or to discontinue Greek and original composition altogether.
21. The following scale of work is suggested for the "Non-collegiate" School:
| Hours per week |
Classics (including Divinity, Ancient History, and Geography) | 6 |
Mathematics | 6 |
Modern Languages | 6 |
Natural Science | 4 |
Modern History and Geography | 2 |
Music or Drawing | 2 |
| 26 |
22. That as to Drawing the boys should, at all events for the present, continue to take advantage of the School of Design in the town.
23. That in order to prevent the "Non-collegiate" Class becoming a refuge for the idle, there should be a stringent system of examinations especially adapted for it, and that the attention of the Head Master and School Council be directed to its division into forms, and that rules be laid down for the removal of boys who fail to proceed from form to form with reasonable rapidity.
24. That prizes be established for the various subjects of study in the "Non-collegiate" School, but that these prizes be open to the competition of the whole School.
25. That, as soon as the funds admit, a certain number of Free Studentships be founded in the "Non-collegiate" School, which shall be disposed of by competitive examinations, in which due weight shall be given to all the studies of the "Non-collegiate" boys.
26. That an entrance examination he imposed for the "Non-collegiate" class, which shall require the boy to be able to read and write well, and to be fairly instructed in the elements of Arithmetic.
27. That the lowest age for admission into the School be nine years, and the highest 14 years, and that no boy remain in the School after 19.
28. That the Governors should annually appoint Examiners not immediately connected with the School to examine the whole School, and to report thereupon to the Governors, and that the selection of the Exhibitioners for the year be made by the Examiners.
29. That it is desirable that the Governors should take the burden of the rent of the playground off the hands of the Head Master.
CONCLUSION OF REPORT
Having now concluded our separate Reports upon the several Schools, we submit the recommendations which we have appended to them to Your Majesty's approval. These recommendations may be broadly classified under five main heads:
1. Those which relate to the constitution, functions, and powers of the Governing Bodies of the several Schools:
2. Those relating to the rights of Foundationers:
3. Those relating to the endowments of the Schools, whether existing at the Schools themselves or at the Universities:
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4. Those relating to the management of the Schools, including the appointment remuneration, and powers of the masters, the system of admission, the regulations with respect to the board and lodging of the boys, the rates of charge, and the general discipline of the Schools:
5. Those relating to the course of instruction.
As regards the first three at least of these, we apprehend that Parliamentary legislation will be required in order to make the changes which we consider desirable. To determine the form which such legislation should take is not within our province. Whether any step should be taken to give the sanction of Parliamentary authority to any part of our recommendations under the two latter heads, is a question of grave public policy, upon which we do not express any opinion.
16th February 1864.