Clarendon Report (1864)

Background notes

The complete report (Volume I) is shown in this single web page. You can scroll through it or use the following links to go to the various chapters.

Contents (page v)
Introduction (1)

First Part

General results and recommendations (4)

Second Part
Chapter I (57)
Eton
Chapter II (134)
Winchester
Chapter III (159)
Westminster
Chapter IV (175)
Charterhouse
Chapter V (187)
St Paul's
Chapter VI (202)
Merchant Taylors'
Chapter VII (208)
Harrow
Chapter VIII (229)
Rugby
Chapter IX (303)
Shrewsbury

Conclusion (325)

Note of Dissent (327)
Mr Vaughan's dissent from recommendation XXIII

Summary of Proceedings (338)

The text of the Clarendon Report was prepared by Derek Gillard and uploaded on 27 November 2018.


Clarendon Report (1864)
Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Revenues and Management of Certain Colleges and Schools, and the Studies Pursued and Instruction Given Therein
Volume I

London: HM Stationery Office


[title page]

REPORT

OF

HER MAJESTY'S COMMISSIONERS

APPOINTED TO INQUIRE INTO

THE

REVENUES AND MANAGEMENT OF CERTAIN
COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS

AND THE

STUDIES PURSUED AND INSTRUCTION
GIVEN THEREIN

WITH

AN APPENDIX AND EVIDENCE


VOL. I

REPORT

Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty

LONDON:
PRINTED BY GEORGE E. EYRE AND WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE,
PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.
FOR HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE.

1864


[page iii]

COMMISSION

Victoria, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, Defender of the Faith. To Our right trusty and right well-beloved Cousin and Councillor, George William Frederick Earl of Clarendon, Knight of Our most noble Order of the Garter; Our right trusty and right well-beloved Cousin William Reginald Earl of Devon; Our right trusty and well-beloved George William Lord Lyttelton; Our trusty and well-beloved Edward Turner-Boyd Twisleton, Esquire (commonly called the Honourable Edward Turner Boyd Twisleton); Our trusty and well-beloved Sir Stafford Henry Northcote, Baronet; Our trusty and well-beloved William Hepworth Thompson, Clerk, Master of Arts; and Our trusty and well-beloved Henry Halford Vaughan, Esquire, Master of Arts, greeting:

Whereas We have deemed it expedient, for divers good Causes and Considerations, that a Commission should forthwith issue for the Purpose of inquiring into the Nature and Application of the Endowments, Funds, and Revenues belonging to or received by the herein-after mentioned Colleges, Schools, and Foundations, namely, the College of the Blessed Mary of Eton, near Windsor (commonly called Eton College), Saint Mary College, Winchester (commonly called Winchester College), the Collegiate School of Saint Peter, Westminster, the Hospital founded in Charterhouse, in the County of Middlesex, commonly called Sutton's Hospital or the Charterhouse, Saint Paul's School in the City of London, the Merchant Taylors' School in the City of London, the Free Grammar School of John Lyon at Harrow-on-the-Hill, in the County of Middlesex, the School founded by Lawrence Sheriff at Rugby, in the County of Warwick, the Free Grammar School of King Edward the Sixth at Shrewsbury; and also to inquire into the Administration and Management of the said Colleges, Schools, and Foundations, and into the System and Course of Studies respectively pursued therein, as well as into the Methods, Subjects, and Extent of the Instruction given to the Students of the said Colleges, Schools, and Foundations.

Now know ye, that We, reposing great Trust and Confidence in your Knowledge, Ability, and Discretion, have authorized and appointed and do by these Presents authorize and appoint you the said George William Frederick Earl of Clarendon, William Reginald Earl of Devon, George William Lord Lyttelton, Edward Turner Boyd Twisleton, Sir Stafford Henry Northcote, William Hepworth Thompson, and Henry Halford Vaughan, to be Our Commissioners for inquiring into the Nature and Application of the Endowments, Funds, and Revenues belonging to or received by the said Colleges, Schools, and Foundations; and also to inquire into the Administration and Management of the said Colleges, Schools, and Foundations, and into the System and Course of Studies respectively pursued therein, as well as into the Methods, Subjects, and Extent of the Instruction given to the Students of the said Colleges, Schools, and Foundations.

And for the better enabling you to carry these Our Royal Intentions into effect, We do by these Presents authorize and empower you, or any Three or more of you, to call before you or any Three or more of you such Persons as you may judge necessary, by whom you may be better informed of the Matters herein submitted for your Consideration, and also to call for and examine all such Books, Documents, Papers, and Records, as you shall judge likely to afford you the fullest Information on the Subject of this Our Commission, and to inquire of and concerning the Premises by all other lawful Ways and Means whatsoever.


[page iv]

And We do also give and grant unto you, or any Three or more of you, full Power and Authority, when the same shall appear to be requisite, to administer an Oath or Oaths to any Person or Persons whatsoever to be examined before you or any Three or more of you touching or concerning the Premises.

And it is Our further Will and Pleasure that you, or any Three or more of you, do report to Us in Writing under your Hands and Seals, as soon as the same can reasonably be done (using all Diligence), your several Proceedings by virtue of this Our Commission, together with your Opinions touching the several Matters hereby referred for your Consideration.

And We will and command, and by these Presents ordain, that this Our Commission shall continue in full Force and Virtue, and that you Our said Commissioners, or any Three or more of you, may from Time to Time proceed in the Execution thereof, and of every Matter and Thing therein contained; although the same be not continued from Time to Time by Adjournment.

And We do hereby require all and singular Our Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs, Mayors, Bailiffs, Constables, Officers, Ministers, and all other Our loving Subjects whatsoever, as well within Liberties as without, that they be assistant to you and each of you in the Execution of these Presents.

And for your further Assistance in the Execution of these Presents, We do hereby nominate and appoint Our trusty and well-beloved Mountague Bernard, Bachelor of Civil Law, to be Secretary to this Our Commission, and to attend you, whose Services and Assistance We require you to use from Time to Time as occasion may require.

In Witness whereof We have caused these Our Letters to be made Patent. Witness Ourself at Westminster, the 18th Day of July, in the Twenty-fifth Year of Our Reign.





[page v]

CONTENTS OF REPORT

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Terms of the Commission; Schools comprised in it; Course of Inquiry; Questions issued to Governing Bodies; Copies sent to Masters; the Commissioners have visited the Schools; Classification of Witnesses examined; Proposed Examination of Boys; Questions addressed to Tutors and others at Oxford and Cambridge; to Council of Military Education; Information obtained respecting Marlborough, Cheltenham, and Wellington Colleges, and respecting the City of London and King's College Schools; Information obtained respecting the higher Schools in Prussia; Division of the Report p. 1-3

FIRST PART

GENERAL RESULTS OF THE INQUIRY, AND GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS

Introduction. Origin of the Schools; Endowments p. 4

1. Government of the Schools, Schools attached to Colleges; other Grammar Schools; actual relation of Head Master to Governing Body; Character proper for a Governing Body; Crown Nominations in certain cases; Powers which should be possessed by a Governing Body; Powers of Head Master; Head Master and Assistants; Meetings for Consultation; Suggestion of a "School Council"; Selection of Masters p. 4-7

2. Statutes and Regulations. Necessity for a Power of Revision and Alteration; Plea of Desuetude; Principle of Revision p. 7, 8

3. Composition of the Schools. Foundationers and Non-foundationers; Questions raised; Unity of Government and Discipline desirable; Relation of Foundation boys to Non-foundationers; Condition of Foundation Scholars; Founders' Intentions; Poverty Qualification; Local Privileges p. 8-11

4. Course and Subjects of Instruction in the Schools. Total number of boys at the nine Schools; Ancient Curriculum of the Schools; Causes which have given preponderance to Classics; Present Course, 1. Classical teaching - Grammar - Diversity of Grammars - Construing - Oral Translation - Retranslation -Attention to Substance and Matter of Books construed - Repetition - Recitation - Original Composition and Translation. 2. Mathematics and Modern Languages - Time and Weight given to them - Classification in Mathematics and Modern Languages - Disadvantages affecting these Studies - Amount of Success attained and Amount attainable in them - Modern Language Masters. 3. History and Geography p. 11-18

5. Organization of the Schools for Teaching. Advantages and Disadvantages of a great School as to Organization and Teaching; Number of Forms; Parallel Forms; Tutorial System; Size of Forms; Proportion of Masters to Boys; Conditions determining the proper size of a Form; Time spent in School; Preparation of Lessons; Stimulants to Industry; Systems of Promotion; Prizes; School Lists; Remarks and Suggestions p. 18-22

6. Results of the Instruction at the Schools as ascertained from other Sources. Results at the Universities. Matriculation Examination at Oxford; Responsions and Moderations; Average of classical attainment unsatisfactory; Effect on the Universities; Comparative results from different places of education; General Conclusions; Number and Proportion of Boys who leave the Schools for the Universities. p. 23-27

7. Results - The Army. Examinations for (1) Direct Commissions; (2) Sandhurst; (3) Woolwich p. 27

8. General Observations on the Course and Subjects of Instruction proper for the Schools. Subjects proper for School Course; Language and Literature; Special fitness of Classical Languages and Literature; Objection to Classical Course; Answer to objection; Course should not be exclusively classical , Objections to Extension of Course; Answer to objections; Arithmetic and Mathematics; Modern Languages; Natural Science; Advantages of this Study; Music and Drawing; History and Geography; English Composition and Orthography; Remarks p. 28-33

9. Observations on the Time and relative Value to be assigned to different Branches of School Course, their share in Promotion, Prizes, &c. Suggested Scale of Time; Independent Classification in each Branch; Suggested Scale of value in Promotion; Prizes, School Lists, &c.; Tendency of a principal study to encroach p. 33-35

10. Deviations from the regular Course of Study - Experiment of a separate Modern Department. Question of a Modern Department; French System; German System; Experimental Systems in England - Cheltenham College - Marlborough College - Wellington College - City of London School - King's College School; Objects of these Systems, 1. To prepare for special destinations and competitive examinations, Woolwich, &c. 2. To give a good Education not based on Classics; Difficulties experienced; Conclusion; Modern Department not recommended; Deviations from School Course to be allowed in certain Cases; Precautions against abuse p. 35-39

11. Responsibilities of Parents - Want of adequate Preparation among Boys admitted to the Schools; effect of deficient preparation on the Schools; Entrance Examination; Standard should be strictly adhered to; Home Influence p. 40

12. Physical Training. Games; Encouragement given to them; Importance attributed to them useful within due limits; Swimming; Rifle Corps p. 40, 41

13. Moral Training. Discipline - Monitorial System - Fagging - Grounds on which the Monitorial System is rested; Its advantages; Its antiquity; Difference of opinion respecting it; Objections and risks to which it is subject; Abuses of it preventible, and not frequent; Value and utility of the Principle; Fagging - Questions as to its character and effects; Witnesses examined on it; What it is; Conclusion; Relation between Masters and Boys; Flogging; Training of Character in general; Improved moral tone at Universities p. 42-45

14. Religious teaching. Confirmation and Holy Communion; Sermons; Prayers; Religious Influences generally p. 45, 46

15. School Finance. Points inquired into; Principle on which Charges should be framed; Facts ascertained; Charges and Emoluments should be regulated by Governing Body; Charges and Emoluments should be revised; Principles of Revision; Masters at some of the Schools underpaid; Suggestions on this point p. 46-49

16. Domestic and Sanitary Arrangements. Inquiries on these points; School-Buildings; Bedrooms, &c. System at Eton - at Harrow - at Rugby - at other Schools; Remarks; "Dames'" Houses; Expedient that Boarding-houses should be kept by Masters; Diet; Sanatoria and Sick-rooms; Remarks p. 49, 50

17. The Holidays. Holiday times at different Schools do not coincide. - Suggestion p. 50

18. The London Schools. Their numbers and character; Disadvantage of Situation; Effects of this on the Schools; Westminster and Charterhouse Schools - Question as to their Removal into the Country considered; Conclusion p. 50, 52

19. Summary of General Recommendations: i. Constitution of Governing Bodies; ii. Statutes; iii. Powers of Governing Body; iv. Proceedings of Governing Body; v. Powers of Head Master; vi. School Council; vii. Selection of Masters; viii-xxii. Course of Study; xxiii. Entrance Examination; xxiv, Promotion; xxv. Maximum Age for Forms; xxvi-xxviii, Charges and Emoluments; xxix. Monitorial System; xxx, Fagging; xxxi, The Holidays; xxxii. Head Master to report to Governors p. 52-55

Conclusion of First Part p. 55, 56


[page vi]

SECOND PART

CHAPTER I. ETON

STATEMENT

The College

1. General Constitution of the College p. 57
2. Statutes of the College, and Visitorial authority to which it is subject p. 57, 58
3. Endowments, Income, and Expenditure; Fines; Management; probable Increase; special Trust Funds p. 58-60
4. The Governing Body. Qualifications of Provost; Election of Provost; Qualifications of Fellows; Emoluments of Provost and Fellows; Ecclesiastical Patronage; Provost's Duties and Powers; Fellows' Duties and Powers p. 60-64
5. The Conducts or Chaplains, and Choristers - p. 64
6. The King's Scholars. Statutory Qualifications and Election of Scholars; their Statutory Emoluments; their past and present Condition; Present Mode of electing Scholars; Results of Competition; Social Relations of Collegers and Oppidans p. 64-69

The School

7. Numbers and Composition of the School. Commensales; Oppidans , whether limit of number desirable p. 69, 70
8. Arrangement of the School: 1. Forms and Removes. 2. Divisions. 3, Admission. 4. Promotion by Removes p. 70-72
9. Government of the School. The Head Master, his Duties and Emoluments, and his relation to the Provost and to the Assistants p. 72-74
10. System and Course of Study, how composed p. 74, 75
11. Classical Teaching: (a) How distributed; (b) Classical Work in School and Size of Divisions; (c) Work in Pupil-room, Preparation for School-work, and Correction of Exercises; (d) Private Work in Pupil-room; (f) Number of Pupils to each Tutor; (g) General Proportion of Masters to Boys; (h) Other Duties of Classical Assistant Masters; (i) Appointment, Qualifications, and Emoluments of Classical Assistant Masters p. 75-81
12. Mathematical Teaching: (a) Its Introduction into the School; past and present Status of Mathematical Masters, and their Emoluments; (b) Arrangement of the School for Mathematics, and Time given to them; (c) Private Tuition in Mathematics; (d) Condition of this Branch of Study p. 81-84
13. History and Geography p. 84
14. Modern Languages p. 84-86
15. Natural Science p. 86
16. Music p. 86
17. Drawing p. 86
18. Deviations from Regular Course of Classical Study, in what cases, if any, allowable; Army Class; suggested Facilities for Deviation p. 86, 87
19. General Arrangement and Employment of Time assigned to Study; School Books p. 87-89
20. Methods of promoting Industry; Promotion; Prizes p. 89-91
21. Proportion of Boys educated at Eton who go to the Universities; Proportion who enter the Army; Eton Education as preparatory for the Universities; Eton Education as preparatory for the Army p. 91, 92
22. The Lower School. Numbers of Lower School; Arrangement of it; the Lower Master; Course of Study in Lower School; Conditions of Admission to it; Opinions respecting it p. 92-94
23. Moral Training and General Discipline of the School; Relation of Tutor to Pupil; Monitorial Power p. 94, 95
24. Fagging p. 95, 96
25. Punishments p. 96
26. Games p. 97
27. Chapel Services; Prayers; Preaching p. 97, 98
28. Boarding Houses; Payments for Boarding; Tenure of Boarding Houses; Practice as to Succession to a Boarding House; Domiciliary Arrangements p. 98-100
29. School Charges and Annual Expenses of a Boy at Eton p. 100
30. Practice of giving "Leaving Books" p. 100

OBSERVATIONS

Relation of the College to the School; Objects of Foundation: Changes it has undergone; Scholars and Oppidans p. 100, 101
Governing Body: The Fellowships; the Provost; the Parish of Eton; College Livings; other Plans proposed; Fellowships to be no longer retiring Pensions p. 101-103
Management of Property; Fines p. 103,104
College Offices; Conducts p. 104
King's Scholars: Notice of Election; Preferences and Disqualifications; Mode of Examination; Elections to King's; Casting Vote in Elections; Changes recommended p. 104-106
Government of the School: Provost's control over Head Master; Changes recommended; School Council p. 106, 107
Number of the School, System of Admission, &c.: Magnitude of School; Inconveniencies of it; Limitation recommended; System of Admission; Changes recommended p. 107-110
The Lower School: Changes recommended p. 110
Work in the different Divisions and the Tutor's construing: Causes which have affected the School-work; sameness of it; Inconveniences of this; Practice of construing in Pupil-room an obstacle to change; Pleas urged for this practice; Objections to it; Changes recommended p. 111-113
Course of Instruction: Modifications required in it; Revision of Time-table; Reduction of Repetition Lessons; Suggested Scheme of Work; Introduction of new Branches of Study; Deviations; Promotion in upper part of School; Changes recommended p. 113-116
The Mathematical Masters and the Teaching of Mathematics p. 116
School Prizes and Rewards: Oppidan Exhibitions; Prizes for Composition and Translation; Public Recitation of Prize Compositions; Names of "the Select" to be printed p. 116, 117
Chapel Services: Changes recommended; Choir; Sermons p.117-119
Boarding Houses: Arguments for and against "Dames'" Houses; Boarding Houses to be in future kept by Masters only; Mathematical Masters to be Tutors for General Superintendence of Boys boarding with them; Suggested Scheme; Interests of Lessees and Occupiers p; 119, 120
Scholarships and Exhibitions from Eton to the Universities: By whom awarded; Who eligible; Changes recommended p. 120-123
The Remuneration of the Masters: Suggested Scheme p. 123, 124
College Revenues and Expenditure as affected by the proposed Changes: Gross Income; Abstract of Expenditure; Proposed Reductions; New Charges; Balance p. 125-129

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS


CHAPTER II. WINCHESTER

STATEMENT

The College

1. Constitution of the College p. 134
2. Statutes; Visitor; "Scrutiny" p. 134
3. Endowments; Income and Expenditure; Special Trust Funds p. 134, 135
4. The Governing Body; Qualifications and Election of Warden; of Fellows; Emoluments; College Livings; Duties and Powers of Warden; of Fellows p. 135, 136
5. The Choristers p. 136
6. The Scholars. Qualifications and Election of Scholars; their condition; the Goddard Fund p. 137-139

The School

7. Number and Composition of the School; Commoners; Admission p. 139, 140
8. Government of the School. Head Master'a Relation to the Warden and Fellows, and to the Assistants p. 140, 141
9. Emoluments of Masters p. 141, 142
10. Course of Study. Arrangement of the School for Classical Teaching; Forms and Divisions; Distribution of Forms among the Masters p. 142, 143
11. Private Tuition. "Boy Tutors" p. 143, 144
12. Miscellaneous points respecting the Classical Teaching at Winchester p. 144
13. History p. 144
14. Recitation p. 144
15. Arithmetic and Mathematics p. 145
16. Modern Languages p. 145


[page vii]

17. Natural Science p. 145-147
18. Deviations from the regular Course of Study, how far allowed p. 147
19: System of Promotion; its Effects; Half-yearly Examination; Competition for New College; Goddard Scholarship; Mathematical Scholarships; Prizes; Exhibitions p. 147-149
20. Scholarships and Exhibitions not tenable at the School. Scholarships at New College; Recent Changes; Superannuation; Bedminster and Superannuates' Exhibitions; Mode of Election p. 149-151
21. Hours of Work; Games; Extension of Bounds p. 151, 152
22. Monitorial System. Prefects; Working of System p. 152
23. Fagging p. 152, 153
24. Punishments p. 153
25. Chapel Services; Sermons; Religious teaching p. 153
26. Commoners' Boarding-houses; Expenses of a Commoner at Winchester; School Charges and Payments, and Distribution of them; Drainage of Town p. 154
27. Results. The Universities. The Army p. 154, 155

OBSERVATIONS

Constitution of Governing Body; Connexion with New College; Bedminster and Superannuates' Exhibitions; Classical Staff; School Finance p. 155-157

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS


CHAPTER III. WESTMINSTER

STATEMENT AND OBSERVATIONS

1. Foundation of the School. Its relation to the Chapter; its Composition and Numbers p. 159
2. Queen's Scholars. Admission; System of Challenges; Effects of System of Challenges; Past and present Condition of Scholars p. 159-161
3. Monitors p. 161, 162
4. Fagging; Recent Regulations on the Subject p. 162, 163
5. Bishop Williams's Scholarships p. 163
6. Town Boys. Home Boarders; Half Boarders; Boarding Houses p. 163, 164
7. Arrangement of the School into Forms; Course of Study: Mathematics and French; Music and Drawing; Promotion; Hours of Work; Appointment &c. of Masters p.164, 165
8. Private Tuition p. 165
9. Prizes; Exhibitions, Studentships p. 165, 166
10. Results. The Universities. The Army p. 166, 167
11. Punishments p. 167
12. Amusements p. 167
13. Religious Services p. 167, 168
14. Finances of the School. Payments by Chapter; by Parents; Masters' Emoluments; Changes recommended p.168-170
15. Government of the School. Change recommended p. 170
16. Site of the School. Question of Removal p. 170, 171

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS


CHAPTER IV. CHARTERHOUSE

STATEMENT AND OBSERVATIONS

1. Origin of the Foundation. Statutes and Orders; the Governors; their Powers; the Master of the Hospital p. 175, 176
2. Endowments, Income, and Expenditure p. 176, 177
3. The Foundation Scholars. Their Number and Mode of Appointment; their Condition and Advantages p. 177-179
4. Boys not on the Foundation; Boarders; Day Boys p. 179
5. Numbers and Arrangement of the School; Forms and Divisions p. 179
6. Masters; Their Duties and Emoluments; Their Appointment p. 179-181
7. Promotion in School; Prizes; Exhibitions p. 181
8. Results, The Universities. The Army p. 181, 182
9. Discipline. Punishments p. 182
10. Monitorial System; Fagging p. 182
11. Religious Observances and Teaching p. 183
12. Amusements p. 183
13. Constitution of the Governing Body. (Observations) p. 183, 184
14. Proposed Removal of the School. (Observations) p. 184

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS


CHAPTER V. ST. PAUL'S

STATEMENT AND OBSERVATIONS

1. History of the Foundation. Founder; Date of Foundation; Scholars, Masters; Famous Paulines p. 187, 188
2. Endowments. Question as to Surplus Income p. 188
3. Government of the School. Officers and Court of Assistants of the Mercers' Company; Power to amend Ordinances p. 188, 189
4. Masters. Their Number and Stipends; Their Appointment, Duties, and Powers; School Council suggested; Music and Drawing p. 189, 190
5. Scholars. The Scholars, their number; Their mode of Appointment; Its defects and consequences; Change suggested p. 190, 191
6. Number of Classes; Disparities of Age in Classes; Suggested Change: Promotion p. 191, 192
7. Prizes and Exhibitions; Gifts of Money p. 192, 193
8. School-hours; Recreation and Meals; Boarding p. 193, 194
9. Means of maintaining Discipline; Punishments p. 194, 195
10. Religious Observances; Prayers; Religious Teaching p. 195
11. Results. University Distinctions p. 195, 196
12. Proposals for Improvement of the School, and Application of the Surplus Revenue. Narrative of Proceedings of Court in reference to Improvement of School; Surplus Revenue; Appointment of First Committee; First Committee's Report; Second Committee; Second Committee's Report; Remarks and Suggestions: 1. Site and Buildings; 2. Increase and Re-organization of School; 3. Interim Arrangements p. 196-200

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS


CHAPTER VI. MERCHANT TAYLORS'

STATEMENT

Origin of Foundation; Statutes: Number of Boys; Masters; Payments and Stipends; Expenditure by Company; Admission; Scholarships; Prizes; Course of Study; Number of Masters; University Distinctions, and Proportion of Boys who go to the Universities and into the Army; Speeches; Religious Teaching; Number of Forms: Promotion; Punishments; Monitors; Private Tuition; School Buildings; Superintendence by Company p. 202-206

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS


CHAPTER VII. HARROW

STATEMENT

1. Foundation and Endowment of the School p. 208
2. Statutes p. 208
3. Government of the School. Governors; Head-Master; Assistant Masters; Assistants' Periodical Meetings p. 208, 209
4. Emoluments of Head and Lower Masters, Number and Emoluments of the Classical Assistant Masters p. 209, 210
5. Foundation Boys. Directions of Founder: Their Privileges; Their Number and Character; The English Form; Founder's Kin p. 210, 211
6. Numbers of the School; System of Admission; Course of Study; Arrangement of the School p. 211, 212
7. System of Promotion; School Lists p. 212, 213
8. "Private" Tuition. Composition; Preparation of School work; Private Reading with Tutor p. 213, 214
9. Mathematics. The Mathematical Masters, their Number, Position, and Emoluments; Introduction of Mathematics into the School; Mathematical Classes; Hours and Scale of Marks; Private Tuition in Mathematics; the Mathematical Masters, their Position and Emoluments; Progress of Study p. 214, 215
10. Modern Languages. Classes, Hours, and Scale of Marks; Prizes; The Modern Language Masters, Progress p. 216
11. History p. 216, 217


[page viii]

12. Natural Science p. 217
13. Music and Drawing p. 217
14. Classical Study, how affected by the Introduction of other Studies p. 217, 218
15. Deviations from the regular Course of Study, how far allowed p. 218, 219
16. Scholarships, Prizes, &c. p. 219
17. Religious teaching; Chapel Services; Preaching p. 219, 220
18. Punishments p. 220
19. Moral Training and Discipline; Tutors' Monthly Reports; Monitorial System p. 220-222
20. Fagging p. 222
21. Time given to Work, Games, &c.; Rifle Corps p. 222, 223
22. Harrow Education as preparatory for the Universities; For the Army p. 223, 224
23. Boarding-houses, &c.; "Small" Houses; Bed-rooms; Sick-rooms; School-rooms p. 224
24. Charges and Expenses of a Boy at Harrow p. 225

OBSERVATIONS

The Governors; School Finance; Foundation Boys and Founder's Kin; The English Form; Numbers of School p. 225-227

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS


CHAPTER VIII. RUGBY

STATEMENT

1. Foundation p. 229
2. Revenues p. 229
3. Visitorial Power p. 230
4. Personal Constituency of the School p. 230
5. The Board of Trustees, their Constitution and Powers; Exercise of Power by the Trustees p. 230, 231
6. The Head Master, his Qualifications and Powers, p. 232
7. Assistant Masters, their Number, Qualifications, and Powers p. 233
8. Boys in the School. Their Number p. 234
9. Classes of Boys; The Foundationers. (1) Their Number and their Qualification. (2) Their Privileges and Social Position p. 234, 235
10. Qualifications for entering or remaining in the School p. 235
11. General Organization of the School p. 235
12. Arrangement of the Classical School p. 235, 236
13. Number of Boys in each Class in the Classical School p. 236
14. Ages of Boys in the Classes of the Classical School p. 236
15. Number of Hours spent in the Class-rooms of the Classical School p. 237
16. Subjects of Instruction in the Classes of the Classical School. (1) Order in which Authors are construed and taken with the Class Work; (2) Mode of construing in the Classes; (3) The Testing of the Knowledge of Grammatical Forms and Constructions in the Classes; (4) Verbal Repetition in the Classes; (5) Divinity in the Classes; (6) History and Geography in the Classes; (7) The Substance and Matter of Books committed to Memory in Classes; (8) Method of Teaching the Classes; (9) Composition in the Classes p. 237-239.
17. Tutorial System p. 239, 240
18. Selection of Tutors p. 240, 241
19. Private Classical Reading p. 241
20. Inducements to Industry in the Classical School. (1) Promotion - a. Promotion from Division to Division by Examination; The June Examination; The Christmas Examination; Peculiarity of the June Examination: b. Promotion from Division to Division by Class Work only: c. Promotion though the Parallel Divisions: d. Time spent in each Division in the Classical School. (2) Prizes for Examinations in the Classical School; (3) Scholarships for Examination in the Classical School; (4) Prizes for Composition; (5) Exhibitions to the Universities p. 241-246
21. Immediate Results of the Teaching in the Classical School p. 246
22. Mathematical School. The Mathematical Masters - their Number and Qualifications p. 246, 247
23. Arrangement of the Mathematical School p.247
24. General Arrangement of the Teaching in the Mathematical School p. 247
25. Private tuition in Mathematics p. 247, 248
26. Inducements to Industry in the Mathematical School. (1) Promotion in the Classical School; (2) Promotion in the Mathematical School; (3) Distinctions and Prizes; (4) Exhibitions p. 248
27. Immediate Results of the Teaching in the Mathematical School p. 248, 249
28. School of Modern Languages. History of the School of Modern Languages and its Masters p. 249, 250
29. Arrangement of the Modern Language School p. 250
30. Subjects taught in the Modern Language School p. 250
31. Time spent in the Classes of the Modern Language School p. 250
32. Private Tuition in Modern Languages p. 250
33. Conversation Classes p. 250, 251
34. Encouragement to the Study of Modern Languages. (1) Promotion, Classes, and Prizes; (2) Exhibitions p. 251
35. Immediate Results of the Teaching of Modern Languages p. 251
36. Natural Philosophy School p. 252
37. Arrangement of the School of Natural Philosophy p. 252
38. Subjects and Method of Natural Philosophy Teaching in Class p. 252
39. Number of Hours spent in Natural Philosophy Classes p. 252
40. Private Tuition in Natural Philosophy p. 253
41. Encouragements to the Study of Natural Philosophy. (1) Promotion; (2) Promotion in Natural Philosophy School; (3) Distinctions and Prizes; (4) Exhibitions p. 253
42. Immediate Results of the Teaching in Natural Philosophy p. 253
43. Drawing and Music p. 253, 254
44. Total Time of Work p. 254
45. Rugby Education and the Army p. 254
46. Physical Education; Games p. 254, 255
47. Lodging; Boarding Houses p. 255, 256
48. Diet p. 256
49. Hours, Days of Rest, and Holidays p. 256, 257
50. Discipline. Discipline by Masters p. 257
51. Discipline by Boys. (1) Monitorial Power; (2) Fagging p. 257, 258
52. Religious Training p. 258, 259
53. Moral Tone of the School p. 259
54. School Charges p. 259
55. Necessary Charges. (1) Charge for Board and Lodging; (2) School Instruction p. 259, 260
56. Optional Charges. (1) Private Tuition in the Subjects of School Instruction; (2) Extra Tuition, or Tuition in Extra Subjects p. 260
57. Necessary Miscellaneous Charges p. 260
58. Emoluments of Head Master and Assistant Masters. (1) Emoluments of Head Master; (2) Emoluments of Assistant Masters p. 260-262
59. Amount of Emoluments of Head Master and Assistant p. 262, 263
60. Total of Emoluments of Head Master and Assistants p. 263, 264

OBSERVATIONS

1. Constitution of the Board of Trustees; Its History; Its present Constitution, Character, and Relation to the School; Practical Conclusions suggested; Recommendations p. 264-267
2. Privileges of the Foundation. Original state of the Foundation; Changes produced by lapse of time; Change in the character of the Foundationers, and its significance; Change in the character of the Education, and its significance; Change in the relative value of the Estates, and its significance; Change in the Elements of the School, and its significance; General position of the School in relation to local Privileges, Recommendation p. 267-271
3. Rugby Fellows p. 271, 272
4. Stipends paid to Masters out of the Revenues of the School. State of the School when first paid; Disturbing event; General principles on which stipends should have been given thereafter; First form of deviation from principle - its progress and arrest; Second form of deviation - its progress up to the present time; Practical effect of these deviations at the present time; Alternative view of the facts; Practical Conclusion; Recommendation p. 272-275
Observations on the System of Instruction at Rugby p. 275, 276
5. Qualifications for entering and remaining at School p. 276, 277
6. Subjects of Instruction in the Modern Languages School p. 277, 278


[page ix]

7. Natural Philosophy School. First defect in the system and its consequences; Remedy; Second defect in the system p. 278, 279
8. Prizes and Rewards to all the Subsidiary Branches of Instruction p. 279, 280
9. Exhibitions at the Universities; Nature of the Examinations in various subjects; Change proposed; Objections to Change considered; Number and Functions of Examiners p. 280-282
10. Foundation Scholarships and Exhibitions at School. Fund to be derived from withdrawal of Foundation privilege not yet available; Fund available for the purpose; Principles on which they should be awarded; Recommendation p. 282-284
11. Taxation of Masters for raising Scholarships and other purposes. First ground of Inexpediency; Second ground of Inexpediency; Third ground of Inexpediency p. 285, 286
12. School Buildings p. 286, 287
13. The School Close p. 287, 288
14. School Charges. (1) Boarding Profits; (2) Stipends; (3) School Instruction Fee; (4) Extra Tuition Fees; (5) Fees for Private Tuition in all Subjects of School Instruction p. 288-293
15. The Emoluments of the Assistant Masters. General Observations on Salaries; First principles regulating apportionment of Salaries; First Rule deducible from these principles; Second Rule deducible from these principles; The Rugby system how far in accordance with these Rules; Possible causes of discrepancy; Practical application of the First Rule to Rugby; Application of Second Rule; Difficulties and Remedies; Recommendations p. 294-297
Conclusion of Observations p. 297-298

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS


CHAPTER IX. SHREWSBURY

STATEMENT AND OBSERVATIONS

1. History of the Foundation. Charter and Indenture; Ordinances; Act of 1798; Questions raised respecting the School; "Non-collegiate Class"; Intentions of Founders; Other considerations; Suggested changes p. 303-309
2. Constitution of the Governing Body. Suggested changes p. 309, 310
3. Number, Accommodation, and Charges of the School. Boarding Houses p. 310
4. Division of Forms. Course of Study; Classics; Mathematics and French; German; Music; Drawing; History; Natural Science p. 310, 311
5. Number and Remuneration of the Masters p. 311, 312
6. Examinations, Prizes, and other Encouragements to study p. 312, 313
7. The Exhibitions. Millington Charity; Suggestions p. 313, 314
8. Results. The Universities - The Army p. 314, 315
9. Finances of the School. Mode of providing for required expenditure; Additional funds required; Present Income and Expenditure of the School; Remarks and Suggestions; Trustees' Plan; Dr. Kennedy's Plan; Suggested Scheme p. 315-318
10. Boarding-houses. Suggestions p. 319
11. Discipline of the School. Punishments; Monitorial System p. 319, 320
12. Fagging p. 320
13. Games and Playground p. 320
14. Religious Instruction and Church Services p. 321
15. The Day Boys. Their Relation to the Boarders and to the School generally. Suggestions p. 321, 322
16. The Non-collegiate class. Suggestions p. 322, 323

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS


CONCLUSION OF REPORT p. 325


[page 1]


REPORT

TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY

YOUR MAJESTY was pleased, by Your Commission issued on the 18th July 1861, to direct us to inquire "into the nature and application of the Endowments, Funds, and Revenues belonging to or received by" certain specified Colleges, Schools, and Foundations, "and into the administration and management of the said Colleges, Schools, and Foundations, and into the system and course of studies respectively pursued therein, as well as into the methods, subjects, and extent of the instruction given to the Students of the said Colleges, Schools, and Foundations."

Having completed the task entrusted to us, we humbly submit to Your Majesty this Report.

The Colleges, Schools, and Foundations specified in Your Majesty's Commission are those which are commonly known as Eton College - Winchester College - the College of St. Peter, Westminster, or Westminster School - the Charterhouse School - St. Paul's, Merchant Taylors', Harrow, Rugby, and Shrewsbury Schools.

These nine Foundations, though differing in many respects from each other, have many features in common; and in each case the School, properly so called, is subject to some governing authority, charged with the care and legal ownership of such endowments as it possesses, and invested with powers, more or less extensive, of control. We commenced our investigation by addressing to the Governing Body of every School, or to its authorized representatives, a uniform series of printed Questions, so framed as to embrace more or less completely the whole field of inquiry, and so arranged as to follow the main lines marked out by Your Majesty's Commission. Of the Three Parts into which these questions were divided, the first related to the property and income of the several Schools; the second to the administration and management of them; the third to the system and course of study pursued in them, to the religious and moral training of the boys, their discipline and general education.

In the Letter accompanying these Questions we added that we should be happy to receive any information pertinent to our Inquiry, though not within the range of the Questions, and any recommendations or suggestions which the persons addressed might deem calculated to promote the efficiency and extend the usefulness of their several Foundations.

Copies of the Questions were also sent to the Head Master, and through him to the Assistant Masters, of each School. The Head Master's attention was directed to certain specified Questions, which he was requested to answer in his own name; and he was further invited to furnish any statements or suggestions which he might think calculated to promote the objects of the inquiry.

The Answers returned to these Questions, including a considerable mass of tabulated matter relating to the property and income and to the organization and teaching of the Schools, are annexed, together with the Questions themselves, to this Report.

We deemed it our duty, after receiving these Answers, to visit personally each of the Schools; to inspect the class-rooms, boarding houses, play-grounds, &c., and to acquire on the spot such further information as might assist us to form a clear opinion on the various branches of our Inquiry.


[page 2]

We have orally examined a considerable number of witnesses. These may be divided into four classes:

a. Persons officially connected with the Schools as members of the Governing Bodies, Trustees, or the like, Masters or Assistant Masters, or in other capacities;

b. Persons who had held positions of this kind, but had ceased to hold them;

c. Persons who had been educated at the several Schools, and had so recently quitted them that their recollections and knowledge were still fresh, whilst they had had time to test in some degree the results of their own training by subsequent thought and observation;

d. Persons (whether educated at Public Schools or not) eminent in Science or Literature, and qualified by observation or reflection to throw light upon the subject of a liberal education.

A few junior boys on the Foundation of certain schools were examined for special reasons, which will sufficiently appear from their evidence.

With the view of enabling ourselves to form an opinion of the results of the teaching given by these Schools, as regards boys of not more than average industry and capacity and whose names would not, therefore, be found in lists of University honours and distinctions, we proposed to institute an Examination of a certain proportion of the boys actually receiving education there, such Examination to be of a simple kind, and conducted by Examiners of acknowledged competency. It was obvious, however, that a test of this nature could not be satisfactorily applied without the willing co-operation of the Head Master of each School. We found ourselves unable to obtain this general concurrence, two Head Masters only (those of Rugby and Shrewsbury) having signified to us, and that with some reluctance, their assent to the proposal, and we, therefore, thought it right to abandon it. The correspondence on this subject is also annexed to our Report.

With a similar object, we addressed some printed Questions to eminent persons, experienced as Tutors, Professors, or otherwise, in the work of education in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and we have to thank these gentlemen for the replies with which they were good enough to furnish us.

We have also obtained, by application to H. R. H. the Commander-in-Chief, from the Council of Military Education various returns showing to what extent and with what success young men educated at these Schools present themselves for examination as candidates for Direct Commissions, for Sandhurst, and for Woolwich. These returns, together with the replies from Oxford and Cambridge, will be found to throw considerable light on the results of the instruction given by the Schools.

In several great Schools recently founded in England, endeavours have been made both to improve the received methods of classical instruction, and to combine as far as possible the ordinary advantages of a public school education with opportunities for special attention to subjects formerly excluded altogether from its range. Marlborough, Cheltenham, and Wellington Colleges are not within the limits of our Commission, but two of them at least have had time to attain great magnitude as well as a high reputation, and we thought it desirable to obtain an account of the system established at each of the three, and of the results, so far us they can be ascertained, of the experience gained in working those systems. This information has been willingly supplied to us, and we have found it very valuable and useful. We have also received an account of the City of London School, and some evidence respecting the school attached to King's College, each of which presents an example of a great metropolitan school educating a large number of day-scholars with distinguished success.

The mission of the Earl of Clarendon to Prussia as Ambassador Extraordinary towards the close of the year 1861 offered an opportunity for making some inquiries respecting the higher schools in that country. Lord Clarendon accordingly placed some written questions in the hands of M. von Bethmann Hollweg, then Minister of Education, who had the kindness to procure answers to them from the Department under his charge, and to furnish in addition much illustrative documentary matter. A synopsis of the information thus obtained will be found in the Appendix.


[page 3]

We desire to acknowledge the uniform courtesy with which our inquiries have been met in every quarter to which they have been directed, and the general readiness which has been shown to afford us full and minute information.

We desire also to express our sense of the efficiency of the services rendered to us by our Secretary, Mr. Mountague Bernard, Chichele Professor of International Law at Oxford, whose ready and sound judgment has facilitated the conduct of our correspondence and the transaction of the ordinary business of the Commission, of whose legal ability and knowledge we have availed ourselves, and who has contributed both to the accounts which this Report contains of individual schools, and to the expression of those opinions which as a body we have formed on t.he general subjects of this Inquiry.

It should be added that we have not thought it right to extend these inquiries to any points not properly educational.

We shall lay before Your Majesty in this Report the conclusions at which we have arrived respecting the nine Schools, taking them consecutively in the order in which they stand in our Commission. A separate Chapter will be assigned to each School, containing a succinct statement of the material facts relating to it which have been elicited by the Inquiry, with such observations as may be necessary to explain the changes which we shall recommend; and a summary of those changes. Some of our Recommendations will require, if approved by Your Majesty, the aid of Parliament to carry them into effect; but the greater number of them are such as cannot properly form the subject of legislation, and are indeed virtually addressed to the Governing Bodies and Head Masters of the Schools.

We think, however, that we should imperfectly fulfil the duty entrusted to us by Your Majesty if we did not consider the Schools collectively as well as severally. From the prominent positions they have long occupied as places of instruction for the wealthier classes, and from the general though by no means exact resemblance of their systems of discipline and teaching, they have become especially identified with what in this country is commonly called Public School Education. We adopt for the present a phrase which is popular and sufficiently intelligible, without attempting to define its precise meaning. Public School Education, as it exists in England and in England alone, has grown up chiefly within their walls, and has been propagated from them; and, though now surrounded by younger institutions of a like character, and of great and increasing importance, they are still, in common estimation, its acknowledged types, as they have for several generations been its principal centres. We shall therefore begin by stating, as concisely as the nature of the subject admits, the broader results of our Inquiry, the conclusions they suggest, and the views which we have formed respecting the government and management of the great English Schools for the higher classes, and the education which they afford, pointing out in what respects the range and methods of that education appear to us positively defective or capable of being enlarged and improved. This part of our Report will most conveniently come first, because it will afford a clue to the rest, and because we shall have occasion to refer to the views expressed in it when we proceed to deal with the individual Schools.




[page 4]

FIRST PART

GENERAL RESULTS OF THE INQUIRY AND GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS

Introduction

The schools to which this inquiry relates were founded within a period ranging from the close of the 14th century to the beginning of the 17th, from the reign of Richard II to that of James I. Winchester, the earliest, is older by several generations than the Reformation, and the revival of classical literature in England. Eton, half a century later, was modelled after Winchester. Each was an integral part of a great collegiate establishment, in which the promotion of learning was not the founder's sole purpose, though it seems to have been his principal aim. Westminster is one of the many grammar-schools attached to cathedral and collegiate churches, for which provision was made after the dissolution of the monasteries; but it acquired, or perhaps inherited from the ancient school of the great monastery of St. Peter, an importance peculiarly its own. Harrow, Rugby, Shrewsbury, Merchant Taylors', and St. Paul's, were among the multitude of schools founded in the 16th century, either by grants of church lands from the Crown, or by private persons (generally of the middle class), with endowments sufficient to afford the best education known at that day to so many day-scholars as the neighbourhood was likely to supply, or the reputation of a competent teacher to attract.

The endowments of the schools bear no proportion to their magnitude. The revenues of Eton College amount to about £20,000 a year, but of this sum rather more than one-third is distributed among the Provost and Fellows, and the residue is strictly appropriated to the benefit of the foundation scholars and the expenses of the College establishment. Those of Harrow which are appropriated to the school do not exceed £1,000, and are not likely to increase. In some cases the rise of a school has been either caused or greatly assisted by an exceptional rise in the value of its property. Of this Rugby furnishes a remarkable instance. To a large and popular school, so long as it is large and popular, a permanent endowment is not of essential importance; but there can be no doubt that such ail endowment is of great service in enabling any school to provide and maintain suitable buildings, to attract to itself by exhibitions and other substantial rewards its due share of clever and hardworking boys, to keep up by these means its standard of industry and attainment, and run an equal race with others which possess this advantage, and to bear, without a ruinous diminution of its teaching staff, those fluctuations of prosperity to which all schools are liable.

1. Government of the Schools - Governing Bodies - Head and Assistant Masters

These schools exhibit great diversities of government and constitution. It is necessary in the case of every endowed institution to provide in some way for the legal ownership and proper administration of the endowment; and it has been usual to annex to the legal ownership of the property powers, more or less extensive, of general superintendence over the school.

Where a school forms part of a collegiate foundation, the property out of which it is maintained is legally vested in the corporate body called the College, and practically in certain principal members of the foundation, who represent arid constitute the College in the eye of the law, being clothed with its proprietary rights and powers, and authorized to do legal acts in its name. Eton College is thus represented by the Provost and Fellows of Eton; Winchester College by the Warden and Fellows of Winchester; and the Collegiate Church of St. Peter Westminster, including the school which is a part of the foundation, by the Dean and Canons of that church. These persons hold, in each case, the College property, subject to such duties as the Statutes impose upon them with respect to it, and to the statutory claims of the other members of the foundation, - claims which may or may not, according to a just and equitable interpretation of the expressed intentions of the founder, be limited to the particular sums he has assigned to the several objects of his bounty. The master of the school is, in each of these cases, an officer and subordinate member of the Foundation or College, and subject to the superintendence of its head, the Provost, Warden, or Dean, whose general duty it is to enforce the due observance of the Statutes, the Fellows or Canons acting as his Council, and sharing, to a greater or less extent, in his powers. By the Governing Body thus constituted the Master is appointed, and may be dismissed. He is conductitius et remotivus [able to be appointed or dismissed]. The relation, therefore, between the statutory Master or Masters and the Governing Body, in these cases, springs from the form originally assumed by the collegiate institutions which grew up during the middle ages.


[page 5]

In the case of independent grammar-schools the two functions above mentioned - the legal ownership and protection of the property, and the general superintendence - have ordinarily been entrusted to a body of Feoffees, Governors, or Trustees, either authorized to transmit the estate vested in them by successive conveyances, or incorporated, as at Harrow, by charter, or, as at Rugby and Shrewsbury, by Act of Parliament. The Court of Assistants of the Mercers' Company are, under the will of Dean Colet, the Governors of St. Paul's School, and the legal estate in the property out of which the school is maintained is vested in the Company. The Charterhouse School is a part of the great foundation called Sutton's Hospital, and is under the general superintendence of the Governors, who are also Trustees of the estates and are a corporation by charter, whilst certain powers of supervision are entrusted, under the Governors, to the chief officer of the Hospital, called the Master. Merchant Taylors' School, which has no endowment beyond the valuable scholarships and exhibitions attached to it, was founded, has been supported, and is governed, by the Merchant Taylors' Company.

We have stated generally in whom the power of superintendence over the Head Master, and through him over the school, is vested. The nature and extent of that power, as actually exercised, depend on several conditions. They depend, legally and practically, on the language of the document, whether Statutes, Charter, or Act of Parliament, by which the authority is constituted. They depend practically also on usage, and on the view which the Governing Body has taken, through successive generations, of the limits within which its interference might be usefully exercised. They depend further, to some extent, on the relation which the boys on the foundation hold to the non-foundationers.

Where the foundationers are merely day-scholars receiving instruction gratuitously, and where the whole superintending authority is lodged in persons who do not reside on the spot, and only meet periodically, having no other connexion with the school, that authority is, as we might expect, very sparingly exercised. Where, on the other hand, the Governing Body, or its head or representative, is constantly on the spot, or where the foundationers form a school within a school, and are not subject in common with the other boys to the absolute jurisdiction of the Head Master, there is obviously greater scope for interference as well as greater inducement to it. Custom, tradition, and individual discretion have evidently had a large influence in causing the practice of one school to differ in this respect from that of another. On the whole, it appears that whilst at some the Head Muster, though removable at the pleasure of the Governing Body, is for all practical purposes unfettered and supreme, at others his power of effecting changes or deviating from established routine is confined to that of making recommendations to the superior authority, by whom he is always liable to be, and not unfrequently is, overruled.

In some cases, as will more fully appear hereafter, the Governing Body was designed for a school very unlike that which it now has to govern. We are of opinion that in most cases, either from this cause or from the altered circumstances of the times, some modifications in the Governing Body have become necessary, and that, unwise as it certainly would be, in this as in other respects, to aim at mere uniformity, there are some common features which should generally belong to the Governing Body of a great public school. Such a body should be permanent in itself, being the guardian and trustee of the permanent interests of the school; though not unduly large, it should be protected by Its numbers and by the position and character of its individual members from the domination of personal or local interests, of personal or professional influences or prejudices; and we should wish to see it include men conversant with the world, with the requirements of active life, and with the progress of literature and science.

In the case of some of the schools we shall recommend that a certain proportion of the Governing Body should he nominated by the Crown. Nothing, we believe, would more assist to secure to these bodies the character which we desire to see impressed on them than the introduction, within certain very moderate limits, of a mode of appointment absolutely removed above the influences against which we wish to guard, and such as to add distinction to an office in itself highly honourable. Nothing would be likely to conduce to the dignity and stability, as well as the good government, of the foundations to which we shall propose that it should be applied. The places to be thus filled, though honourable, will be without emolument; the qualifications which they require are easily comprehended, though not admitting, perhaps, of precise definition; and the Crown, should it be willing to undertake this responsibility, will be exercising an important public trust, the discharge of which will be keenly watched by all who are interested either in the particular schools or in the general progress of education.

It is not necessary that the powers, any more than the constitution, of these bodies should be uniformly the same. A degree of interference which would be mischievous in one case may be useful in another. And in some cases where a Governing Body has entrusted, during a long period, very ample powers to a succession of thoroughly


[page 6]

able men, we have no doubt that it has exercised a wise as well as a legitimate discretion. We think it, however, important, on the one hand, that the Head Master's responsibility should be clear and plain, and on the other, that the powers possessed by the Governing Body should be well understood, and that they should be duly exerted whenever the exercise of them is really called for. Nor is it difficult to trace out the limits within which, as it seems to us, those powers should be confined. They should include, at the least, the management of the property of the school, and of its revenues, from whatever source derived; the control of its expenditure; the appointment and dismissal of the Head Master; the regulation of boarding-houses, of fees and charges, of Masters' stipends, of the terms of admission to the school, and of the times and length of the vacations; the supervision of the general treatment of the boys, and all arrangements bearing on the sanitary condition of the school.

As regards discipline and teaching, the Head Master should, in our opinion, be as far as possible unfettered. Details, therefore, such as the division of classes, the school-hours and school-books, the holidays and half-holidays during the school-time, belong properly to him rather than to the Governing Body; and the appointment and dismissal of Assistant Masters, the measures necessary for maintaining discipline, and the general direction of the course and methods of study, which it is his duty to conduct and his business to understand thoroughly, had better be left in his hands. This is subject, however, to one material qualification: the introduction of a new branch of study or the suppression of one already established, and the relative degrees of weight to be assigned to different branches, are matters respecting which a better judgment is likely to be formed by such a body of Governors as we have suggested, men conversant with the requirements of public and professional life and acquainted with the general progress of science and literature, than by a single person, however able and accomplished, whose views may be more circumscribed and whose mind is liable to be unduly pressed by difficulties of detail. What should be taught, and what importance should be given to each subject, are therefore questions for the Governing Body; how to teach, is a question for the Head Master. We have only to add that it should always be incumbent on the Governing Body, before coming to any decision affecting in any way the management or instruction of the school, not only to consider attentively any representations which the Head Master may address to them, but of their own accord to consult him in such a manner as to give ample opportunity for the expression of his views.

If it is important that a thorough understanding and opportunities for unreserved consultation should subsist between the Governing Body and the Head Master, it is even more so that the Head Master should be on similar terms with his assistants. That there should be friendly intercourse between them, and that an assistant should be at liberty to make suggestions to his chief, is not enough. Valuable suggestions and useful information, which individual masters, and they only, are qualified to afford, may often be lost for want of a recognized opportunity of communicating them; and private interviews, however readily granted, are not an adequate substitute for free and general discussion.

The practice introduced by Dr. Arnold at Rugby, of meeting all his assistants for consultation at frequent intervals - a practice which has been continued, with some interruptions, by his successors, and is at present maintained by Dr. Temple - appears to have had the happiest results. "It is attributable to that," says one of the senior assistants, "that we have so very harmonious a working -of the school." The same practice exists at Harrow; and it is impossible to read the evidence which has been furnished to us from those schools and from Eton respectively, without perceiving that in the former the assistants have a thorough sense of co-operation with the Head Master and with each other, which is wanting in the latter.

We think that where this practice exists it should receive some definite sanction and some regular shape, and that, where it does not exist, it should be established, the principle of representation being introduced wherever, on account of numbers or otherwise, it is thought expedient. We shall recommend, therefore, as a general rule, that in every school the assistants, or a certain number of them, should meet on fixed days, with the title of a "School Council", and under the presidency of the Head Master if he be present; that they should consider any matters which may be brought before them by the Head Master or any member affecting the instruction or discipline of the school; that they should be entitled to advise the Head Master, but not to bind or control him in any way, and that they should have the right of addressing the Governing Body whenever a majority of the whole Council may think fit.

It has become the invariable practice at Eton, and the almost invariable practice at Winchester, to recruit the staff of Classical Masters, the Head Master included, from persons who have received their education at those schools respectively. Indeed at both of them the field of choice has, at least until very recently, been arbitrarily narrowed still further;


[page 7]

the masterships of Eton having been considered to belong almost as of right to the Fellows of King's, and those of Winchester to the Fellows of New College. The Trustees of Rugby are by their Act of Parliament required to elect as Head Master a candidate educated at the school, if one be found duly qualified, with a direction that in the choice "regard should be had to the genius of such Master for teaching and instructing the children": as a matter of fact, however, no Rugby man has been elected since the passing of the Act. At the Charterhouse, so far as respects the Head and Second Masters, there is a cæteris paribus [other things being equal] preference in favour of former scholars on the foundation, but even this does not appear to exist elsewhere, at least in the shape of a definite rule or usage. The genius of one school differs much from that of another, and it is very desirable undoubtedly that the masters of every school should be perfectly familiar with its system of discipline and teaching, its unwritten customs, and all that stamps it with a character of its own, as well as that they should be animated by a warm attachment to it. We believe, however, that even where tradition has most power it is not very difficult for an able and intelligent man to acquaint himself sufficiently in a short time with the distinctive features of the system which he has to administer; and the experience of the great majority of schools has amply shown how heartily such a man can throw himself into the working, and how thoroughly he can identify himself with the character and interests, of one to which he has previously been a stranger. It must be observed at the same time, that a school which is debarred, or which debars itself, by a restriction of this kind, from taking the best man that can be had, must necessarily suffer from it to a greater or less degree; and it must be disadvantageous also for any school to be officered exclusively by men brought up within its walls, all imbued with its peculiar prejudices and opinions, and without experience of any system or any methods but its own. We are clearly of opinion, therefore, that in the selection of the Head and other Masters the field of choice should in no case be confined, either by rule or by usage equivalent to a rule, to persons educated at the school to which the appointment is made.

There are in fact, we believe, very few schools which have not been indebted for some of their most eminent masters to other places of education. William of Waynflete, the first Head Master of Eton, had been a scholar and Head Master of Winchester. Harrow received a succession of Head Masters from Eton; and an Etonian, Dr. James, has the greatest name and exercised the greatest influence among the Head Masters of Rugby before Dr. Arnold, who was himself, like his predecessor Dr. Wooll, educated at Winchester. Dr. Butler of Shrewsbury, Dr. Sleath of St. Paul's, and Dr. Vaughan, late Head Master of Harrow, were all educated at Rugby.

2. Statutes - Necessity for a Power of Revision and Alteration - Plea of Desuetude

Several of these schools possess ancient statutes or rules designed to settle permanently, with more or less of minuteness, their organization and their course of teaching. In the case of Eton particularly, and to a less extent in some other cases, we have been met by the questions which arise where such statutes, specific and precise in their character, and guarded by careful and solemn provisions for securing their perpetual observance, are accompanied by none for the relaxation of them, or for their adaptation to new circumstances and a different state of society. Dean Colet, the founder of St. Paul's School, expressly authorized the Court of Assistants of the Mercers' Company, whom he entrusted with the government of it, to alter and amend his Ordinances as might be deemed requisite from time to time. A similar power was given to the Governors of Harrow, has been created at Winchester by the Ordinance of the Oxford University Commissioners, and exists virtually to a greater or less extent at other schools. It is clearly expedient, if not indispensable for the permanent continuance of foundations of this nature, that most extensive powers of adaptation and amendment should exist in all cases, and it seems only necessary to provide that they should be lodged in proper hands. In the absence of them, recourse is inevitably had to the principle, as it may be called, of desuetude; and it is assumed that old constitutions which contain minute directions and create no authority for varying them, must, when the lapse of time has rendered an exact compliance with them impracticable, be construed by the aid of such usages as have been gradually established by necessity or convenience. Often too, owing to the absence of power to alter the letter of statutes which has become obsolete, the spirit, which it would be desirable to observe, is violated or forgotten. No accumulation, it is plain, of stringent or even imprecatory terms, such as those in the Eton Statutes, can ever secure perpetuity to institutions which from their very nature must undergo the influence of change. To attempt in such cases, as the framers of those Statutes did, to bar by anticipation the plea of desuetude, is as reasonable as it would be to declare that human beings shall never feel the inevitable effects of old age.


[page 8]

We do not, therefore, think it just to speak with severity of individuals who, like the Fellows of Eton and Winchester, have succeeded to a position created legally by statute, but virtually moulded into an altered shape by long and inveterate usage, whose domestic arrangements and whole plan of life have been formed, perhaps, with a view to that position, and who, when placed in it, have done more than their predecessors did, and more than its customary obligations were previously understood to demand. The evil, however, which is inseparable from moral obligations so loose and ill-defined as such a situation imposes, has been strongly and justly adverted to by an eminent witness, Sir J. Coleridge. Nor does this evil stand alone; there is evidently no security that practical changes should be made well and advisedly, which are introduced without deliberate intention, without responsibility, and without the intervention of any higher authority to protect the permanent interests of the foundation from being undermined by private and personal interests.

The principle to be pursued where ancient statutes are not abrogated but reformed is sufficiently clear, and seems to have been followed in substance by the late Oxford and Cambridge University Commissions. "The statutes of founders are to be upheld and enforced whenever they conduce to the general objects of the foundation," and so long, we may add, as those objects continue to be practicable and useful, "but they are to be modified whenever they require a closer adaptation to the wants of modern society."*

3. The Foundation Scholars, their Government and Condition - Local and other Qualifications and Restrictions

It has been already remarked that the relation between the foundation boys and the non-foundationers influences in some degree that of the Head Master to the Governing Body. Indirectly it does so, whilst it directly affects the boys themselves, and the internal constitution of each school. In every case, except those of Merchant Taylors' and St. Paul's, and perhaps Shrewsbury, the bulk of each school, as now existing, is an accretion upon the original foundation, and consists of boarders received by masters or other persons at their own expense and risk, and for their own profit. The founders indeed of some of the schools certainly contemplated the probability that other boys might resort to them besides those for whose benefit they were principally designed; but they could not have foreseen, in those times, any large addition from this source, and they made no provision for any augmentation of their little staff of teachers. Speaking generally, the foundation boys are, in the eye of the law, the school. The legal position of the Head Master of Eton is that of teacher or "informator" of seventy poor and indigent boys, received and boarded within Eton College; the Head Master of Harrow is legally the master of a daily grammar-school, established in a country village for the benefit primarily of its immediate neighbourhood. The proportion actually subsisting between foundationers and non-foundationers at the several schools which admit boys of the latter class, will appear from the subjoined Table:†

FoundationersNon-foundationers
Eton61722
Winchester69128
Westminster4096
Harrow33431
Rugby68397
‡Shrewsbury26106
Charterhouse4571

This state of things suggests some obvious questions. It may be asked whether the division of a school into two distinct classes, one of them possessing special privileges, has not created a division of power and responsibility as regards the management; whether it impairs the unity of teaching and discipline, or of tone and feeling; whether it destroys in any degree the atmosphere of social equality, the free and friendly competition in work and companionship in play which are among the most important advantages of public-school education; lastly, whether the foundation boys, under conditions so enormously changed, receive benefits the same in kind or in amount as those which they were originally intended to enjoy.

It may not be easy to give to each of these questions an answer which will apply alike to all the schools. A foundationer at Harrow, Rugby, and Shrewsbury is ordinarily a day-scholar, sharing gratuitously, or almost gratuitously, in the general instruction of the

*Edinburgh Review, April 1861, p. 425.

†These figures are taken from the Returns furnished to us at the close of 1861. The numbers of most, if not all, of the schools have since somewhat increased, as will appear from the separate Reports in Part II. The number of foundationers at Eton and Winchester is raised at each annual election to 70.

‡Reckoning the sons of burgesses as foundationers and all others as non-foundationers - a distinction which is however open to question.


[page 9]

school. At Eton, Winchester, Westminster, and the Charterhouse he is a boy separately lodged, separately boarded, maintained as well as educated free of charge or at a comparatively small expense, and obtaining, or having the opportunity of competing for, a farther provision, more or less valuable, when he leaves school. It is not surprising that the power of depriving a boy of these great advantages should not have been committed to a subordinate officer attached to the college or hospital, as the Head Master originally was, and in theory is still. In these cases, therefore, there is, to a small extent, a real division of power and of responsibility. The Head Master can expel a non-foundationer; he cannot expel a foundationer. And this division - since it is as master of the foundationers that the Head Master is amenable to the Governing Body, whilst as regards the other boarders he is absolutely free - would have run much farther and split up the whole teaching and discipline of the school, had not convenience clearly required that the management of both classes should be one and the same. The Governing Body thus acquire an indirect control over the whole school by virtue of their direct authority over a part of it. But the general course of the whole stream has been determined by the element which gave it its main volume; the discipline and teaching, as applied to the foundationers themselves, has been really moulded by the wants and capabilities of those who formed in fact the great bulk of the school.

We are of opinion that for the purposes of government, instruction, and discipline, all the boys should in every case be considered as one school, subject to the same authorities and in the same degree.

The position held by foundation boys among their schoolfellows varies much at different schools. We shall advert hereafter to the consequences which appear to flow from the existence within a very large school like Eton of such an institution as is there called "College". The evidence leads, however, to one general conclusion. It seems tolerably clear that in none of the schools is a foundation boy lowered in the estimation of his companions by the mere fact of his being a foundation boy; in other words, of his receiving an eleemosynary [charitable] education. If he is a day scholar, he has not the same opportunities of forming friendships and gaining rank among his schoolfellows as if he were a boarder. If he is very inferior in birth and breeding to those who surround him, he has the same disadvantage in a much greater degree. If, being a boarder, he is badly lodged, fed, or cared for, and his situation is thus rendered undesirable, we might naturally expect the same result to follow. And a traditional feeling or prejudice which has once taken root among boys is very difficult to eradicate. But, apart from causes which judicious management may remove, there seems to be nothing to prevent the foundationers from taking socially as well as intellectually an equal or (as in some cases they do) even the foremost rank in the school. And we may add that to promote a thorough amalgamation in play as well as at work appears to be the general desire of the masters, as it is clearly their true interest as educators.

The question whether the foundation boys at these schools enjoy advantages equal to those which the founders intended for them may be generally answered in the affirmative. Their situation has at several of the schools been greatly and progressively improved during the present century; and we have no doubt whatever that it is now considerably better than it has been at any former period. They are better lodged, better fed, better taught, better attended to than they ever were before. In saying this we do not mean to imply that their position is better than it ought to be, taking into account the intentions of the several founders, the increased value of the endowments, and the change of manners. A scholar of the 15th or 16th century, whether supported by a founder's bounty or by the resources of his parents or patrons, was content with rude accommodation and with coarse if not scanty fare, even according to the standard of comfort at that day. But so also was the fellow of a college and the parish priest; and so also, not unfrequently, were the families of the smaller gentry. The habits of the present age render it at once necessary and equitable that out of the increased revenues of these institutions suitable comfort, proper supervision, and reasonable privacy should be provided for those to whom a place on a foundation is offered as a boon, or proposed as an object for competition. These observations do not apply to day scholars; but the benefit of an extended and improved system of instruction is shared by all foundationers alike. The best education of the present day, given by a staff of highly trained teachers at a public school, is certainly very much better than was the best education of the 15th or 16th century, imparted to from 50 to 150 boys by a master and usher very moderately paid, at a time when the scholastic profession ranked somewhat low in the social scale.

There is another question closely connected with that which has just been considered. Are the classes by whom these benefits are now enjoyed the same as those for whom they were originally intended? There is no doubt that the collegiate schools were primarily though not solely designed for the assistance of meritorious poverty; the inde-


[page 10]

pendent grammar-schools primarily, though not solely, for the benefit of some particular town, village, or neighbourhood, to which the founder happened to be attached by ties of birth, family, or residence. How far either justice or expediency demand that these intentions should be maintained at present is a question on which there may be different opinions. Admission to the foundation at Westminster has long been the prize of a competitive examination, and the same principle was about twenty years ago introduced at Eton, and more recently at Winchester - in both cases, as we are informed, with excellent results. At Westminster the qualification in respect of poverty is considered obsolete. At Winchester, after the examination, poverty has merely a cæteris paribus preference, but "the electors may refuse to admit as a candidate anyone whom they may deem to be not in need of a scholarship." At Eton the circumstances of a boy's parents are not inquired into, but those boys are excluded "who have independent means of their own". At the Charterhouse the foundation boys are nominated by the Governors in turn; and the Master of the Hospital thinks that every Governor considers himself under an obligation to choose those who are in need of assistance, "persons exceedingly well-connected, but really poor" are the class usually selected. Speaking generally, it must be said that the difficulty of assigning a precise meaning to the word poverty, the doubt what class of persons, if any, at the present day really answers to the pauperes et indigentes scholares of the Lancastrian and Tudor periods, and the further doubt whether poverty is not after all best served by giving the widest encouragement to industry, coupled with the interest which every school has in collecting the best boys from the largest surface, have tended, and will continually tend, to render the qualification of indigence practically inoperative.

We do not think it necessary to recommend any change in this respect.

A somewhat different question arises when we come to consider the right to gratuitous education which by the founders of endowed and non-collegiate grammar-schools was generally given to the children of inhabitants of the places where the schools were established. Harrow and Rugby were endowed grammar-schools planted in country villages of no great population; Shrewsbury, one established in an important county town. Harrow is still a village, though a considerable one; Brownsover, which shares with Rugby the claim to an interest in Laurence Sheriff's foundation, is a mere hamlet; while Rugby itself has swelled into a town of 8,000 souls, from causes partly connected with, partly independent of the school. Harrow and Rugby are not now schools for the children of villagers, farmers, and small tradesmen; nor could they be made such without entirely destroying their character. That no right exists to enforce such a revolution has been judicially decided in the case of Harrow; and no one probably would now seriously think of advising in these cases the restoration of a small local benefit at the expense of a great public loss. If these schools are not now of use in the way which their founders contemplated, they are of far greater use in a far more important way. As regards grammar-schools generally, the founder's intention to benefit a particular place or class has doubtless often been frustrated in a great measure by a literal adherence to his directions respecting the manner in which the benefit should be bestowed. The classical education which he ordered to be given, because he knew of no other, is not now a boon to those who desire education of a different kind, and can obtain it elsewhere. And it is probably true that many of these schools, in ceasing to be useful to a class or neighbourhood, have ceased to be in any substantial sense useful at all. This opens a large question into which it would be irrelevant for us to enter; we are concerned only with schools which, at some sacrifice perhaps of a local object, have notoriously acquired national importance as places of general education. The question to be considered with respect to them is a different one. There are at both Harrow and Rugby boys who, as the sons of residents, are educated at charges to the parents much lower than the rest, and much below what may be called the cost price of the teaching they receive. A foundation boy at Harrow receives like others instruction in school, but he does not, like others, pay for it; and thus the expense of teaching one class of boys is borne by the parents of another class; directly or indirectly, or by the masters themselves. It is, however, to be observed, that the parents of the boys who are thus privileged are chiefly - at Harrow almost exclusively - strangers to the neighbourhood, who have come to reside there temporarily, for the mere purpose of obtaining, at little expense to themselves, a good education for their children. The question we have to consider is, whether the maintenance of the local privilege in favour of these persons, and of the few permanent residents who desire a public-school education for their sons, is recommended either by respect for the founder's intentions or by any other sufficient reason. We think that it is not. That such a privilege as we have described should be enjoyed by the class which now chiefly enjoys it was certainly not intended or contemplated by the founder; we cannot, from his expressed intentions, infer that he would have deemed it desirable, nor does it appear to be a legitimate adaptation of them to the


[page 11]

circumstances of the present day. That persons of small means should be enabled to educate their children well and cheaply is, no doubt, a public advantage, provided this is done without either indirectly throwing an increased charge upon others or curtailing the just remuneration of the teacher. But this, in our opinion, is already sufficiently met by the admission of home-boarders, who differ from foundationers only in paying a fair price for the instruction they receive. We shall recommend, therefore, the abolition in these cases of the local privilege, due precautions being used to prevent hardship to persons who may have taken up their residence in a particular place with the view of availing themselves of it. The case of Shrewsbury, where the privilege is by Act of Parliament given exclusively to the burgesses, will be considered on its own grounds.

4. Course and Subjects of Instruction in the Schools

The nine schools embraced in our Commission were educating altogether, at Christmas 1861, 2,696 boys, between the extreme ages of eight and nineteen years, the average age being not far short of fifteen. This forms, of course, a small proportion of the whole number of boys within the foregoing limits of age whose parents are in sufficiently easy circumstances to afford them a gentleman's education. The recent history also of most of them shows that their numbers have fluctuated greatly. Some have fallen comparatively low, whilst others enjoy a rank and popularity higher than they ever possessed before. In the last generation it was usual for the sons of country gentlemen to pass part at least of their boyhood at local grammar-schools; and the present has witnessed the establishment of many new places of education which increase in number and importance, and successfully recommend themselves not only by pains-taking and judicious management but by differences in the scale of expense and in the course and methods of study. Generally, however, these new institutions, organized for the most part by public-school men, mould themselves on the models furnished by the old ones. In the remarks, therefore, which we are about to make on the subjects and modes of instruction, we may fairly take the nine schools in question as supplying the general type of that class of schools to which most Englishmen of the higher class either send their sons or wish to send them, bearing in mind that this type admits, and is in practice undergoing, very considerable variations.

The course of study at all these schools appears to have been originally confined to the classical languages. The Master and Usher at Winchester were to be "sufficiently learned in grammar" and to instruct the scholars in grammar; competent instruction in reading, plain song, and the old grammatical treatise on the Eight Parts of Speech which went under the name of Donatus (antiquo Donato), was the condition for admission as a scholar, and "a sufficiency of literature in grammar" the requisite for election to New College. The Statutes of Eton and Kings are copied from those of Winchester and New College in all these respects, except that at Eton the Master and Usher are to be respectively a Master and Bachelor of Arts "if such can be got conveniently" - that is, men instructed, according to their degree, in the other branches of what was then deemed a liberal education. The function of a school in the 14th and 15th centuries was probably confined, in fact, to the imparting of some grammatical knowledge of Latin, of which at that time there was but little even in the Universities and among persons of reputed learning, and the reading, perhaps, of parts of some easy Latin author - processes whIch the want of books rendered slow and difficult, the pupils being almost entirely dependent on the oral instructions of their teachers. That Latin versification was practised at Eton in 1468 we learn from one of the well-known Paston letters; and also that two elegiacs, barbarous in prosody and construction, were considered something of an achievement by a lad who was old enough to be forming projects of an advantageous marriage. The foundation of Winchester and Eton preceded - the former by more than a century - the revival of letters in this country; St. Paul's was established shortly after the beginning of the revival by an earnest champion of that classical literature, the introduction of which was then combated as an innovation dangerous to orthodoxy and to true and solid learning; and the ordinances made for the school by Dean Colet insist, with as much vehemence as quaintness of expression, on a course of reading directed to instruct the boys in "clene" or pure Latin. Language was to be chiefly regarded, but not solely; and the children were to have read to them "such auctours that hath wysdom joyned with pure chast eloquence". They were to be taught Greek also, if a master who knew it could be obtained (which was then difficult), as well as the Catechism in English. The old directions for Merchant Taylors', founded fifty years after St. Paul's, are borrowed in great measure from the ordinances of Dean Colet, and copy the requirement that the Master should be "lerned in good and clene Latin literature, and also in Greke, if such may be goten." Of the four Masters at Shrewsbury two were required to be Masters


[page 12]

of Arts, "well able to make a Latin verse, and learned in the Greek tongue"; from the third, who was to be a Bachelor of Arts, Greek was not required. The date of the ordinances which prescribe these qualifications is 1577. From the scheme of work appended to the "Consuetudinarium Vetus Scholes Etonensis", which is ascribed to 1560, it would appear that no Greek was then taught at Eton, except that "Greek grammar, or something else, at the Master's discretion," was learnt in the highest two forms. The time of the boys was chiefly occupied by "prelections" of various Latin authors, much of it, however, being devoted to Latin composition in prose and verse. The Winchester curriculum, as described in the Latin poem written by Christopher Johnson, probably between 1550 and 1560, embraced a very considerable catalogue, including Homer. Nowell's Catechism was then learnt in Greek by the higher forms, in Latin by the lower. Mr. Hallam observes that the rudiments of Greek were before the middle of Elizabeth's reign taught at Westminster, and doubtless also at Eton, Winchester, and St. Paul's, but probably at few schools besides.* The rules given by John Lyon in 1590 for Harrow School comprise, for the highest form, Demosthenes, Isocrates, Hesiod, Heliodorus, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Greek grammar being begun in the form immediately below; in Latin they comprise Livy, Cæsar, Virgil, and Ovid, with more elementary books, and some part of Cicero is appointed for every form in the school. It is of course to be borne in mind that boys in those times commonly went to the Universities at an earlier age than they now do, and that at the Universities they acquired, or were supposed to acquire, the various branches of knowledge constituting a liberal education; grammar, or the study of the Latin language for the purpose of reading, writing, and speaking it, still occupying them at the beginning of their course. A scholar of Winchester who was elected to New College was obliged to bind himself to remain at the University five years at least. The directions of the Laudian Statutes for the University of Oxford, 1636, show at least in what light the University course had previously been regarded, and what space and position it was deemed to hold in a general education.†

We have referred briefly to the primitive history of these schools, because there can be no doubt that their course of teaching, which has remained substantially unaltered from a very early to a very late period, has been governed in a great measure by established custom and habit. In accounting for the position which the classics now hold in that course, the first place should perhaps be assigned to their intrinsic excellence as an instrument of education, on which we shall remark hereafter; but other causes have also shared largely in producing it. School education alters slowly, and runs long in the same groove; a master can only teach what he has himself learnt, and he is naturally inclined to set the highest value on the studies to which his own life has been given. At the two oldest (one of them also the largest) of the English schools, this tendency has perhaps been strengthened not only by ardent attachment to their peculiar traditions,

*From the fact that a Greek author was read in a particular school or part of a school, we cannot always infer that Greek was studied there, since Greek authors were frequently read in Latin translations, through which only they had, until recently, been known.

†"The course of study prescribed in the Laudian Code is more comprehensive than any which the University has since attempted to enforce on students generally as a condition for obtaining their degrees. But it must be remembered that the length of time required for an Oxford education was considerably greater in 1636 than in our own day, and it is, moreover, doubtful whether the extent of acquirement then expected was ever really attained. The student in the first year was to attend lectures on grammar; the lecturer was to expound its rules from Priscian, Linacre, or some other approved writer, or to explain critically some passage of a Greek or Roman author. The student was also to attend lectures on rhetoric, founded on the works of Aristotle, Cicero, Hermogenes, or Quintilian. The ethics, politics, and economics of Aristotle, and logic, were to be the subject of the second year; logic, moral philosophy, geometry, and the Greek language, under the professor of Greek, of the third and fourth. The degree of Bachelor of Arts, which then, as now, could be taken at the end of the fourth year, was only one stage of the academical course; not, as now, its termination. Three more years were to be devoted to the study of geometry, astronomy, metaphysics, natural philosophy, ancient history, Greek, and Hebrew, in order to obtain the degree of Master of Arts. Here the general education of the University ended. Those, however, who received their professional education at the University remained there several additional years, studying in the faculties of theology, law, or medicine. The theological course lasted eleven, the legal and medical course seven years from the Master's degree, but in law a student might shorten his course of study by entering on the faculty of law at the expiration of his second year in Arts. The length of residence contemplated is less surprising if we consider the early age at which students then entered the University. The matriculation of boys under twelve years of age is provided for in the Statutes, and many became Musters of Arts at the period of life when most students now begin their residence. Nor will it be thought that the ancient period of study was too long when we consider that books were then scarce, and that minute and prolix scholastic systems were to be learnt from oral teaching." - Report of the Oxford University Commissioners, pp. 56, 57. The Elizabethan Statutes for Cambridge forbade the elements of grammar to be taught in Colleges, and required that students should be examined in it on admission. So at All Souls', Oxford, the Royal Visitors, in the reign of Edward the Sixth, enjoined as follows: "Neminem ad grammaticam ex bonis Collegii ali volumus; hanc qui rite didicerint Latineque intelligant ac loquantur in cœtum vestrum eligi fas sit." The Statutes of the College (A.D. 1443) required that a candidate should be sufficiently instructed in the rudiments of grammar, and have been studying three years at the University in the faculty of arts or that of law.


[page 13]

but by the habit of receiving as masters only men brought up within their own walls. The great schools, again, have always educated principally with a view to the Universities; the path of access to the learned professions lies through the Universities; the work done at school tells thoroughly and directly on the examinations for admission to the Universities and for University prizes and distinctions, whilst it has not, until recently, assisted a youth to obtain entrance into the public service, civil or military, at home or in India; the cleverest and most diligent boys, for whom the system of study has been chiefly moulded, have gone to the Universities; all the Masters have been University men.

The two classical languages, with a little ancient history and geography, held, indeed, until a short time ago, not only a decided predominance, but absolute and exclusive possession of the whole course of study. By the course of study we mean those subjects which a boy must necessarily learn during the whole or some part of his progress from the bottom of the school to the top. A subject may form part of the course, and yet may not count in examinations, and so contribute to promotion; or it may contribute to promotion if taken in voluntarily, without entering into the course. In the latter case little time will be given to it unless in exceptional instances; in the former the time which is given to it will probably be wasted, unless attention is stimulated by the fear of punishment, or by some form of reward.

The position, therefore, which different studies hold in a school is really determined by several considerations; by their admission into or exclusion from the school course; by the time assigned to them respectively; by the value assigned to them in examinations, and the proportions in which they are allowed to assist promotion; by the share given them of prizes and rewards; by the fact that inattention to them is or is not regularly visited by punishment.

The school course at every school now includes arithmetic and mathematics, as well as classics. At every school except Eton it includes also one modern language, either French or German. At Rugby (and practically, as it seems, at the Charterhouse) it includes both French and German; at Rugby, however, modern languages are not studied by those whose parents prefer that they should study natural science. At Merchant Taylors' it includes Hebrew and drawing. Natural science is taught at Rugby by an assistant master to those who choose to study it instead of modern languages, and it counts in promotion. Lectures on it are given at Winchester and occasionally at Eton, attendance being at the former compulsory on the foundation scholars and exhibitioners, but on them only, and altogether optional at the latter. There is also a Lecturer on Chemistry at the Charterhouse, and there are periodical voluntary examinations in natural science at Harrow. Drawing may be learnt as an extra at all the schools, and some instruction in music may generally be obtained in the same way.

The means by which classical scholarship is acquired are, as is well known, the study of Latin and Greek grammar, the daily construing and the occasional translation into English of Latin and Greek writers, the repetition of passages, chiefly of Latin and Greek poetry, which have been learnt by heart, the practice of composition in verse and prose. Construing, repetition, and composition are the chief employment of the upper forms. There appears to be some reason to think either that the grounding in grammar is not always quite as thorough and accurate as is desirable, or that sufficient care is not taken to keep up what is thus acquired as the boys advance in their work. At one school (Winchester) it is the practice to repeat once a year considerable portions of grammar which have been learnt previously, and this is found useful. At Rugby also, up to a high point in the school, portions of grammar enter into the repetition lessons. Different grammars, both Latin and Greek, are used at different schools. The adoption of a common grammar appears to be desirable, provided uniformity were not suffered to be an obstacle to improvement.* We may add, however, that a still greater diversity exists in Germany. Eleven different Latin grammars and eight Greek are enumerated as being in use in the Gymnasia of the two Provinces of Brandenburgh and Westphalia. The range of authors construed appears to be sufficiently various and extensive. At Eton, indeed, the course of reading in school presents a marked exception to this observation; but the defect is less than it was, and to a certain extent is remedied by additional reading in pupil-room. In the highest forms of most of the schools the boys are exercised not only in construing but in oral translation, that is to say, in reading off into English entire passages of suitable length, an exercise which has great and obvious advantages in giving freedom and fluency, and in enabling the boy to render into English not only

*Dr. Arnold wrote in 1835 to the present Archbishop of Canterbury, then Head Master of Harrow, "It would be [Greek] to have a common grammar jointly concocted." - Life and Correspondence, i, p. 362. He corresponded on the same subject with Dr. Hawtrey.


[page 14]

the words but the idiom and turn of expression, but which might prove unfavourable to accuracy were it to be generally substituted for construing.* The argument which Archdeacon Denison has addressed to us in favour of oral translation into Greek and Latin, as well as into English, may properly be referred to as meriting attention in connexion with this subject. The excellent practice of re-translating orally at sight into Latin or Greek passages which have been previously construed exists at St. Paul's, and seems to be confined to that school. In the tabular statements furnished to us by the Masters very ample accounts will be found of the modes of hearing lessons in use at the several schools; they of course generally resemble each other, but are marked by not unimportant differences of detail, and may with advantage be compared together. More attention appears now to be paid than formerly to the substance and matter of the books construed; and this is undoubtedly a change for the better, which might advantageously be carried further than it is at present, provided it be kept within due limits. The mind of a boy must indeed of necessity be principally directed to the style and language of his books, since it is chiefly with a view to language that he is employed upon them; but this is by no means incompatible with that attention to the matter of them in the absence of which he fails to draw from them the interest and instruction they might yield, and probably acquires a habit of reading without grasping the substance of what he reads. The use of extract-books, which appears to have much diminished, has probably some tendency to promote this bad habit, as all reading must which is avowedly fragmentary, and guided solely by reference to style.

The assiduous practice of repetition, and that of composition, original and translated, has long been among the characteristics of the great English schools; and a high and in the main we believe a very just value has been, and still is, set upon them by English schoolmasters. But repetition, if allowed to become slovenly, is worse than useless; if excessive in quantity, tends to become slovenly, and consumes time that might be better spent; and, if not sufficiently varied, imperfectly fulfils its office of storing the recollection as well as exercising the faculty of memory. Generally speaking the quantity does not appear to be excessive, but sufficient care is not always taken to vary the matter committed to memory. The careful recitation, occasional or periodical, of well-chosen passages of prose as well as poetry, in English as well as in the Classical languages, might, we think, be introduced with great advantage wherever it is not at present in use, as it appears to be at Winchester. The perfect accuracy which recitation requires is valuable; and this exercise is valuable also as a means of gaining the articulate utterance, just emphasis, and self-possession, which are only acquired by practice. Original composition in Latin and Greek has the advantages, as compared with translation, that it quickens the invention and imagination, and accustoms the composer to choose, and habitually to employ, classical cadences and turns of expression; but it may be so practised as to produce poverty instead of fertility of both expression and thought, and to beget a habit of drawing upon a scanty stock of acquired phrases, and making those phrases serve instead of ideas. This is an almost inevitable tendency of very frequent Latin theme writing on general topics. The dexterity and mastery of language which are gained by translation appear at present to be more recognized, generally speaking, at the Universities than at the schools; and many of the young men whom we nave examined have stated to us that they have found themselves, on going to College, at some disadvantage in this respect. At most of the schools, we believe, some part of the original composition which is now done might usefully be exchanged for translation from English into Latin and Greek, and from Latin and Greek into English. The translation into English, in school, of passages taken down in writing from dictation, seems to be practised regularly, to a certain extent, at Rugby.†

It is the opinion of some - an opinion however not very confidently stated - that brilliant composers (it would perhaps be more correct to say brilliant writers of Latin verse and prose) are more rare than they formerly were among English scholars, when the course of classical reading was narrower than at present, and when school work was exclusively classical. This may possibly be the case, and it is possible that the faculty may be more rare hereafter than it is now. But the actual loss in this respect, if there be any, appears to be amply compensated by improvement in other branches of scholarship, and especially in the knowledge of Greek. A surprising dexterity in any particular style of composition may be acquired by incessant practice in that style, and by saturating the mind with the writings of those who have excelled in it. The writing of brilliant Latin verses is not, however, the ultimate end of school education, and the number of brilliant versifiers must always have been comparatively small: and, desirable as it is

*See on this Arnold's Life and Correspondence, i. p. 132.

†This is said to be commonly done in the French schools. See Mr. Neate's Paper in Appendix F, p. 49.


[page 15]

that in this as in every other pursuit the standard of excellence should be as high as possible, we should not shrink from sacrificing something in this respect in order to secure a course of study better adapted for the general run of boys and better calculated to open and enlarge the mind, a wider acquaintance with classical literature, a more thorough mastery of the classical tongues, and a greater command of English; for it must never be forgotten that one main object for which boys learn the dead languages is to teach them to use their own.

-The number of school-hours in the week assigned to arithmetic and mathematics at Eton, Harrow, Rugby, and Shrewsbury, taking one form with another, is three; at Westminster and St. Paul's, four; at the Charterhouse, five; at Winchester, seven or eight in the upper part of the school and three in the lower; at Merchant Taylors', ten. At Winchester, however, and probably at Merchant Taylors', lessons are prepared as well as done in school. At the schools where this is not the practice, each lesson is supposed to require about an hour of preparation. We may take the general average estimate of the time which is required or which can be spared for arithmetic and mathematics to be about three hours a week in school and the same amount devoted to preparatory work.*

At the majority of the schools - Eton, Winchester, Harrow, Rugby, Shrewsbury, and Charterhouse - marks are given for mathematics which affect more or less a boy's rise in the classical forms of the school. At Westminster this is an advantage gained only by special proficiency in mathematics. The general but not universal principle of apportionment appears to be, that the relative weight given to this subject in promotion should correspond roughly with the relative time devoted to it.

In every school except Eton two school-hours a week, exclusive of preparation, are given to modern languages.† Marks for modern languages count in promotion (on the same principle as mathematics) at Winchester, Harrow, and Rugby; but not elsewhere.

There are distinct prizes at all the schools for proficiency in mathematics and in modern languages respectively.

At all these schools the classification in the schools of mathematics and of modern languages respectively is made subordinate, to a more or less considerable extent, to that of the classical school. The same course is pursued at Marlborough and Cheltenham. A consequence of this is that the mathematical school, for example, instead of consisting of a regular series of ascending forms, ascending in proficiency and in the difficulty of the work done, consists of a number of sets or groups, each comprising boys in very different stages of advancement; a number, as it were, of miniature schools, each arranged and classified afresh by the Mathematical Masters. Each set is on the whole more advanced than the set below it, but individuals in each set may be much inferior to individuals in a lower set, who, nevertheless, cannot get up to them. This irregularity, says the Head Master of Cheltenham College, is, of course, a serious hindrance to the mathematical advancement of the boys, though expedients, which he describes, are adopted to remedy it. We cannot doubt that this observation is just.

Both of these two branches of study share the disadvantage of being subordinate to the principal study, which is that of the classical languages. The chief honours and distinctions of the schools are classical; their traditions are Classical; the Head Master, and where the tutorial system exists the tutors, are men distinguished chiefly as classical scholars, and attached more or less ardently to classical learning. The path of promotion and the subjects on which the time and thoughts of the boys are employed are mainly classical; classics are also, to the great majority of boys, intrinsically more attractive than mathematics, and to the ablest and most diligent more so than French and German, which, as languages, are less perfect in construction, and which lead the young student, pursued as they are but a very little way, barely to the threshold of a less noble though more abundant literature. But mathematics at least have established a title to respect as an instrument of mental discipline; they are recognized and honoured at the Universities, and it is easy to obtain Mathematical Masters of high ability who have had a University education. It is otherwise with the study of modern languages, which in each of these respects, but especially in the last, labours under peculiar and great difficulties; whilst, since its introduction into the schools is of more recent date

*The statement in the text is of course only roughly accurate, because the same amount of time is not always given to the same subject by all the forms of each school. At Marlborough, the mathematical school-hours are four; at Cheltenham from three or four to seven or eight; in the Prussian Gymnasia, four. See App. G.

†At St..Paul's, four hours; but little time is given to preparation out of school. At Marlborough and Cheltenham, and in the Prussian Gymnasia, two lesson-hours a week are likewise given to modern languages. The same portion of time is assigned to this study in the French Lycées.


[page 16]

than that of mathematics, it has had less time to establish itself, and has to make head against a stronger current of tradition and habit.

Under these circumstances, which it is only fair to state plainly and candidly, we are not surprised to find that the success with which these studies are pursued is, in different degrees, not answerable to the time spent in learning, and the pains and ability employed in teaching, them. It requires steady and genuine work to obtain a real mastery of arithmetic and of the elements of geometry, and even of French grammar; but it is easier to be idle in the mathematical than in the classical school, and easier still to avoid giving attention to French; and it is needless to say, that if any facilities for idleness exist at a great school, they are pretty sure to be turned to account. The discrepancies which may be discovered between the evidence furnished to us on this head by the Masters whom we have examined, and by the young men who have given us the impressions of their schoolboy years, are not difficult to account for. If the former are a little apt, perhaps, to over-estimate unconsciously the results obtained, the latter have probably a like tendency to under-estimate them. The feelings which exist at school on these subjects survive at College, and the value of a little knowledge is not understood till it has really been made the basis for acquiring more. Making allowance, however, for both these tendencies, and comparing this evidence with that which we have received from other sources, and to which we shall advert hereafter, we are convinced that, whilst on the one hand the incorporation of these studies has been a substantial benefit to the public schools, and has greatly improved the education which they afford, they are not pursued as effectively as they might be without any increase either of the time generally allotted to them or of the labour of their respective teachers. There is an especial deficiency, we believe, in arithmetic and in French. In effecting the improvement which is to be desired, time undoubtedly must be an important agent; but much we believe may be wrought by more careful organization, and by a stronger sense on the part of the authorities that these studies have, if not the value of classics, a true value of their own as branches of education, and that whatever is worth doing, especially during the precious years of boyhood, is worth doing well. It is perfectly practicable, we believe, within the time now given to modern languages at these schools, to impart a good grammatical knowledge of French, and, in the case of those boys who have learned the rudiments of French before they come to school, some acquaintance with German also; and practicable also, if not to impart the power of speaking French, to keep it up and improve it where it has been previously acquired. It is right to add, however, that we have no reason to think that in France and Germany a higher measure of success has generally been attained in the study of modern languages than at our own schools. The chief difficulties which exist here are experienced there also.*

We collect from the evidence that, speaking generally (there are not a few exceptions) boys who succeed in classics succeed also in mathematics and in modern languages. This shows that, ordinarily, any boy of good capacity may with advantage study each of these subjects, and may study them all together.

We have already alluded to one disadvantage which is peculiar to the study of modern languages, the difficulty of procuring thoroughly effective teachers. It is less easy for a foreigner, than it is for an Englishman who is not his superior in ability or education, to maintain discipline, to enforce attention, to secure influence, to understand his pupils thoroughly, and therefore to teach them well. On the other hand, there are few Englishmen, otherwise fitted to act as Assistant Masters of a great school, whose command of these languages is sufficient, and whose pronunciation is pure. Of the present teachers of modern languages in the nine schools under review, most, if not all, appear to be able and highly educated gentlemen, competent for their work and fulfilling their duties well. Two of these are Englishmen, and two others were educated, though foreigners by birth, at the schools (Eton and Harrow) where they now teach. At Marlborough both French and German are taught by Englishmen. At Wellington College "one foreign master in each language is employed, and the system adopted is to put under them the best modern scholars and the beginners in each school, and to place under English masters those boys who, from their state of progress, require to be steadily worked in exercises and construing after a classical manner rather than to be practised in the nice polish of the language; or, on the other hand, to begin the

*"Nous ne devons pas, monsieur le recteur, eraindre d'avouer que l'étude des langues vivantes n'a jusqu'a present produit que des résultats lnsuffisans; nos élèves, à bien peu d'exceptions près, ne savent ni parler ni écrire l'allemand ou l'anglais, Les plus habiles font un thème ou une version; ils ne sauraient faire une lettre, encore moins suivre une conversation ... Bien des raisons, qu'il est inutile d'exposer ici, ont amené l'insuccès que nous deplorons. C'est une entreprise à reprendre." - Circular of M. Duruy, Minister of Public Instruction in France, 29th September 1863. As to Germany, see the marginal references.


[page 17]

rudiments of grammar and pronunciation. These appear to be the points in which foreign masters take pleasure and excel, and they have not the same difficulties of discipline with either of these two classes of pupils as with others." Mr. Benson adds that "a fair proficiency is soon attained in French, so that with two upper forms of the school, i.e., at present at the average age of 15, there is no difficulty in having the history read regularly by all in French." Mr. Barry is introducing at Cheltenham a system which appears to differ little from this. Professor Max Müller recommends one somewhat similar to it. Dr. Arnold established at Rugby the principle of requiring each master of a form to teach the boys of his form all that they had to learn, including modern languages and mathematics; but this principle has been gradually abandoned, and Dr. Temple is not disposed to revert to it. "The result", he says, "of making such a requirement would be that every now and then you would be obliged to take a man whom you thought second-best, rather than the man you thought best." Dr. Moberly suggests the same objection. It would narrow, he thinks, the range of selection, though in course of time the difficulty might disappear.

There are manifestly some advantages in entrusting the teaching of modern languages wholly or in part to Englishmen. There are special advantages also in committing it to Englishmen who are likewise employed in teaching classics. We do not, however, see our way to any specific recommendation upon this point. It is a practical question which can be solved only by experience, and which seems to be in process of solution. But we must observe that the advantages to which we have referred would be dearly bought, or rather would not be obtained at all, if the English teacher of modern languages were to bring to the performance of his task superficial knowledge or a bad pronunciation. A teacher whose knowledge was inaccurate could not be expected either to command or to feel respect for his subject; a bad pronunciation is easy to acquire and hard to lose; and although few of those who learn either French or German have frequent occasion to speak it, everybody who learns a living language at all wishes so to learn it that he may be able to speak it, if he has occasion, without being unintelligible or ridiculous.*

Attention is due to the suggestion made by Professor Müller in his interesting evidence, respecting the assistance which might be derived in teaching both Latin and French from comparative philology, by means either of incidental references to it, or of occasional short and elementary lessons in it. It is a suggestion capable, we believe, of being turned to practical use.

The importance of some attention to history and geography is recognized, more or less, at all the schools, but in general there is little systematic teaching of either. In the lower forms it is common to give lessons in the outlines of history and in geography; but, as a boy advances in the school, it appears to be generally considered that all which can be done for him in this particular is to set him a portion of history to get up by himself, to examine him in it, and to encourage more extended study of the subject by means of prize essays. Where such special examinations in history are held they take place usually either at the end or at the beginning of the term, the portion set being in the latter case a "holiday task". At Harrow and Rugby a regular historical cycle has been constructed, by which every boy is made to traverse the whole outline of classical, Biblical, and English history in the course of his stay at school, provided he remains the average time and advances at the average rate. At Rugby, whilst a part of the historical reading is done as a holiday task, part is done also in the form of regular lessons in school. The practice of requiring all the upper boys to read history, and of examining them in it, is, however, by no means universal, neither is that of setting prize essays on historical subjects. It is, of course, assumed everywhere that the boys are asked such historical and geographical questions as are suggested by their daily construing-lessons, but this is left to the discretion of the form-master. At Eton some of the tutors occasionally read history with their pupils as "private business".†

From what has been said above, it will appear that the proper degree and method of teaching history, or of requiring history to be learnt, at school, are matters not settled by general practice, and upon which indeed English schoolmasters seem to have arrived at no very definite conclusions. "I wish we could teach more history", says one experienced and eminent Head Master, "but as to teaching it in set lessons I should not know how to do it." On the whole, and with the exception of Rugby, and perhaps of Harrow, it does not appear that much is systematically done, either to awaken an

*The inconvenience of committing the teaching of foreign languages principally to foreigners is felt in France. M. Duruy desires that it should be met by enabling French students who have distinguished themselves in this subject to spend a year abroad at the expense of the State, in order to perfect their knowledge. - Circular, 29th September 1863. See Professor Max Müller's suggestion, in his Evidence, 128-131.

†This phrase is explained in the Report on Eton (Part II; Chapter I. Sec. 11. d).


[page 18]

intelligent interest in t.his subject, or to secure the acquisition of that moderate knowledge of it which every young man leaving school may fairly be expected to possess.

History, it is true, can never occupy, as a distinct study, a large space in the course of instruction at a great classical school. To gain an elementary knowledge of history little more is required than some sustained but not very laborious efforts of memory; it may, therefore, be acquired easily and without any mental exercise of much value - which, however, is not a sufficient reason for not acquiring it, and affords no excuse for a boy of 18 who leaves school, as too many do, very imperfectly informed as to the history of those nations whose literature he has been studying, and almost a stranger to that of his own country. But a good teacher who is likewise a good historian will always, we believe, be able to make the acquisition of even the elements of historical knowledge something more than a mere exertion of memory - to make it, with the more advanced boy's, a real introduction to the method of historical study, and a vehicle for imparting some true insight into history and interest in it. The subjoined extract from the returns furnished to us by the Head Master of Marlborough College will illustrate what we mean:

In the historical lessons which for some time past have been amalgamated with the French, a portion of Guizot, about 10 or 12 pages, is set; only parts of this are construed, as otherwise the amount done in two lessons a week would be absurdly small; but boy after boy is called upon to give the substance of sentence after sentence of Guizot, and certain parts are translated, a most valuable exercise. They are encouraged, not compelled, to analyse it for themselves before they come in. Questions are asked in the history of the time, and on any portion of history which may serve to illustrate what they read, and every means employed to interest them in the book. The subject of the connexion between the French and other languages is worked as far as my own knowledge enables me to do. I may add that I believe it to be in many ways the most useful lesson which I have, and that I learn from it the capacities and intellectual promise of my pupils more than from almost any other subject which I teach. At the end of each half-year two papers are set, the one in the language, the other in the matter. As a general rule, the amount of knowledge of French which boys bring with them into the form is low. I can only aim at teaching enough to make French historical writers readily available.
It will have been seen from this passage that at Marlborough the reading of modern history is combined with that of French. The same thing is done at Wellington College, and to a certain extent at Rugby, which has given Head Masters to Marlborough and Wellington and furnished the general model for their course of teaching. How far history may best be learnt in combination with the study of language, dead or living, and how far in separate lessons, is one of those numerous questions of detail which we must leave to the judgment and experience of those who are actually engaged in teaching. Classical history should undoubtedly be read with care and accuracy during that time of life which is chiefly given to classical literature, and it has a clear title to rank as a distinct subject of instruction, and to a certain weight in examinations. The combination of modern history with modern languages may evidently prove advantageous in some respects to both of these studies; to the former by accustoming the boy to read history in good authors instead of being content with mere compilations, to the latter by giving to modern languages that kind of interest in which they are commonly wanting to a schoolboy. An intelligent boy can hardly fail to form a new estimate of the French language after he has been introduced by an intelligent master to Guizot or Tocqueville. It is not however to be forgotten that the primary object of reading history is to learn history, and that of reading French and German to acquire French and German; and that it is possible by injudicious attempts at combining the two objects to fail in effecting either.

5. Organization of the Schools for Teaching - Number and Size of Forms - Promotion - Prizes - Amount of Work exacted - Idleness

A great school possesses, from its very magnitude, considerable advantages as a place of instruction, besides those which it derives from the same source as a place of moral training. It is able to command the services of the most eminent masters; it is likely to contain a comparatively large number of able and ambitious boys; the honours and distinctions which it has to offer are more prized because the successful competitor wins them from a larger field, and in the presence of a larger public; it has facilities which a small school cannot have for the convenient organization of classes in each branch of study. A great school has on the other hand disadvantages of its own. The number of competitors, which braces and stimulates the energies of the ablest boys, may discourage backward ones; it is more difficult for a boy to obtain, and more easy for him to elude, the individual attention of the Master in whose form he is. The forms themselves must be either very large or very numerous: in the former case it becomes a matter of chance


[page 19]

whether a boy gets any teaching at all, in the latter he passes from one teacher to another too quickly to get full benefit from any; and these circumstances, with the small share of responsibility which each Master feels for the progress of each particular boy, strengthen, in either case, the temptation to take pains only with the more promising, and to let dullness and idleness take their chance. If the rewards of industry are more brilliant, idleness also has greater and more varied charms - has (except, perhaps, in the highest parts of the school) no influential public opinion against it, and holds out to a healthy and active boy who can succeed in games of strength and skill distinctions which he prizes more than the honours of the school - distinctions also which are more within his reach, and give him more immediate influence among his schoolfellows. It is a part of the duty of the Head Master of a great school to turn these advantages to the best account, and to overcome these disadvantages as far as he can.

One of the most obvious inconveniences which arise from numbers - the multiplication of forms - has been met in some cases, to some extent, by expedients to which we shall more particularly refer in our Reports on Eton and Rugby - by the Eton system of "divisions", and by the Rugby system of "parallel forms", which is in use also at Cheltenham and in some of the Continental schools, but which, with many recommendations in its favour, is not free from disadvantages. The chief remedy, however, for this and for the other difficulties to which we have briefly adverted, has been sought in the practice of placing every boy under the special charge of a tutor, whose connexion with him continues unbroken during the whole of his stay at school, and whose duty it is to bestow that attention on him and undertake that responsibility for him which cannot be expected from the successive class-masters through whose hands he passes. To a very considerable extent this is an effectual remedy, provided each tutor has not more pupils than he can really attend to, and his relation to them is not suffered to degenerate into a merely nominal one. The tutorial system may, however, by undue expansion, usurp an undue share of the teaching of the school, and is attended with some evils which require to be counteracted, and with risks against which it is necessary to guard.

The multiplication of forms has been in part caused by a progressive diminution of the size of them, or, to speak more accurately, by the breaking up of the ancient forms into smaller classes or divisions - a process which has not prevented the old traditional arrangement from retaining a nominal, and for some purposes a real, existence. A comparison of the Eton and Harrow systems will show the different modes in which the principle of re-distribution has been applied. Here it is enough to say that the number of forms or divisions - that is, of the groups of boys who are heard together in school - has increased as the number of boys in each group has been diminished. The limitation of these groups to a manageable size, and the maintenance of a due proportion between masters and boys, do not seem to have been formerly considered as important as they justly are at present. The founders of most of the schools appear to have contemplated as adequate a staff which we should now deem insufficient: as the number of boys increased that of masters by no means kept pace with it, and in the last century and the early part of the present each class-master at the great schools seems commonly to have had charge of a crowd of boys which we should consider enormous. At Eton, in Dr. Keate's time, nearly 200 boys, and those the highest in the school, were heard as a single class, and the average number in each division of the Upper School was 80. It is now 40.

The following table will show the proportion borne by the number of Masters to that of boys in the several schools, as shown by the returns furnished to us at the end of the year 1861:

[click on the image for a larger version]

*Of these 3 were Composition Masters. Another Classical Master has since been added.

†There is an Assistant Master of writing and arithmetic.

‡One of these also teaches mathematics.

§One of these also teaches natural science.

||A "division" means hero the group of boys ordinarily taught together in school by one Master.


[page 20]

The proper size of a division is limited by certain conditions. It should not contain boys in such different stages of progress that they cannot advantageously be employed in the same work and heard together. It should be small enough to admit of all the boys who compose it being called up very frequently. At a very large school the first of these conditions may be satisfied by a form of 50 or 60 boys, and in a small one may reduce the size of each to 15 or 20. The second condition is independent of the magnitude of the school. It has been urged in favour of large divisions - that is, of divisions not less than 40 - that the number of boys animates the teacher, and enables him in turn to infuse life into his class. This is a not unimportant consideration, though we have no reason to think that a smaller number, at schools where the divisions are smaller, is found inadequate to put the teacher on his mettle. But it is still more important that the expectation of being called up should be strong enough to act as a thoroughly efficient stimulus from the top to the bottom of the division; that the benefit of being called up (which is a very different thing from hearing other boys construe and parse) should be shared by all the boys very frequently; and that the class-master should not he tempted, by the number before him and the limited time at his disposal, either to pass over the more backward, or to abate his standard of accuracy, or be less searching in his questions. Differences in the method of teaching a class may, of course, in some degree affect the question as applied to particular schools; but we are led to the opinion that, as a general rule, and in the absence of special circumstances, the average number of a class should not much, if at all, exceed 30.*

The importance of providing, as far as possible, that the hearing of each class shall be a thorough and effective process will appear more clearly when we consider how small, in many cases, is the amount of time which the upper boys actually spend in school. An Eton fifth-form boy is in school, as it seems, on a whole school-day about three hours, and during the entire week from fourteen to fifteen, or, taking into account the numerous occasional holidays, somewhat less; beside this, however, a certain portion of his time is spent in pupil-room, of which about two hours in the week are given to the reading of books not read in school, the rest to the preparation of school-work and to the tutor's correction of his exercises. An upper boy at Harrow is in school about four hours and a half on a whole school-day, and in the week about twenty-two hours. About twenty hours in the week are spent in school at Rugby. At these schools also a certain amount of time is consumed with the private tutor, but less than at Eton. The regular holidays, at all three, subtract wholly from work 14 or 15 weeks in the year. It is evident that, unless a good deal of time is given out of school to steady genuine work in preparation and composition, the work done is deficient in quantity. Composition necessarily exacts work, if the boy does it for himself, which, so far as the evidence enables us to form an opinion, appears to be generally the case. As regards the manner of preparing lessons, we have reason to fear that, in the case of some schools at least, there is but too much truth in the description of it given to us by an unexceptionable witness.

7347. (Mr. Vaughan) Now, with a classical book that was to be done in form, we will say a lesson of 50 lines of Homer, how would a boy who did not profess to be a studious boy, or the reverse, but an average boy, set to work to prepare himself for it? - He would get a crib.

7348. I should like to go through it. Would that be the first proceeding? - Yes.

7349. Then he would have to go to the tutor, would he not? - Yes, to construe; at least the boys in the lower part of the fifth form, and those still lower in the school did so. Those higher up did not.

7350. Would there be any distinction between the two as to the necessity of the crib in the first instance? - No, I do not think so.

7351. Would it be rather an exception to the rule than not, a boy setting to work half an hour or three quarters of an hour before going to the tutor's to construe with no grammar and dictionary to make it out for himself? - I do not think many boys would be likely to do it.

7352. (Sir S. Northcote) Did they often get a construe from another fellow? - I do not think that is very usual. - Evidence of Mr. R. A. H. Mitchell (Eton).

This description applies, it will be observed, to boys who are not particularly diligent nor particularly idle, a class which constitutes the majority at all schools, although the shades and degrees of diligence differ much, no doubt, at different schools, as well as the forms of idleness and the contrivances for eluding the necessity of mental effort. We can hardly represent to ourselves the whole daily work of a boy of this class, lazy and desultory as much of it clearly is, as averaging more than from four to five hours. With a studious boy, who works for distinction yet takes his full share of play, the time may fairly be reckoned, it seems, at Eton and Harrow, at about six hours honestly spent, and more when he is preparing for some special prize or examination; at Rugby (with the same qualification), at about seven.

*Dr. Temple would prefer a still smaller number. His present average is 33, and he thinks that by reducing it to 26 the teaching would be improved. - Rugby Answers, III. 43; Evidence, 1029, 1030.


[page 21]

To ensure, if possible, something like careful preparation of lessons, different expedients have been resorted to. At Eton every lesson, almost to the top of the school, is construed twice over, once in pupil-room and once more in school. At Barrow this practice, though not unknown, is rare, and appears to be dying out; but it is thought advisable (wisely, we have no doubt) that all the younger boys should prepare their lessons in pupil-room and under the tutor's eye. They are encouraged, also, to ask the tutor's assistance in difficult passages. At Rugby, on the contrary, the tutors are expressly prohibited from giving any help in the preparation of lessons. At Winchester and some other schools lessons are prepared in school. Respecting the Eton system of construing with the tutor we shall express our opinion in our Report on that school; generally we may observe that when a boy has reached an age at which he may fairly be deemed capable of reasonable steadiness and self-control, little stress can be laid on direct supervision as a means of making him learn his lessons: this can only be done, if at all, by giving him full employment for his time, by insisting upon an accurate knowledge of his work and upon fair progress, by bringing the sense of duty, the desire of honour, and the fear of disgrace effectively to bear upon his mind, and, in the last resort, by the dread of punishment.

The most important by far of the stimulants which a school is able to apply is furnished by the system of promotion. Special prizes are properly the rewards of excellence, of which comparatively few are capable; and it is desirable, of course, that they should be so various as to encourage excellence in every branch of study which it is deemed worthwhile to pursue. Promotion, more or less rapid, simply implies more or less rapid progress, of which a boy who is incapable is unfit to remain at school; it marks the lower as well as the higher degrees of merit, appeals directly to a boy's sense of what he owes to himself and his parents, and, in those who are without ambition or whose ambition seeks different objects, appeals directly to the sense of shame, for it is a positive discredit to lag behind the general movement of the school. A good system of promotion, therefore, is likely to be a most material element in the efficiency of a school.

The systems actually in use are various. Seniority or length of standing, with or without a test examination - daily marks given for each lesson and exercise throughout the half year - and success in competitive examinations, yearly, half-yearly, or quarterly, are used, separately or in combination, at different schools to determine each boy's rise. The first principle, with a test examination and with a certain infusion of the competitive clement, is adopted at Eton; the second at Winchester; the second and third combined at Harrow and Rugby. A just opinion of the merits of each system cannot be expressed in a sentence: it requires an attentive consideration of the manner in which the system has been framed and in which it has been found to work. There is no subject perhaps on which theory more needs to be corrected by experience; nor is it to be taken for granted, because a particular principle works best at one school, that it will work best at another. Generally, however, we may observe that promotion on the ground of seniority alone, without even a test examination, must always be indefensible; and that between a test examination and a competitive examination, whether at a school or at a university, there are some obvious differences. The former stimulates only by the discredit of failure, the latter enlists as an additional motive the honour of success; the standard in the first is really set by the lower candidates examined, and in the other by the higher; a test standard has thus a constant tendency to decline to a low point. A school, therefore, whose system of promotion is in practice mainly non-competitive, contents itself with a not very active stimulus for the sake of having one which can be extended over a very large surface, and runs the risk of having a somewhat low general standard of scholarship, The advantages - not inconsiderable ones - which may be purchased at this cost by a system framed on this principle, will be noticed in our Report on Eton. It would probably always be found necessary to supplement such a system by a considerable number of minor prizes and rewards, the multiplication of which, however, has a tendency to render them less serviceable for their proper object.

On this latter point we may make a passing remark. It is useful, no doubt, to have many prizes for many kinds of excellence, and to have prizes open to limited portions of a school as well as prizes open to the whole. But it is more important, as a general rule, that prizes should he held in high estimation than that they should be many in number; and it is so easy, on the one hand, by having too many of them, to defeat altogether the office which they serve in calling out the highest excellence - so easy on the other, by having too few, to restrict their operation unduly - that there are few subjects which require a greater exercise of care and judgment on the part of the authorities of the schools,

The mixed system of competition which is common with some differences to Harrow and Rugby has been constructed carefully; and appears to be a good one. The same principle is adopted at Westminster. The system of daily marking is a direct inducement


[page 22]

to steady and regular diligence; and periodical examinations are useful not only in compelling the boy to prove that he is master of what he has been taught, but in cultivating the power of storing up, arranging, and producing knowledge, and, we may add, of answering questions intelligibly on paper, which is not a universal accomplishment.

The publication of school-lists, which may be made to serve not only as a register of the ordinary course of promotion, but as a means of classing the boys according to their progress in separate subjects, and also of classing boys who have risen above the point at which promotion by merit stops, is a useful expedient, and, at some schools especially, has been turned to good account.

We are well aware, of course, that no system, however perfect, of promotion or of instruction can do much to combat idleness unless the masters through whom it is worked thoroughly and conscientiously discharge the hardest and most ungrateful part of their duty - the task of teaching those who are not disposed to learn. We are aware also that emulation has its disadvantages, and that, as a stimulus to exertion, it is morally far inferior, like any other secondary motive, to the sense of duty. We are not ignorant of that vis inertiæ [resistance of matter] which sheer inveterate idleness opposes to every kind of pressure, or of the difficulty of making, by any means, an idle boy diligent on whom neither emulation nor duty has any sensible power. Neither do we forget that the cultivation of the intellect is not the sole end of education, nor the only object for which boys are sent to school. But a good system makes good teachers. Secondary motives to exertion are wanted by boys, whose habits are unformed and whose chief temptation is to waste time, as much at least as by men; and the desire of immediate success supplies in youth the place of those provident cares and far-reaching aims which take possession of the mind in maturer life. If there is a good deal of unconquerable idleness in every great school, there is much certainly that is not unconquerable; and whatever else a boy may have gained at school, he has not gained that which school education should give if he leaves it with his mental powers uncultivated, and without having acquired, in some degree, the habits of exertion, attention, self-denial, and self-control, which are the necessary conditions of progress. A boy who makes no progress, or lags constantly behind his fellows, gets, we believe, little good from his school, to which he is commonly himself a mischievous incumbrance; and we hold it to be of the highest importance that no boy should be admitted into any school who is unfit from want of preparation to enter upon its course of teaching among boys not much younger at least than himself, and that no boy should be allowed to remain at any school who does not make reasonable progress in it. A reference to the Tabular Returns headed B. in Appendix N, will show the necessity for some reform in each of these respects. The consequence of not exacting sufficient preparation is that boys come at twelve or thirteen years of age with less knowledge than they should have at nine or ten. The consequence of permitting them to remain at school without making progress is, that they either stagnate at the bottom of it, or are pushed up without exertion on their own part, are employed on work for which they are unfit, and are a drag and a dead weight on the boys, more forward than themselves, with whom they are associated in doing it.*

We are of opinion that every boy should be required, before admission, to pass an entrance examination, and to show himself well grounded for his age in classics and arithmetic, and in the elements of either French or German.† We shall also recommend that no boy should be suffered to remain in any school, who fails to make reasonable progress in it. This may be secured by fixing certain stages of progress with reference to the forms into which in school is distributed. A maximum age should he fixed for attaining each stage; and any boy who exceeds this maximum without reaching the corresponding stage of promotion should be removed from the school.‡ A relaxation of this rule, to a certain extent, might be allowed in cases where it clearly appeared that the boy's failure to obtain promotion was due to his deficiency in one particular subject, whilst his marks in other subjects would have counterbalanced that deficiency had the system of promotion permitted it. Lastly, we consider it essential that no boy should, on the ground of his age or length of standing, be placed in or promoted into any form, unless he has passed such an examination in the work of it as proves that he is really fit to enter it.

*The Minister of Public Instruction in France (Circular, 29th September 1863) speaks of "ces trainards qui sont notre grand embarras et une cause permauente d'indiscipline."

†One of our number dissents from this Recommendation, See p. 327.

‡At Rugby a boy is not allowed, without special leave, to remain in the lower school after 16, nor below the sixth form after 18. Special leave is granted in exceptional cases, on "a report from the master of the form in which the boy is, and from the tutor, that the boy is one who deserves to remain in the school, and for whom in all probability it would be better that he should." - Rugby Evidence (Dr. Temple), 560.


[page 23]

6. Results of the Instruction at the Schools, as ascertained from other sources - Results at the Universities

We have found no difficulty in ascertaining what is taught at these schools; to discover what and how much is learnt in them is difficult, and is only roughly practicable. The range and methods of teaching have been amply explained to us; the success of these methods can only be tried by imperfect tests, and must to a considerable extent be matter of opinion. The class-lists and lists of prize-men at the two Universities [Oxford and Cambridge] furnish something like a criterion of the attainments in scholarship and mathematics of the abler and more industrious boys; and these lists, with the information we have received from other sources, appear to show that a fair proportion of classical honours at least is gained by the public schools, and that those who enter the Universities from the highest forms of these schools are on the whole well-taught classical scholars.

These however, notoriously form a small proportion of the boys who receive a public-school education. The great mass of such boys expose themselves to no tests which they can possibly avoid, and there are hardly any data for ascertaining how they acquit themselves in the easy examinations which must be passed in order to obtain a degree. The test, which we proposed to apply, of a direct and simple examination of a certain proportion of the boys, having been declined by the schools, we have taken such other means as appeared to be open to us, in addition to those supplied by common observation and experience, for enabling ourselves to form a correct judgment.

The opinions expressed on this subject by Tutors and Professors at Oxford or Cambridge - opinions to which the ability and experience of these gentlemen add great weight - are not uniform, nor was it likely that they should be so. Some Colleges are fed chiefly from the more hardworking schools; some from those where the average of wealth is higher, and that of industry and attainment lower. Some, again, from their reputation and from the comparative strictness of their entrance-examination, are resorted to only by tolerably good scholars, whilst others open their doors more widely. There is, however, on the whole a greater agreement than we should have expected to find in persons of different experience and different ways of thinking consulted separately. And the most important part of their evidence, for our present purpose, consists of statements of fact.

An undergraduate at Oxford has to pass four examinations before obtaining his degree, the first of which must be passed before he can matriculate, and is imposed by his College. He goes in for his first University examination ("Responsions"), either in his first term or as soon afterwards as he is thought to be capable of facing this ordeal; for a second ("Moderations"), about the end of his second year; for the third, some two years afterwards. At Cambridge there is no matriculation test except at Trinity, and the "previous examination" passed about the fourth or fifth term of residence stands instead of both Responsions and Moderations.

The standard of the matriculation examination varies at different Colleges. At Christ Church a candidate is expected to construe a passage (which he has read before) of Virgil and another of Homer, to write a bit of Latin prose, to answer some simple grammatical questions, and show some acquaintance with arithmetic. About one-third failed, we are informed, in 1862, to surmount this trial, "Very few can construe with accuracy a piece from an author they profess to have read. We never try them with an unseen passage. It would be useless to do so." "Tolerable Latin prose is very rare. Perhaps one piece in four is free from bad blunders. A good style is scarcely ever seen. The answers we get to simple grammar questions are very inaccurate." In arithmetic they are stated to have improved; but "the answers to the questions in arithmetic do not encourage us to examine them in Euclid or algebra." "Of those whom we reject some are rejected finally, others are allowed another trial. We require the latter to read with a tutor for six months or a year; and if, after this interval, they show sufficient improvement to warrant us in believing that they will pass the University examinations, we admit them. This plan usually succeeds. Hence we may conclude that, had more regard been paid to the requirements of the University at the close of their school career, we should not have found it necessary to reject them in the first instance." Of the 218 undergraduates on the Christ Church books in 1861, 77 came from Eton, 28 from Harrow, 21 from Westminster, 24 from the other schools included in our Commission. The Etonians came mostly from the upper fifth form.

Of the other Colleges some add to the subjects of examination two books of Euclid; not one, we believe, ventures to put before a candidate a passage of Latin or Greek which he has not read before. The proportion of failures appears generally to be smaller than


[page 24]

at Christ Church. At Exeter [college], which, in 1861, had 180 undergraduates, including 57 public school men, it is estimated at one-fifth. At Colleges which are not full, and have a direct pecuniary interest in being lax, the test, a slight one at best, obviously vanishes altogether.

The proportion who are able to write Latin "tolerably" - the word is vague, but tutors do not differ very widely in their standard of "tolerable" Latin - and to answer easy grammatical questions fairly is generally calculated at about one-half, or a little more or less. As to the number who could construe, if called upon, an easy bit of Latin or Greek not seen before, the conjectures vary. One-fourth, two-fifths, one-half, are proportions suggested; three-fifths or two-thirds for Latin, and two-fifths or one-third for Greek, are estimates given respectively by tutors at Trinity and St. John's, Cambridge. The failures on admission at Trinity, where no Latin prose composition is required, were in two years about one-third.

The subjects of the first University examination at Oxford are a Greek and a Latin book, such as two Greek plays and the Georgics (chosen by the candidate himself) to be construed and parsed; a paper of very elementary questions in Latin and Greek grammar; an easy piece of English for translation into Latin prose; arithmetic, to vulgar fractions and decimals; and the first two books of Euclid, or algebra to simple equations. The matter of the second ("Moderations") is, for one who does not try for honours, just the same, except that of the Greek and Latin authors, one must be an orator and one a poet (three short orations of Cicero and six books of Homer are enough), and that algebra is carried as far as easy quadratic equations, and Euclid to the end of the third book. A very elementary paper on logic may be chosen, instead of Algebra and Euclid.

The number who are either "plucked" at Responsions, or withdraw their names from conscious inability to succeed, is reckoned by Mr. Furneaux and Mr. Riddell at about one-fourth. Mr. Ogle, a late Responsions Examiner, gives a more unfavourable estimate. Of 168 candidates on a very recent occasion, only 101 passed; 31 were plucked, and 16 took off their names. Of the 47 who thus failed, he proves by an analysis of the papers that 43 failed so universally as to show that they were "utterly unfit to undergo any examination whatever".

Easy as the examination is, the standard of accuracy in it is low; occurring so early, it is to a considerable extent a test - a very low test - of school work. Mr. Furneaux, however, states that "it is notorious that a very large number of those who pass their responsions without failure, have only been made fit to do so by one or two terms of hard work and diligent teaching in this place."

These facts and figures do not indicate an average of classical attainment which can by any stretch of indulgence be deemed satisfactory. We are further told that there is a great want of accurate "grounding", perceptible sometimes even in elegant scholars; that the knowledge of history and geography, though better than it was, is still very meagre; and that there are great deficiencies observable in English composition, reading, and spelling. Mr. Riddell says -

Taking the University course to mean no more than the minimum required of pass-men, the number of those who come up unprepared to follow it may amount, perhaps, to one-fourth of the whole. (This would about answer to the number made up of those who are plucked at responsions, and of those who have to wait some time before they pass.) Deducting from this fraction those who are plucked from simple carelessness, and the extremely obtuse, and those who come to the University late from other professions, and those who have been educated by private tutors, the residue for which the schools are responsible will still be considerable.

If the University course be taken on the level of the preparation for honours, the number who fail to follow it is of course much larger. But more than half of these are certainly men who do not come up insufficiently prepared to take advantage of it, but simply do not give their time to study after their arrival at the University. In the case of these men, much knowledge is actually lost during their University residence. A small portion of the others are men who have no ability to spare. For the remainder the schools are responsible; they are persons who were allowed as boys, to carry their idleness with them from form to form, to work below their powers, and merely to move with the crowd; they are men of whom something might have been made, but now it is too late; they are grossly ignorant, and have contract ed slovenly habits of mind. The general defect of permitted idleness operates, therefore, to the extent indicated, in the way of sending boys up to the University unprepared to avail themselves of the University course of study. - Appendix C.

It is impossible to misapprehend the effect which this state of things produces, and must produce, on the studies of the Universities. In the case of those who do not read for honours, at all events, the work of the first two years is, as has been seen, simply school work - work proper for the upper forms of a large school, The usual age of matriculation at Oxford (no record is kept at Cambridge) is between 18 and 19. Of 430


[page 25]

who matriculated in 1862, only 22, or 5 per cent, were below 18 years of age, while 209, or 49 per cent, had attained the age of 19. It follows that, with a great mass of men, school education - and that education one which barely enables them at last to construe a Latin and Greek book, poet and orator, chosen by themselves, to master three books of Euclid, and solve a problem in quadratic equations - is prolonged to the age of 20 or 21. It is justly observed by Mr. Kitchin that, though a thorough general education is an advantage of the highest value, this is not a general education. To give such instruction as this is not the proper business of a University; and we are not surprised to find that, in the opinion of some of the ablest and most experienced tutors, the whole course suffers both in depth and width. Men whose abilities lead them to other than classical subjects, are impeded and sometimes stopped by the want of early accurate training. "We feel that the most we can do for men who come up deficient in knowledge of grammar, history, language, &c., is to provide something for them to do; the time for real progress seems in many cases to be absolutely past." "Instead of making progress", says another witness, a gentleman of great judgment and experience, "a few years ago the University (of Oxford) had to make its course commence with more elementary teaching, and to insist on the rudiments of arithmetic and a more precise acquaintance with the elements of grammar. Tutors felt that it was degrading both to themselves and to the University to descend to such preliminary instruction, but the necessity of the case compelled them." The time demanded for education, and therefore the expense of it, appear to be on the increase; and the Universities are practically closed to men whose means or destination in life do not permit them to give up after leaving school three or four additional years, about half of which are spent merely in school work, and the remaining two partly upon Latin and Greek.*

To the question whether the general standard of classical scholarship among candidates for University distinctions has declined or advanced, we have received different answers. This standard is affected little or not at all by the ignorance of the "passmen". With respect to Oxford, Professor Conington is of opinion - and his opinion, from his opportunities of knowledge and capacity to judge, may be taken as nearly conclusive - that the standard of composition (except in Greek prose) is on the whole somewhat declining, but that translation and critical scholarship are decidedly improving. The Master of Balliol thinks (distrusting his own judgment) that there has been some general decline, but that the alteration is rather in kind than in degree. Scholarship has diminished in accuracy, he thinks, but increased in range. Mr. Riddell sees no symptoms of decline. These gentlemen are all eminent scholars. Coupling their evidence with that supplied to us by the Provost of King's and other competent judges at both Universities we arrive at the conclusion that the general standard of scholarship has not really deteriorated, while the knowledge of the Greek language, and acquaintance with Greek authors, has considerably increased; that if there has been a slight fall in some respects there has been a perceptible rise in others; but that the scholarship of the present day differs somewhat from that of 20 years ago, from the greater attention now paid to the substance of the authors read, to philology, and to translation. It is generally agreed that the greater attention now given at most schools to mathematics, history, and modern languages, whilst it has advanced those subjects and proved beneficial by enlarging and stimulating the mind, has not injured scholarship.

A decided expression of opinion as to the merits of different schools, and their responsibility for the defects which have been pointed out, was not to be looked for from these gentlemen. Few of them indeed have been able to institute comparisons or form distinct conclusions on this point. The best scholars, they generally agree, come from the old public schools, and from those which, like Marlborough and Cheltenham, have been framed on the same model; the public schools send also (and in this Eton has a certain pre-eminence) the idlest and most ignorant men. The endowed grammar-schools commonly send their best scholars, who are drawn to the Universities by the hope of distinguishing themselves; private tuition generally furnishes men who are exceptionally backward from dullness, idleness, or ill health. In one subject, however, mathematics, the public schools

*Dr. Moberly (Winchester Evidence, 540) observes "I consider it is a very good thing boys should stay on and receive the education of boys till 18. The age at which young men leave the university has been increased at least a year since I went to Oxford, They go there now, on an average, a year later: the three years of residence have become more nearly four on account of the multiplied examinations; the consequence is that 22 or 23 is the age to which they attain at the university; and I own I think the course of training at Oxford is too boyish for that age. I wish to terminate the boyish age for that capable of maturer studies rather sooner."


[page 26]

hold a position of marked inferiority. Mr. Price, Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy, Oxford, writes -

I do observe a very marked difference between young men coming to this University from the great public schools and from other schools or from private tutors, as to their mathematical attainments. The young men from public schools are far worse prepared. Whatever time they may have given to the subject, it does not appear to me that they have given that study and attention to it which has generally been so profitably bestowed elsewhere. Assuming the ability of the young men to be equal, not only do I find the attainments of those from other schools to be greater, but I find them to be better grounded and to have learnt the elements more thoroughly and more carefully. Seldom do I meet with young men from the public schools who know more than the bare elements of mathematics; whereas others have gone through a sound course of geometry, which I take to be a most excellent disciplinary exercise, and have often well studied the principles of the modern analytical methods. This is frequently the case with young men who come from the Universities and schools of Scotland, and from schools in England of the class just below the large public schools. It has not come within my experience to observe that the ability of young men from public schools who study mathematics is lower, or that their taste for the subject is less than that of young men who come to us from other places; in many cases, as might have been expected, their abilities are greater and their tastes are stronger. I am referring to cases within my own experience of some of the cleverest young men from the public schools, who, through want of opportunity or of instruction, have come to us sadly deficient, but in their academical course have acquired valuable and extensive mathematical knowledge, and in the later University examinations have excelled others who were superior to them in the early part of their career. In proof of these statements I would call your attention to the circumstances of our mathematical scholarships. There are two annual scholarships which have been established for 19 years, and are open to the whole University. The junior scholarship, as it is called, is open for competition to young men up to nine terms' standing, and not afterwards. The senior scholarship is open to Bachelors of Arts until the 26th term from matriculation inclusive. Both are awarded for proficiency in mathematical attainments. As the junior scholarship comes early in the academical course of study, it is plain that the greater part of the knowledge which is the subject of examination for that prize must be acquired at school, whereas the knowledge which is necessary for the senior will be usually obtained at the University. Now the junior scholarship has never been gained by a young man from the great public schools. It has been several times gained by students from Merchant Taylors', from Christ's Hospital, from Cowbridge in South Wales, as well as from other schools; but not once, I believe, by a young man from the great public schools. The senior scholarship, on the other hand, has been gained three, if not four, times by Eton men, three times by Rugby men, as well as twice by young men from Christ's Hospital, and twice by young men from Cowbridge. It is, I presume, unnecessary to say more on this particular subject. - Appendix C.
The candidates for matriculation, he adds, from public schools "who come under my view, can, in many cases, scarcely apply the rules of arithmetic, and generally egregiously fail in questions which require a little independent thought and common sense." Mr. Hammond, tutor of Trinity, Cambridge, gives evidence to a similar effect.

From the evidence of which we have here given a brief account, the following conclusions appear to follow:

That boys who have capacity and industry enough to work for distinction, are, on the whole, well taught, in the article of classical scholarship, at the public schools;

But that they occasionally show a want of accuracy in elementary knowledge, either from not having been well grounded, or from having been suffered to forget what they have learnt;

That the average of classical knowledge among young men leaving school for college is low;

That in arithmetic and mathematics, in general information, and in English, the average is lower still, but is improving;

That of the time spent at school by the generality of boys, much is absolutely thrown away as regards intellectual progress, either from ineffective teaching, from the continued teaching of subjects in which they cannot advance, or from idleness, or from a combination of these causes;

That in arithmetic and mathematics the public schools are specially defective, and that this observation is not to be confined to any particular class of boys.

The proportions in which the Universities are supplied by these schools, and in which the schools are drained by the Universities, are shown clearly enough by the returns which we have received from different sources. It appears that at Oxford about one-third, and at Cambridge rather more than one-fifth, of the undergraduates come from the schools, and nearly three-fourths of these from Eton, Harrow, and Rugby. The number of boys educated at these schools who go to the Universities, and the proportion which that number bears to the whole number who leave the schools, is shown by the subjoined Table, the first two columns of which are borrowed from returns actually made to us from


[page 27]

the schools (Appendix D. II.),* the third is constructed by taking from the Answers and evidence of each school the numbers for four years and the average time during which the boys remain there respectively, and the fourth by taking the returns from the Universities (Appendix D. I.), and assuming the time during which a young man remains on the books as all undergraduate to be nearly four years.

[click on the image for a larger version]

Such discrepancies as these figures exhibit may be accounted for without much difficulty. The percentage of the boys who leave the schools annually for the Universities cannot of course be ascertained from them with accuracy; but they establish beyond doubt that not one of these nine schools sends as many as half of its boys to the Universities, and that in the case of most of them the proportion is much less than one-half. Taking them altogether, it appears to be about one-third. These proportions should be borne in mind in considering the fitness of the system of instruction at these schools for the end in view.

7. Results - The Army

The number of public-school boys who enter the army is not large. Of 1,976 candidates for direct commissions within three years, 122 only had been at any of these schools. Of these 102 succeeded and 20 failed. It will be observed, on reference to the returns, that this proportion of failures is considerably below the average; the public-school men, therefore, were better prepared than the general run of candidates. Of 96 who passed at their first examination, 38 came immediately from school, 58 had had intermediate tuition. Of the 20 who failed 14 had had such tuition.

The public-school candidates for Sandhurst during the same period were 23 out of 375; the proportion who succeeded being here also above the average. Of 18 who succeeded 11 came straight from school; of five who failed only one.

The scheme of examinations for direct commissions, framed to meet the suggestions of the Head Masters of public schools, is simple and easy, and requires nothing that is beyond the reach of any boy of moderate industry and ordinary capacity; and it is clear that no boy, who will give himself a little trouble, needs to forego the wholesome influences of a great school for the sake of being "crammed" in the house of a tutor. The Sandhurst examination also is evidently within reach of the schools.

The qualifying examination for Woolwich appears, before 1862, to have required an amount of mathematical knowledge difficult of attainment for a boy educated at a public school; but it underwent in that year some changes which have made it easier for candidates who have not received a special training. The obligatory mathematics do not now go beyond plane trigonometry; and a candidate need not obtain in them, to qualify, more than 700 marks out of 3,500; with this minimum, and with a fair proficiency in Latin, Greek, French, and geometrical drawing, he is entitled to enter into the competition. This standard is certainly not so high as to be inaccessible to a boy educated at a good public school, and from a table showing the working of the scheme at the examination of January 1863, it appears that of the 20 successful competitors 11 distinguished themselves in classics; the other marks were chiefly gained in mathematics and French. In three years, previous to this change, 35 public-school candidates passed, and 49 failed to pass, the qualifying examination, the totals being 545 and 689. Of the whole 84 two only went direct from the schools, and these failed.

*At Eton, from information described in our Report on that School (Part II. Chap. I. sec. 21).

†It does not clearly appear whether all the 79 actually succeeded in matriculating.

‡The number 17 (the actual number in one year) is assumed here as the average number for want of the necessary data.


[page 28]

8. General Observations on the Course and Subjects of Instruction proper for the Schools

We shall now state generally the opinions we have formed respecting the course and subjects of instruction proper for these schools.

We believe that for the instruction of boys, especially when collected in a large school, it is material that there should be some one principal branch of study, invested with a recognized and, if possible, a traditional importance, to which the principal weight should be assigned, and the largest share of time and attention given.

We believe that this is necessary in order to concentrate attention, to stimulate industry, to supply to the whole school a common ground of literary interest and a common path of promotion.

The study of the classical languages and literature at present occupies this position in all the great English schools. It has, as we have already observed, the advantage of long possession, an advantage so great that we should certainly hesitate to advise the dethronement of it, even if we were prepared to recommend a successor.

It is not, however, without reason that the foremost place has in fact been assigned to this study. Grammar is the logic of common speech, and there are few educated men who are not sensible of the advantages they gained as boys from the steady practice of composition and translation, and from their introduction to etymology. The study of literature is the study, not indeed of the physical, but of the intellectual and moral world we live in, and of the thoughts, lives, and characters of those men whose writings or whose memories succeeding generations have thought it worth while to preserve.

We are equally convinced that the best materials available to Englishmen for these studies are furnished by the languages and literature of Greece and Rome. From the regular structure of these languages, from their logical accuracy of expression, from the comparative ease with which their etymology is traced and reduced to general laws, from their severe canons of taste and style, from the very fact that they are "dead", and have been handed down to us directly from the periods of their highest perfection, comparatively untouched by the inevitable process of degeneration and decay, they are, beyond all doubt, the finest and most serviceable models we have for the study of language. As literature they supply the most graceful and some of the noblest poetry, the finest eloquence, the deepest philosophy, the wisest historical writing; and these excellences are such as to be appreciated keenly, though inadequately, by young minds, and to leave, as in fact they do, a lasting impression. Beside this, it is at least a reasonable opinion that this literature has had a powerful effect in moulding and animating the statesmanship and political life of England. Nor is it to be forgotten that the whole civilization of modern Europe is really built upon the foundations laid two thousand years ago by two highly civilized nations on the shores of the Mediterranean; that their languages supply the key to our modern tongues; their poetry, history, philosophy, and law, to the poetry and history, the philosophy and jurisprudence, of modern times; that this key can seldom be acquired except in youth, and that the possession of it, as daily experience proves, and as those who have it not will most readily acknowledge, is very far from being merely a literary advantage.*

*See upon this subject the answers of Dr. Temple (Rugby Answers, III. 44), and his evidence (1037- 1048); the evidence of the Astronomer Royal (101-105), and of Professor Max Müller (167), and Mr. Gladstone's Letter in App. F. See also Dr. Moberly's Five Short Letters to Sir W. Heathcote. Some excellent observations on this subject will be found in an Introductory Lecture on the Study of the Greek and Latin Languages, delivered in the University of London by H. Malden, A.M., 1831. It would be easy to multiply quotations upon it from distinguished writers and thinkers. We content ourselves with subjoining a few.

"In Germany, and Holland, and Italy, and even in France, objections, not unreasonably, have been made to an exclusive and indiscriminate classical education; but the experimental changes they determined have only shown in their result that ancient literature may be more effectually cultivated in the school, if not cultivated alone; and whilst its study, if properly directed, is absolutely the best means towards an harmonious development of the faculties, the one end of all liberal education, yet that this mean is not always, relatively, the best, when circumstances do not allow of its full and adequate application." - Sir W. Hamilton: Discussions on Philosophy, p. 329.

"The vehicle of revelation is writing, and no miracle was vouchsafed to preserve the sacred documents from the fate of other ancient MSS., or to prevent the omissions, changes, and interpolations of careless or perfidious transcribers, through a period of fourteen centuries. This was left to the resources of human criticism, and the task requires for its accomplishment the profoundest scholarship. The collation of the most ancient MSS., the discrimination of their families, and a collation of their oldest versions, may afford valuable criteria; but the one paramount and indispensable condition for the determination of the genuine reading is a familiar acquaintance with the spirit of the languages in which the sacred volume is written." Ibid. 334.

"Our mother tongue is so entwined and identified with our early and ordinary habits of thinking and speaking, it forms so much a part of ourselves from the nursery upwards, that it is extremely difficult to place it, so to speak, at a sufficient distance from the mind's eye to discern its nature or to judge of its propor- [footnote continues on next page]


[page 29]

It may be objected, indeed, that this is only true provided the study is carried far enough; and that in a large proportion of cases it is not carried far enough. Of the young men who go to the Universities a great number, as we hare seen, never acquire so much Latin and Greek as would enable them to read the best classical authors intelligently and with pleasure, and more than half of those who leave school do not go to the Universities at all: among these the average of classical attainment is certainly lower still, and probably in nine cases out of ten they never, after they have quitted school, open a Greek or Latin book. It may be asked whether the mental discipline which such boys have received could not have been imparted to them at least as well by other studies, in which they might perhaps have made more sensible progress, and which would have furnished them at the same time with knowledge practically and immediately serviceable to them in the business of life.

This objection raises two distinct questions, and may be used to support one of two alternative conclusions. For it may be contended either that there should in each great school be different courses of study for different capacities, or that there should be one course into which classics should not enter at all, or in which they should hold a subordinate place. The first of these questions will be considered hereafter with the attention which its importance demands. The second, which assumes that for the great mass of boys, if not for all, the course should be substantially one and the same, admits in our opinion of a simple and complete answer. It is, and it ought to be, the aim of the public schools to give an education of the best kind, not of the second best. The great service which they render to society consists in giving such an education to boys who have capacity and industry enough to take advantage of it, and no one would seriously recommend that they should forego this office for the sake of bringing down their teaching to a level adjusted to the reach of dull, uncultivated, or listless minds. They are bound indeed to adjust it to the scope of ordinary intellects, for the vast majority of the boys entrusted to them are not clever. But it is not necessary to be clever in order to gain solid advantage from the study of Latin and Greek; it is only necessary to be attentive, a condition equally indispensable to progress in any other study. Whether for an assemblage of boys of a uniformly low intellectual calibre it would not be practicable to devise some other course of instruction, which might be made, when perfected by time, as good an instrument of mental discipline as that which we recommend, is a question to which experience has not yet supplied a satisfactory answer.

[footnote continued from previous page] tions. It is, besides, so uncompounded in its structure, so patchwork-like in its composition, so broken down into particles, so scanty in its inflections, and so simple in its fundamental rules of construction, that it is next to impossible to have a true and grammatical notion of it, or to form indeed any correct ideas of grammar and philology at all, without being able to compare and contrast it with another language, and that other of a character essentially different." - Professor Pillans, quoted ibid. p. 346.

"The languages of classical antiquity are almost indispensable helps to all sound acquirements in policies, jurisprudence, or any of the moral sciences. They are also requisite for the formation of those elevated sentiments and that rectitude of judgment and taste which are inseparably connected with them. These languages may be acquired, and, in fact, are acquired when well acquired, in early youth." - Austin, Lectures on Jurisprudence, III, 368.

"Wenn uns unser Schulunterricht immer auf das Alterthum hinwweist, das Studium der griechisehen und lateinischen sprache fördert, so können wir uns Glück wünschen, dass diese zu einer höheren Cultur so nöthigen Studien niemals rückgängig werden." - Goethe, Maximen, vol. 49, p. 111l, of Goethe's Werke, 18mo. ed. 1833.

"Möge das Studium der griechischen und römischen Literatur immerfort die Basis der höhern Bildung bleiben." - Ibid. 123.

Goethe's strongly expressed opinion is peculiarly valuable on account of the large range of his literary knowledge and of his ardent attachment to natural science.

We subjoin two official expressions of opinion emanating from the departments of Public Instruction in Prussia and France.

"Die Lehrgegenstände in den Gymnasien, namentlich die deutsche, lateinische, und griechische Sprache, die Religionslehre, die philosophische Propädeutik, die Mathematik nebst Physik und Naturbescheibung, die Geschichte und Geographie, so wie die technischen Fertigkeitea des Schreibens. Zeichnens, und Singens, und zwar in der ordnungsmässigen dem jugendlichen Alter angemessenen Stufcufolge und in dem Verhaltnisse worin sie in den verschiedenen Klassen gelehrt werden, machen die Grundlage jeder hoheren Bildung aus, und stehen zu dem Zwecke der Gyrnnasien in einem so natülichen als nothwendigen Zusammenhange. Die Erfuhrung von Jahrhunderten, und das Urtheil der Sachverständigen auf deren Stimme ein vorzugliehes Gewicht gelegt werden muss, spricht dafür, dass gerade diese Lehrgegenstände vorzüglich geoignet sing um durch sie und an ihnen aile geistigen Kräfte zu wecken, zu entwickeln, zu stärken, und der Jugend, wie es der zweck der Gymnasien mit sich bringt, zu einem grundlichen und gedeihlichen Studian der Wissenschaften die erforderliche nicht bloss formelle sondern auch materielle Vorbereitung und Befähigung zu geben." - Circular of the Prussian Minister of Public Instruction, 24th October, 1837.

"C'est en se trempant dans la source féconde de l'antiquité latine et grecque, que l'esprit Français acquit cette mesure, cette haute raison, et cette clarté incomparable, qui lui ont valu l'empire pacifique de l'Europe. Conservons précieusement ces nobles études, qui out fait la France moderne et son glorieux génie; mais aussi suivons le monde du côte òu il marche." - Circular of the French Minister of Public Instruction 2nd October 1863.


[page 30]

We entertain, however, no doubt that a boy of ordinary capacity, and even a dull and backward boy who can be induced to take pains, is likely to profit more on the whole in a school where he has highly educated masters, and travels the same road with companions who are being highly educated, where there is a high standard of taste and attainment, and the instruments and whole machinery of instruction are of the finest and most perfect kind, than he would under a system sedulously lowered to the pitch of his own intellectual powers.*

Assuming, therefore, for the present at least, that the course of study is to run mainly - we do not say undeviatingly - in one track, we are of opinion that the classical languages and literature should continue to hold, as they now do, the principal place in public school education. We are equally convinced that they ought not to be studied solely and exclusively. To enter fully into this subject would require a lengthened dissertation. We may content ourselves with saying that it is the office of education, not only to discipline some of the faculties, but to awaken, call out, and exercise them all so far as this can be usefully done in boyhood; to awaken tastes that may be developed in after life; to impart early habits of reading, thought, and observation; and to furnish the mind with such knowledge as is wanted at the outset of life. A young man is not well educated - and indeed is not educated at all - who cannot reason or observe or express himself easily and correctly, and who is unable to bear his part in cultivated society from ignorance of things which all who mix in it are assumed to be acquainted with. He is not well educated if all his information is shut up within one narrow circle, and he has not been taught at least that beyond what he has been able to acquire lie great and varied fields of knowledge, some of which he may afterwards explore if he has inclination and opportunity to do so. The kind of knowledge which is necessary or useful, and the best way of exercising and disciplining the faculties, must vary, of course, with the habits and requirements of the age and the society in which his life is to be spent. Thus, when Latin was the common language of educated men, it was of primary importance to be able to speak and write Latin; so long as French is, though in a different manner and degree, a common channel of communication among educated persons in Europe, a man can hardly be called well educated who is ignorant of French. The mental faculties of men remain much the same, but the subjects on which, and the circumstances in which, they are to be exerted, vary continually. The best form of discipline, therefore, may not be the same in the 19th as it was in the 16th century, and the information which will be serviceable in life is sure to be very different. Hence, no system of instruction can be framed, which will not require modification from time to time. The highest and most useful office of education is certainly to train and discipline; but it is not the only office. And we cannot but remark that whilst in the busy world too great a value perhaps is sometimes set upon the actual acquisition of knowledge, and too little upon that mental discipline which enables men to acquire and turn it to the best account, there is also a tendency which is exactly the reverse of this, and which is among the besetting temptations of the ablest schoolmasters; and that if very superficial men may be produced by one of these influences, very ignorant men are sometimes produced by the other.

The objections which have been commonly made to any extension of the old course of study are of a more or less practical character. It is said that many things which ought to be learnt ought not to be learnt at school, and are best acquired before going thither, or after leaving it; that they cannot be imparted there effectively nor without injury to more important studies, without dissipating the attention and overloading the mind; that the capacity for learning which an average boy possesses is, after all, very limited, and his capacity for forgetting very great; that ability is rare and industry not very common; that if the apparent results are small, they do not quite represent the real benefit received; and that the actual results, such as they are, are the best which in practice it is possible to obtain.

There is truth in this, but not enough to support the conclusions it has often been used to establish. These arguments, in fact, have been employed against all the improvements which have been already introduced into our great schools, and introduced with proved success.

It is quite true that much less, generally speaking, can be mastered and retained by a young mind than theorists might suppose; and true that it is not easy to win steady attention from a high-spirited English lad, who has the restless activity and love of play that belong to youth and health, who, like his elders, thinks somewhat slowly, and does not express himself readily, and to whom mental effort is troublesome.

*Some further observations bearing on this point will be found in Sec. 10, infra.


[page 31]

But these are difficulties which it is the business of the schoolmaster to contend with, and which careful and skilful teaching may to some extent overcome. If a youth, after four or five years spent at school, quits it at 19, unable to construe an easy bit of Latin or Greek without the help of a dictionary or to write Latin grammatically, almost ignorant of geography and of the history of his own country, unacquainted with any modern language but his own, and hardly competent to write English correctly, to do a simple sum, or stumble through an easy proposition of Euclid, a total stranger to the laws which govern the physical world, and to its structure, with an eye and hand unpractised in drawing and without knowing a note of music, with an uncultivated mind and no taste for reading or observation, his intellectual education must certainly be accounted a failure, though there may be no fault to find with his principles, character, or manners. We by no means intend to represent this as a type of the ordinary product of English public-school education; but speaking both from the evidence we have received and from opportunities of observation open to all, we must say that it is a type much more common than it ought to be, making ample allowance for the difficulties before referred to, and that the proportion of failures is therefore unduly large.

It is true also that, besides what is learnt at school by the boy, much may and ought to be acquired by the child, and much more by the man. But that boys come very ill-prepared to school is the general complaint of the masters whom we have examined; and this evil, we regret to say, seems to he on the increase. Little boys are found to have learnt less at home, we have been assured, than used formerly to be the case. On the other hand, there are many men, we believe, who do not learn much after they leave school, because few men read much, for want of inclination or leisure. There are those, undoubtedly, who are learning all their lives, and with such persons the acquisitions of boyhood are as nothing to those of their maturer years; but the number is not large. The schools have it in their power, as we have already pointed out, to remedy to a certain extent the former of these deficiencies, by a stricter examination on entrance; and it should be their aim at least to diminish the latter by opening the minds of their scholars and implanting tastes which are now wanting. But the chances of leisure after entrance into active life must always be precarious. The school has absolute possession of the boy during four or five years, the most valuable years of pupilage, the time when the powers of apprehension and memory are brightest, when the faculty of observation is quick and lively, and he is forming his acquaintance with the various objects of knowledge. Something surely may be done during that time in the way, not of training alone, but of positive acquisition, and the school is responsible for turning it to the best account. The objection that any extension of the course will overtask the time and attention of the scholar will be best considered when we have stated what extension we propose. It will be found to be a very moderate one.

The importance of arithmetic and mathematics is already, as we have seen, recognized in every school, and it is only necessary that they should be taught more effectively. The arithmetical and mathematical course should, we think, include arithmetic, so taught as to make every boy thoroughly familiar with it, and the elements of geometry, algebra, and plane trigonometry. We agree with the Astronomer Royal, Sir C. Lyell, and Dr. Whewell, in thinking it very desirable that in the case of the more advanced students the course should comprise also an introduction to applied mathematics.

One modern language, at least, now forms part of the regular course at every school but Eton. We are of opinion that all the boys at every school should, in some part at least of their passage through it, learn either French or German.

In saying this, we do not overlook what may be urged on behalf of Italian. To be ignorant of Italian is undoubtedly a misfortune for any man of cultivated mind. No French or German poet can be placed on a level with Dante: no poetical literature has exercised so strong or so beneficial an influence on our own as that of Italy in its palmy days; and there will probably never be a time when the true poetical artist, in this country or elsewhere, will cease to derive aid and inspiration from old Italian sources. But these considerations do not go far towards determining the question whether the Italian language should be placed as a branch of school-work on an equality with German. With German, we say, because French has acknowledged claims on which it is not necessary to dwell. In making a selection of this kind, regard must be had to the character of the languages among which the choice lies, their symmetry of structure and grammatical regularity - to their philological importance in reference to other languages, especially those cognate to our own - to their utility as channels of intercourse - to the interest and value, for modern purposes, of the literature written in them, the stores of thought and knowledge which they unlock, and the intellectual power and influence of the peoples by whom they are spoken - lastly, to the demand which actually exists for them respectively, since a boy who cannot acquire at a public school what his parents


[page 32]

want for him, will probably go elsewhere for it, and thus lose, wholly or partially, the benefits of a public school training. In all of these respects it must, we think, be admitted, that German has at the present day the advantage over Italian; and this advantage appears more marked when we reflect that the boys for whom the choice has to be made are already learning Latin, and perhaps French also. For Italian, still more than French, is a modern dialect of Latin, and a Latin scholar can easily master it enough to read it with pleasure, though not, perhaps, to write or speak it well; whilst an introduction to Gennan acquaints him with a new tongue, representing a distinct and important family of tongues. We might advert also to the access which German affords to the literature of other nations through the remarkable abundance and excellence of its translations; but it is needless to pursue the subject further. For these reasons we cannot recommend that Italian should find a place in the regular course or school-work, to the exclusion of either French or German, or side by side with them, though we should be glad to see opportunities of acquiring it provided for those whose parents wish them to do so.

Natural science, with such slight exceptions as have been noticed above, is practically excluded from the education of the higher classes in England. Education with us is, in this respect, narrower than it was three centuries ago, whilst science has prodigiously extended her empire, has explored immense tracts, divided them into provinces, introduced into them order and method, and made them accessible to all. This exclusion is, in our view, a plain defect and a great practical evil. It narrows unduly and injuriously the mental training of the young, and the knowledge, interests, and pursuits of men in maturer life. Of the large number of men who have little aptitude or taste for literature, there are many who have an aptitude for science, especially for science which deals, not with abstractions, but with external and sensible objects; how many such there are can never be known, as long as the only education given at schools is purely literary; but that such cases are not rare or exceptional can hardly be doubted by anyone who has observed either boys or men. Nor would it be an answer, were it true, to say, that such persons are sure to find their vocation, sooner or later. But this is not true. We believe that many pass through life without useful mental employment, and without the wholesome interest of a favourite study, for want of an early introduction to one for which they are really fit. It is not, however, for such cases only, that an early introduction to natural science is desirable. It is desirable, surely, though not necessary, for all educated men. Sir Charles Lyell has remarked on the advantage which the men of literature in Germany enjoy over our own, in the general acquaintance which the former possess with what is passing in the scientific world; an advantage due to the fact that natural science to a greater or less extent is taught in an the German schools. To clergymen and others who pass most of their lives in the country, or who, in country or town, are brought much into contact with the middle and lower classes, an elementary knowledge of the subject, early gained, has its particular uses; and we believe that its value, as a means of opening the mind and disciplining the faculties, is recognized by all who have taken the trouble to acquire it, whether men of business or of leisure. It quickens and cultivates directly the faculty of observation, which in very many persons lies almost dormant through life, the power of accurate and rapid generalization, and the mental habit of method and arrangement; it accustoms young persons to trace the sequence of cause and effect; it familiarises them with a kind of reasoning which interests them, and which they can promptly comprehend; and it is perhaps the best corrective for that indolence which is the vice of half-awakened minds, and which shrinks from any exertion that is not, like an effort of memory, merely mechanical. With sincere respect for the opinions of the eminent Schoolmasters who differ from us in this matter, we are convinced that the introduction of the elements of natural science into the regular course of study is desirable, and we see no sufficient reason to doubt that it is practicable.

We say the elements, because the teaching must necessarily be elementary. Elementary teaching, thoroughly understood as far as it goes, will satisfy the purposes in view, and we do not desire, nor indeed do the distinguished men who have urged upon us the claims of their special studies propose, that natural science should occupy a large space in general education, Under the array of hard names, invented to designate its various branches, lie assemblages of intelligible facts bound together for the most part by simple reasoning; and the opinions expressed by men eminently qualified to judge, supported by the results actually gained both in this country and in Germany, lead us to believe that class-teaching for an hour or two in the week, properly seconded, will be found to produce substantial fruits.

From our present point of view, natural science may be taken as dividing itself into two great branches, the one consisting of chemistry and physics, or the general laws of matter treated experimentally, the other of natural history and physiology, sciences of


[page 33]

observation and classification. These branches run into each other, for they are but parts of one vast subject; but they appeal to different faculties. "Physics", says Dr. Acland, "are educationally fundamental to all natural sciences, No person is a chemist unless he has some knowledge of physics, and no person can be a physiologist who is not, to a certain extent, both a physicist and a chemist." The sciences of experiment, viewed in this light, logically precede those of observation. In the German schools, on the other hand, where a uniform scheme is established which is the product of much inquiry and experience, an introduction to natural history, in a wide sense, precedes an introduction to physics.* Whether the logical order of these sciences is that in which they may best be studied - whether the order most suitable for a mature intellect is most fit also for the opening faculties of a boy - at what age or point of intellectual progress the subject or any part of it should be taken up, in what manner it should be taught, and how far it should be pursued, are questions which we cannot pretend to determine absolutely; they must be left to be settled by experience, and by the inquiries and deliberate judgment of the various Governing Bodies. It is desirable, however, that instruction in both branches should be provided, if possible, in every school; though it may not be desirable that both should be taught to every boy. Some difficulty will be found at first in obtaining good school-books, and competent teachers; but the demand will create a supply. If Oxford or Cambridge men are wished for, they will not long be wanting when a certain number of Assistant-Masterships in great schools are added to the scanty opportunities of gaining a livelihood now open to students of natural science.

We are of opinion that every boy should learn either music or drawing, during a part at least of his stay at school. Positive inaptitude for the education of the ear and voice, or for that of the hand and eye, is we believe rare; and these accomplishments are useful as instruments of training and valuable possessions in after life.

From the observations which we have made on the study of history and geography, it will have appeared that greater attention should, in our opinion, be paid to them than they now receive at most of the schools. A taste for history may be gained at school; the habit of reading intelligently should certainly be acquired there, and few books can be intelligently read without some study of history, and no history without geography. A master who knows these subjects himself will not, we believe, be at a loss for means of teaching them, if he feels that to do so is a part of his duty which is entitled to its share of time. We desire also to see more attention to English composition and orthography. A command of pure grammatical English is not necessarily gained by construing Latin and Greek, though the study of the classical languages is, or rather may be made, an instrument of the highest value for that purpose.

It may, perhaps, be objected that there is not time for such a course of study as we have described, and that it could not be attempted without injury to classics; that the working hours are already long enough; that not more than a certain quantity of work can be put into a certain number of hours, and that a boy's head will not hold more than a certain quantity of knowledge. It is not, of course, a conclusive answer to this objection that it has been urged before against changes which have been made, and made successfully. Until a few years ago, there was no time for mathematics; at Eton, even now, it is deemed impossible to find time for French. Yet scholarship is none the worse, and general education is much the better, for the introduction of mathematics; Eton scholarship, in the opinion of Dr. Okes, has improved during his recollection, and the Eton scholarship of the present day can hardly claim superiority over that of some other schools, which can afford to modern languages a fair share of time. There would be reason therefore to distrust the objection, had we no other means of judging of it. But we are persuaded that by effective teaching time can be found for these things without encroaching on the hours of play; and that room may be made for them, by taking trouble, in the head of any ordinary boy. We are satisfied that of the time spent at school by nine boys out of ten much is wasted, which it is quite possible to economize. Time is economized by increasing attention; attention is sharpened and kept alive by a judicious change of work. A boy can attend without flagging to what interests him, and what he attends to he can generally retain; but without real attention there can be no progress, and without progress no intellectual discipline worth the name. The great difficulty of a public school, as every master knows, is simple idleness, which is defended by numbers and entrenched behind the system and traditions of the place, and against which, if he be active, he wages a more or less unequal war. We are not without hope that, by the changes which we are about to recommend with respect to the schools collectively and separately, this evil may be considerably abated; and we entertain no doubt, that without

*Thus during the two hours a week devoted in those schools to the natural sciences, it is usual, we believe, in the lowest forms to teach zoology in the winter months, and botany in the summer months, and in one form a course of mineralogy; while physics are exclusively the subjects of instruction in the highest forms.


[page 34]

sacrificing the diligent to the idle, or health to work, two or three hours a week may be advantageously spared for natural science, as two or three have been spared for mathematics, and two or three for French.

The extent to which the several subjects should be pursued may well vary in different schools according to their traditional practice, the advantages which they respectively possess, the class from which their scholars are chiefly drawn, or the objects at which they especially aim; and may vary in each school with the bent or future destination of individual boys. Natural science in some schools, modern languages in others, may be taught in every form up to the highest, in others only in certain selected forms. One school may teach only one modern language, another two. One boy again may, by natural capacity and by the use of such facilities as the school affords him, advance far into a study of which another only passes the threshold. In these respects we desire to see ample liberty freely used. But this liberty has its natural limits; and we think it clear that in every school without exception the scheme of study should be so arranged that every boy who passes through it should be taught, and taught effectively, every branch of the regular course of study.

9. Observations - Time and relative Value to be assigned to different Branches of School Course - Their share in Promotion, Prizes, &c.

We have spoken hitherto of the course and subjects of study. The recommendations which we shall make concerning the manner of teaching these subjects, and the arrangement of the school for instruction in them respectively, must necessarily stand upon somewhat different ground, and must be themselves of unequal force. Some of them are, in our opinion, of essential importance - all advisable in a greater or less degree.

1. It is essential that every part of the regular course of study should have assigned to it a due proportion of the whole time given to study - a proportion to be measured by its requirements, and by its relative importance.

The following scheme for the distribution of the school or class lessons in a week, is suggested as furnishing a comparative scale:

I. Classics, with History and Divinity11
II. Arithmetic and Mathematics3
III. French or German2
IV. Natural Science2
V. Music or Drawing2
20

It is here assumed that the school lessons take about an hour each, and that they will be such as to demand for preparation in the case of classics 10 additional hours, and in those of modern languages and natural science respectively at least two additional hours, in the course of the week; and that composition will demand about five hours.*

2. It is essential that every branch of the regular course of study should be promoted by the stimulus of reward and punishment, and that this stimulus should, as far as possible, be real and effective.

We do not, of course, mean that all rewards should be open equally to all branches of study. This point requires a little explanation. The ordinary forms of reward are -

Promotion within each form (or, as it is commonly called, taking places) and from one form to another;
Prizes and exhibitions or scholarships, to be held either at school or after leaving school.
With respect to promotion it is further to be observed that as a general rule the classical forms and those alone are considered to mark each boy's rank or status in the school, whilst the form or class in which he is placed in any subject other than classics denotes merely the progress he has made in that subject. Not only is this the case, but the arrangement of the school for mathematics and for modern languages, where these form a part of the course, is, as we have already observed, generally made subordinate to the arrangement of it for classics. The boys in two or three consecutive classical forms or subdivisions of classical forms are released at the same time from their classical work and sent together to the school of mathematics or French, where they are re-arranged according to their proficiency. It follows that a boy cannot advance in one study much faster than he does in another; and whatever his aptitude for or acquirements in French or mathematics; he can never far outstrip in these studies those with whom he is on an equality in classics.

a. We have been unable to satisfy ourselves that this mode of arranging the school for non-classical lessons is demanded by necessity or convenience, and it evidently

*In this scale and the scale of marks which follows, it is assumed that all the branches of the course are being pursued together. Some variation would -be necessary in applying the scales to parts of a school in which this was not done, or to such cases as are indicated in the next section.


[page 35]

places a check upon rapid and sustained progress in these subjects. We are, therefore, of opinion that, for instruction in every subject other than classics, the school should be re-distributed into a series of forms wholly independent of the classical forms, and that boys should be promoted from form to form according to their proficiency in that subject, irrespectively of their progress in any other subject.

b. We think it essential that every non-classical subject (except music and drawing), in every part of the school in which it is compulsory, should affect the promotion from one classical form to another, and the place given to each boy in such promotion, as indeed in certain instances is already the case with respect to mathematics and some other subjects. Thus if natural science is compulsory on all boys in the fourth and fifth (classical) forms of a school, each boy's proficiency in natural science should contribute, according to a certain scale of marks, to the rise from the fourth form to the fifth, and from the fifth to the form next above it, and should also help to determine the place assigned him, on each promotion, in his new form.

A scale of marks for this purpose should be settled by the Governing Body, or by the Head Master with the approbation of the Governing Body, and amended if necessary from time to time.

It is essential that the scale should be such as to give substantial weight and encouragement to the non-classical studies.

The following approximation to a scale is suggested as indicating the relative weight, which in our opinion may fairly be assigned to the various subjects.*

Classics, with History and Divinity, not less than 4/8 nor more than 5/8.
Mathematics, not less than 1/8 nor more than 2/8.
Modern Languages, not less than 1/8 nor more than 2/8.
Natural Science, not less than 1/8 nor more than 2/8.
The three non-classical subjects combined, 4/8.
c. It is highly important that these three non-classical studies should be further encouraged by prizes appropriated to them respectively; and also, where the school possesses exhibitions and this is practicable, by giving them a share of such exhibitions. We should be glad to see prizes and distinctions conferred periodically, first, for eminently rapid and well-sustained progress in the several schools of mathematics, modern languages, and natural science respectively; and, secondly, for the greatest proficiency in each subject in proportion to age. We think it also desirable that the school lists issued periodically should contain the names of all boys separately arranged in the order of their merit and place in the classical school, and also, once at least in the year, separately arranged in the order of merit and place in the several schools of mathematics, modern languages, and natural science respectively. Special prizes should be given for proficiency in music and drawing, but these studies should not be taken into account in determining the places of the boys in the school.

In recommending that classics should continue to hold a principal place in the course of study, we have not been blind to the tendency which a principal study has to encroach upon and unduly depress those associated with it, to monopolise the energies of the masters and draw to itself the whole respect and attention of the boys. This tendency is probably inevitable, but it should be counteracted, if the other studies are to be pursued seriously and usefully, by such means as are not incompatible with the freedom and general progress of the school, and particularly by giving to the studies themselves their fair shares in the common stimulants to industry, and securing a becoming position to their respective teachers.

10. Deviations from the regular Course of Study - Experiment of a separate Modern Department

We have assumed in the foregoing observations that each school will have, as each now has, its course of study, through which those who enter the school are expected to pass. Our attention has, however, been directed to another question, which deserves to be carefully considered, namely, to the desirableness of introducing into the public schools, side by side with their classical organization, a distinct department for the prosecution of what are sometimes called modern, and sometimes practical studies, into which boys should be allowed to pass, either immediately upon their admission to the school or after having made a certain amount of progress in it, and in which they should be instructed principally in modern languages, mathematics, natural science, history, geography, and other branches of an English education, classical teaching being made of subordinate and not of primary importance.

It is frequently said that there are boys who have no natural aptitude for classical studies, and upon whom classical teaching is consequently thrown away, but who would

*See the preceding note.


[page 36]

take interest in and profit by a thoroughly good system of practical education; that there are others whose destinations in life render it of importance that they should receive special instruction in subjects which cannot be adequately taught as mere adjuncts to a classical course; and that it is hard that such boys should be condemned either to waste their time on uncongenial and unsuitable pursuits, or to forego altogether the benefits of a public school career. It would not be difficult to find arguments in favour of making special provision for these two classes of boys. We are not, indeed, disposed to attach great weight to the argument from inaptitude; for, though the capacities of boys for classical study must vary, as they do for other kinds of study, we believe that under a judicious system of teaching, administered by a sufficient number of competent masters, with a due regard to the individual characters of their pupils, almost any boy may attain such an amount of proficiency in the classics as cannot fail to be of material advantage to him. We believe that the large proportion of failures, which we cannot but recognize, is mainly to be attributed to the system under which idle and inferior boys are allowed to do their work in a slovenly and inefficient manner, or even to shelter themselves from the necessity of working at all. But we have no doubt that there are many boys who could not by any process of teaching be made superior scholars, and upon whom the high polish of which others are susceptible would be entirely thrown away; nor can we doubt that there are on the other hand many who have peculiar capabilities for scientific studies, to whom it would be of the greatest advantage to receive a higher amount of scientific instruction than would be desirable for the generality of their school-fellows, and we think it may fairly be urged that it would be of advantage for such boys as these to be allowed to drop some portion of their classical, in order to devote more time to other work. So, too, with regard to those boys who are said to require special preparation for their future career in life; while we strongly deprecate the idea of reducing the education of our public schools to a standard based merely upon calculations of direct and immediate utility, and should regard it as a great misfortune if those who direct them were to aim at the mere imparting of practical knowledge, or the training of their pupils for competitive examinations, we cannot close our eyes to the fact that parents who find their sons left in total ignorance of matters which will be important to them in after life, or who perceive that they are unable to compete successfully for the professional and other prizes which are open to their contemporaries, are tempted to take the solution of the question between classical and practical education into their own hands, by removing their sons at an early age from the public school and placing them under the far less satisfactory care of a private tutor; and we think that the cause of liberal education is in this way likely to suffer if some attempt is not made to meet the case of that large class of boys who are destined not for the Universities, but for early professional life.

In France and in Germany provision is made for giving such boys as these an entirely distinct education. In France the pupils in the lycées are divided into three classes; they all pass through the elementary and the grammar divisions, but when they reach the highest or superior division they have to elect between the section littéraire and the section scientifique, it being necessary for those who seek a degree in letters or law to attach themselves to the former, and for those who seek one in science or medicine to join the latter. Boys destined for commerce or industrial professions also usually enter themselves in the section scientifique. This divergence in the course of education is known by the term bifurcation. The period of separate instruction in these two sections lasts for three years, during which, however, a certain amount of inter-communication takes place between them, the pupils of the section littéraire attending lectures on geometry, physics, chemistry, and natural history, and those of the section scientifique attending lectures on French, Latin, history, and geography. In the fourth year they all unite in the study of logic and of the application of the laws of thought and reasoning.*

*From a Circular issued on this subject by M. Duruy, Minister of Public Instruction, on the 2nd October 1863, it appears that in 64 out of the 74 Lycées, and in almost all the colléges communaux, there is a special course of enseignement professionel established under different designations; that about one-sixth of the scholars have taken advantage of it, and that the number increases. "C'est une marée montante", the inspectors say, "à laquelle it faut ouvrir un large lit." The results nevertheless have not been satisfactory. "Mais il ne faut pas reculer", observes M. Duruy, "devant un aveu nécessaire. Par la timidité des essais, par l'incertitude des idées sur les besoins à satisfaire et les meilleurs moyens d'y pourvoir, surtout, en ce qui nous concerne, par le manque d'une dotation spéciale, cet enseignement ne donnait, à bien peu d'exceptions près, que des resultats stériles." He proposes however not to abandon the system, but to maintain and develope it. "Le système que je propose est bien simple. Sur la base élargie et consolidée de l'enseignement primaire s'élèveront parallelement les deux enseignements secondaires: l'un classique, pour les carrières dites Iibèrales, l'autre professionel pour les carrières de I'industrie, du commerce et de l'agriculture." "Notre France", he adds, "a été si profondernent pénétrée de l'esprit latin qu'il y existe un préjugé contre l'enseignement pratique. Ce préjugé ne pousse pas à mieux faire des études classiques, mais il ernpêche de bien faire des études usuelles. [footnote continues on next page]


[page 37]

In Germany, as is more fully shown by the account of the Prussian schools in the Appendix G to this Report, the business of preparing boys for the universities is left to the Gymnasien, and that of educating them for other careers is assigned to the Real-schulen, which are wholly distinct and separate establishments. The French principle, therefore, of keeping the pupils together while they are pursuing different lines of study is in theory reversed in Prussia. It appears, however, that the system of bifurcation is to some extent admitted into a few of the Gymnasien, by the introduction at a certain point in the school of parallel forms or classes in which the instruction is the same as in the corresponding forms of a Real-schulen; and it is stated that the Gymnasien are by many preferred to the Real-schulen even for boys destined for commercial and industrial pursuits.

In England several attempts have of late years been made to engraft a modern department upon a classical school, and to conduct it upon distinct principles. The communications which we have received from the Head Masters of Marlborough, Cheltenham, and Wellington Colleges and of the City of London School will be found to throw much light upon these experiments.

Cheltenham College consists, in fact, of two schools, into which boys enter separately, one of them a very efficient and successful classical school of the ordinary type, the other a school in which the boys learn comparatively little Latin and no Greek, but natural science is taught, and greater stress is laid on modern languages. The number of boys in the Modern Department is 276; it nearly equals, indeed, the number in the classical, and the number of class-masters appropriated to it is considerable. Marlborough has likewise its Modern Department, into which, however, boys do not enter till they have reached a certain point in the school (the sixth out of thirteen divisions in which it is arranged) and which in 1862 contained 62 boys, or somewhat more than one-seventh of the school, taught by three masters. At Wellington College, in every form from about the middle of the school to the top, there are a certain number of boys who do less classics and more of modern work than the rest of the form, and these are grouped in separate divisions, which are called mathematical divisions. This resembles the German system, described above. Among the boys who avail themselves of the opportunity thus offered, few, except those who are backward or are to leave the school young, do so at the earliest point; the "cleverer moderns", we are told, continue their Greek with a view to make it available in examinations, and do not deviate into a mathematical division till they have reached the upper forms. The whole number in the mathematical divisions in 1862 was 23, or little more than 10 per cent of the school.

The City of London School is a great day-school in the heart of London, having little connexion with the Universities, and educating, apparently with great success, a very large proportion of boys who are not intended for Oxford or Cambridge. At the same time the classical and mathematical education given there is so good that of those who do go to the Universities nearly all distinguish themselves; and in one year (1861) the four chief honours at Cambridge were gained by young men educated at this school. It is therefore somewhat remarkable that, although an opportunity is afforded to the boys of branching off at a certain stage in their career into a class where they are not required to learn Greek, very few are found to avail themselves of it. Parents who must be supposed to have at least as strong reasons for desiring a good practical education for their sons as the parents of young Etonians or Harrovians can have, are content that they should follow a course of instruction in classics which on more than one occasion has been found sufficient to produce a senior classic and a Chancellor's medallist at Cambridge.

The school at King's College, London, containing more than 400 boys, appears to be organized upon the same principle as Cheltenham College, except that the link of connexion between the two divisions is slighter. Archdeacon Browne states that at this school the classical and modern departments, in point of numbers, nearly balance each other.

The various arrangements which have been briefly described above have in view two main objects. One of them, says Mr. Bradley, is to prepare boys for definite examina-

[footnote continued from previous page] Nous devons le combattre en mettant les deux. enseignemens sur le même pied, en faisant vivre sons la même discipline, dans une égale communauté de go[ts et de sentimens, des enfans d'origine et de destination différntes," He proposes that both branches shall be combined as at present, in the same buildings, under the same management and the same professors assisted by special masters; that the professional course shall occupy four years, from the age of 12 to that of 16; and that it shall comprise the following subjects - religious instruction; the French language and literature; foreign languages; history and geography; elements of ethics, public and private; legislation as bearing on agriculture, trade, and manufactures; industrial and rural economy; accounts; book-keeping; applied mathematics; physics; chemistry and natural history, with their applications to agriculture and manufactures; linear, decorative, and imitative drawing; gymnastics and singing. It will be observed that this system of bifurcation is adapted wholly to differences, not of bent and capacity, but of destination, and that it is not intended to be applied to boys intended for "les carrières dites libérales".


[page 38]

tions, in which they would not succeed if they competed direct from the classical school. The chief of these are the examinations for Woolwich and Sandhurst, which "mainly guide", as we learn from Mr. Barry, the reading of the higher classes in the Modern Department at Cheltenham, "and are to this department what the university course is to a high classical school." With regard to this first object, Mr. Bradley says, "there can be no doubt as to the result. Six candidates from our Modern School have competed at Woolwich in the present year. All but one were successful at their first attempt, and scarcely one of them could have succeeded had he remained in the Classical Department." But at the same time he adds that "a good classical scholar would prefer to compete at Woolwich or elsewhere direct from the sixth form, joining, as in such cases he is permitted to do, the Modern School in certain lessons only"; and Mr. Barry is sure that at present "boys could be sent in for Woolwich with almost equal advantage from either department of the college." It appears, therefore, that at Marlborough and Cheltenham - both of them, it may be observed, schools eminently successful at the universities - a Modern Department is not wanted to enable a boy who is a good classical scholar to succeed in the Woolwich examination as it is now conducted. What it does is to enable boys who are not good classical scholars to succeed in that examination by obtaining high marks in other subjects. This is doubtless a useful object, but its utility is limited, because, as we have already observed, there are few boys of ordinary abilities who cannot by taking pains become fair scholars. What is true of the Woolwich examination is true in a still greater degree of others which are less hard and less special in their character. The main object, we presume, of all competitive examinations is to ascertain which of the candidates is the ablest and most industrious, and has profited most by the education he has received; and those who conduct them are no doubt alive to the importance of so arranging their details as to give the boys who have had the best general education the advantage over those who have been specially prepared in particular subjects with a view to obtain a large number of marks. The main studies of the public schools being classical, it is obvious that, unless a due amount of weight is given to the classics in the Woolwich examinations, boys from those schools will not stand a fair chance in the competition. On the other hand, as it is of importance that the examinations should comprise other subjects besides classics, it is also obvious that unless the public schools provide a due amount of instruction in those other subjects, the candidates whom they send up must compete at a disadvantage. It is certain that there has hitherto been a want of adjustment between the Woolwich standard and the teaching of the public schools. The fault, we think, lies chiefly, though not wholly, in the deficiencies in the course of education pursued at the latter; and we are convinced that when those deficiencies have been supplied the difficulty which is now complained of will speedily disappear. But it is also to be observed, with respect to the Woolwich examinations themselves, that the scale of marks has lately (as we have already stated) undergone an alteration, which diminishes the amount of mathematical attainment required; and allows greater weight to classical scholarship. It appears probable that the Modern Departments at Cheltenham and Marlborough would not have been what they are had the old Woolwich standard, which is stated to have influenced them so strongly, been the same as the present; and probable also that they will hereafter feel the effects of the change which has been made in it.

The other object which Mr. Bradley assigns to the Modern School at Marlborough is, "to attempt to solve in some degree the question often asked, How far is it possible to give a really good public school education on any other basis than that of instruction in the dead languages?" To this question he replies that the experiment has not yet been fairly tried, that he "deliberately prefers as the best education, where obtainable", a system of mixed classical and modern study; that he believes, however, that a thoroughly sound education may be given upon the basis of modern studies and mathematics, excluding classics; but that the practical difficulties which lie in the way of such a system are at present exceedingly great. On the whole, however, he is convinced that the general result is "most valuable", and he "would deeply deplore the abandonment of the experiment from any cause." Mr. Barry takes a somewhat similar view: "So far as can be judged from the nature of the system, and from the character of the boys who have passed through it, I think it may be said that the experiment has been fairly tried, with such a measure of success as to justify much confidence in its value"; and he thinks that "the existence of the Modern Department at Cheltenham gives far greater perfection to the system of education, and far better scope for the various ability and knowledge of our boys than could be possible if only the classical system prevailed. I feel sure that it gives a true education, and not mere instruction in various subjects." But he admits that he has not "the same full confidence in the effect of the system as in the older classical system, modified as it is here by a strong and sufficient admixture of


[page 39]

mathematics, and of English study"; and he seems to feel, like Mr. Bradley, the practical difficulties which beset the question.

For a full account of these difficulties we must refer to the statements of Mr. Bradley and Mr. Barry, and to those of the able masters who have charge of the Modern Departments in their respective schools. To the chief of these we have already adverted in a former part of this Report. It is difficult to find men thoroughly competent to teach modern languages as they ought to be taught, if they are to be substituted for Greek and Latin us the basis of literary study. There are not the well annotated books, the carefully arranged grammars, the accepted curriculum of authors, which classical study has to offer to those who pursue it; and from the number of different lines along which it is thought necessary to conduct the students, there are difficulties, the magnitude of which is in an inverse ratio to the number of boys, in organizing classes, and in apportioning and duly limiting the hours of work. These are difficulties which, to some extent, are likely to be overcome by time, but it is evident that they are by no means effectually overcome at present. There is also some obvious difficulty in administering a Modern Department without breaking up the unity of the school. Mr. Bradley states that this is not felt at Marlborough as regards the relations of the boys either towards the Head Master or towards each other. The Modern School at Marlborough is, as we have seen, small compared to the classical school, and the boys at the head of the former are, as a rule, considerably younger than those at the top of the latter. At Cheltenham, on the other hand, where the Modern Department is very large, Mr. Barry thinks the danger by no means imaginary, and likely to become more visible if anything like prefectorial authority were to be introduced into the school. He conceives, however, that by precautions which he specifies it might be largely, if not wholly, obviated.

Upon this evidence, and upon the best consideration which we are able to give to the subject, we are not prepared to advise the establishment at the older public schools of a system resembling either of those which exist at Marlborough and Cheltenham. The grounds on which alone so great a change could be recommended are not, in our opinion, solidly established by experience, and the risks and difficulties of the experiment, which are felt in schools newly established with a view to the prosecution of modern studies, would be felt much more if the attempt were made to engraft modern departments on the old classical schools. It is difficult enough to manage those schools upon a single basis, and the difficulty would be greatly increased by placing them on a double one. They are, and we think they ought to be, essentially classical schools, and we do not think it advisable that they should propose to their scholars two alternative courses of study, to each of which equal honours must be paid, the one a course in which Greek and Latin should hold the principal place, the other a course in which little account should be made of Latin, and from which Greek should be excluded altogether. It may be very desirable, and we think it is, that the experiment should be tried; it may be desirable that schools organized upon this principle should exist, but we do not recommend the introduction of it at those which form the subject of this Inquiry.

We are of opinion, at the same time, that the general course of study in all these schools should not only be broader than it now is, but should also be more elastic. We have recommended that it should be extended by the addition of some new subjects; we think also that provision may safely be made, and ought to be made, for the discontinuance in certain cases of certain portions of study, in order to enable boys who have special reasons for doing so to pursue other portions further than the usual course allows. The amount of original composition, or the number of repetition lessons, may thus sometimes be reduced in order to give a promising mathematician, or a boy who shows a strong turn for natural science, time for extra reading in these subjects, or to enable a candidate for Woolwich to carry his preparation in modern languages or mathematics further than he would otherwise have time for; and conversely a boy may sometimes be allowed to give up a portion of his modern studies when preparing himself for some severe classical examination, or to drop one modern study in order to devote himself more fully to another.

This is already done, to a certain extent, in some of the schools. Thus Dr. Kennedy says that at Shrewsbury, if a boy has decided powers and taste for mathematics with industry and conduct, and has no such taste for classics, he is frequently excused from verse composition in order that he may do mathematical exercises instead, and that boys who are to be engineers or surveyors have been sometimes excused from a portion of their work in order that they may attend the School of Design. Exemptions of a similar kind have been granted at Rugby, Winchester, and elsewhere.

We shall recommend the Governing Bodies of the several schools to direct their attention to this point, and to frame regulations for securing a proper amount of latitude and at the same time guarding against abuse. They should of course take care so to regulate the proportion between the work to be abandoned and the work to be substituted for it as


[page 40]

to obviate the risk of idle boys seeking permission to discontinue difficult lessons and to take up easier ones. The experience obtained at Cheltenham and Marlborough shows that it is perfectly easy to defeat any such attempt at evasion. No discontinuance should be permitted until the boy has reached such a position in the school as to render it certain that he has had full and fair opportunity for testing his powers in all the branches of study comprised in the course. It should not be allowed unless upon the application of the boy's parents as well as his own; nor unless the Head Master, after hearing the report of the boy's tutor and of those masters who have seen the most of his work in school, is satisfied that there are good grounds for the request, and that the boy's character and abilities are such as to render it desirable that it should be granted. The work to be taken up should be fully equal in respect of the demand upon the boy's time and attention with that which is to be dropped; and it should be enforced with the same strictness and encouraged with the same care as the ordinary work of the school. Subject to these, and other precautions which experience will suggest, we believe that a system of discontinuance may be usefully introduced into the public schools, and a greater degree of elasticity given to their course of instruction. Experience will also show how far such a system may advantageously be carried, what form may be most conveniently given to it, and what changes it may require.

11. Responsibilities of Parents - Want of adequate Preparation among Boys admitted to the Schools

We have spoken plainly of the responsibilities of schools; we think it right to speak not less plainly of those of parents. Several of the Masters whom we have examined have dwelt in strong terms on the ill-prepared and ignorant state in which boys are very frequently sent to school; we are assured that there is no improvement perceptible in this respect, but the reverse, and the returns which have been furnished to us regarding the books read and work done in the lower forms, and the ages of the boys in them, prove that these complaints are by no means without foundation. It is clear that there are many boys whose education can hardly be said to have begun till they enter, at the age of 12 or 13, or even later, a school containing several hundreds, where there can be comparatively little of that individual teaching which a very backward boy requires. The consequence is that, as the Universities are prevented to a considerable extent from discharging their proper functions by having to teach what ought to have been taught at school, the great schools are impeded and embarrassed by the necessity of giving elementary instruction which should have been given earlier and elsewhere. In some degree this must, we fear, be ascribed to the deficiencies of preparatory schools, which too often fail to impart that thorough and accurate grounding which it should be their aim to bestow; but we do not hesitate to say that the fault rests chiefly with the parents.

We have recommended that at every school there shall be an entrance examination, which shall not be merely nominal, and the standard of which shall be graduated according to the age of the candidate. We are well aware that some difficulty may be found in maintaining such a test with the strictness which we deem necessary; that plausible excuses may be constantly urged for relaxing it; and that the interests of the schools themselves, superficially regarded, may seem to militate against it. But the difficulty is one which it needs nothing but firmness to overcome; and unless it is overcome, we have little hope that any reforms which can be suggested in the organization or teaching of the schools will prove really effectual. When it is known that the test is established, and known that it will be adhered to, parents will have themselves only to blame if their sons are deprived of the advantage of a public-school education for want of qualifications which might have been secured by proper and timely care.

To what has just been said another observation should be added. Of all the incitements to diligence and good conduct which act upon the mind of a schoolboy, the most powerful, generally speaking, is the wish to satisfy his parents; and his view of his duty when at school will always depend very much on the light in which he feels that it is regarded at home. He knows very well the estimation, be it high or low, in which industry is held by his parents. If their real object in sending him to a public school is merely or chiefly that he should make advantageous acquaintances and gain knowledge of the world, this is likely to be no secret to him, and the home influence which ought to he the Master's most efficacious auxiliary becomes in such cases the greatest obstacle to progress.

12. Physical Training - Games - School Rifle-corps

The bodily training which gives health and activity to the frame is imparted at English schools, not by the gymnastic exercises which are employed for that end on the Continent - exercises which are undoubtedly very valuable, and which we should be glad to


[page 41]

see introduced more widely in England - but by athletic games, which whilst they serve this purpose well, serve other purposes besides. Pursued as a recreation and voluntarily they are pursued with an the eagerness which boyhood throws into its amusements; and they implant the habit, which does not cease with boyhood, of seeking recreation in hardy and vigorous exercise. The cricket and football fields, how ever, are not merely places of exercise and amusement; they help to form some of the most valuable social qualities and manly virtues, and they hold, like the classroom and the boarding-house, a distinct and important place in public-school education. Their importance is fully recognized. Ample time is given for them, and they have ample encouragement in general from the authorities of the schools. A Head Master, who has himself as a boy played in a school "eleven", is not likely to be indifferent to the game in after life; those who regret - not, perhaps, without reason - that cricket has become so elaborate an art as to need professional instruction, would be not the less sorry that the interest of their boys in it should flag; and those who are most anxious that their pupils should work diligently are desirous also that they should play heartily and with spirit. It is possible, indeed, to carry this too far, and at some schools we fear that this is the case; it is carried too far, if cricket matches are multiplied till they engross almost all the interests and much of the time of the boys during an important part of the year; it is certainly carried too far if boys are encouraged to regard play as on the same level with work, or to imagine that they can make amends for neglecting their duty by the most industrious pursuit of pleasure. There is the less excuse for this, because it is certain that the two things are by no means incompatible. It happens frequently that boys who are diligent and distinguished in school and at college earn distinction also in the cricket-field or on the river; and as it appears clear that the idlest boys are not the most successful in games, so neither, we believe, are the least hard-working schools. On the contrary, there is reason to think not only that at such schools the distinction between the player and the worker is more strongly marked than elsewhere, and that intellectual activity is less often united with a healthy interest in games, but that there is more in proportion of that vacant lounging which is sheer waste of time and a prolific source of bad habits.

The importance which the boys themselves attach to games is somewhat greater, perhaps, than might reasonably be desired, but within moderate limits it is highly useful. It is the best corrective of the temptation to over-study which acts upon a clever and ambitious boy, and of the temptation to saunter away time which besets an indolent one. Care should be taken, where it is necessary, to prevent the injury or oppression which may arise from this source to very young boys, or to boys of delicate health (a point to which we shall have occasion to advert again in our remarks on fagging); but we are bound to say that there appears, on the whole, to be little ground for complaint or apprehension all this account.

Swimming is taught at Eton and Westminster. It is taught also at Shrewsbury. The desire to go on the river, which no boy is allowed to do till he has shown himself able to swim, operates at these schools, especially at the two former, as a sufficient inducement with a large number of boys; and we believe that at Eton almost every boy learns to swim, even if he does not row. At Winchester indeed, where boating is not found practicable, it appears that a very large majority of the upper boys can swim; and this is probably the case at other schools having good bathing-places. It is much to be wished that every boy who goes to school should, if possible, learn to swim.

Rifle-corps have been established at Eton, Winchester, Harrow, Rugby, and Shrewsbury. At Westminster the experiment was tried, but it fell to the ground, apparently from want of numbers. The number of members is fair, but not large; it fluctuates, but shows no tendency to rise; it appears, indeed, to be kept up chiefly by the amusement of shooting at a mark, without which it would probably have dwindled away. Both drill and shooting are practised during play-hours, and are thus brought into competition with the other games and exercises of the schools. In all these respects a school rifle-corps is like a volunteer corps at a University or elsewhere, with the difference that it does not form part of the defensive force of the country, and is only an exercise which helps directly, as other athletic sports do indirectly, to make the boys fit to enter into that force when they are men. Apart from such value as it possesses in this respect, it is also of some use in affording to boys who do not care for cricket and do not row, a healthy and social employment for their leisure - in giving them, in short, something to do.

We have been assured by a Master who interests himself actively in this subject, that to make drill in any manner compulsory would be fatal to such interest us the boys now take in it. "It could not exist", were the attempt made. We have no doubt that he is right. We are not prepared to recommend either that the boys should be required to give up to it any part of the time which is left at their disposal for play, or that they should be allowed to sacrifice to it any of that which ought to be appropriated to their lessons.


[page 42]

We can only express our opinion that it should be regarded as entitled to higher consideration than a mere pastime, and that the school authorities would do well to give it all practicable and suitable encouragement. The founder of Harrow school, a substantial yeoman of the sixteenth century, was careful to enjoin that his scholars should practise archery, and shooting for a prize with bows and arrows was kept up at Harrow till within a hundred years ago.* It would be well, perhaps, that similar means should be taken to promote address in the use of what may now be considered the national weapon.

13. Discipline - Monitorial System - Fagging - Moral Training in general

In all the public schools, excepting of course those which are virtually day schools, discipline and order are maintained partly by the Masters, partly by the boys themselves. The power exerted for this purpose by boys over their schoolfellows is, generally speaking, a power recognized by the Masters, and regulated and controlled by custom and opinion. The limits thus set to it, and the manner of exercising it, vary much at different schools, but the principle is the same. The grounds on which the monitorial system, as it is commonly called, is rested, appear to be these. Small breaches of discipline and acts of petty oppression cannot be effectually restrained by the unaided efforts of the Masters without constant and minute interference and a supervision amounting to espionage, and the boys submit in these matters more cheerfully to a government administered by themselves; in every large school some boys will always possess authority over the rest, and it is desirable that this authority should not be that of mere physical strength, which is tyranny, nor that of mere personal influence, which may be of an inferior kind, but should belong to boys fitted by age, character, and position to take the highest place in the school, that it should be attended by an acknowledged responsibility, and controlled by established rules. On grounds such as these, and also no doubt in some degree from the force of tradition and habit, the system, where it exists, is in general much cherished and highly valued by both Masters and boys, and some witnesses of great judgment and experience do not hesitate to say that they believe it indispensable to the efficient management of a large school.

This system appears to have taken root very early in English schools. Outlines of it are found in the Statutes framed for Winchester, the oldest of them, by William of Wykeham, and the traditional forms which are attached to it at that school would alone be enough to denote the antiquity of the practice. That it was in active operation at both Winchester and Eton in the sixteenth century is clear from Christopher Johnson's poem "De Collegio", and from the "Consuetudinarium Vetus Scholæ Etonensis", to both of which we have referred in a former part of this Report. At Harrow and Rugby it seems to have been strengthened rather than impaired by time; at Eton, on the contrary, though it nominally survives, it has in practice almost ceased to exist except among the "collegers", who, not unnaturally, are disposed to cling to their ancient usages. And the opinion that it is unnecessary and undesirable is as strong at Eton as the opposite opinion is at Harrow, Rugby, and Winchester. It should be added, however, that although at Eton no definite authority appears to be wielded by any particular class, the Masters rely much, especially for the management of their houses, on the general influence possessed by the upper and more influential boys.

It is evident that any system of this kind is exposed to some risks and open to some objections. There are objections to any delegation, express or tacit, to schoolboys of authority to inflict punishment on their schoolfellows. There is a risk lest it should be abused from defect of temper or judgment; lest it should make those entrusted with it imperious and tyrannical, or priggish and self-sufficient; lest boys whose character makes them ill qualified to govern others should be oppressed and discouraged by a responsibility to which they feel themselves unequal; and lest, if it should fall into unfit hands, it should become an instrument of positive evil. There is some risk also lest the Masters should, more than is safe or right, leave the discipline of the school to take care of itself and irregularities, the correction of which forms part of their own duty, to be checked - ineffectually, perhaps, or perhaps not checked at all - by the senior boys. To guard against these dangers effectually requires, we have no doubt, much judgment on the part of the Head Master, and no little care. There is indeed, as we believe, no part of the administration of a great school which needs to be more wisely or more considerately

*Carlisle's Endowed Schools, ii. 15-1. The last silver arrow, he says, was shot for in 1771. "There is no doubt", he observes, "that archery was an exercise formerly practised at many schools, The name which a portion of the playground at Eton College preserves, that of the shooting fields, clearly alludes to some similar custom. And the term, the Butts, will be found applied to spots of land in the vicinity of other schools of equal antiquity with Harrow. There is an instance of this at Warwick and at other places." Shooting with the long-bow is mentioned in the Bailiff's Ordinance for Shrewsbury School, the date of which is 1577. The last of the Archery Acts, by which all boys were required to be taught archery, was passed in 1541, thirty years before the foundation of Harrow.


[page 43]

handled, since it demands supervision yet admits of little interference, and calls for the steady maintenance of general rules, which may nevertheless operate harshly and injuriously unless attention is paid to individual character. The power of punishment, when entrusted to boys, should be very carefully guarded, and it is plainly indispensable that the liberty of appeal to the Head Master should be always kept open, and that it should be thoroughly understood that boys who think themselves unjustly treated may avail themselves of that liberty without discredit and without exposing themselves to ill-usage. We are bound at the same time to express our belief that cases of abuse have been exceptional, and that by proper precautions they may be prevented from interfering seriously with the beneficial working of the system.

The evidence which we have received from Eton shows, on the other hand, that it is quite possible, under certain conditions, to administer a very great school without any actual delegation of authority to the boys themselves, yet without disorder, bullying, or gross laxity of discipline. The offences which the monitors' power, at schools where it exists, is chiefly used to check, are for the most part vaguely defined; based in a great measure upon the public opinion and traditional sentiment of the school, it is in practice chiefly directed against acts which are condemned not by authority only, but by opinion, and by what may be called the conventional morality of schoolboys. It is readily conceivable that opinion and custom may be powerful enough in themselves to put down such acts without the aid of a specific machinery for the purpose, and may be able to preserve their force and vitality without the protection which such a machinery affords. To a great extent this seems to be the case at Eton; the experience of Eton does not, however, enable us to determine how far this would be practicable at a school differently composed from Eton, or which had never had a working monitorial system, or at which the relation of tutor and pupil was not close and familiar.

The principle of governing to a great extent through the instrumentality of the boys themselves may be separated from the various systems through which, at different times and places, it has been applied. In moulding those systems with reference to the genius and character of particular schools, experience is the safest, and, indeed, the only practicable guide; and we should not, without strong reason, recommend at any school any material change in a system which, in the opinion of Masters and boys, was found to work well. With respect to the principle itself, we do not hesitate to express our conviction that it has borne excellent fruits, and done most valuable service to education. It has largely assisted, we believe, to create and keep alive a high and sound tone of feeling and opinion, has promoted independence and manliness of character, and has rendered possible that combination of ample liberty with order and discipline which is among the best characteristics of our great English schools.

Closely allied to this subject is that of fagging. We have taken pains to satisfy ourselves whether fagging, as it now exists at these great schools, is productive of bodily ill-usage, or is likely to be injurious to character, or is oppressive or troublesome to the younger boys by encroaching on their hours of study or of play. We have examined on these points witnesses belonging to three classes; Masters, whose duty it is to know how the practice works, and to take care that it does not work mischievously; young men, who have had experience of it both as fags and fag-masters; and little boys from those schools which have bodies of foundationers lodged in the school buildings. At such schools, and amongst the foundation scholars, from the force of usage and tradition, fagging may reasonably be expected to exist in a more systematic shape than elsewhere, and to retain more of its old roughness and severity. The results of these inquiries, as respects each school, will, so far as appears material, be stated in the Report on that school; and we shall have occasion, in some instances, to make some specific suggestions on this subject; the general conclusion to which we have been led will be shortly stated here.

The right to fag belongs at every school to a portion of the senior boys; the liability to be fagged attaches commonly to a portion only of the juniors. The duties of a fag are at some schools much lighter and more limited than at others; in their largest extent they embrace some special personal services to the boy to whom the fag is assigned, and some general services which he may be called on to render to the whole body of the masters, with "fielding", when required, at cricket, and compulsory attendance at some other games. Some of the services mentioned above are such as would at the present day be performed by servants had not the custom grown up of allowing them to be performed by fags. We are of opinion that servants, and not fags, should be employed for these purposes. In some instances, again, the compulsory attendance at games, which is far from being always an evil, is so enforced as to trench unduly upon the fag's opportunities for play, as where a little boy is obliged to spend much of his time in keeping goal at football, or fielding at cricket; and in this and other respects some simple regulations might properly be made for his relief. But, on the whole, and with some exceptions


[page 44]

which will be pointed out in the separate Reports, we are satisfied that fagging, mitigated as it has been, and that considerably, by the altered habits and manners of the present day, is not degrading to the juniors, is not enforced tyrannically, and makes no exorbitant demands upon their time, and that it has no injurious effect upon the character of the seniors. The relation of master and fag is generally friendly, and to a certain though perhaps a slight extent one of patronage and protection, and it sometimes gives rise to lasting intimacies. It is an institution created by the boys themselves in the exercise of the liberty allowed to them, and is popular with them; and it is tacitly sanctioned by the Masters, who have seen the tyranny of superior strength tempered and restrained in this way by rule and custom till it has practically ceased to be a tyranny at all. Except in the particulars mentioned above, we see no reason to advise any interference with it. We recommend only that it should be watched; that fags should be relieved from services which may be more properly performed by servants; and that care should be taken that neither the time which a little boy has for lessons nor the time which he has for play should be encroached upon unduly.

The relation between Masters and boys is closer and more friendly than it used to be. It is probably to the development of the tutorial system that the improvement which has taken place in this respect is in some measure to be ascribed. The wholesome personal influence which is within the reach of a powerful mind and kindly disposition, and which indeed any man of sense and character may possess over boys in whom he heartily interests himself and whom he accustoms to regard him as a friend without annoying them by importunity or inquisitiveness and without trying to impress his own idiosyncrasy on his pupils, is probably better understood than formerly, and is far more frequently exerted. Corporal punishment has at the same time greatly diminished; flogging, which twenty or thirty years ago was resorted to as a matter of course for the most trifling offences, is now in general used sparingly, and applied only to serious ones. More attention is paid to religious teaching, as will appear from the next Section; and more reliance is placed all the sense of duty.

On the general results of public-school education as an instrument for the training of character, we can speak with much confidence. Like most English institutions - for it deserves to rank among English institutions - it is not framed upon a preconceived plan, but has grown up gradually. It is by degrees that bodies of several hundred boys have come to be congregated together in a small space, constantly associated with one another in work and in play; and it is by degrees that methods of discipline and internal government have been worked out by their Masters and by themselves, and that channels of influence have been discovered and turned to account. The organization of monitors or prefects, the system of boarding-houses, and the relation of tutor and pupil have arisen and been developed by degrees. The magnitude and the freedom of these schools make each of them, for a boy of from 12 to 18, a little world, calculated to give his character an education of the same kind as it is destined afterwards to undergo in the great world of business and society. Eton, Harrow, and Rugby are the proscholia in this respect of Oxford and Cambridge, as Oxford and Cambridge, with their larger but still limited freedom, are for the training of adult life. The liberty, however, which is suited for a boy is a liberty regulated by definite restraints; and his world, the chief temptations of which arise from thoughtlessness, must be a world pervaded by powerful disciplinary influences, and in which rewards as well as punishments are both prompt and certain. The principle of governing boys mainly through their own sense of what is right and honourable is undoubtedly the only true principle; but it requires much watchfulness, and a firm, temperate, and judicious administration, to keep up the tone and standard of opinion, which are very liable to fluctuate, and the decline of which speedily turns a good school into a bad one. The system, we may add, is one which is adapted for boys, and not for children, and which should not be entered upon, as a general rule, till the age of childhood is past; neither, perhaps, is it universally wholesome for boys of every temperament and character, though we believe that the cases to which it is unsuited are not very numerous. But we are satisfied, on the whole, both that it has been eminently successful, and that it has been greatly improved during the last 30 or 40 years, partly by causes of a general kind, partly by the personal influence and exertions of Dr. Arnold and other great schoolmasters. The changes which it has undergone for the better are, we believe, visible in the young men whom it has formed during that period. The great schools - which, it must be observed, train for the most part the Masters who are placed at the head of the smaller schools, and thus exercise not only a direct but a wide indirect influence over education - may certainly claim, as Mr. Hedley says, a large share of the credit due for the improved moral tone of the Universities, as to which we have strong concurrent testimony.

I think there has been a great improvement in the moral training and character of the young

[page 45]

men who have come to the University of late years. The schools deserve much of the credit for it, though there is a great difference in schools in this respect; much of the change is due, no doubt, to the influence of public opinion.
The Master of Balliol says:
I have the very great satisfaction of expressing my conviction that a very marked improvement has taken place in the moral training and character of the young men who have come to the University, within the period of my remembrance. In this respect I make no distinction between public schools and other modes of education: but my opportunities of observation have been more extensive in reference to pupils of public schools.
Mr. Rawlinson, of Exeter, says:
I think that there has been a considerable improvement in the moral training and character of our young men from public, and even from private, schools within the period over which my experience extends. The change dates from the time when Arnold's pupils began to come up to Oxford, which was just about the time when I myself entered the University. It gradually progressed for some 15 or 20 years, as school after school passed into fresh hands. I doubt, however, if there has been any improvement recently; and I think great watchfulness is needed at all the public and other large schools to prevent a deterioration in this important respect.
Mr. Mayor, of St. John's College, Cambridge, writes:
In many respects there has certainly been an improvement of late years, especially in men coming up from the larger schools, There is less of roughness and more manliness. The Masters see more of the boys than they used, and exert a more powerful influence over them. I do not think that there has been the same change in the case of boys coming from home or from the smaller schools.
There is, we rejoice to find, a general agreement on this point, even among witnesses who differ widely in their estimate of the intellectual education which these schools afford.

14. Religious Teaching - Confirmation and Holy Communion - Sermons - Prayers - Religious Influences generally

The specific inquiries which we deemed it right to address to the authorities of every school on these points have elicited detailed information, much of it very satisfactory, which will be found in the Answers and Evidence.

At every school the boys are instructed in Scripture history, and those who are advanced enough in the Greek Testament. A certain quantity of time is given to religious teaching on Sundays; and, in order to relieve them from the temptation to do other work on that day, the first lesson at least on Monday morning is uniformly on a religious subject. Questions testing scriptural knowledge enter into the school examinations, and appear to have a fair amount of weight generally assigned to them. Differences of course exist. At Westminster, for example, the whole forenoon on Mondays, and at the Charterhouse and Merchant Taylors' a great part of it, is given to lessons on religious subjects. At Winchester the Head Master reads the Greek Testament with his own classes, numbering altogether nearly 80 boys, during the first lesson-hour not on Monday only but on every morning in the week. At Harrow there are special prizes given annually for Biblical knowledge. In the examination for the Newcastle Scholarship at Eton, the first of the four days is allotted exclusively to divinity, and divinity likewise holds a prominent place in the examination for the Goddard Scholarship at Winchester. Books such as Butler's Analogy, Paley's Horæ Paulinæ, and Davison on Prophecy, are read at some schools and not at others. This is indeed a matter in which we should expect to find greater differences than in the general routine of school-work. The judgment of one master respecting the kind and amount of religious teaching which may be profitably given may not be the same as that of another; and their modes of teaching, and the success with which they teach - success which depends in no small degree on personal character - are likely to vary considerably. We believe, however, that there is a general sense that the religious instruction of boys, though it is a matter which eminently requires to be handled with judgment and caution, should not be confined to the mere learning by heart of passages of Scripture and facts of sacred history nor to the critical study of the Greek text of the New Testament, and an anxiety that the time given to this most important subject should not be employed listlessly or mechanically.

The boys appear, generally speaking, to be very carefully prepared for Confirmation, and to receive this rite with becoming seriousness. Their attendance at the Holy Communion is almost universally left, as it ought to be, to their own sense of religious duty, and we are glad to learn - though this is a matter in which evidence must be received with caution and no great stress can safely be laid on mere numbers - that the proportion who attend, among those who have been confirmed, is everywhere considerable. At the first opportunity offered after Confirmation it appears to be the almost invariable practice to attend. Those Masters who have the opportunity of preaching to their scholars on


[page 46]

Sundays are thoroughly sensible of the greatness of the power and responsibility thus placed in their hands, as well as the importance of conducting the services in such a manner as to awaken attention and devotion; and many a man, we believe, has had cause to feel that some of the strongest and most lasting religious impressions he has ever known were received in a school chapel. Boys listen with attention to good sermons, preached to them by men whom they respect and whom they know to be earnestly interested in their welfare. What we have said, however, respecting religious teaching is true in a still higher degree of religious counsel and exhortation. In what manner and within what limits they may usefully be given, either privately or publicly, and with how much of special application to individual cases or to the peculiar temptations and duties of boyhood, are practical questions indeed of the most serious importance, but questions which must be left to the wisdom and experience of the preacher, master, and tutor. It is the general custom to have prayers in the boarding-houses. Lastly, we have the satisfaction of believing not only that boys are not disturbed or ridiculed whilst saying their private prayers, but that the omission to do this is the exception - we hope and believe a rare exception - not the rule. On this point we subjoin one or two extracts from the evidence.

6219. (Lord Clarendon) How is that with respect to the boys in your own house, particularly as to private prayers? - In going to a boy's room at night before he is going to bed, here and there, you drop in one night on one boy saying his prayers, and another night on another boy.

6220. You believe it is the general practice? - Yes, and the contrary is the exception. - Evidence of Rev. W. A. Carter, Lower Master, Eton.

A Harrow witness is asked -
1695. (Lord Devon) Take the case of a boy who is seriously disposed and wishes to say his prayers; would he be interfered with by others who had not the same feeling? - He would not be interfered with, but an idea of false shame might prevent him from saying them. I have never known a case in which a boy was interfered with or obstructed under such circumstances. - Evidence of Mr. M. W. Ridley, Harrow.
So at Rugby:
1703. (Lord Devon) With regard to private prayer, has it occurred to you to observe that the system of having large dormitories or rooms in which more than two or three boys slept together would interfere with the practice of saying private prayer on the part of the smaller, more timid, or more shy boys ? - I should think not: it would rather make them do it the more, because a fellow would not like to be noticed not to say his prayers.

1704. The head of the room would require silence for a certain time? - He always did in our house.

1705. Even supposing such a room as 14 boys? - Yes; in fact more so, because it would be the more required. - Evidence of Mr. H. Lee Warner, Rugby.

At Winchester, Mr. Fearon says, in answer to the question, "Did boys say their prayers?'
That was always done. Prayers were always said at nine o'clock in the evening, and the prefects took it in turn every week to be responsible. It was called 'being in course', and the prefect in course made every boy kneel down, and kept silence for five minutes or so. Every boy was required to kneel down. Of course you could not make a boy kneel down longer than he liked. - Evidence of Mr. Fearon, Winchester.
It can hardly be necessary for us to add the observation that, as regards religious influences and teaching, whilst the school has a distinct share of responsibility, a still larger share must always rest with the parents. It is at home even more than at school (because at home it may be done earlier and more effectually than at school) that religious motives and feelings should be implanted and a knowledge of the truths of religion acquired.

15. Financial Condition of the Schools - Fees and Charges - Masters' Emoluments

The endowments, funds, and revenues of the schools form part of the range of subjects into which we were directed to inquire. We have found it necessary to embrace in our inquiry their whole financial condition, for the financial condition of a school is intimately connected with its efficiency. Where a want of improved buildings or of an increased staff of teachers has been felt or suggested, the answer has been want of money, as, to suggestions of an enlarged range of teaching, it has been the want of time. We cannot but think that at most of the schools both money and time might be better economized than they now are, and turned to better account. Having arrived at this conclusion, we have included, of course, among our published evidence the materials on which it is founded, and in the absence of which it would be impossible to form an opinion whether some of our recommendations are practicable, and whether others are just.

The expenses of these schools consist chiefly in the maintenance, repair, and enlarge-


[page 47]

ment of the necessary buildings and accommodations, the sustenance of foundation-scholars, and the support of the staff of teachers; and they are defrayed principally from two sources - from payments made out of the foundation revenues, and from the charges for board and instruction, or, in the case of home boarders, for instruction alone. We have therefore had to inquire, in each case, whether the payments from the foundation are as much as they ought to be, having regard to the amount of the foundation funds, to the founder's expressed intentions, and to the proportion borne by the foundation boys to the rest of the school. We have also had to inquire whether the aggregate amount raised at each school from these various sources is distributed equitably, and applied in the way most conducive to the interests of the school. And although it is no part of our duty to attempt to fix a maximum charge for school education, or to limit the profit which may be made by those who supply it, considered as an article of sale, we may properly consider the principles by which the Governing Bodies of the different schools should be guided in dealing with this subject, and what advantages parents may reasonably expect to receive in return for what they pay.

It is but just to these great schools to say that there is not one of them, we believe, which would consciously submit to lower itself to the level of a mere commercial speculation. The principle which they appear to recognize as the measure of the charges which they make is that of raising, not as much money as parents can be induced to pay, but as much as will maintain an adequate staff of highly qualified teachers, beside defraying other expenses. This principle has not perhaps been consistently observed in practice by the more prosperous schools, whilst the less prosperous ones, and those which draw their scholars chiefly from the less wealthy classes, have deemed themselves obliged to lower their standard in some degree in order to maintain their numbers; but it seems everywhere to be assumed as the true principle, and we trust that it will be steadily kept in view. A school which opens its doors only to the sons of rich men, is pretty sure to be a bad one, even for rich men's sons, and to lose, by the loss of industry and steadiness and of the beneficial effects of the admixture of classes, and by the encouragement given to luxurious habits, much more than it gains by its staff of highly-paid teachers; whilst one which reduces its charges below what is necessary for efficiency must forfeit its character in a different way. We may, however, point to the experience of Marlborough College, where more than 400 boys and 20 Masters are lodged within the same walls, as showing that by judicious organization and management, the essential features of a public school may be preserved, and its essential advantages obtained, at a comparatively small cost.

Of the questions above enumerated the first is important chiefly in the cases of schools attached to collegiate foundations; and in each of these cases we shall have occasion to consider it particularly. At these schools the sums contributed by the foundation towards the educational staff are usually either old statutory or customary stipends, or increased payments arbitrarily fixed, which have been substituted for such stipends; and the want of any definite principle on this and other points where the claims of the school may come into competition with the interests of the governing members of the foundation has been made more prejudicial by the long-established custom of granting beneficial leases and dividing the fines as private property. But the amount derived from the foundation is everywhere small compared with what is received from the parents of non-foundationers. With respect to this source of income, it will be found that the charges for board are sometimes separate from, but (where a Master is the recipient) commonly blended with, those for instruction; that the charge for instruction has been added to as fresh subjects or modes of teaching have been added to the school course, and is often broken into separate sums, to which different teachers are entitled; that the total receipts of a Master who has a boarding-house are generally adequate, and often very ample, while those of a master who has not a boarding-house are often not sufficient for his fair remuneration; that vested rights have occasionally grown up in emoluments attached to particular Masterships, whilst the increased numbers of the school, or a change in the Master's status, has displaced the basis on which those emoluments were originally assigned; that the gross receipts of the Head Masters have from increase of numbers become in some cases extremely large, whilst they have become burdened with miscellaneous deductions and charges, more or less discretionary, and ill-defined; lastly, that the Head Master's net income does not always bear a just proportion to either the numbers or the wealth of the school.*

The recommendations which we shall make under this head (one of which has been indicated in an earlier part of this Report) will, if adopted, slightly alter the relation

*The distribution at Rugby, which is stated to have been the result of a general discussion and agreement among the Masters, may be referred to as an instance of a scheme evidently framed with careful regard to economy and equity, though we shall have occasion to suggest some changes in it.


[page 48]

which at some great schools the Head Master now holds towards his subordinates, as well as the command he has practically possessed over the funds of the school. It has been customary for the Head Master, as the number of his non-foundation scholars increased, to engage such assistants as he required, and to make his own terms with them - in other words, to fix the amount of their emoluments, usually consisting in part of sums paid directly out of his own pocket, in part of such shares as he might assign to them of the tuition fees, and in part of the profits of boarding-houses which they had his permission to open - whilst he reserved to himself, in the form of capitation payments or otherwise, such proportion of the school charges as he thought fit. We are far from intending to cast any censure upon the manner in which these arrangements have hitherto been made; nor are we insensible of the importance of making the position of Head Master of a great school one of considerable emolument, as well as of high distinction. But whilst we think it generally expedient, as we have already said, that the Head Master should possess the power of appointing and dismissing his subordinates, we do not think it expedient that he should have the power and responsibility of fixing their emoluments and his own, subject to no other check than such as arises from the necessity of paying such a price as will purchase in the market the services of qualified men. This power and responsibility should, in our opinion, as we have already intimated in speaking of the government of the schools, belong in every case to the Governing Body.

We are of opinion also that the charges made to parents and the emoluments of the Masters should be revised with a view to put both on a more simple and equitable footing. The actual revision must, of course, be left to the Governing Bodies, but we shall suggest in some cases such schemes as may appear to us reasonable, and we have in an cases entered so far into the question as to satisfy ourselves that the changes we propose are practicable. The charge for instruction should, we think, be treated as distinct from the charges for boarding and for domestic superintendence. It should cover instruction in every subject which forms part of the regular course of study, and tutorial instruction, where all the boys receive it alike, as well as instruction in school. This charge should be uniform for all boys who are not on the foundation. For the instruction of every boy on the foundation a sum should be paid out of the revenues of the foundation when they admit of it, and this payment should supersede all statutory or customary stipends and other emoluments now received by any of the Masters from that source. The aggregate amount of the charges and payments for instruction should be considered as forming a fund which should be at the disposal of the Governing Body, and out of which stipends should be assigned to the Head Master and other masters, according to a scheme to be framed by the Governing Body. These stipends might be fixed, or fluctuating with the numbers of the school, or with the number of each tutor's pupils, as to the Governing Body might seem best in each case; and, in fixing them, the profits to be derived from boarding should be taken into account in the case of Masters having boarding-houses. A moderate payment or tax might also be imposed on Masters having boarding-houses, should this appear just and expedient to the Governing Body. Permission to keep a boarding-house should in future be given to Masters only. Leaving-fees should be abolished. Entrance fees, if retained, should be added to the instruction fund. It appears desirable that a Reserve Fund for building and other objects useful to the school should be formed wherever this may conveniently be done in the judgment of the Governing Body. In introducing this system the Governing Body would, of course, have due regard to vested interests, and would have regard also to such considerations of convenience as might properly modify or defer the application of it to any particular school.

It must be admitted, we fear, that at several of the schools comprised in our review the Assistant Masters are as a body under-paid: in some instances this is also the case with the Head Master. The total emoluments of the five Masters, who with Dr. Kennedy constitute the classical and mathematical staff at Shrewsbury, hardly amount altogether to the annual sum of which a young Classical Assistant at Eton commonly finds himself in possession within a few years after he has entered on his duties; and this sum is nearly half as much again as the whole income of the Head Master of Westminster or of the Charterhouse. This is an evil for which of course there can be no effectual remedy except an increase in the prosperity of the schools. We believe that the best way to promote their prosperity is to extend their general efficiency and to improve their accommodations, and we shall with this view recommend in the case of some of the schools a slight increase in their charges. The demand for good schools is at present greater than it has ever been before; and we are convinced that there are few parents who would not submit willingly to a small additional expense were they satisfied that it is really required, and that they would obtain in return for it a better education for their children. Something perhaps might also be done in the way of giving to Assistant Masters who do not keep boarding-houses some of the advantages of College


[page 49]

life, such as a common-room and the opportunity of taking their meals in common. Such conveniences would probably be valued by young and unmarried men, who form a large proportion of the staff at the less wealthy schools where the emolument is slender and a Mastership is often accepted as a temporary provision or as a step to more lucrative employment.

16. Domestic and Sanitary Arrangements - School-buildings - Bedrooms, &c. - Diet - Sanatoria and Sick-rooms

The arrangements made at the several schools for securing the bodily health and comfort of the boys, their food and lodging, and the accommodation provided for them in sickness, have naturally occupied a considerable share of our attention. We have received on all these subjects oral as well as written evidence, and have ourselves visited at every school the school-rooms and playgrounds, the dormitories in connexion with the school-buildings, the places for the reception of the sick, and one or two at least of the boarding-houses. The school-buildings themselves are by no means all that could be desired, even at the wealthier schools: there is not unfrequently a want of suitable class-rooms, though we observe with satisfaction that this want is being gradually supplied. As respects the boys' bedrooms there appears generally to be no want of space, air, or appliances for cleanliness and comfort, though there are some exceptions to this statement, which will be noticed in the Reports on the individual schools. At Eton it is usual for each boy to have a room to himself, in which he sleeps at night and sits by day, his small bedstead being folded up during the day-time. The rooms at Harrow contain sometimes one bed, sometimes two, sometimes from three to five; and, as at Eton, the boys use them during the day as studies. At Rugby from two to 16 boys sleep in a room, but every boy has assigned to him a little study, or if he be not in the upper part of the school a share of one, no study holding more than three. The system of large bedrooms is generally in use also at the other schools, the privilege of having a study alone or in common with others being given to a limited number of the upper boys at Winchester, Westminster, and Shrewsbury. At each school the Masters are satisfied with the system actually adopted there, and the boys, we may add, appear to be satisfied with it likewise. Each system in fact has its advantages, and we do not feel called upon to express any opinion as to their relative merits further than this, that single rooms, or rooms of tolerable size holding three boys and upwards, may be adopted indifferently according to the judgment of the school authorities or the means at their disposal; but that wherever a room holds more than three or four, the boys should be provided, if not with studies, with some convenient place where they may sit in the day-time and may prepare their lessons.

The practice of allowing such boys as could not be received in the school or college buildings to lodge in boarding-houses kept by householders, or in the language of Eton, "dames", seems to have existed very early at the greater schools. At Harrow, Westminster, and Rugby it has been discontinued within no very distant period, and at these schools all the boarding-houses are now kept by Masters only.* At Eton 9 out of 30 houses are still in the hands of "dames". We shall state fully, in the chapter of our Report devoted to Eton, the reasons which lead us to think it desirable for the sake of the boys themselves and for the general discipline of the school, that boarding-houses should as a rule be kept by Masters only; and we may add that this is likewise expedient in a financial point of view, since the profits at present derived from this source by the Masters who keep houses form a recognized and substantial part of their remuneration, and therefore of the fund available for the support of the teaching staff.

The scale of diet does not greatly differ at the different schools, though at some the boys have meat once and at others twice a day; and the boys seem to be generally satisfied with the quantity and quality of their food.

It is evidently desirable that at every large school there should be a separate building for the reception of boys ill with infectious diseases, and desirable also that there should be airy and cheerful rooms, distinct from the rest, for those who are so unwell as to require special care, different food, and quiet. For the first of these purposes, and with a view also in some degree to the second, excellent and comfortable sanatoria have been built at Eton and Rugby; Winchester has likewise a small detached building for this purpose. At Harrow a sanatorium is wanting, though there are sick-rooms attached to each boarding-house, a provision which should undoubtedly be universal, and the want of which a sanatorium, where it exists, does not effectually supply.

*This was one of the changes made at Rugby by Dr. Arnold. - Life and Correspondence, i., p. 92.


[page 50]

On the whole we think ourselves justified in saying, that as respects their domestic and sanitary arrangements, and the appliances for securing the health and comfort of the boys, these schools have fairly kept pace with the general advance which has been made in this matter within the last quarter of a century. The boarding-houses which have been newly built, such as Mr. Warre's and Mr. John Hawtrey's at Eton, and Mr. Arnold's at Rugby, are very carefully constructed, and the internal arrangements of the older ones have in many instances been much improved. But it is chiefly, no doubt, to the habits of hardy exercise which are encouraged everywhere that we have to attribute the fact that, although in point of locality some of the schools are far less favourably situated than others, sickness appears to be rare everywhere and the general health of the boys to be good.

17. The Holidays

Except in two London schools, the whole time during which boys are at home for their holidays, whether they go home twice or three times in the year, varies merely from 14 to 16 weeks - a period which we do not think excessive. On this head, however, we have one suggestion to make. The precise dates of the holidays, as may be seen by reference to the answers and evidence, vary materially in many cases; and since it is highly desirable that school-boys who are brothers or members of the same family should be at home together, we recommend that the Governing' Bodies of the several schools should communicate with each other, and endeavour, as far as possible, to make the dates of their holidays coincide. In making this recommendation, however, we do not wish to interfere with the existing arrangements of the schools which have holidays only twice in the year.

18. The London Schools

Of the nine schools to which our Inquiry extends, four are situate in the metropolis, namely, Westminster, the Charterhouse, St. Paul's, and Merchant Taylors'. The number of boys educated in these four schools is 690, of whom 188 are boarders, and the remainder day scholars. In point of endowment, in the provision made for instruction, in the character and attainments of the Masters, and in the general results of their teaching, as shown by the success of the boys at the Universities and in after-life, these schools may bear comparison with any of the rest. In one respect, however, they stand at an obvious disadvantage. Being situated in the heart of a large city, it is impossible that they should offer to the boys the same facilities for recreation and exercise as the schools situated in the country, or in smaller towns where access to the country can readily be had. The boys at Westminster and at the Charterhouse, it is true, are not wholly without playgrounds, and the former have the resource of the river; but the boys at St. Paul's and at Merchant Taylors' have no playgrounds at all; and all four are alike cut off from the free country rambles which constitute so important a feature of the social life of other public schools. Their only choice lies between confinement to the playground, when there is one, and liberty to walk in the streets of London, which are evidently not the most desirable place for boys to spend their leisure time in. Again, the high value of land in the heart of London throws a great difficulty in the way of providing for the additional accommodation which boys now require, and compels the managers of the schools to restrict their improvements within a very narrow compass. It is generally thought, moreover, that a London school cannot be so healthy as a school in the country; and, though the evidence we have received does not appear to confirm this view, there can be no doubt that the impression is sufficiently strong and widely enough diffused to deter many parents from sending their sons to these schools who would otherwise have done so. The reluctance to send boys to London schools has of late years been much enhanced by two circumstances. On the one hand the town has grown, and become more crowded; on the other hand, the greater prominence which has lately been given to physical education has produced a keener appreciation of the advantages to he derived from school games, and from the personal liberty of schoolboys. The country schools are now also more easily accessible than of old, and their power of attraction is consequently increased. Owing to these causes the popularity of the London schools as boarding-schools has declined, and a decline in the popularity of a school has a natural tendency to become accelerated as it becomes known. Where the advantages offered by several schools are nearly equal, parents naturally prefer those which are preferred by most of their friends, and at which their sons are most likely to meet with desirable acquaintances. Of the four schools of which we are speaking, two, namely St. Paul's and Merchant Taylors', are mere day schools, and these have not been affected in the same manner as the other two; for the number of boys whom they receive is limited, all of them are admitted by nomination, and the prizes at the Universities, by which they


[page 51]

are attracted to the schools, are in both cases very considerable in proportion to the number of claimants. But at Westminster and the Charterhouse, where the boys on the foundations must be boarders, and where large numbers of non-foundationers have also in former times been received as boarders, the influences of which we have spoken have been seriously felt; both schools have suffered in point of numbers; and the concurrent testimony of many witnesses shows that their expansion has been checked by the feeling which prevails against London sites.

There exists therefore among the friends both of Westminster and of Charterhouse a desire to move these two schools into the country. In the case of the latter especially, it is stated that the feeling of old Carthusians is almost unanimously in favour of such a step, while among old Westminsters a greater division of sentiment prevails. There are also many persons interested in St. Paul's School who would like to see it removed. We shall touch upon this question, as it affects each of these schools respectively, in our separate Reports upon them. But there is one point of view from which we can more conveniently look at it as a whole; for it is necessary that we should consider not only the interests of the several schools, but the interests and the claims of the population of the metropolis in which they have been planted.

We apprehend that it may be said, in general terms, that the objects which the founders of these schools had in view were national rather than local; yet in establishing their schools in the metropolis, or in what was then its immediate neighbourhood, we cannot doubt that they had some reference to the especial wants of its large population, drawn from all parts of the country by the calls of business or the attractions of the Capital.

The large schools in the country were not then so accessible to London professional men as they now are, and the foundations of Westminster, the Charterhouse, and St. Paul's must have been of high value to great numbers of persons of this class. The increased facilities of travelling in the present day have somewhat diminished the necessity for London schools, since parents can readily send their boys elsewhere; but, on the other hand, the population of London having enormously increased, there is a larger class whose wants have to be supplied, and it is perfectly clear, from the success of King's College School, the City of London School, and other institutions, that there is a large demand for town day-schools, at all events among the professional and mercantile London residents. Archdeacon Browne, who has had large experience in this matter, and who is decidedly in favour of country schools in preference to town schools, speaks strongly of the disadvantage which the removal of Westminster and St. Paul's would entail upon such persons.

11. (Lord Clarendon) Of course you are aware that questions have been mooted with respect to the removal of Westminster and St. Paul's schools into the country? - Yes.

12. Might I ask what is your opinion upon that subject? - I think there can be no doubt that, for the benefit of the boys who are at the school, and for the benefit of the school itself, it would be a good thing; but then you deprive large neighbourhoods, for whom they were intended, of the advantage of the school, because if the school is central the boys can come from the suburbs in all directions; but if you put it some miles on one side of London, the boys on the other side can never get there, and the trustees or governors would feel themselves obliged, I think, in all justice, to give exhibitions, or some part of the expense of boarding the bop, or else the classes for which they were intended would probably be deprived of the benefit of them.

13. Are you aware to what class the parents of boys who go to St. Paul's and Merchant Taylors' belong? - I think almost all of them are sons of professional men, clergymen, barristers, lawyers, mercantile men, military men, clerks in public offices, and so on. Some are tradesmen's sons, but I should think the majority of those who would be attracted by that education would be the sons of such as I have mentioned.

14. The greater part of whom live in or near London? - Yes. The number of boarders is very inconsiderable as compared with the number of boys, not more than one-fifth, I should think. There are boarders who live with the dames and masters, but their numbers are inconsiderable.

15. Do you think that the effect of moving those schools into the country would be to deprive those parents of benefits which they had been accustomed to? - Yes, because they get their education very cheap now, and of course that would involve the expense of boarding. If the governors or conductors of the school could pay part of the expense of boarding, so as to make it worth the while of the parents to send them, then they could not complain - but that is another thing.

The considerations here adverted to are weighty, but it will be observed that the question turns almost wholly upon the wants of the class which supplies the day scholars. It is probable that if Westminster and the Charterhouse were removed to a distance of 100 miles from London next week they would not lose a single boarder. The boarders they have are probably not attracted by the metropolitan sites, but come in spite of them for the sake of the other advantages which the schools afford. In so far, therefore, as the schools in question are retained on their present sites for the sake of the population of the metropolis, it may be said that the interests of the day boys are preferred to those


[page 52]

of the boarders; yet the arrangements of the two boarding schools are made with reference, not to the day boys, but to the boarders, and the number of the former is greatly curtailed by the inconvenience of the hours of instruction, which are mainly arranged for the benefit of the latter.

Archdeacon Browne is of opinion, that in order to maintain a large school in London it must be made principally a day school, and that everything must be sacrificed "to the day-school principle". We are disposed to concur with him in this opinion, and to deduce from it the conclusion that as day-schools are what London principally wants, the course which would be most for the interest of London would be to improve and enlarge the schools which are to be treated as day-schools, and to remove the boarding schools to a distance. We have no doubt that, if other circumstances should render the scheme feasible, the two schools of St. Paul's and Merchant Taylors', whether on their present or on some more convenient metropolitan sites, might be made to accommodate many more day boys than are now educated at the four schools together, and that Westminster and Charterhouse might be transferred to country sites with very great advantage to the boys who now belong or desire to belong to their foundations.

We are, however, aware that, there are financial and other difficulties which may prevent the realization of this idea. On these we shall touch in our Reports on the separate schools.

19. Summary of General Recommendations

We subjoin a summary of Recommendations applicable generally to the schools comprised in our inquiry. At the end of the separate Report all each school we shall indicate such, if any, of them as may in our opinion be unsuitable to that school, and shall add such Special Recommendations as its particular character or circumstances may seem to require.

I. The Governing Bodies of the several colleges and schools should be reformed, so far as may be necessary, in order to render them thoroughly suitable and efficient for the purposes and duties which they are designed to fulfil.

II. The subsisting statutes and laws of the several colleges and schools, by which they respectively are, or legally ought to be governed, should be carefully revised under competent authority; rules and obligations which it is inexpedient to retain should be abrogated; new regulations should be introduced where they are required; and the Governing Body of each college and school should be empowered, where they do not already possess the power, to amend its statutes from time to time. The approval of some superior authority, such as the Queen in Council or the Visitor, may be required where the character of the foundation renders this desirable.

III. The Governing Body of each college and school should have the general management of the property and endowments of the college or school. They should have the appointment and dismissal of the Head Master, and should retain, where they now possess them, the same powers in respect of the second master. They should be authorized to make general regulations for the government and administration of the whole school, including both foundation boys and boys not on the foundation, except in matters specially reserved to the Head Master. They should be especially empowered and charged to make such regulations as may from time to time be required on the following subjects:

a. The terms of admission and the number of the school:
b. The general treatment of the foundation boys:
c. Boarding-houses; the rates of charge for boarding, the conditions on which leave to keep a boarding-house should be given, and any other matters which may appear to need regulation under this head:
d. Fees and charges of all kinds, and the application of the money to be derived from these sources:
e. Attendance at divine service; chapel services and sermons, where the school possesses a chapel of its own:
f. The sanitary condition of the school, and of all places connected with it:
g. The times and length of the holidays:
h. The introduction of new branches of study, and the suppression of old ones, and the relative importance to be assigned to each branch of study.
It should be incumbent, however, on the Governing Body, before making regulations upon any of these subjects, or upon any subject affecting the management or instruction of the school, not only to consider attentively any representations which the Head Master may address to them, but to consult him in such a manner as to give ample opportunity for the expression of his views.


[page 53]

IV. The Governing Body should hold stated general meetings, one at least half-yearly, and special meetings when required. Provision should be made for summoning special meetings. Sufficient notice of every special meeting should be given to every member, and a notice sent of all business to be transacted. Minutes should be kept of the proceedings of every stated and special meeting. If any member absents himself from three-fourths of all the meetings in any two successive years, his office should be deemed vacant and his place filled up. The Governing Body should be empowered to defray out of the school funds the expenses of the meetings, including the travelling expenses of the Governors attending them.

V. The Head Master should have the uncontrolled power of selecting and dismissing assistant masters; of regulating the arrangement of the school in classes or divisions, the hours of school work, and the holidays and half holidays during the school time; of appointing and changing the books and editions of books to be used in the school, and the course and methods of study (subject to all regulations made by the Governing Body as to the introduction, suppression, or relative weight of studies); of maintaining discipline, prescribing bounds, and laying down other rules for the government of the boys; of administering punishment, and of expulsion.

VI. The assistant masters, or a selected number of them representing the whole body, should meet on fixed days, not less often than once a month, under the title of a School Council, to consider and discuss any matter which may be brought before them by the Head Master or any member of the Council concerning the teaching or discipline of the school. The Head Master should preside, if present. The council should be entitled to advise the Head Master, but not to bind or control him in any way, and should have the right of addressing the Governing Body whenever a majority of the whole council may think fit. When the council does not embrace the whole body of the assistants, the classical and the mathematical masters and the teachers of modern languages and natural science respectively should be duly represented in it.

VII. In the selection of the Head Master and of the other masters the field of choice should in no case be confined, either by rule or by usage equivalent to a rule, to persons educated at the school.

VIII. The classical languages and literature should continue to hold the principal place in the course of study.

IX. In addition to the study of the classics and to religious teaching, every boy who passes through the school should receive instruction in arithmetic and mathematics; in one modern language at least, which should be either French or German; in some one branch at least of natural science, and in either drawing or music. Care should also be taken to ensure that the boys acquire a good general knowledge or geography and of ancient history, some acquaintance with modern history, and a command of pure grammatical English.

X. The ordinary arithmetical and mathematical course should include arithmetic so taught as to make every boy thoroughly familiar with it, and the elements of geometry, algebra, and plane trigonometry. In the case of the more advanced students it is desirable that the course should comprise also an introduction to applied mathematics, and especially to the elements of mechanics.

XI. The teaching of natural science should, wherever it is practicable, include two main branches, the one comprising chemistry and physics, the other comparative physiology and natural history, both animal and vegetable. A scheme for regulating the teaching of this subject should be framed by the Governing Body.

XII. The teaching of classics, mathematics, and divinity should continue during the whole time that each boy stays at school (subject to Recommendation XIII). The study of modern languages and that of natural science should continue respectively during the whole or a substantial part of the time, and the study of drawing or music should continue during a substantial part, at least, of the time.

XIII. Arrangements should be made for allowing boys, after arriving at a certain place in the school, and upon the request of their parents or guardians, to drop some portion of their classical work (for example, Latin verse and Greek composition), in order to devote more time to mathematics, modern languages, or natural science; or on the other hand, to discontinue wholly or in part natural science, modern languages, or mathematics, in order to give more time to classics or some other study. Care should be taken to prevent this privilege from being abused as a cover for idleness; and the Governing Body, in communication with the Head Master, should frame such regulations as may afford a sufficient safeguard in this respect. The permission to discontinue any portion of the school work should in each case rest with the Head Master, who, before exercising his discretion, should consult the boy's tutor (if he has one) and the master who has given him instruction in the study which he purposes to discontinue,


[page 54]

should satisfy himself of the propriety of either granting or refusing the application, and in the latter case should, personally or through the tutor, communicate his reasons to the parents.

XIV. Every part of the course of study above described should have assigned to it a due proportion of the whole time given to study. A scale has been suggested above (section 9).

XV. Every part of the course should be promoted by an effective system of reward and punishment. When impositions in writing are set, they should be required to be fairly written, and their length should be regulated with a view to this requirement.

XVI. The promotion of the boys from one classical form to another, and the places assigned to them in such promotion, should depend upon their progress not only in classics and divinity but also in arithmetic and mathematics, and likewise, in the case of those boys who are studying modern languages or natural science, on their progress in those subjects respectively.

XVII. The Governing Body, in communication with the Head Master (Recom. III), should settle a scale of marks for this purpose; and the scale should be so framed as to give substantial weight and encouragement to the non-classical studies. (See suggested scale, supra, section 9.)

XYIII. Ancient history and geography should be taught in connexion with the classical teaching, and also in lessons apart from it but in combination with each other. They should enter into the periodical examinations, and contribute to promotion in the classical forms. Prizes should be given for essays in English on subjects taken from modern history. On the manner and degree in which modern history should be taught, we refrain, as we have said above, from attempting to lay down any general rule.

XIX. For instruction in arithmetic and mathematics, in modern languages, and in natural science respectively, the school should be re-distributed into a series of classes or divisions wholly independent of the classical forms; and boys should be promoted from division to division in each subject, according to their progress in that subject, irrespectively of their progress in any other.

XX. The school list issued periodically should contain the names of all boys separately arranged in the order of their merit and place in the classical school, and also once at least in the year, separately arranged in order of merit and place in the several schools of mathematics, modern languages, and natural science respectively.

XXI. In order to encourage industry in those branches of study in which promotion from division to division is rewarded by no school privileges, and confers less distinction than is gained by promotion in the classical school, it is desirable that prizes and distinctions be conferred periodically -

First, for eminently rapid and well sustained progress through the divisions in the several schools of mathematics, modern languages, and natural science respectively:

Secondly, for the greatest proficiency in mathematics, modern languages, and natural science respectively (i.e., for the highest place in the divisions of these schools), in proportion to age.

XXII. Special prizes should be given for proficiency in music and drawing, but these studies should not be taken into account in determining the places of the boys in the school.

*XXIII. Every boy should be required, before admission to the school, to pass an entrance examination, and to show himself well grounded for his age in classics and arithmetic, and in the elements of either French or German. It appears generally advisable that the examination in each subject should be conducted by one of the masters ordinarily teaching that subject.

XXIV. In schools where seniority or length of time during which a boy has remained in a particular form or part of the school has been considered a ground for promotion, no boy should be promoted on that ground unless he has passed such an examination in the work of the form into which he is to be promoted as proves that he is really fit to enter that form.

XXV. No boy should be suffered to remain in the school who fails to make reasonable progress in it. For this purpose certain stages of progress should be fixed by reference to the forms into which the school is divided. A maximum age should be fixed for attaining each stage; and any boy who exceeds this maximum without reaching the corresponding stage of promotion should be removed from the school. A relaxation of this rule, to a certain extent, might be allowed in cases where it clearly appeared that the boy's failure to obtain promotion was due to his deficiency in one particular subject, whilst his marks in other subjects would have counterbalanced that deficiency had the system of promotion permitted it.

*One of our number dissents from this Recommendation - see p. 327.


[page 55]

XXVI. The charges made to parents and the stipends and emoluments of the masters should be revised, with a view to put both on a more simple and equitable footing.

XXVII. The charge for instruction should be treated as distinct from the charges for boarding and for domestic superintendence. It should cover instruction in every subject which forms part of the regular course of study, and tutorial instruction, where all the boys receive it alike, as well as instruction in school. This charge should be uniform for all boys who are not all the foundation. For the instruction of every boy on the foundation a sum should be paid out of the revenues of the foundation when they admit of it, and this payment should supersede all statutory or customary stipends and other emoluments now received by any of the masters from that source.

XXVIII. The aggregate amount of the charges and payments for instruction should be considered as forming a fund which should be at the disposal of the Governing Body, and out of which stipends should be assigned to the Head Master and other masters, according to a scheme to be framed by the Governing Body. These stipends might be fixed, or fluctuating with the numbers of the school, or with the number of each tutor's pupils, as to the Governing Body might seem best in each case; and, in fixing them, the profits to be derived from boarding should be taken into account, in the case of masters having boarding-houses. A small graduated payment or tax might also be imposed upon Masters having boarding-houses, should this appear just and expedient to the Governing Body. Permission to keep a boarding-house should in future be given to masters only. Leaving fees should be abolished. Entrance fees, if retained, should be added to the instruction fund. It appears desirable that a Reserve Fund for building, for the establishment of prizes or exhibitions, and for other objects useful to the school should be formed wherever this may conveniently be done in the judgment of the Governing Body. In introducing this system the Governing Body would, of course, have due regard to vested interests, and would have regard also to such considerations of convenience as might properly modify or defer the application of it to any particular school.

XXIX. The working of the monitorial system, where it exists, should be watched, and boys who may deem themselves aggrieved by any abuse of it should be able at all times to appeal freely to the Head Master. The power of punishment, when entrusted to boys, should be carefully guarded.

XXX. The system of fagging should be likewise watched. Fags should be relieved from all services which may be more properly performed by servants; and care should be taken that neither the time which a little boy has for preparing his lessons, nor the time which he has for play, should be encroached upon unduly.

XXXI. It is desirable that the Governing Bodies should, after communication with each other, endeavour to make the holiday times at their respective schools coincide as far as possible, so as to enable schoolboys who are members of the same family, but at different schools, to be at home for their holidays together.

XXXII. The Head Master should be required to make an annual report to the Governors on the state of the school, and this report should be printed. It is desirable that tabular returns for the year, substantially resembling those with which we have been furnished by the schools, should accompany or form part of the report.

Conclusion

We have dwelt, in the foregoing sections, on such points as after careful examination we deem to require amendment or to call for remark -

1. In the external government (so to speak) of these schools, taken collectively, that is, in the constitution of their Governing Bodies, and the relation which the latter hold to the Head Masters and the schools:

2. In their internal government, the relation of the Head Master to his assistants, and that of the foundation scholars to the rest of the school:

3. In their course of study, which appears to us sound and valuable in its main elements, but wanting in breadth and flexibility, defects which, in our judgment, destroy in many cases, and impair in all, its value as an education of the mind; and which are made more prominent at the present time by the extension of knowledge in various directions, and by the multiplied requirements of modern life:

4. In their organization and teaching, regarded not as to its range, but as to its force and efficacy. we have been unable to resist the conclusion that these schools, in very different degrees, are too indulgent to idleness, or struggle ineffectually with it, and that they consequently send out a large proportion of men of idle habits and empty and uncultivated minds:

5. In their discipline and moral training, of which we have been able to speak in terms of high praise.


[page 56]

In taking leave of this part of our subject it can hardly be necessary for us to add that we do not claim for the recommendations of this Report any authority other than such as they may derive from the evidence, and from the reasons given for them. This inquiry, by bringing together in one view the systems of nine different schools, and, to some extent, the results of those systems, has elicited much that could not be known even to the distinguished and able men who preside over them respectively, and has enabled us to form a judgment upon data which have never been in their possession. But we are well aware that any deductions drawn from evidence on a subject of this kind must be always liable to be corrected and qualified by actual experience. We are aware also, as we have observed before, that any system of teaching or of discipline which could possibly be established must require change and modification in the course of time. The recommendations, therefore, respecting teaching and discipline which we have made, and which we shall make in the Second Part of this Report, are to be considered as addressed to the Head Masters and Governing Bodies, to be carried into effect by them, we hope, substantially, as time and circumstances will permit. It has been our first and most important object to provide, as far as possible, that the future government of the schools shall be lodged in competent and enlightened hands; our second to furnish recommendations for the guidance of the bodies to be thus constituted, in the exercise of a discretion in which they cannot be bound by law.

It remains for us to discharge the pleasantest part of our task, by recapitulating in a few words the advances which these schools have made during the last quarter of a century, and in the second place by noticing briefly the obligations which England owes to them - obligations which, were their defects far greater than they are, would entitle them to be treated with the utmost tenderness and respect.

That important progress has been made even in those particulars in which the schools are still deficient, is plain from the short review contained in the foregoing pages, and will appear still more clearly from the more detailed statements in the Second Part. The course of study has been enlarged; the methods of teaching have been improved; the proportion of masters to boys has been increased; the quantity of work exacted is greater than it was, though still in too many cases less than it ought to be. At the same time the advance in moral and religious training has more than kept pace with that which has been made in intellectual discipline. The old roughness of manners has in a great measure disappeared, and with it the petty tyranny and thoughtless cruelty which were formerly too common, and which used indeed to be thought inseparable from the life of a public school. The boys are better lodged and cared for, and more attention is paid to their health and comfort.

Among the services which they have rendered is undoubtedly to be reckoned the maintenance of classical literature as the staple of English education, a service which far outweighs the error of having clung to these studies too exclusively. A second, and a greater still, is the creation of a system of government and discipline for boys, the excellence of which has been universally recognized, and which is admitted to have been most important in its effects on national character and social life. It is not easy to estimate the degree in which the English people are indebted to these schools for the qualities on which they pique themselves most - for their capacity to govern others and control themselves, their aptitude for combining freedom with order, their public spirit, their vigour and manliness of character, their strong but not slavish respect for public opinion, their love of healthy sports and exercise. These schools have been the chief nurseries of our statesmen; in them, and in schools modelled after them, men of all the various classes that make up English society, destined for every profession and career, have been brought up on a footing of social equality, and have contracted the most enduring friendships, and some of the ruling habits, of their lives; and they have had perhaps the largest share in moulding the character of an English gentleman. The system, like other systems, has had its blots and imperfections; there have been times when it was at once too lax and too severe - severe in its punishments, but lax in superintendence and prevention; it has permitted, if not encouraged, some roughness, tyranny, and licence; but these detects have not seriously marred its wholesome operation, and it appears to have gradually purged itself from them in a remarkable degree. Its growth, no doubt, is largely due to those very qualities in our national character which it has itself contributed to form; but justice bids us add that it is due likewise to the wise munificence which founded the institutions under whose shelter it has been enabled to take root, and to the good sense, temper, and ability of the men by whom during successive generations they have been governed.


[page 57]

SECOND PART

CHAPTER I. ETON

STATEMENT

THE COLLEGE

Eton School is a School attached to a Collegiate Foundation, the legal title of which is "The College of the Blessed Mary of Eton, near Windsor". All inquiry into the School would logically therefore be subordinate to an Inquiry into the College; but it will be more convenient, for the purposes of this Report, and more agreeable to the importance which the School has actually acquired in relation to the College, to treat the two as distinct heads, assigning to each head such parts of the whole subject as most naturally range themselves under it. The distinction however is only roughly practicable, the two branches of the subject being necessarily entwined with each other. Some only of the Masters of the School are officers of the College, and some only of the scholars are members of it. Some of the members of the College are, and some are not, connected with the School; and the site, finances, and government of the one are inseparably mixed up with those of the other.

We shall proceed, in the first place to consider -

1. The General Constitution of the College.
2. The Statutes of the College, and the Visitorial Authority to which it is subject.
3. Its Endowments, Revenues, and Expenditure.
4. The Governing Body.
5. The Conducts, or Chaplains, and Choristers.
6. The King's Scholars.
The Head and Lower Master will be more suitably considered in connexion with the School.

1. General Constitution of the College

Eton College was founded in 1441.* As originally constituted, it was designed to consist of a Provost, 70 Scholars, 10 Fellows, 10 Chaplains, 10 Clerks, 16 Choristers, one Head Master, one Lower Master or Usher, and 13 Bedesmen. In the reign of Edward IV, when it was deprived of some of its estates, the number of Fellows was reduced to seven. The College now consists of a Provost, seven Fellows, 70 Scholars, a Head and a Lower Master, three Conducts or hired Chaplains, 10 Lay Clerks, and 12 Choristers, besides 10 servants. The place of the Bedesmen is occupied by 10 almswomen.

2. Statutes of the College, and Visitorial Authority to which it is subject

The existing Statutes of Eton College were probably modelled upon those of Winchester, to which they bear a close resemblance. They contain, as might be expected, a great number of provisions which have long fallen into desuetude; and whilst they supply the historical basis for the actual government of the College, there appear to be but few portions of them which at the present day are, or indeed could be, really observed at all. The Provost and Fellows are aware of this; but they rely in part upon a clause appended to the Founder's Statutes,† which they interpret as conferring a general

*The first stone of the College was laid in July 1441, and the two earliest Charters are dated in September and October of the same year. By the second of these Charters provision is made for 25 scholars only and for 25 Bedesmen. The number of Scholars was afterwards increased, and that of Bedesmen diminished. The Statutes were finally completed and accepted in 1446. See Carlisle's Endowed Grammar Schools, i. 48.

†The clause occurs among the "Declarationes, correctiones, et reformatiornes statutorum", and is as follows: - "Item, quoniam diversa statuta et ordinationes per dictum fundatorem edita, cum propter decassum et ablationem possessionum et reddituum dicti collegii, tum propter varia pericula et damna quæ possunt dicto collegio er personis ejusdem verisimiliter evenire, non possunt ab eisdem commode observari, declaramus et volumus, quod jurati observationem statutorum et ordinationum dicti collegii, et in eisdem, aut eorum aliquo, delinquentes, non reatum ant pœnam perjurii incurrant quoquo modo, sed pœna perjurii ubicumque ex dictis statutis incurrenda, si de perjurio alienjus socii, magistri informatoris, vel capellani agatur, pœnam per dicti collegii præpositum et majorem partem sociorum arbitrandum, si vero de perjurio agatur dicti præpositi, in pœnam domini episcopi Lincolniensi qui pro tempore fuerit infligendam arbitrio, convertutur: aliquo statuto seu ordinatione per dictum fundatorem in contrarium edito non obstante." Heywood and Wright's Edition, p. 625.


[page 58]

power to dispense with any of them - a view of its effect and power in which we find it impossible to concur - in part also upon the general principle of desuetude, to which we have adverted in the First Part.

A MS. copy of the Statutes, with many cancellations and interlineations, exists in the British Museum, and an exact transcript of this was in 1818 published in the Appendix to the Report of the Select Committee (Lord Brougham's) on the Education of the Lower Orders. This is called Huggett's copy; it was formerly in the possession of Roger Huggett, who was a Conduct of Eton about a century ago, and is supposed to have obtained it by illicit means. Huggett suspected, and has recorded his suspicion, that the interlineations and erasures were made for the purpose of assisting the Provost and Fellows to evade their statutory obligations with a quiet conscience, and he asserts that they existed in the copy generally used in college business. We are informed, however, that no such interlined copy is now used at Eton, or known to have ever existed there. Another copy of the Statutes, together with the Statuta Primitiva and the Charters, was in 1850 published by Messrs. Heywood and Wright, and a careful comparison of this with a collated copy of the Liber Originalis, which has been furnished to us by the Provost, has satisfied us that Heywood's edition is, with sundry unimportant verbal and literal variations, such as are usually found in copies of ancient documents made at different periods, substantially accurate.

By the Statutes, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Lincoln, within whose diocesan jurisdiction Eton was locally situate, are made joint Visitors of the College. The Bishop of Lincoln's place as Visitor is now claimed by the Bishop of Oxford, the present diocesan of Eton, who has addressed to us a letter raising this claim, and requesting a decision upon it. We shall refrain, however, for obvious reasons, from pronouncing an opinion upon a disputed question of legal right, which turns upon the construction of the Statutes, and can only be determined by a Court of Law. We must, however, express a clear opinion that it is desirable that the question should be definitively settled. The Provost and Fellows have always, it appears, regarded the Bishop of Lincoln as their Visitor, and desire that he should continue to be so, as he holds the same office in relation to King's College, Cambridge, with which Eton is closely associated.

The Visitors are required to make periodical visitations at short intervals, but this practice has long fallen into disuse. There has been no visitation within the memory of the present Provost.

3. Endowments, Revenues, and Expenditure

Eton College is possessed of large landed property, producing, on an average of the seven years which ended with 1860, an annual income of £20,569; or, deducting expenses of management and local charities and donations, about £16,000. Part of this property is let at rack-rent [full market value], the residue at old reserved rents of small amount, fines being periodically taken on the renewal of the leases. The sources of income, and the amount derived from them respectively, are shown in the following Table:

The total expenditure for the above seven years, inclusive of expenses of management, subscriptions, and donations, and of the customary payments to the Provost and Fellows, which form, however, but a small part of their actual income, was £96,417 5s 11¼d; the average, £13,773 17s 11¾d.

The different heads of expenditure, and the amount of each, during a period of 20 years, are stated in the Answers of the College; and there is a detailed account of all the particulars of expenditure for the year 1860.

*Fortuiti Proventus include compensation for land taken by railways, loans borrowed for building, &c. (no money was so borrowed during the above seven years), sums paid by the Provost and Fellows towards the repayment of loans, produce of stock sold, income tax returned, money received for timber, and sundry small items.


[page 59]

The gross income of the College, therefore, thus estimated, exceeded the expenditure, during the above-mentioned period of seven years, by a total sum of £47,568 14s 9d, the average yearly surplus being £6,795 10s 8d.

It has not, however, been the practice of the Provost and Fellows to bring the renewal fines into account, or to consider them as part of the revenues of the College. These fines have been divided, in certain shares, among the Provost and Fellows themselves; whilst the rents, with other annual profits of a like nature, have been received and accounted for by the Bursars, and considered as constituting the whole corporate revenue, and the sale fund available for the payment of stipends, the maintenance of scholars, the support of the establishment, and the repair or enlargement of the College buildings. Extraordinary expenses have, therefore, been chiefly met by loans; and these loans have been repaid, partly out of the rents, partly by the Provost and Fellows out of the income derived by them from the fines; but this has been regarded by them as voluntary liberality on their part, and as a gift to the College out of a private source of income, on which the College had no claim. They consider "that by their management of the funds the College property has been improved, and the proceeds strictly devoted to the purposes intended by the Founder, without any personal benefit." For "building and other works" during the twenty years ending in 1860, the College borrowed £19,400 stock, of which £11,351 7s 9d had at Christmas 1861 been replaced by the Provost and Fellows, at a cost in money of £8,422 15s 6d. The whole sum spent in building was much more than the money borrowed, and was in part raised by contributions from old Etonians, in part supplied by the College. One of the Fellows, the Rev. J. Wilder, besides other benefactions to the College, has munificently given £5,000 towards the restoration of the Chapel, on condition that a sum equal to the interest on £4,000 should be paid to him yearly during his life.

According to this mode of computation, the total income for the seven years would be stated at £97,889 4s 4¼d, and the average at £13,984 3s 5¾d, and the average surplus would be only £210 5s 6d. Subtracting sums contributed by the Provost and Fellows to repayment of loans, there would be no surplus, but a small deficiency.

The practice of taking fines and that of dividing them among the Provost and Fellows is believed by them, and by the Registrar, to have existed very soon after the foundation cf the College. This is an inference drawn partly from the general practice of monasteries and collegiate bodies, partly from the disproportion which they think they can discover between the quantities of land comprised in some of the early leases, and the rents reserved upon them. The real value and solidity of the first of these grounds depend upon nice questions of time and degree in relation to the economical usages of past times, such as would require much antiquarian research for their solution. The second is confessedly based upon general impressions which have not yet been tested by investigation. No trace, we believe, is to be found of the fines having ever been brought into the accounts of the College, and we entertain no doubt that the present Provost and Fellows have followed, in this respect, a custom bequeathed to them by their predecessors.

These facts obviously raise two distinct questions, to which we shall advert hereafter. The expediency of continuing to grant beneficial leases is one question; the propriety of subtracting fines from revenue and dividing them among the members of the governing body is another.

The Provost and Fellows themselves appear in some instances to have been sensible that the mode of letting hitherto pursued is not good husbandry, and several leases have within the last 50 years been suffered to expire; others the lessees have themselves declined to renew. Opportunities have thus been taken in some cages of obtaining the command of valuable building land, and of effecting exchanges advantageous to the College. Such an exchange has transferred into the hands of the College property at Eton which formerly belonged to the Crown, and on which houses for Assistant Masters have been built, which are let at rack-rent. The rents have thus risen for some time past in a greater proportion than the fines.

The additions thus made to the corporate revenues have been employed in meeting the increased expenses of the establishment (which have arisen in great measure from improvements in the condition of the King's Scholars), in repaying loans raised for buildings, and in forwarding other corporate purposes.


[page 60]

The property of the College is scattered over the southern half of England, and is managed by the Bursars (principally by the senior Bursar), with the assistance of the Registrar and of local agents. The Statutes direct that the estates should be annually visited by the Provost and Vice-Provost or one of the Fellows; and frequent visitations appear to have been the ancient practice. This practice has of late years fallen into disuse, except for a short time during the provostship of Dr. Hodgson; and an opinion has been expressed to us, in which we concur, that it might usefully be revived.

The revenues of the College are likely to rise steadily, though slowly. This rise may be anticipated chiefly from three sources - from the conversion of fines into rack-rents, and of arable and pasture land into house-property, and from the falling in of subsisting building leases. The College has valuable estates in the neighbourhood of London, parts of which will, if the present leases are suffered to expire, become available for building, whilst other parts are already let on building leases which have nearly 80 years to run. The probable accession of income which might be gained by running out leases has been computed roughly at about one half of the present gross annual income, or £10,000; we are unable to judge how nearly this estimate approximates to the truth, but we entertain no doubt that the income of the College will at no very distant period have considerably increased, and we believe that this increase may be accelerated by judicious management, and the extinction of beneficial leases.

Funded stock, amounting in the aggregate to £27,632 12s 2d is held by the College on special trusts, chiefly for Exhibitions. An account of these funds, and of the annual receipts and expenditure under each head, is furnished in the Answers of the College. Eight thousand pounds stock, part of this sum, represents a sum of £4,000 sterling bequeathed by Provost Godolphin for the increase of the Scholars' Commons. The interest of this legacy appears to have been unaccountably accumulated by the College, instead of being applied to the objects of the Testator's will. The whole £8,000 has recently been sold out and the proceeds spent in buildings or repairs, the Provost and Fellows regarding it as a loan, and applying a sum equal to the dividends to the purposes directed by the Testator. This transaction, which is in substance a loan of a trust fund without security and to the trustee himself, is evidently irregular.

4. The Governing Body

The Provost and Fellows form the Governing Body of Eton College. We proceed to consider the constitution of this body; the mode in which its members are respectively elected, and the qualifications for election; their powers, duties and emoluments; and the relation in which they stand to the School.

The following are the statutory qualifications of a Provost of Eton. He must be, or must have been, a Fellow of Eton or of King's, must have been born in England, must be a Bachelor of Divinity or Doctor in Canon Law and Master of Arts, in Holy Orders,* and not less than 30 years of age.

The field of choice for this distinguished office is thus a narrow one. It has been stated to us that, at the death of Provost Goodall, there were not more than eight persons legally eligible, and we believe that the number has sometimes been still smaller.

How far these limitations are at the present day necessary or valuable, is a question the consideration of which will properly follow that of the Provost's duties. The present Provost and Fellows think it desirable that they should be retained, except that which requires the degree of Bachelor of Divinity. The Provost should be a clergyman, they think, because the Statutes impose on him some clerical duties. Other witnesses, among the Assistant Masters, see no reason why he should not be a layman. Mr. Johnson would prefer "a statesman or a man of letters". He thinks that a Provost of distinguished position and high attainments, whose mind had not been devoted during the greatest part of his life to critical scholarship and the work of teaching, and who might be expected to exercise an ample and varied hospitality, would be most useful and welcome to the school, and not the less so should he happen to be a layman. The requirement of Holy Orders was, it is well known, disregarded in some early cases. Sir B. Wotton and Sir H. Savile, the most distinguished perhaps in the whole list of Provosts, were laymen, though the former, from conscientious motives, received Deacon's Orders after his appointment. Sir Thomas Smith, elected 1547, and Thomas Murray (1621), were also not in Holy Orders.

*In the Answers of the College, II. 2, it is stated that the Provost must have been educated on the Foundation of Eton, and be in Priest's Orders. The former condition docs not appear in the Statutes, and the judgment of Lord Cottenham in re University College, Oxford, i. Phill. Rep. 521, has settled that the words "in sacerdotio constitutus", are satisfied by Deacon's Orders.


[page 61]

The right of electing the Provost is by the Statutes vested in the Fellows, and, if not exercised by them within a certain time, lapses to the Visitor. In practice, however, the Fellows usually elect a person previously nominated by the Crown. We have been unable to ascertain when or how this practice arose. It is believed, however, that Henry VI, as Founder, claimed and exercised in his lifetime a power of nomination; there is evidence or its having been exerted, sometimes in favour of persons not duly qualified, by the Tudor and Stuart Sovereigns; and a series of Royal Letters of recommendation, from the reign of Charles II to the present time, is stated to be in the possession of the College. By the College it is asserted to be a usurpation; and on two occasions during the last 20 years the Fellows have elected without waiting for a nomination. On the death of Provost Goodall the Crown recommended Dr. Hodgson, who had not then taken the degree of Bachelor of Divinity, and who was therefore not qualified; and the Fellows, disregarding the Letter, chose the present Bishop of Lichfield. Dr. Lonsdale, however, declined to accept the office, and Dr. Hodgson, having in the meanwhile acquired the necessary qualification, was ultimately elected in his place. The election of Dr. Hawtrey was completed before the Royal Letter in his favour reached Eton. These cases, from their special circumstances, are inconclusive as precedents, since in both of them the person who actually became Provost was the Crown's nominee. They prove that the Fellows hare asserted their statutory claim to a free election; they do not prove that the Crown has acquiesced in that claim or abandoned its own. Sir J. Coleridge states in his evidence that, if the College chose to disregard a nomination, the Crown would have no legal power of enforcing it, and that disobedience would entail no statutory or other penalty.

It should be added that, in the case of King's College, Cambridge, where the Election Statute and the original practice were the same as at Eton, the claim of the Crown (which had nominated Sir isaac Newton) was in 1689 resisted by the College, and after long dispute and much argument was abandoned.*

It is evidently desirable that this question should be set at rest. "I venture", says Mr. Johnson, "to suggest that no more really important measure can be recommended by the Commissioners than a legislative settlement of all doubts as to the right of the Crown to appoint freely to the Provostship."

The qualifications for election to a Fellowship are thus described in the Statutes: "De sociis Collegii nostri Regalis Cantabrigiæ, vel de hiis qui prius fuerant in eodem et ex causis licitis et honestis recesserunt ab ipso, vel de presbyteris conductitiis ejusdem Collegii de Etona, vel de hiis qui prius fueraut in codem et ex causis licitis et honestis recesserunt ab ipso, habilem et sufficientem, aut alias de collegiis vel locis aliis, juxta ipsorum discretionem, nominent et elegant." The candidate must also be in Priest's Orders, and must be a Bachelor of Divinity, Doctor in Canon Law, or Master of Arts. Some of the words which we have quoted may admit of more than one construction. The interpretation put upon them by the College appears to be that the persons eligible in the first place are Fellows of King's, Conducts of Eton, and persons who have been Fellows of King's or Conducts or Scholars of Eton, and that the power to elect "de collegiis vel locis aliis" does not arise if there be a qualified candidate from any one of these classes. The practice, we are told, has been for many years to elect from the Assistant Masters. The possession of an income of £10 a year is a statutory disqualification, but this is construed to mean an income derived from land. Substantially, therefore, and in practice, the conditions of eligibility are that a candidate should be or have been an Assistant Master, educated at Eton, in Holy Orders, and not possessed of landed property. The Electors are the Provost and Fellows for the time being.

Under the Statutes, more than six weeks' absence from College without some plea of necessity allowed by the Provost and Fellows, or some employment abroad, or College business, vacates a fellowship. A similar consequence under the same Statutes follows the acquisition of land or any perpetual income of the value of ten pounds. In practice, the pecuniary disqualification has been construed to apply only to landed property, and the provision with respect to residence has not been enforced.

The emoluments assigned by the Statutes to the Provost were a yearly stipend of £75 (of which £25 was to be in lieu of the tithes, fruits, and oblations of the Collegiate Church of Eton) with twelve yards of cloth at 3s 4d a yard, and 3s a week for commons, to be augmented in years of scarcity. He was also to keep three servants, "quorum unus generosus vel domicellus, alii vero duo valecti", who were to receive livery and wages from the College. To each of the Fellows was assigned a stipend of £10 a year, with six yards of cloth of the same quality as the Provost's, and 1s 6d a week for commons.

*See an account of this transaction in the Preface to the King's College and Eton Statutes, collected by Messrs. Heywood and Wright, xxii-xxviii.


[page 62]

From the earliest accounts which are preserved of the College expenditure, it appears that the Provost and Fellows until 1641 received their "Dicta" in kind, together with their statutory stipends. For some time after 1647 they received allowances in lieu of provisions under the head "Dicta in pecuniis", varying, in the case of the Provost, from £434 to £204, and in that of the Fellows from £92 to £37, the statutory stipends of £50 and £10 respectively being paid as before. From 1675 to the present day the stipend and allowances have been paid in one sum (£279 yearly to the Provost and £52 to each Fellow), under the head "Stipendia cum allocat. pro dieta et liberatura". They also receive an allowance for candles and fuel; and payments, ranging from £48 to £10, attached to the different College offices which they hold. The fixed sums thus allotted to the Provost and Fellows form, however, as has been already observed, but a small part of their actual emoluments. These chiefly consist of their respective shares of the renewal fines, which are divided among them in the proportion of two-ninths to the Provost and one-ninth to each Fellow. A ninth share of the renewal fines on an average of the 20 years ending with 1860 is reckoned at £662 13s. There is also a sum of £686 19s annually divided amongst them under the name of redeemed land tax.

Taking all these sources of income into account the Provost and Fellows have furnished us with an estimate of their own incomes, according to which the Provostship is worth about £1,876 a year, and a Fellowship from £801 to £851.

By the Statutes a single chamber is assigned to each Fellow for his habitation ("singuli in singulis cameris collocentur"); and the rooms on the western side of the quadrangle, "cum parlura ibidem atque omnibus aisiamentis in cisdem", to the Provost. The Provost, as well as each Fellow, has now a separate house, rent-free, for which rates and taxes are paid by the College. It does not appear when this change took place. They have likewise some trifling allowances in fuel, candles, &c.) and they enjoy the privilege of holding each one living; a privilege expressly denied to them by the Statutes, but obtained in the reign of Queen Elizabeth by a Royal Dispensation, the validity of which has been questioned (since the Fellows are likewise prohibited by the Statutes from accepting dispensations), but was upheld, after a lengthened argument, by a judgment of the Visitor, Sir W. Grant and Sir W. Scott sitting as his assessors.

A list of the benefices in the gift of the College has been furnished to us, from which it appears that the whole number, including alternate presentations, is 40, of which -

Of these, one living of £247 and one of £244 are alternate, and to the single living which exceeds £1,000 the College presents once in three turns. There are two others, the value of which is not stated; and there are also two small incumbencies in the sole gift of the Provost.

It is the practice of the Provost and Fellows, when a living falls vacant, to offer it to the members of their own body in rotation: if not accepted by any of them, it becomes private patronage; the Provost and Fellows presenting in turn, and the Provost having two turns to each Fellow's one. They inform us that their patronage is usually exercised in favour of a personal friend or relation. A Conduct is, however, after eight years' service, allowed the option of taking any living which may become vacant, provided it be not one of a certain number, which includes those of the greatest value. In December 1861 a College living worth £878 was held by the Provost, and three others, worth respectively £708, £663, and £505 by three of the Fellows. The present Provost has a small family living of his own, and does not hold any College benefice.

A living is never offered to an Assistant Master unless he has first obtained a Fellowship. Mr. Balston thinks that it would be useless, and, as we understand him, inexpedient on the whole, to offer the livings to the Assistants, as the temptation would be too small to prevail with a successful Master, and might be too great to be resisted by one who had not yet achieved success, But he admits that the prospect of preferment might be an inducement to accept a mastership, and that it would afford occasional opportunities of


[page 63]

releasing men not thoroughly competent for the work. Two Assistant Masters - one a layman, the other a clergyman - have given evidence which agrees with the latter part of Mr. Balston's opinion, but not with the former. Mr. Johnson thinks the livings would furnish the best retiring pensions for Masters in Holy Orders:

4170. (Lord Clarendon) Do you conceive that many of these livings would be accepted by Assistant Masters?- Not many perhaps, but some would.

4171. Do you think that some of those livings would often be accepted by a tolerably prosperous Assistant Master? - No, but the advantage gained by the School would be if they were accepted by an Assistant Master who was not very prosperous.

4172. Do you think that if such a system as that was established there would be always a certain number of those livings held by men who had been Assistant Masters in the School? - Yes.

4173. (Mr. Thompson) How many livings would you open in that way to the Assistant Masters, and under what conditions would you give them? - The inferior livings should be offered to young or unsuccessful Masters, the best livings given instead of Fellowships to men who have earned them fairly.

4174. But you would not allow an Assistant Master to take a living until he had been some time in the School, would you. He must serve a certain time as Assistant Master, because you could not allow an Assistant Mastership to be a mere stepping-stone to a living? - If a man found that he was not doing well, or that his health was failing, I would allow him to take a living, and probably he would take a moderate one. As the case stands at present there is no kind of promotion for the Mathematical Masters, and they go away because they see no chance of it. Some of them have taken very moderate livings from other patrons, and I have no doubt that they would often take these livings from the College.

Mr. James thinks that parochial work is what a man in Holy Orders looks forward to for the closing part of his life, and that if the livings were offered to the Masters they would often be accepted in middle age.

The duties of the Provost are those ordinarily assigned to the head of a Collegiate Foundation. He has to exercise a general superintendence, to take care that each member of the College fulfils his statutable obligations, to see that the College property is well administered, and the revenues duly applied. He is entrusted with the College Seal, must be present (unless inevitably prevented by sickness or otherwise) at all College meetings on important business, has a vote in elections to vacant Fellowships and to the offices of Head and Lower Master, and has the sole appointment of subordinate officers of the College. He exercises, as will appear hereafter, over the management of the School, a control which is very extensive and minute. He is ex officio Rector of Eton, but is not instituted to the cure of souls within the parish, nor does he receive the emoluments of the living, which are paid into the general funds of the College; neither can we ascertain that he practically undertakes the spiritual charge of the parish, the duties of which are performed by the Conducts as (nominally at least) his curates. This arrangement, according to the evidence of Mr. Paul, a late Conduct, does not work satisfactorily; the consequences which he represents as having arisen from it within his own experience, are disputed by the Provost and Fellows, but they are, to say the least, not improbable. The Provost also preaches in Chapel eight times in the year. This duty, and the superintendence, whether real or nominal, of the parish of Eton, constitute the whole of his clerical functions.

The fellows have a deliberative voice in all matters of importance affecting the College property. They audit the College accounts, and the concurrence of a majority of a College meeting (four, with the Provost or Vice-Provost, being a quorum) is required for leases and sales of the College property. Out of their number are chosen annually the Vice-Provost, the Senior and Junior Bursar, Precentor, Sacrist, and Librarian. The duties of the Bursars are to receive the rents and superintend the expenditure; of the Precentor "to be responsible for the College choir, their regularity of attendance, and general behaviour"; and of the Sacrist to take "charge of the Chapel, the books, and plate for the altar". The Fellows have no regular share in the government of the School, and no duties in connexion with it, except as joint guardians (with the Provost) of the College property, and as electors (with the Provost) of the Head and Lower Master, and except in the very rare case of a King's Scholar committing a grave moral offence, calling for expulsion or for some punishment little less severe. Mr. Dupuis, the Senior Bursar, in the course of his long experience, does not recollect more than six or seven such cases; Mr. Coleridge, since he has been a Fellow, not more than one. It appears, however, (as we might naturally expect to be the case; that the Provost frequently takes the advice of the Fellows on questions respecting the educational business of the School, instead of acting (as he is entitled to do) upon his own unassisted opinion, and that he would not, without conferring with them, sanction any alteration of importance;


[page 64]

and his judgment would doubtless in any case be considerably influenced by knowing what view persons with whom he is so closely associated, and who stand in such a relation to the College, would be likely to take of a suggested change.

5. The Conducts or Chaplains, and Choristers

The daily duty of reading prayers in Chapel is divided among three Conducts or Chaplains (capellani conductitii), who likewise act as curates of the parish of Eton. They are appointed by the Provost, and each receives £120 a year. A late Conduct, Mr. Paul, was also Assistant Master in College, receiving, as such, an additional stipend.

The sixteen choristers contemplated by the Statutes were placed, as regards board and lodging, and the supply of clothing and other necessaries, on the same footing as the scholars, sleeping in the same rooms with them, and sitting with them at meals; they were to be taught music by "an honest and virtuous clerk or priest" appointed for that purpose by the Provost, and they might likewise attend the grammar school, where they were to be taught gratuitously by the statutory masters. They had also a cæteris paribus [other things being equal] preference in elections to scholarships.

There are at present no choristers exclusively attached to Eton College. It maintains, jointly with St. George's Chapel, Windsor, a choir of twelve, each of which receives from Eton a gown and an allowance of bread, meat, and beer for commons; they are taught reading, writing, and music by a schoolmaster at Windsor, who is paid £20 by Eton, and a further salary by the Windsor Chapter. There is an arrangement, we are told, that the Conducts shall teach them Latin, if required, but it does not appear that this has ever been required. They receive from Eton £15 on leaving, which is made up to £25 by Windsor. The services, like the support, of the boys are divided between the two establishments, a consequence of which is that there is no choral service at Eton on Sunday or any other mornings, St. George's being deemed to have a prior claim. This arrangement, which appears to be recommended by nothing but its economy, has subsisted for a long time - it is thought, since the Restoration. That it is bad for the College, which is obliged in the mornings to replace its choir by a dozen charity children, and for the choristers themselves, who are "obliged to go immediately from one place to another to perform the same service", is admitted; but a distinct choir would involve, it is said, "such a large additional annual expenditure that it seems almost impossible to entertain the idea immediately".

6. The King's Scholars

The 70 King's Scholars or "Collegers " are elected by the Provost, Vice- Provost, and Head Master of Eton, and the Provost and two Fellows (appointed annually for the purpose) of King's. The statutory qualifications are poverty, aptitude for study, good character, and a competent proficiency in reading, plain-song, and grammar. No one is to be elected who has not completed his eighth or who has exceeded his twelfth year, unless, being under seventeen, he has made such progress in grammar that, in the judgment of the electors, he can be made a sufficiently good grammarian ("nisi, judicio eligentium, in grammatica poterit sufficienter expediri") before completing his eighteenth. The possession of lands, tenements, or other possessions worth above five marks a year, incurable disease, or mutilation or any defect arising from the candidate's own act or fault, and incapacitating for Holy Orders, and illegitimate birth, or birth out of England, are disqualifications. Birth in serfdom was a disqualification likewise. A preference is assigned, in the first place, to candidates from places where the College has property, and then to natives of the counties of Buckingham and Cambridge, and, cæteris paribus, to choristers of Eton and King's, on account of their work and service to the two Colleges. Public notice is to be given nearly seven weeks before for the benefit of poor scholars, who may be wining to assemble ("confluere volentes") from any part of England.*

Tenpence a week was by the Statutes allowed for the commons of each Scholar. Cloth of a prescribed price and quantity was to be delivered to each Scholar at Christmas to provide him a gown for holiday wear during the ensuing year, and for daily use in the twelve months which were to follow. It appears also from the Eton Statutes, as

*In the Vetus Consuetudinarium Scholæ Etonensis, appended to Heywood's edition of the Statutes, the election is mentioned in terms which clearly show the view anciently taken of the mode and spirit in which it was to be conducted:

"Hic septum hebdomadibus ante electionem in Regale Collegium Cantabrigiæ inchoatui exhortutio literaria Ætonæ, et affiguntur portis chartæ denunciantes liberum esse omnibus liberalis ingenii et egregiæ indolis pueris, ad bonasque disciplinas percipiendas aptis et idoneis, ad Collegium Ætonæ accedendi, corum judicium subcundi, qui id agent ut aptissimi quique ex oumi Britannia in Collegium Ætonæ subrogentur."


[page 65]

illustrated by those of Winchester, that the Scholars were also entitled to such a supply of clothing, bedding, and other personal necessaries, as should not exceed in value the yearly sum of 15s.

The Provost, however, states that no charge for clothing, as distinct from the gowns and the bedding, appears in any of the audit books, though these have been examined from the year 1506.

"On the accustomed days" they were to have "breakfast of the aforesaid commons" ("jentacula de communibus prædictis"). They were to sleep in the lower chambers under the Head and Lower Master, Fellows, and Chaplains, each boy of 14 and upwards having a separate bed. They were exclusively eligible to Fellowships at King's.

It is certain that until within a very recent period the King's Scholars derived little, if any, benefit from the vastly increased wealth of the Foundation, the advantages of which were enjoyed, and in reality monopolised, by the Provost and Fellows. Until about 20 years ago, they were lodged in one large chamber and three smaller ones, with one man-servant and a bed-maker employed for about half the day to attend on them and keep the rooms clean. In this "Long Chamber" they were locked up at eight o'clock at night (in winter they were assembled in it at five), and "saw nobody again until half-past seven next morning". There was no provision for their moral superintendence. Great tyranny, exercised by the older boys over the younger, was among the consequences of this state of things. No breakfast was found for them, and their dinners, says Mr. Dupuis, speaking from his own recollection, "were really no dinners at all". The dinner consisted of mutton only, and there were no servants in attendance. "The meal of tea was considered unnecessary"; and the supper provided in Hall at eight o'clock was "very insufficient"; so much so that all the boys above the Remove were in the habit of sending out for another supper for themselves. It was customary for the boys to hire rooms in the town, where they had their breakfast and tea and lodged during the day, at a considerable expense to their parents. Until within the last five or six years, every boy paid a certain sum to a dame, who undertook to give him a room when he was ill, to provide for his washing, and do other little necessary services. The expenses of a Colleger were thus not very much less than those of an Oppidan. It is evident that this state of things was not in accordance with the intentions of the Founder, which were to provide, as far as the revenues of his foundation and its other objects would admit, board, lodging, clothing, and education free of charge, and suitable to the habits of his time, for boys requiring such assistance, but of the same class as the Fellows; and there can be no doubt that if the letter of the Statutes was adhered to, their substance was systematically violated. The Vice Provost and Fellows are certainly right in thinking that the want of due care and attention to the comforts and moral superintendence of the boys prevented many parents from sending their sons to the College who would otherwise have been glad to avail themselves of it. "It has frequently happened", they say, "that the actual number of Foundation Scholars has fallen below the statutory number. About 30 years ago the number did not amount to 50, and at previous times the deficiency has been great." This deficiency, indeed, as we gather from the evidence of the Provost, did not disappear until a later date, which coincides with the change in the mode of election and the commencement of the other improvements which we are about to describe. Probably, also, it had a further effect, which has not yet wholly died out. Their condition was, says Mr. Carter, speaking from his own experience, "degrading in many respects to the character of gentlemen"; and this can hardly have failed to depress, in the estimation of the Oppidans, the traditional status and social position of the Collegers.

Within the last 20 years there has been a great and progressive improvement; and it is due to those by whom that improvement was introduced (it began under Provost Hodgson), and to the present Provost and Fellows, to say that they are relieved from the reproach which unquestionably attaches to their predecessors. Forty-nine of the 70 Collegers have now single rooms; the remaining 21 were lodged, until 1861, in a large room under the superintendence of a Conduct and three upper boys; and each has now a small dormitory partitioned off from the rest. The accommodation in College seems at present to be as good as could be desired, except that fire-places, where they can be had, might be advantageously substituted for the hot water with which 44 out of the 48 rooms are warmed, and that the rooms appropriated to the sick are confined and inconvenient. There is an Assistant Master in College, whose rooms communicate with those of the boys, who has the domestic superintendence of them, and is responsible, in great measure, for their moral training. For these duties he receives from the College £230 a year, with rooms, coals, and candles. The bullying and other evils, which made the Long Chamber a bye-word with old Etonians, have been entirely removed by these simple


[page 66]

means, and are now only matters of history and tradition. There is a matron and housekeeper, and a sufficient number of servants for every purpose, except, as it would appear, for attendance at dinner in Hall, where the fags have to wait on their masters, and cannot, therefore, get their own dinners till their masters have done. Bread, butter, and milk are supplied for breakfast and tea (for tea and sugar the boys are charged a fixed low price), and a supper, at nine o'clock, of cold meat, which, as at the dinner, is generally mutton. Any additional nourishment or extra attendance which they may require in sickness is paid for by the College; and they have the gratuitous use of the Sanatorium, the College paying such expenses as their removal to it may occasion.

Their dinner consists of roast mutton five days in the week, and of roast beef on the other two, with vegetables, and beer, and with suet pudding and plum pudding on alternate Sundays, and fruit tarts in summer. They find cheese for themselves. The introduction of the beef and pudding appears to be due to the posthumous liberality of a deceased Provost (Godolphin), who bequeathed, in 1786, £4,000 for the increase of the Scholars' commons; but the interest of the legacy was, until a comparatively recent period, accumulated, instead of being applied to the purpose for which it was left. The practice of feeding the scholars on mutton probably originated in convenience, at a time when the supplies of Windsor market and the ordinary diet of all classes were coarser and less varied than at present, when to simplify the accounts was a matter of primary importance, and the rents of the College were partly paid in sheep as well as in grain. The food supplied is ample in quantity, but the monotony of it palls, we are told, upon the taste of the boys, especially of the younger ones (who invariably get the inferior joints), and those of less robust health or appetite, a class likely to be numerous among boys who have been elected by competition at an early age, and are under a constant stimulus to work. No sufficient reason has been suggested for adhering to a monotony which must be often distasteful, and sometimes prejudicial, to health.

The average annual amount of a King's Scholar's bills, taking the bills actually sent in during many years, is computed by Mr. Paul at £49 17s, whilst an Oppidan's annual bills range from £150 to £210. The maintenance and instruction, however, of a King's Scholar, though the charges have been greatly diminished, are not wholly gratuitous. He pays £10 10s for tuition, £5 5s towards the wages of the matron and servants in College, £5 for washing, and £3 for "school fees" - a little less than £25 in all. He also pays, as has been already stated, for his tea and sugar. About £25, therefore, covers his whole expenses, exclusive of clothes, travelling, and pocket money. A part of his washing was formerly paid for by the College (a washerwoman for cloths and linen garments, "lotrix mapparum aut vestium linearum", was among the statutory servants of the establishment), and this, for the sake of convenience, was commuted for the bread, butter, and milk now furnished for tea. At what time the Scholars first began to pay for tuition is not known; but Mr. Dupuis states that the charge was eight guineas when he went to school, and was increased to ten before he left it. A King's Scholar receives from his Tutor the same instruction, and makes as great demands on his time, as an Oppidan, who usually pays £21; and the opinion has been expressed to us by several witnesses, that as the Statutes contemplate an education free of charge, a tuition fee of either 10 or 20 guineas should be paid to the Tutor by the College in respect of each King's Scholar. Mr. E. Coleridge and other witnesses also think that the maintenance of the Scholars should be altogether gratuitous, which would involve the abolition of the charges for tea and sugar, washing and attendance; and no special reason has been suggested for retaining these charges, in respect of what, according to the habits of the present day, are necessaries.

From the mode in which the accounts are kept, it is not easy to ascertain precisely the whole cost of the King's Scholars to the College. It appears to range from £2,500 a year to £3,000, inclusive of food, attendance, fuel, gowns, and the payment of the Assistant Master in College. With reference to this latter item, it may be observed that the Scholars were by the Statutes to be lodged in the same building as the Master and Usher and Fellows, and in rooms immediately below them. The Assistant in College, therefore, merely supplies the absence of that supervision and care of which the boys were improperly and culpably deprived when the Fellows and the two statutory Masters removed to separate residences. The alterations and additional buildings which have given proper lodgings and accommodation to the Scholars were paid for by the subscriptions of old Etonians, the Provost and Fellows contributing, however collectively £2,000, and the Provost, Fellows, and Head Master individually, £2,100.

Had alterations and additions been made in former years, from time to time as the necessity for them arose, the whole of the proper accommodation might have been


[page 67]

provided out of the revenues of the College, which were undoubtedly the fund on which it ought to have been charged.

The payments to the Head and Lower Masters, including £150 for Mathematics, amount together to £453 16s, the present Head Master having also (like the Provost and Fellows) a house rent-free. If therefore the Scholars now receive (as they undoubtedly do) a better education than was or could have been contemplated by the Founder, it is an education which costs the College little more than £450, while they themselves pay £735 in fees to tutors; and even this payment would not suffice, were not the tutors required to take them at a rate below that charged to the Oppidans, so that the education of the scholars is in part paid for by the Oppidans.

Until about twenty years ago, though the forms of an election were observed, the Scholars were, in fact, nominated by one or another of the six electors, and the examination consisted in construing a passage which the boy had got up beforehand. The effect was what might be expected. "Very stupid boys got in who had no business to get in." This system has been completely abandoned, and for the last twenty years the examination has been strictly competitive, and open to an boys not excluded by the Statutes, the successful candidate being chosen by a majority of votes. By an Ordinance of the Cambridge University Commissioners, made at the request of the College, the condition of birth within the realm of England has been relaxed so as to include boys born in any part of the British empire. The other statutory restrictions and preferences still exist; but the condition of poverty seems in practice to have been construed as excluding only boys entitled to independent property in their own right, and as giving a preference in consideration of narrow circumstances where they come to the knowledge of the electors. It is not the practice, however, to make inquiries into the circumstances of the candidates or their parents.

The change from nomination to competition has had its natural effect. It has brought to Eton a great number of able and industrious boys who would not otherwise have come at all; and the King's Scholars have become, as the Provost expresses it, intellectually the élite of the School. In a letter written by him to the Head Master of Westminster, 4th February 1861; and quoted by the latter in his printed "Letter to Sir D. Dundas, on the position and prospects of Westminster School", Dr. Goodford thus expresses himself:

The first and most marked effect of opening our foundation to competition has been that it has raised intellectually the standard of the boys in College, and through that, morally, their position in the School. The elections to College here, and hence to King's, have no doubt acted upon each other; and the mere admission here by competition would not, of itself, have produced all that we saw last year done by our youths in the Classical Tripos at Cambridge, and what we hope to see this year. ... The class of boys which the open competition has drawn here, has been mainly the sons of Clergymen, or younger sons of laymen, whose elder brothers would inherit a sufficiency without the aid of a Fellowship; sometimes a tradesman's son, but not often. Looking down the list of my own division now, which contains 17 King's Scholars, I find 12 clergymen's sons, two younger sons, whose elder brothers are provided for; two sons of naval officers, and one who is a solicitor's son. I take these to be, as near as may be, the class of persons whom our Founder meant to benefit; and the leaven of steadiness and diligence, which they impart to the rest of the School, is most valuable to us.
The only doubt which has been suggested by the Provost as to the results of the competitive system is of a different kind. He doubts whether it has not tended to dishearten and discourage industry in the Oppidans by creating within the School a separate class of boys whose early proficiency gives them an advantage over the rest, which they are afterwards stimulated to maintain. That the King's Scholars carry off by far the larger proportion of the classical prizes and distinctions of the School is admitted by the Oppidans themselves. We shall have occasion to refer to this point hereafter, and shall only observe in passing that the explanation, were we asked to consider it as such, of the comparative failure of the Oppidans, would do little honour to their spirit and energy. If the Collegers were selected for superior talent or industry out of the Oppidans - boys already at the school - they would be superior to the Oppidans, not only as a body, but individually, and might, therefore, be expected to win all the prizes. But this is not the case. It appears from a return with which we have been furnished that not more than 25 per cent are elected from among the Oppidans. The Collegers are a small though picked body; the Oppidans are a much larger body, though taken without selection; and although the average of ability among the former is probably higher, as the average of industry certainly is, than among the latter, we see no reason to doubt that there are among the five or six hundred Oppidans of the Upper School a great number of boys quite capable of running an equal race with their contemporaries among the seventy Collegers for prizes offered to individual talent and persever-

[page 68]

ance. If, indeed, perseverance is encouraged among the Collegers, and is not encouraged among the Oppidans, it would be but natural that the latter should fall behind. Whether this is so, is a question which we shall have to consider under a different head. Here it is enough to say that the inferior success of the Oppidans in school contests seems to afford no argument against the practice of electing the Collegers by competition; nor do we understand that it is, in fact, so regarded by the Provost. He considers, indeed, that there is all emulation between the two bodies, which is advantageous to the School, and would be lost if they ceased to be distinct from each other.

The Collegers are, however, severed from their schoolfellows not only by the mode in which they are admitted, by receiving an almost gratuitous board and education, and enjoying some small privileges in the way of precedence, but by being lodged in a separate building and wearing a distinctive dress. On the important question whether this separation works a social estrangement, and prevents them from associating freely and on equal terms with the Oppidans, a result which would be clearly disadvantageous to both, we have found some difference of opinion. We have been told, on the one hand, that "they are excluded from the chief good of an Eton education, social intercourse with the great body of their schoolfellows"; that they do not associate much with them; that, whilst the old feelings of animosity and jealousy have nearly died out, there is little community of interest between the two bodies, and that instances of close friendship between Collegers and Oppidans are rare. "I have never", says Mr. Browning, who was himself on the Foundation, "known a Colleger to have any great or wide influence over the school at large. ... A Colleger enjoys the privilege of being in the society of clever boys, among whom work is general and fashionable, and where he has every inducement to exertion; on the other hand, he breathes a somewhat confined atmosphere; he does not drink to the full of the spirit of Eton; he lies in a quiet backwater, instead of being borne along in the full stream of Eton life. ... If these two bodies were to act more upon one another, it would be for the mutual benefit of both." The Oppidans admit, says Mr. Johnson, that the Collegers are their schoolfellows, but do not feel them to be playfellows.

These statements, however, appear to require considerable qualification. All the witnesses who have left the School within the last three or four years agree in saying that, whilst among the younger boys there is considerable estrangement, this disappears almost entirely in the highest part of the School. "It. was almost a natural thing for a small Oppidan to dislike a small Colleger" - a dislike returned by the other, who puts on the Colleger's esprit de corps with his Colleger's gown. There is a class antipathy at starting - a feeling, as Mr. Wayte expresses it, of "social superiority on the one side, and defensive pride on the other", which wears out as boys grow older. They do not, however, play together, except at fives, in some of the cricket clubs, and in the first football club; and established usage excludes Collegers from the eight-oar boats. The existing state of things is, says one witness, "a sort of custom", not founded consciously upon any real difference of birth or rank - which indeed hardly exists at all - but for the obstinate vitality of which it is not difficult to account, considering what the Collegers formerly were, and how they were treated, the importance now assigned among the Oppidans to success in games, and the more studious habits of the Collegers, and above all the strong and lingering power which tradition and habit exert over the minds of boys. It has greatly diminished with the improved position of the Collegers; and that it should continue on the whole to diminish seems to be inevitable, though the younger witnesses whom we have examined do not agree in recalling within the time of their own remembrance any material change in this respect; and we observe with satisfaction that the Masters are fully sensible of the importance of effacing the separation as far as possible, by every means in their power.

The difference of dress, which strikes a boy's eye when he first enters the school, has doubtless some influence, as a visible badge of a distinction of class. The gown, which was worn originally, as it appears, by Collegers and Oppidans alike,* is now confined to the former. Some of the Masters lay considerable stress on the expediency of discontinuing it, whilst they admit that this "would be unpopular with the Scholars themselves, who have a strong class feeling and regard the gown as an honourable distinction." Other witnesses think the gown has no sensible effect.

It should be added that t.here is another side to the question. The Collegers, though not divided from the mass of the Oppidans by any broad distinction of birth or station, are commonly either younger sons, or the sons of parents of moderate fortune, and it is possible that their separate position may in some degree protect them from expensive

*See the Retrospective Review, Second Series, ii., 149.


[page 69]

habits. Their exclusion from "the boats" may be deemed a positive advantage to them from this point of view. There is perhaps a more effectual protection in the fact that they have less pocket money.

The King's Scholars, as has been already stated, are exclusively eligible to Scholarships at King's College, Cambridge. The successful candidates are chosen annually by competitive examination. The number of vacancies at King's was necessarily uncertain until, by the reforms introduced there by the Cambridge University Commission, scholarships for a limited period were substituted for fellowships tenable for life. It will in future be four annually. In elections both to Eton and to King's each College contributes under the Statutes an equal number of electors.

THE SCHOOL

7. Number and Composition of the School

Eton School contains at present from eight to nine hundred boys. The numbers in the list published at Election 1861 were as follows:

Upper school730
Lower school99
Total829

Deducting the seventy King's scholars, the number of "oppidans", or boys not on the foundation, was 749.

In 1862 there were 840 boys, and therefore 770 Oppidans.

We have no account of the rise of the school. That the Founder of Eton, like the Founders of Winchester and Westminster, desired and intended that the benefits of his Grammar school should not be confined to a single class, is sufficiently clear from the statutes. The statutes of Eton College contemplate distinctly three classes, all of whom were to be taught gratuitously:

1. Foundation boys, lodged, fed, and in part at least clothed by the Founder's bounty.
2. Boys lodged and fed by the College with the foundationers, but at a charge sufficient to cover the expense of their maintenance.
3. Boys resorting to the school for instruction, but not boarded within the College.
That boys of the second class or "commensales", sons of noblemen and gentlemen, answering exactly to the pensionarii at Westminster, and to the commoners and pensioners at the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, did formerly exist at Eton, there is no doubt. The first Cavendish Earl of Devonshire, then a boy of nine, with his elder brother and a servant, was admitted on these terms in the year 1550. Between1564 and 1648 the old audit books of the College contain the names of "commensales" who dined in hall during that period, varying in number from 37 downwards; they have entirely disappeared since the Restoration. It has been suggested to us by Mr. Wilder, that by reviving the "commensales" and admitting to the benefit of a gratuitous education a certain number of boys who should be required to pay the actual expense of their board, the usefulness of Eton might be considerably extended, and that this advantage might be offered to candidates who had failed in the competition for scholarships. It would clearly be in accordance with the Founder's intentions that the College should assist the education of boys not being members of the foundation, if not in this way, in some way analogous to this. We hear, however, that the establishment of a distinct class in the School might be found to enhance rather than mitigate the difficulties which have arisen from the distinction between Collegers and Oppidans. The establishment of Oppidan Exhibitions, tenable at any boarding-house, and equivalent, or nearly so, to the amount expended by the College on the education of each Colleger, would probably confer a less questionable benefit upon the School.

The Oppidans - or, as they are called at Westminster, town boys - have for centuries constituted the great bulk of the school. The young Cavendishes seem to have been Oppidans for a month before their admission into College, and in the Paston Letters there is a characteristic letter from a young Oppidan of 1467.

The total number, King's Scholars included, is now greater than at any time within the last 50 years. The fluctuations during that period are shown by the subjoined figures.

1812540
1817477
1833627
1836444
1846777
1852597
1862840

The rapid increase of the School of late years raises the question whether it is desirable that any limitation should be placed on its numbers. Both the Provost and the Head


[page 70]

Master think that it may well receive as many boys as can possibly be accommodated at Eton. They see no objection to a thousand, if room could be found for a thousand. They admit, however, that some disadvantages exist already, which are due to the magnitude of the School, though they do not think them serious. A very large staff of Masters are more difficult to govern, and can have less of personal intercourse with their head. We have been told by Mr. Coleridge that "the teaching force is already multiplied to such an extent that the Head Master cannot manage it", and that "his mind, which ought to be like the mainspring of a watch, the moving power of the whole machine, is scarcely felt throughout the School", and that even this teaching force is overtasked with work. A great number of the boys must, of course, be personally unknown to the Head Master. The majority leave without having entered his division or had the benefit of his personal teaching and influence. Again, either the number of Forms or the number of boys in each Form must be very great. In the former case the rise of a boy to the top of the School must be proportionately slow, in the latter the Forms must be unmanageable, or they must be sub-divided into what are virtually parallel classes, a system adopted at Rugby and Cheltenham and at the great schools in Germany, but which is not unattended with inconveniences. The parallel system is not in use at Eton; in place of it there is a highly complicated arrangement of Forms, sub-divisions of Forms (called removes), and "Divisions", which will be explained hereafter. The practical effect is, that a boy who passes from the lower Fourth, which is the lowest remove in the Upper School, has to be promoted nine times before he reaches the upper Fifth, and to pass through or over sixteen "Divisions", obtaining about half of his promotions by seniority and the other half after a test examination. Whether this arrangement works well, we shall have to consider hereafter.

8. Arrangement of the School - 1. Forms and Removes. 2. Divisions. 3. Admission. 4. Promotion by Removes

The old series of six ascending Forms, consecrated by usage in most of the great schools of this country and in Germany, still subsists at Eton; but not for the purpose for which it was originally established - that of instruction in School. For that purpose a "form" must, of course, be of manageable size and composed of boys nearly equal in proficiency. The lowest three Forms at Eton belong to the Lower School, which we, shall consider separately hereafter, as it is for most practical purposes distinct from the Upper. The other three, after undergoing a gradual process of division and subdivision, now stand as follows:

There are thus, in fact, eleven Forms or subdivisions of Forms in the Upper School, and a boy who advances regularly from the bottom makes ten steps to reach the top, each step marking, in theory at least. a grade of proficiency. The Form and remove in which a boy is denote his stage of advancement and his rank in the school; but the Forms first, and then the removes, have gradually grown too large to be handled by a single Master; and it has been thought better, for the purpose of teaching in school, to distribute the whole mass afresh, without disturbing the organization already described, into groups of manageable size called "Divisions", each of which has a Master of its own. The number of Divisions may be multiplied or diminished from time to time without affecting the number or arrangement of the removes, of which it is wholly independent; thus boys in different Divisions may be in the same remove, and vice versa, and a boy may possibly be promoted into a higher remove without quitting his Division, or changing his Class-Master. The Division, therefore, in which a boy is marks the Master by whom he is taught, and the group of boys with whom he goes into school, for the time being. Sometimes, too, a boy passes over a whole Division without entering it. In 1861 there were 17 Divisions in the Upper School.

Before admission to the Upper School a boy has to pass an examination, consisting of some easy translations from English into Latin, prose and verse, and from Greek and


[page 71]

Latin into English. The standard is low; and nobody would believe, says Mr. Balston, how poor are the results obtained. If the candidate cannot come up even to this low standard, as is often the case, he is permitted to enter the Lower School, which admits any boy who is able to read. There is no inferior limit of age; no boy is admitted after 14, except on special grounds, and no boy can be placed, on entrance, higher than in the lower part of the Remove, or seven steps from the top of the School. The average age of entrance is from 12 to 14, and the average time of remaining at school four or five years.

The system of promotion is likewise peculiar. "Removes", as they are called,* take place twice a year, in June and December. At each remove each subdivision of every Form in the school, except the sixth and the upper division of the Fifth, is promoted in a body, and takes rank as the subdivision next above it. Thus the boys in the upper remove of the Fourth Form pass in a body into the lower remove of the Remove, the boys in the lower remove of the Remove pass in a body into the upper remove of the Remove, and the boys in the upper remove of the Remove pass also in a body into the lower remove of the lower division of the Fifth Form. The same process goes on throughout the lower and middle divisions of the Fifth Form; the boys in the upper remove of the middle division passing in a body into the upper division; but at this point the system of removes ceases to operate, the numbers of the Sixth Form being limited, and vacancies in it being supplied by the promotion of individual boys from the upper division of the Fifth Form in order of seniority. The effect of this system is, that as a general rule, a boy remains during the whole of his stay at Eton in the remove* in which he is placed when he first goes there. He consequently regards it with somewhat of the same feeling as that with which a soldier regards his regiment, and his friendships are to a great extent formed and his spirit of emulation called forth, by the influences of his own remove. As the remove rises it receives accessions, new boys being placed in it from time to time until it has reached the Fifth Form, after which no new boys can be placed in it, and it begins gradually to diminish, as the boys composing it leave the school, until it is merged in the upper division, by which time a considerable reduction has probably taken place in its numbers.

The regular progress of a boy by the system of removes may, however, either be interrupted by his failing to pass the examinations which are required at certain stages, or accelerated by his taking a double remove. The removes within each Form take place without any examination; but, before the removes from Form to Form, "trials" are held, by which the fitness of each boy to pass into the Form above is tested, and the places of the boys within the Form are also determined. A boy who fails to pass the trials is not allowed to proceed with his remove, but remains in the Form in which he is, and thus sinks into the remove below his own. On the other hand, a clever boy is sometimes allowed to offer himself for a double remove. Thus, when the Upper Fourth are going into trials for the Remove, a boy in the Middle Fourth may obtain permission to offer himself for the same trials, and, if he succeeds in beating two-thirds of the boys in the Upper Fourth, he is at once promoted from the Middle Fourth into the Remove, and rises into the remove above his own.

One more point must be explained. The number of masters, as has already been mentioned, is now (like that of Divisions) greater than the number of removes. There are, for instance, four masters in the Fourth Form, though there are only three removes. Mr. A.'s division, therefore, will probably contain only a certain proportion of the Upper Fourth, Mr. B. will take the rest of the Upper and some of the Middle, Mr. C. perhaps the rest of the Middle Fourth, and Mr. D. the Lower Fourth. A boy in Mr. B.'s division, therefore, may pass from the Fourth Form into the Remove without ever going into Mr. A's division; or it may sometimes happen that a boy may pass from the middle to the upper remove without passing from one master to the other, at least for some time. As a general rule, however, the advance from remove to remove implies a corresponding advance from the division of one master to that of the master next above him.

*The apparent complexity of this system is much aggravated by the number of senses in which the word "remove" is used. It signifies:

(1) the Form which is interposed between the Fourth and the Fifth.
(2) the subdivisions of the Forms; thus there are three "removes" or subdivisions in the 4th Form, two in the Remove, and so on.
(3) the process of advancing from one remove to another, thus a boy is said to "take his remove", to "lose his remove", or to "take a double remove".
(4) the set of boys who are in the same remove; thus if A, B, C, &c. are in the upper fourth, while X, Y, Z, &c. are in the middle fourth, A will speak of B and C as being "in my remove", and of X and Y as being "in the remove below me"; and this relation between the two removes will hold equally good up to the middle fifth, when A's remove will constitute the upper remove, middle division, and X's the lower remove, middle division.


[page 72]

The average age for reaching the highest Division at Eton appears to be 16 years 4 months; the average time spent in reaching it, 4 years 3 months; the average number of Divisions gone through in reaching it, 9.

Before quitting this subject we may observe that the June promotion takes place in the middle of a school-time, and has an inconvenient tendency to crowd the upper parts of the school for the rest of it. The greatest number of boys leave Eton at the end of the summer half; and it would in many respects be convenient if the removes took place at its close instead of in June. To put off trials till the close of the half would to some extent counteract the temptations to idleness for which the summer is remarkable, and would be a desirable step if it could be so managed as not to interfere with the College elections.

9. Government of the School - The Head Master, his Duties and Emoluments, and his relation to the Provost, and to his Assistants

The general government of the whole School, Upper and Lower, is vested in the Head Master, subject to the control of the Provost. The government of the Lower School, subject to the control of the Provost, belongs to the Lower Master. The discipline and classical instruction of the Upper School were, in 1861, shared by the Head Master with seventeen Assistants; the Lower Master, with four Assistants, having the like charge of the Lower School.

The Head Master is by the Statutes to be a Master of Arts, "if such can be procured conveniently", sufficiently instructed in grammar, and experienced in teaching, unmarried, and not holding ecclesiastical preferment within seven miles of Eton. He is not required to be a clergyman, nor to have been educated at Eton, but practically, he is always both the one and the other. In his case, as in that of the Fellows, the condition of celibacy has become obsolete. He is elected, and may be deprived, by the Provost and Fellows.

The statutory emoluments of the Head Master consisted of a yearly stipend of 24 marks, or £16, (each Fellow receiving £10) with the same commons, livery, and lodging as a Fellow. He actually receives from the College £219 a year, and has a house within the College precincts, which the late Head Master held, and the present holds, rent-free; but this appears to be an indulgence not yet confirmed by usage. Besides this, he receives an annual payment of £6 6s from every boy (King's Scholars excepted), an entrance fee of £5 5s from every boy in the Upper School, and a leaving-present from every boy in the Fifth or Sixth Form, except King's Scholars. His income is liable, however, to certain deductions. He pays a stipend of £50 to the senior Assistant Classical Master, and £44 2s to each of the others; and some other sums for classical and mathematical teaching; about £15 for examinations; and about £350 for prize books. Altogether his gross receipts during the five years ending with 1861 averaged £5,744, his net receipts £4,491. His net receipts for the year 1861 were £4,572 6s.

By the Statutes the Head Master is strictly and absolutely forbidden to exact, ask, or claim anything "quicquam exigere, petere aut vendicare", in any manner from any boy attending the School, or his parents or friends, and is obliged to take an oath to that effect. When the late Head Master was admitted, this oath was not required of him by the then Provost; and Dr. Goodford has taken the same course on admitting his successor. This omission has been justified by the large and questionable interpretation given, as we have already mentioned, to the dispensing clause in the Statutes. The prohibition, however, had for a very long time been practically disregarded; nor could it practically have been maintained otherwise than by limiting the number of the School to so many as could be taught without assistance by the two Statutory Masters.

Besides the general superintendence of the Upper, and to a more limited extent, of the Lower School, and some minor duties, such as "calling absence" and reading prayers to the King's Scholars, the Head Master takes the whole work of the First Division, consisting of from 30 to 34 boys. It is his duty also, at the three annual examinations, called "trials", which together cover the whole Upper School up to the Upper Fifth, to set all the papers, except those in arithmetic and mathematics, and to look over a large portion of the work done. He also assists in the "intermediate examination" of the King's Scholars, and again at the election trials of the King's Scholars. Neither the late nor the present Head Master has complained to us that the labour thus imposed is, on the whole, excessive; but there is no doubt that, whilst the examinations last, it is extremely and inconveniently heavy, and leaves him but little time for superintendence, correspondence, and conferences with his Assistants. There appears to be no reason why, in some of the more important examinations, he should not be relieved by the assistance of competent persons invited for the purpose from the two Universities,


[page 73]

whilst in others a larger share of the work might be assigned to Assistant Masters, particularly to some of the juniors, whose scholarship is fresh and their time not wholly occupied.

Although the Head Master governs the School, he governs it under the control of the Provost. This control is not, like the power of the Governors in most other great Schools, an almost nominal check, it is active, extensive, and minute. No Assistant Master can be appointed, no holiday or half-holiday given, no alteration of the school-hours made, no new school-book, or new edition of a school-book, introduced by the Head Master without the Provost's sanction. This control applies not only to matters of real importance; "it has always been exercised, even in the smallest matters". Such is the account given of it by the Provost and Fellows themselves.

This relation between the Provost and Head Master springs historically from the old position of the latter as a subordinate Officer of the College - "conduetitius et remotivus" - and subject to the control of its head. His statutory position is still the same as it was when the School contained only the 70 Foundation boys, with such few "commensales" and day scholars as could be taught with them by a master and usher. And whilst the number of the Oppidans has gradually increased, the Provost has been constantly resident on the spot, and both Provost and Fellows have been men who, having spent much of their own lives as Masters in the School, were naturally disposed to claim and exert a control over the working of it, and to receive, perhaps, with more or less of reluctance, alterations suggested by their successors which had not been deemed necessary by themselves. Different opinions have been expressed to us on the question whether this control is or is not beneficial to the School. The opinion of the Fellows collectively is strongly in its favour.

We believe this check upon the Head Master to be invaluable, if not necessary to the permanent interests of the school. Though at times it may be thought to impede rather than to facilitate progress; it is calculated on the other hand to prevent ill-digested and inexpedient alterations, and thus to save the school from the danger of being dependent for the time being upon the Head Master alone. Practically, it has been found to maintain a steady course of development and gradual improvement according to the circumstances and requirements of each succeeding age.
Mr. Edward Coleridge, who has been Assistant Master and Lower Master, and is now a Fellow, thinks it "has been for the most part extremely beneficial. With reference to anything that may have been written or said as to the interference of the Provost being a hindrance to reforms of the establishment, I must emphatically deny it from my experience of the school during the many years I worked in it." The present Provost abstains from expressing a decided opinion. He thinks it "useful to a Head Master to have the advice of one who has filled the same office before him"; the question whether interference is advantageous depends, he allows, on the manner in which it is exercised. During his own Head Mastership he "cannot say" that he wished to be free from it. But he "does not see any harm that could result" from setting the Head Master at liberty in all merely school questions, as to the selection of books and the like. The present Head Master, who was an Assistant for 20 years, and afterwards Fellow, thinks it "beneficial on the whole". "I think I may say that in all cases in which suggestions were considered advisable for the school the Provost has consented to those suggestions." He regards it, however, rather as giving to the Head Master a "right to confer" with an experienced person, whose time is not taken up by the details of management. He does not remember any instance in which anything really good was stopped by the Provost. The present Lower Master, Mr. Carter, and most of the Assistant Masters, speak in a different sense. "It may be a question", says Mr. Carter, speaking of his own subordination to the Provost in respect to the Lower School, "whether any such check is necessary, and whether practically it might not be prejudicial to the interests of the school by preventing the application of changes which otherwise might have been imported with advantage." He thinks a modified check would be useful. Mr. Johnson says, "I believe that the Head Master is held by the world, and in particular by the parents of pupils, answerable for the maintenance of customs which he would, if he had full power, abolish, and for the refusal of improvements which he cannot get leave to adopt."

He expresses the same opinion in his oral examination:

4206. (Lord Clarendon) What is your opinion with respect to the present relations between the Provost and the Head Master? - They vary very much according to the disposition of the Provost and his love of interference. The interference of Dr. Hawtrey, when Provost, with the Head Master, was constant.

4207. In what way? - He interfered in such a way that the Head Master was simply crippled in all directions. The late Head Master did not like to press his own opinion in regard to any matter against that of the Provost.


[page 74]

4208. You have heard that there was that sort of interference? - Yes; it acted as a great check. At all events there were several things which he could not get done, because he did not like to ask for them.

4209. Which would have been done by him if he had not been controlled by the Provost? - Yes.

4210. (Sir S. Northcote) You are not speaking of applications which were made and refused? - In some cases they were.

4211. But principally they were cases in which he was unwilling to put himself in the way of making applications? - Yes.

4212. The consciousness that the Provost might refuse his consent had the effect of deterring the Head Master sometimes from asking? - Yes.

Mr. Johnson himself would transfer the control from the Provost to a body composed of the Provost, three or four Fellows, and six or eight of the senior Masters, including the Head Master. Such a body, he thinks, would both exercise it better, and exert it less constantly and minutely. Mr. Birch wishes the Head Master to be independent of the College. Mr. Wayte believes that if the Head Master were practically absolute, like those of Harrow and Rugby, he would be more open to receive suggestions from different quarters, and improvements would from time to time be more freely introduced. Mr. Browning and Mr. Cornish think with Mr. Wayte. All the other Assistant Masters who have given evidence on the subject, except Mr. Durnford, agree in disapproving the present system, though they are not all agreed about the best substitute for it. They appear to desire for the most part that the Head Master should have free scope in questions of detail and in the ordinary administration of the school, but not that he should be absolutely uncontrolled. There is also a pretty general wish that some voice or influence should be definitely assigned to the body of Assistants, or some of its chief members.

The practice, which has been introduced with excellent results at some other schools, of the Head Master assembling his Assistants at short intervals to discuss matters connected with the school, does not exist at Eton. He frequently, we are told, consults individual Assistants, and is always ready to receive suggestions from them; but there are no periodical or general meetings, except those which take place before each schooltime, which last for a few minutes only, and at which only the classical Masters are present. He very rarely confers with them as a body; and it does not appear that, as a body, they are ever requested to express their opinion on projected changes or afforded an opportunity of doing so. "They may and do", says Mr. Stone, "memorialize the Head Master, and their recommendations are considered, but It appears to me that much valuable information is lost to the Head Master from the disinclination of the individual masters to draw out their views on paper, more especially in the press of school time, and merely on the chance of their being adopted. The opportunity of communicating such views orally would be a great boon." It is clear, from many parts of the evidence, that the opinion expressed in this passage is largely shared by the Assistant Masters; and that the want of regular meetings for consultation, and of recognized opportunities for making suggestions and freely discussing them, has worked prejudicially on the relations of the Assistants towards their Head and towards each other, whilst it has probably retarded very much the progress of improvement in the school.

The explanation furnished by Mr. Balston is one which recurs very frequently in the evidence of the Head and Assistant Masters of Eton - the want of time. He thinks, "the secret is that the Head Master, from want of time, is really unable to have consultations."

It may be convenient to mention here a suggestion which has been made to us by Mr. Coleridge. He recommends that the whole Upper School should be parcelled out for general superintendence into a suitable number of great divisions - he suggests four - under a corresponding number of senior Assistants, one of whom might take charge of the Upper and Middle Fifth, another of the Lower Fifth, a third of the Remove, and a fourth of the Fourth Form, and who might together act as a small consultative council under the Head Master. This, he thinks, would give the Head Master a greater hold and a more pervading influence over the School than he has or can have now. It would also, in his opinion, serve another purpose. It would give to the younger Assistants, who are sometimes too young to be safely entrusted with the uncontrolled charge of a division, the aid and supervision of an experienced Master placed immediately over them.

10. System and Course of Study, how composed

The course of study at Eton was until 1851 exclusively classical; it now consists exclusively of Classics and Mathematics. There is a teacher of French attached to


[page 75]

the school, who resides at Eton; there is also a teacher of German, and one of Italian, who do not reside there, and lectures on Natural Science are delivered occasionally to such boys as choose to attend. In these subjects and in Drawing some instruction may be obtained by boys who are willing to give up a part of their play-hours for the purpose, and whose parents are willing to pay for them as extras. But they do not enter into the course of study, and the great mass of boys leave Eton, as will appear hereafter, without having learnt there any one of them.

11. Classical Teaching: (a) How distributed - (b) Classical Work in School and Size of Divisions - (c) Work in Pupil-room, Preparation for School-work and Correction of Exercises - (d) Private Work in Classical Pupil-room - (e) Number of Pupils to each Tutor - (f) General Proportion of Masters to Boys - (g) Other Duties of Classical Assistant Masters - (h) Appointment, Qualification, and Emoluments of Classical Assistant Masters

11. (a) Classical Teaching, how distributed

The teaching of the Classics at Eton divides itself into two branches - teaching in school and teaching out of school or in pupil-room; and the large proportion which the latter bears to the former constitutes the chief peculiarity of the Eton system. The teaching out of school again consists, partly in the preparation of lessons which are to be construed in school, and the correction of exercises which are to be shown up in school; partly in private reading, the choice and direction of which rests wholly with the individual teacher, and which is quite independent of the school-work. Every Assistant Master has a share in this double teaching - in school, as a master in charge of a Division - out of school, as a tutor: and every boy stands in a double relation to his tutor and to the master of his Division, so that, except during the short time which he passes in the School Division of which his tutor has the charge, he has two minds applied to his education at almost every point in his school life. The Head Master takes a Division, but does not act as a tutor.

11. (b) Classical Work in School. Size of Divisions

The work in school consists in construing and in repeating passages learnt by heart from Latin and Greek poets. Including the time spent in showing up compositions previously corrected by the tutor, a boy is in school on an average about two hours and a half on a whole school day; a lesson usually takes from 35 to 50 minutes. The large amount of repetition and of Latin verse composition, and the sameness and narrow range of the reading in Form, are among the chief peculiarities of Eton school-work; we may add, also, the large use of extract-books instead of original authors.

Fifty years ago the boys at Eton were taught, or supposed to be taught, in large masses, and the curriculum through which they were conducted was much narrower than at present. The whole of the Sixth Form with the Upper Fifth - 198 in all - were, under Dr. Keate, heard together. "It was the commonest thing in the world", says Sir J. Coleridge, "for a boy to be a month or six weeks without being called up at all." Mr. Edward Coleridge remembers having been called up twice in a school term. Even in Mr. Walter's time, "boys seldom reckoned upon being called up more than once or twice in the half, and the consequence was that many of them came in without having looked at the lesson at all." Sir J. Coleridge was five years in the Fifth Form, "and during the whole of that time, week after week, the main teaching of the school was Homer, Virgil, and Horace; we never ceased doing Homer, Virgil, and Horace." The number of Masters in the Upper School was, in 1812, only six, and the average number in each Form 80. The average number in a Division does not at present exceed 40; the largest is 48; the smallest (the Head Master's) 32. There is a greater infusion of Attic authors than formerly in the higher Divisions; but Homer, Virgil, and Horace continue to be the staple of the teaching in school, and the cause to which this is chiefly due will be noticed hereafter.

In the year which ended at Midsummer Is61 the books construed in school by the several Divisions were as follows:

I. Greek Testament; the Odyssey (about six books); a play of Æschylus; part of a play of Euripides; seven Idylls of Theocritus; part of a book of Thucydides; two Orations of Demosthenes; two books of Virgil's Georgics; selections from Lucretius; part of Horace; part of a book of Tacitus; portions of Cicero's Letters. The number in this division was 32; the average age 17 years 6 months; the highest 18 years 5 months; the lowest 16 years 6 months.

[page 76]

II. Different quantities of the same books (except Euripides). Number 32; average age 17 years 3 months; highest 18 years 9 months; lowest 15 years 3 months.

III-IX. (Fifth Form Divisions.) Four books of the Iliad; about 60 pages of Extracts from Herodotus and Thucydides; about 20 pages of Theocritus; two books of the Æneid; nearly all the Satires and Epistles of Horace, and some of the Odes; about 70 pages of Livy from an Extract-book. These divisions contained about 300 boys. In the highest of them the average age was 17 years 3 months, the highest 18 years 11 months, the lowest 14 years 8 months; in the lowest of them the average age was 15 years 4 months, the highest 16 years 11 months, and the lowest 13 years 9 months.

X-XIII. (Remove.) Greek Testament; about 1,280 lines of the Poetæ Græci; about 800 of the Scriptores Græci;; about 800 of Cornelius Nepos; about 1,100 of Virgil; about 512 stanzas of Horace. The number of boys was about 160; in the highest division the average age was 15 years 2 months, the highest 17 years 2 months, the lowest 13 years 6 months; in the lowest division the average age was 14 years 1 month, the highest 16 years 7 months, and the lowest 12 years 4 months.

XIV-XVII. (Fourth Form.) Greek Testament; about 432 lines of Farnaby's Epigrams; about 964 of Æsop; about 720 of Ovid's Epistles, and 650 of the Metamorphoses; about 660 of Cæsar. Number of boys about 160; in the highest Division the average age was 14 years 9 months, highest 17 years, lowest 12 years 7 months; in the lowest Division the average was 13 years 11 months, highest 16 years, lowest 11 years 10 months.

A boy read no Greek dramatic poetry in school till he reached the very top of the Fifth Form; he might, and probably did in all cases, read some in pupil-room, but this depended on the taste or judgment of his tutor. The Greek historians and Livy he read only in extract-books.

In the judgment of the present Provost and Head Master the Divisions are now reduced to a convenient size. And it appears to be the general, though not the universal, opinion of the Assistants, that 40 is a perfectly manageable number, and is indeed to be preferred to a smaller, as more easy to keep alive and better calculated to quicken the interest and cull out the powers of the teacher. That it requires some skill in handling appears to be admitted, and that there is some difficulty in making the process of "calling up", and the dread of being called up, a thoroughly effective stimulus, each lesson lasting only three-quarters of an hour; and this is a difficulty to which some of the younger Masters do not appear to be insensible. Mr. Carter, who has explained to us his mode of manipulating his Division, which is, however, in the Lower School, "calls up" 14 or 15 in the school-hour; Mr. James, 6 or 8.

In the Divisions of the Fourth Form and Remove places are taken during the lessons, but not higher, unless the Master of a particular Division should think fit to adopt this course. "Sometimes it is found useful to allow them to take places, sometimes to arrange a first class of the best, but these modes have been less used since the establishment of the system of collections (terminal examinations) in every last week."

11. (e) Work in Pupil-room. Preparation for School-work and Correction of Exercises

Every lesson construed in school before the Division Master is, as a general rule, construed beforehand with the Tutor. This general rule applies only partially to boys in the two highest Divisions, as to whom the Tutor has a discretion, which is variously exercised. The time taken in construing is stated to average from about 20 to 25 minutes a lesson. Some tutors compute it at one-half, others at one-third, of the time which the lesson itself takes in school.

We shall state hereafter the grounds on which this practice is defended, and the objections to which it appears to be open. It is evidently a relic of the previous state of things which has been already described, and which preceded the distribution of the School into Divisions; and it has perpetuated one part of that state of things, for all the Fifth Form Divisions, except the highest, are still but one Division as regards the books on which they are engaged, and the same remark applies to the Divisions of the Fourth Form, and to those of the Remove. It appears to have been preserved chiefly for the sake of protecting the connexion between tutor and pupil, and to be valued chiefly on that account by the tutors, few of whom are willing to abandon it, in spite of the calls it makes upon their time.

Another part of the tutor's duty is to correct his pupils' exercises before they go to the Master in school. To correct in detail is the business of the one, and it takes up


[page 77]

about a fourth of his working hours; to estimate the value of the exercise, and see whether it is treated generally in the way intended, is that of the other. It is evident that both of these duties might be as well performed by one man as by two (provided he would take the necessary pains), and probably at a saving of time and trouble; for whilst some tutors, like Mr. Johnson, may find in the diversity of subjects an agreeable change, others may think, with Mr. E. Coleridge, that it greatly adds to the labour. But there are two advantages in the system of tutorial correction of exercises, one of which is closely connected with the distinguishing merits of the tutorial system. It enables the tutor to form a correct estimate of his pupil's powers and progress, and to compare him, not only with other boys of the same age, but with himself. The master in class, measuring the boy by the standard of his contemporaries, may easily think his exercises good in cases in which his tutor, measuring him by the standard of his own abilities and previous performances, may see reason to think that they are below his powers; while in other cases the converse may take place, and the master in class may unduly underrate efforts which the latter may know to be very creditable to the boy. This is the main advantage of the system; the second and subordinate one is that the double process of correction and revision keeps both the masters who are engaged alive to their work, and insures the irksome labour of correction being performed carefully and punctually. The correction of exercises cannot under this system fall into arrear, as we have reason to believe has sometimes been the case elsewhere. That its value in this respect is great is the opinion even of those who see no advantage in "construing".

11. (d) Private Work in Pupil-room

Beside preparing his pupils for their work in school and correcting their exercises, the tutor has also to do with them what is called "private business". This is simply, as we have said before, a certain quantity of reading, independent of the school-work, on any subject which the tutor may choose. This practice appears to have been introduced by degrees, in order to supplement the scanty and insufficient course of reading to which the boy was confined in school. The school taught him only Homeric Greek; his tutor only prepared him for his work in school; and neither his Master nor his tutor gave him any religious instruction: if his parents desired that he should have any, or that he should learn the language of the Athenian dramatists, orators, philosophers, and historians, or to write iambics and Greek prose, he had to obtain, and pay for, private tuition. As the supplement was evidently necessary, private tuition became a matter of course, and to afford it a regular part of the tutor's duty, the pupil, however, continuing to pay for it as an extra. Ten guineas a year was thus added to the school charges, and about two hours a week to the work. It is as a "private" pupil, strictly speaking, that he receives and pays for this share of his tutor's time; and his parents may decline to pay if they please, and can induce a tutor to take him upon the old terms; but the private business, whether paid for or not, is invariably done. The nature of it depends entirely - now that Attic Greek has to some extent found its way into the school-work - on the tutor's taste and discretion, and upon his judgment of what may be most useful to his pupils. Thus some read almost exclusively Greek plays, some read Modern History, some French.

A tutor divides his pupils for this purpose into classes, and hears them in classes, and a boy is as liable to punishment for neglecting his private business as for neglecting his school work. Thus, to a course of reading in School, which is narrow and incomplete, is superadded another course, which the tutor may make as clastic and discursive as he pleases, which is indeed committed wholly to his discretion, and which only affects the boy's rise in the School by rendering him a better scholar, except that books read in private business and not in School are now sometimes set in "trials". But here again, as in the correction of exercises, the system is calculated to insure the very great advantage of enabling the tutor to measure the pupil's progress throughout his school life, and to supply the amount and kind of instruction, stimulus, and advice as to private reading, which his character renders desirable. If the system of "construing" should be abandoned, the system of "private business" will become doubly important in this respect.

11. (e) Number of Pupils to each Tutor

A parent selects for his son what tutor he pleases, and the number of pupils whom a tutor might take was until lately unlimited. Tutors have been known to have 100 pupils. They used not unfrequently to have 80 or 90. Mr. Balston had at one time 72, and commonly from 50 to 60; and he does not see why a man who understands his work


[page 78]

should not be able t.o manage 50 very well. The present Provost, during his Head Mastership, fixed the maximum at 40; but this limitation has never been applied to tutors who were already at Eton when it was established, from tenderness apparently towards what might possibly be regarded as a vested interest. In 1861 the average number of pupils for each tutor was 37.

11. (f) General Proportion of Classical Masters to Boys

If 40 boys are not too many for a Division, nor 40 pupils too many for a Tutor, the existing proportion of Masters to boys at Eton is sufficient; if the number is too large in either case, this proportion is not sufficient. To increase it would be to diminish the profits of the Classical Assistants, which are chiefly derived from their pupils; but those profits, as will be seen hereafter, are ample; and a man can hardly have a vested interest in taking more pupils than he can properly attend to or than consists with the interests of the school.

It is obvious that on this subject no rule can be laid down which will apply with equal force to schools of unequal size, or unlike in their organization or methods of teaching. The proportion of masters to boys may be less in a large school than it can safely be in a small one, because a large school may be so arranged that a large number of boys in the same stage of proficiency may be classed and taught together by the same master and at the same time, whilst at a small school the groups will necessarily be smaller. The only limit in the first case to the size of a form is the maximum number who can be effectively handled together by one master at the same time. But where a considerable part of the work is private tuition, and where each tutor may have pupils from all parts of the school, the organization, and the advantage derived from the size of the school, pro tanto [to a certain extent] disappear. An Eton Master may more easily take a form of 40 boys in school than a Master at Winchester could: because the 40 at Eton would be more nearly on a level than the 40 at Winchester. But an Eton Master, besides having the charge of his division of (on the average) 40 boys, has likewise the tuition of 40 boys more, unclassified, and of all ages and degrees of advancement. Half of his work is that of a class master in a great public school; the other half of it more nearly resembles that which would be done by the sole master of a small private school. It seems to follow that, with the present arrangement of work, the number of Masters at Eton ought to bear a high rather than a low proportion to that of boys. Compared, however, with other schools, the proportion is, in fact, rather low than high.

An addition to their number is not generally desired by the Classical Assistants, but many of them speak strongly of the heavy amount of their work and its exorbitant demands upon their time. An Eton Master fully employed is said to work 14 hours a day, from which, however, is to be deducted some time for exercise (Mr. Durnford allows himself an hour and a quarter), but very little for meals. Other witnesses compute it at from nine to ten. By common consent the work leaves little, if any, time for society or private reading. Mr. Balston seems to regard this as a positive advantage, as concentrating the Master's whole thoughts and attention on his duties, and he observes justly that these duties involve no severe mental labour, and that the holidays afford regular and ample relaxation. The true question, however, appears to be, not whether the work is unduly hard, but whether there is time to do it as it ought to be done. The general result of the evidence on this point certainly appears to be that a Master has less time at his disposal at Eton than at any other School. There seems to be more of pressure, more constant necessity for despatch. The art of working quickly - and especially that of hearing a lesson quickly - is not, however useful it may sometimes be, among the essential qualities of a good teacher; and, though it may doubtless be acquired by an able man and thorough scholar, there is some risk in requiring it to be learnt by practice.

11. (g) Other Duties of a Classical Assistant Master

Besides the share which, as Master of a Division and as Tutor, a Classical Assistant has to take in the teaching of the School, he has also, in his turn, to attend at chapel and to call the lower boys at absence, to assist in maintaining order and discipline out of school, and to take charge, if required, of a dame's house - a duty for the adequate discharge of which neither the time allotted for his visits nor the power with which he is invested appears quite sufficient.


[page 79]

11. (h) Appointment, Qualifications, and Emoluments of Classical Assistant Masters

The Classical Assistant Masters are appointed by the Head Master, subject to the approval of the Provost, and it is understood that the Head Master has power to remove them, though he would he most unwilling to exercise it, save in a very extreme case. There is no record, we believe, of an Assistant having been actually removed. It has been an invariable, custom to appoint Eton men, and, until within a recent period, men who were Fellows of King's, or had at least been Foundation scholars at Eton. The appointment of oppidan Masters is an innovation which was resisted by a late Provost and introduced with difficulty; and it is still only an exception to the rule. Dr. Goodford states that, of seven Assistants whom he appointed when Head Master, four were King's men, one had been a Colleger but not a King's man, the other two had been oppidans. He would prefer Eton men, but does not think that the choice should be confined to them. He sees no disadvantage in appointing a man educated at Winchester or Harrow, and would appoint one if he could not find an Eton man of equal calibre. "I have said so in public before now. But I should first of all endeavour to find an Eton man to fill the vacancy, and if I could not find an Eton man whom in my conscience I thought fit for the appointment I would seek elsewhere, and would fearlessly appoint an individual to the exclusion of those, whether they were Etonians or not, who were inferior to him." Mr. Balston expresses himself somewhat differently. He thinks the balance of advantage is decidedly in favour of the present system. He is of opinion that Etonians who have been on the Foundation should be preferred to those who have not; and he would not, if we understand him rightly, appoint a non-Etonian. For the existing usage, with its preferences, two reasons are assigned. An Etonian knows the habits of Eton boys and the traditions of the school, which a stranger would have to learn; and the Eton system of discipline and school-government has peculiarities, it is suggested, which are not learnt easily. "It differs", says Mr. Carter, "from most, if not all others, in teaching a boy moral self-control, self-respect, and self-reliance, without self-consciousness, by combining strict discipline with the greatest possible amount of liberty and independence of action; but if other than Eton men were employed as Masters or tutors, men who, however excellent and desirable in other respects, were unacquainted with Eton ways and habits from not having been at the school themselves, it would be necessary to make such alterations of discipline as would greatly tend to change the character, and impair, perhaps, the benefits derived from the school." There is more liberty he thinks at Eton than at other schools, and more than could safely be allowed unless both Masters and boys were thoroughly familiar with those traditions and usages by which the licence it would seem to give is practically controlled. Again, in the case of a boy educated at Eton, the Head Master is able, it is said, to test his fitness for the office by personally watching the growth of his character, whilst of a stranger he can only judge by the University distinctions he has gained. This applies more strongly, it is urged, to the King's scholars, who stay at school longer, and are more likely to be ambitious of a Mastership than the oppidans. Sir J. Coleridge, on the other hand, has published his opinion that the choice should be entirely open, and that the limitation to Etonians is unwise and prejudicial to the school. Mr. Johnson thinks that "nothing can be more delusive than the system of taking old Collegers as such for Assistant Masters. Many of those who come on the ground of their being Etonians, actually know less about the school than other men who have lived there as men for a year or two." "They have lived so entirely among the Collegers that they know very little indeed of the school generally. Some of the young men who are now Masters at Eton were only in the school about four years, during which time they were entirely engaged in their studies, and took little or no part in the games of the school. Being Scholars of the College they knew very little of the social life of the school." It would be a positive advantage, in his opinion, to have among the Masters men who had had experience of the tone and habits of other great public schools; he sees no reason why the principle of free selection should not apply to the Head Master himself. The Mathematical Assistants, who are not, generally speaking, Eton men, do not appear to find any difficulty in acquainting themselves within a short time with the system and habits of the place, and do not feel that they are practically at any disadvantage on this account. A consequence of appointing Cambridge men almost exclusively is pointed out by Mr. Walford. He says:

I think it a disadvantage resulting from the overwhelming preponderance of Cambridge men among the Masters, that, while our best efforts are very properly directly towards imparting an accurate critical knowledge of the languages, we neglect to a very great extent what may be called the Oxford element in education, viz., the careful analysis of the argument and the digesting thoroughly the subject-matter of the books we read.

[page 80]

Every Classical Assistant Master is paid, as such, 42 guineas a year by the Head Master, and this petty payment is supposed to remunerate his work in school. As Tutor, he receives £10 10s from each pupil, and £21 from each private pupil who does not board in his house, a distinction which, as has been already stated, is now almost obsolete. If he has a boarding house, he receives £120 from each boy in it, the payment for board being blended in one sum with that for tuition. The sum paid for tuition seems to have been formerly 8 and then 10 guineas. How private business was introduced we have already seen; and it is now assumed in practice - and very justly assumed - that without private business the teaching of the school would be incomplete while the present system and method of teaching in Form are retained. It would seem to follow, either that every boy should pay 10 guineas, or that every boy should pay 20; the former, if it would fairly remunerate the tutor, if not, the latter. The tutor, in fact, expects 20 guineas, and ordinarily receives it; but he is not entitled to demand more than 10, though he may, perhaps, protect himself by refusing to take a boy otherwise than as a "private" pupil. Some parents of boys in dames' houses do, in fact, decline to pay the larger sum, narrow circumstances being supposed or assumed to be the excuse - a practice which, although originating undoubtedly in the liberal feelings of the tutors, yet appears objectionable as establishing different rates of charge for the same education. The payment for a King's scholar is always 10 guineas, and to him the tutor cannot refuse to give private business, as he might to another boy who did not pay as a private pupil; the King's scholars are therefore distributed among the tutors by private arrangement.

In July 1862, the total number of oppidan pupils not paying for private tuition was 64.

The income of an Assistant Master depends, it will have been seen, until he gets a house, upon the number of pupils he can obtain; and when he is in possession of a house, on his success in filling it. For his first year or two therefore he may have little or nothing to live upon beside his private means. For his work in school as the master of a Division he gets a mere nominal sum; his pupils and his house, if he has one, constitute his whole means of support. In the opinion of some witnesses, this has a bad effect, by causing him to look upon his work in school as of secondary importance compared to his work in pupil-room. Mr. Johnson attributes in part to this cause the decline of learning among the oppidans. He recommends that the stipends should be increased. Mr. James, makes a similar suggestion, and proposes a plan by which it could be done without increasing on the whole either the receipts of the Assistant Masters, or the payments made for the boys. Mr. Carter, on the other hand, approves the present system, on the ground that, by making a man's income dependent on his work, it supplies a stimulus which would be wanting if each Master had a fixed income. His experience is, "that a tutor's success in filling his house from which his chief income is drawn, depends in many cases entirely, in all very much, on the character he gains from his school-work."

The expense of boarding at a Classical Assistant Master's is, it will be seen hereafter, considerably greater than that of boarding at a Dame's, or with a Mathematical Assistant, and the Master's profit proportionately greater. The additional charge is, in the opinion of the Provost, "an indirect payment, not for any service of any kind rendered to the School, but for the additional time and care which it enables the tutor to bestow upon the boy, for the advantage which the latter derives from coming more constantly in contact with his tutor in his room, at meal times, &c., and from the more domestic and friendly relation which naturally thus springs up between them."

The Lower Master, on the contrary, thinks the whole profit of a boarding house "unquestionably an indirect payment for other services rendered to the School, and that it is well that it should be so." "The School", says Mr. James, "secures the services of the Assistant Masters for a nominal sum, by allowing them to make a good income, if they can, by taking pupils and keeping a boarding house." "The whole mass of income is a remuneration for the whole mass of work." The Assistant Masters generally appear to take the same view; they hold that the payment for board is inseparable from the payment for tuition; and that both together form a principal part of their receipts as Assistant Masters.

The time within which a Classical Assistant may get a boarding house is, of course, uncertain, but it appears seldom to exceed two or three years. Five years is said to be about the time usually spent before a man is in receipt of the full profits of the appointment. The number of boarders for whom payment may be received is limited to 30 (or, including two pairs of brothers, 32), but this rule does not appear to be universally known or strictly enforced. Taking the actual cost of boarding to be £70 for each boy, the income of a Classical Assistant having 32 boarders and eight other pupils,


[page 81]

four of them paying 20 guineas and the rest 10, is computed to amount (leaving-fees included) to £1,845, while his house is full. Taking the cost at £75 (the estimate formed as the present Head Master states, by the Income Tax Commissioners) it would be £1,685.

The Fellowships, as we have already stated, have for many years been virtually appropriated to the Classical Assistants, and it is computed that about one Assistant in four gets a Fellowship after a service generally of 20 or 25 years. Sometimes they have been obtained early in life. We are informed that a Fellowship, valuable as it is, has not been an object of much competition, and that able men have for the most part been unwilling to exchange for it the still more lucrative position of a successful Assistant Master. These statements, however, refer to a period during the greater part of which the number of Masters was considerably less than it is at present.

12. Mathematical Teaching: (a) Its Introduction into the School; past and present Status of Mathematical Masters, and their Emoluments - (b) Arrangement of the School for Mathematics, and Time given to them - (c) Private Tuition in Mathematics - (d) Condition of this Branch of Study

12. (a) Introduction of Mathematics into the School; Status and Emoluments of Mathematical Masters

Before the year 1836 there appears to have been no mathematical teaching of any kind at Eton, There was a titular teacher of writing, arithmetic, and mathematics, who had been originally styled teacher of writing and arithmetic only. "I have heard it reported", says Mr. S. Hawtrey, "that he went away for a little while and came back as mathematical master." He does not appear, however, after this accession of dignity, to have taught, or been competent to teach, anything but writing and arithmetic, and he was an old man when Mr. Hawtrey came to Eton. Mr. Hawtrey, who had lately graduated as eleventh wrangler [a third-year undergraduate gaining first-class honours] at Cambridge, received permission to give mathematical instruction as an extra to those boys whose parents wished them to learn; but, "in order not to trench on the interests of Mr. Hexter", the only boys permitted to learn of Mr. Hawtrey were those in the Head Master's division, which contained about 30, or any others who had obtained a certificate from Mr. Hexter that they had attended his class and were competent to attend Mr. Hawtrey. Mr. Girdlestone, an Etonian and a scholar of Trinity, Cambridge, had previously enjoyed the same privilege, on the same terms, but had relinquished it at the end of a year; and it had since been offered to another Etonian in vain. This arrangement did not prove satisfactory. "I think", Mr. Hawtrey says, "there was a great cry among parents who objected to their boys not being allowed to come to me at once without going to Mr. Hexter"; some of the tutors were of the same opinion; and after about three years Mr. Hawtrey was allowed by the authorities of the College to disembarrass himself and the school of Mr. Hexter, by undertaking to pay him a pension of £200 a year. A deed to this effect was executed, with the concurrence of the Provost and Fellows, by the two contracting parties, and Mr. Hexter resigned.

By virtue of this transaction, Mr. Hawtrey succeeded to the office of Mr. Hexter, and was at liberty to take mathematical pupils from any part of the school; he was not, however, an Assistant Master, but held a position analogous to that now occupied by the French master. Nor was he provided with any place to teach in, the room which his predecessor had used as a writing school being wanted and taken for one of the classical Divisions. Mr. Hawtrey therefore built, at considerable cost to himself, a mathematical school, which appeared to us admirably adapted for the purpose, on ground leased to him by the College for 40 years, with an understanding that the lease should be renewed without a fine for 14 more. Mr. Hawtrey states that he has applied for a renewal, but that his application has remained unnoticed for four years - an omission due, we presume, to accident or inadvertence. He also procured by degrees several assistants.

In 1851 mathematics were for the first time incorporated into the regular work of the school, and Mr. Hawtrey was made Mathematical Assistant Master, which placed him on the same level as the Classical Assistants. His own assistants, however, did not share his elevation; they became, or remained, only "Assistants in the Mathematical school", which position they still occupy. The distinction is by no means a merely nominal one; they had not a share, as every Assistant Muster has, in the right and duty of maintaining discipline out of school; they were not allowed to wear the academical dress, and could not send in complaints to the Head Master, unless previously signed by Mr. Hawtrey. The distinction itself still exists; the Assistants in the Mathematical school are not even now "Assistant Masters", though some petty but annoying external marks of difference have been swept away. They may wear gowns, a concession which Dr. Hawtrey, when Head Master, could not obtain for them from Provost Hodgson; they are even permitted, by a change made in the beginning of 1861, to wear them in chapel. But they


[page 82]

have no authority out of school, and therefore "are not felt to be real Masters by the boys". They do not meet the Head Master at "chambers", and are not, like the Classical Assistants, summoned by him to rare but occasional conferences. They have to wait much longer for boarding houses, are excluded from all but the inferior ones, and are only allowed to charge at the same rate as the "dames"; they cannot of course be "tutors"; and as religious instruction belongs to the tutor, a Mathematical Assistant, who may be in Holy Orders, cannot undertake any part of the religious teaching of the boys in his house without invading the province of a Classical Master, who is perhaps a young layman fresh from College. Their income, as will hereafter appear, is slender, and chiefly derived from private pupils. "It is barely sufficient", says the Provost, "with pupils. Of itself it would not be sufficient."

A striking contrast between the prospects which Eton offers to a distinguished classic, and those which she holds out to one who has achieved equal or greater success in mathematics, is drawn by Mr. Johnson.

That this contrast is keenly felt by the Mathematical Assistants themselves, we have ample evidence; we have been told that drawbacks so sensible have caused many to resign the office, and there appears to be no doubt that they have deterred many from accepting it. That it should tend to lower not only the Mathematical Masters, but the study of mathematics, in the estimation of the boys, seems to us inevitable. Mr. Balston thinks otherwise, but that it actually has that effect is proved by much concurrent testimony. The younger Classical Masters are generally desirous that it should be removed. The present Provost himself thinks it disadvantageous; and we believe that under his Head Mastership it was considerably diminished; but we were unable to discover that Mr. Balston's influence was likely to be exerted in the same direction.

Mr. Balston urges that the Mathematical Master must necessarily stand less high in the estimation of the boys than the classical, because he does less work with them; a view which, if just, would afford no reason why this false estimate, which should rather be corrected, if possible, by every suitable means, should be strengthened by artificial distinctions. Dr. Goodford's argument that the Mathematical Assistants were not chosen with a view to their taking part in discipline, and are not perfectly qualified for it, appears, on further inquiring into his meaning, to resolve itself in a great measure into the objection that the large majority of them are not Etonians. That in character, education, and attainments, as well as birth and social rank, they are perfectly equal to the Classical Masters, is not disputed: thus, while, according to Mr. Johnson, Etonians will not accept a position which they know to be one of inferiority, according to the Provost the position must continue to be an inferior one, because it is not filled by Etonians. It is evident that the suggested difficulty, if it exists at all, is due entirely to one cause. It never would have arisen if this important study, instead of being suffered to work its way by a gradual series of concessions, had been at the first regularly incorporated into the school-work, and placed on what is now acknowledged to be its proper level.

The emoluments of the Mathematical Assistants are derived partly from the payment of four guineas made by every boy in the school, partly from private tuition, partly from the profits of boarding. When mathematics were introduced into the school-work, it was considered necessary to make an extra charge for them. Mr. Hawtrey suggested six guineas, but the Provost and Fellows preferred four, leaving the Assistants at liberty to eke out their incomes by taking private pupils. Of the mathematical fee fund, increased by a payment of £150 per annum made by the College for the instruction of the 70 King's. Scholars, the Mathematical Assistant Master, Mr. S. Hawtrey, who has certain charges to provide for, receives eleven-twentieths; the remaining nine-twentieths are divided in different proportions among six of the seven Assistants. A yearly sum of £123 is also paid by the Head Master and the Mathematical Assistant Master for the seventh.

The total sum available in 1860 for the seven Assistants was as follows:

*The profit on £120, the payment for board and tuition at a Classical Assistant's, being taken at £45, the profit on £84, the payment for board at a Mathematical Assistant's, would be £9. It would probably, however, be less than this, because tho cost per head is greater in a small house.


[page 83]

We are informed that an Assistant Master with a family can hardly live at Eton under £800 a year. Whether this be so or not, it is evident that the Mathematical Assistants, with no prospects and no provision but such as we have described; are at an extraordinary disadvantage compared with the Classical Masters, and that they could not be supported at all unless a large number of boys were considered, or considered themselves, to require extra tuition. It will be observed that during the same year there were in boarding houses occupied by Classical Masters 426 boys, at an average profit (on board alone, exclusive of tuition) of not less than £24.

12. (b) Arrangement of the School for Mathematics, and Time given to them

The time given to mathematical teaching at Eton is three hours a week throughout the school, besides an exercise (called by the boys "extra work") between each lesson. These three additional school hours were added in 1851, by diminishing the number of weekly half-holidays, and doing away with whole holidays. In the "trials", or examinations for removes, the highest marks in mathematics are allowed one-fifth of the value assigned to the highest marks in classics. The Mathematical classes are not exactly coincident with the classical divisions, but are not independent of them. The boys go to the Mathematical school in groups; above the remove each pair of divisions in succession constitutes a distinct group; all the boys in the Remove form a group by themselves, and all the boys in the Fourth Form. In the Mathematical school the boys in each group are classified according to their mathematical proficiency, and in the highest four groups the average number in a class does not exceed 12; in the two others it is about 21. A consequence of this system is, that a boy's advance in the Mathematical school is regulated on the whole, though not exactly regulated, by his advance in the Classical school, and that a good mathematician may be kept, during most of his time at school, in Mathematical classes much inferior to him, unless he happens also to be a good classic. A boy in the fourth classical Division may be ranked in the Mathematical school above all the boys in the third; but he must remain behind all those in the second, though they may be worse mathematicians than he. He is tied to his group, and cannot advance beyond the length of his tether.

The mathematical reading of an average boy extends to the first part of Colenso's Algebra and four books of Euclid. A "fair number" read trigonometry; a few advance to conic sections, and fewer to analytical geometry, which is the highest point. Mr. Hawtrey has never taken a boy into the Differential Calculus. Euclid and algebra are begun in the Fifth Form, and the rule is, says Mr. Hawtrey, that a boy does not get into the Fifth until he has a "fair" knowledge of arithmetic, including the rule of three and its applications, fractions, and decimals. Mr. Hawtrey has minutely described to us his system of marks, which is very careful and elaborate.

12. (c) Private Tuition in Mathematics

Besides the regular work in the Mathematical school, the Mathematical Assistants are allowed to give private tuition to boys whose parents desire it, at an extra charge of 10 guineas a year. For this the pupil gets three additional hours a week, which are taken out of his play-time. Mr. Hawtrey states that he at first objected to this arrangement, but that he is now satisfied with the working of it. It is useful, he thinks, in cases of exceptional ability, and of exceptional backwardness, whether due to incapacity, want of preparation, delicate health, or accident. During the whole of the year 1860 there appear to have been upwards of a hundred boys receiving "extra mathematics" - Mr. O'Neill computes the number at 130. This is a large proportion of exceptional cases. From the fact that the Tomline prize, which is the chief distinction of the Mathematical school, has never yet been gained by a boy who had had private mathematical tuition, it may perhaps be inferred that its value, if it has any, does not lie in bringing forward special talent. Messrs. Brandreth and Rouse, Assistants in the Mathematical school, think that those who have it not are at no disadvantage with respect to their studies.

There are few cases in which the work done exceeds what the boys are able to do with the teaching given in school. The boys who do best are those who work hard for themselves in their own rooms; they value more, and make better use of their time, when it is taken from their own pursuits and amusements than when it is taken from the time which they must necessarily spend in pupil-room. Unless these extra mathematics are made entirely independent of the schoolwork, it amounts to forcing some boys to spend more time over their work than others, or to do with help exercises which can be done, and are done, by other boys without help. If one of two boys works hard in his own rooms to get his work over, even if he spends the time thus saved in playing football in the passages, he is being better educated than the extra mathematician who sits in pupil-room half trying and waiting to be helped to do what other boys, no way

[page 84]

his superiors, manage to do by themselves. If two men are engaged to teach a boy the same thing at the same time, without concert, the work will no doubt be done; but they probably leave very little room for his own exertion.
12. (d) Condition of this Branch of Study

The Mathematical Teachers at Eton appear to be able and assiduous, and, on the whole, to be tolerably satisfied with the progress made by the boys; but they feel that their own branch of study is depreciated and injured by the position assigned to it and to themselves in the school. The boys are encouraged, they with truth believe, to consider it of secondary importance, by seeing that it is so regarded by the authorities. The authority which the Mathematical Assistant has in school suffers from his having none out of school; his arrangements with his pupils must be made subservient to those of the Classical Tutor, and the interruptions which arise from this cause are detrimental to steady progress.

They are aware that so long as every boy must have a Classical Tutor, so long as the number of each tutor's pupils is limited and a boarder is more profitable than an outdoor pupil, and so long as the dames are allowed to compete for boarders, it would be difficult for a Mathematical Assistant to fill a large house. But this would be obviated, Mr. Hale suggests, by allowing the Mathematical Assistant himself to hold the relation of tutor to any boys whose parents desired it, and to whom mathematics were more important than classics, a change which he advocates on other grounds.

13. History and Geography

History and geography, ancient and modern, are taught only in the Divisions below the Fifth Form. Each Master in the Fourth Form and Remove chooses for his Division what book and what portion of history he thinks fit, and afterwards reports what he has set to the Head Master. The elements of Modern History are regularly taught in the Lower School. In the lower part of the Upper School the subject is changed from Modern History to Ancient, and although lessons are set commonly in the Fourth Form and more rarely in the Remove, yet so soon as these Forms are past, all direct instruction ceases, and boys are left to the inducements supplied by examinations at collections, and the opportunities given by holiday tasks, to continue and extend their reading. In the two highest Divisions of the school essays are occasionally set on historical subjects. On the whole, therefore, the subject, though not neglected, is neither regularly taught nor strongly encouraged. Nor during the four years that a boy commonly spends in the Fifth is he taught or questioned in geography at all, "except where one or two names occur in the lesson which is being read". The consequence is, that the boys forget what they have learnt in the lower Forms. "I do not think", says Dr. Goodford, that "department is as efficient as it ought to be. I should very much like to put on an extra school-time for it." The Assistant Masters generally agree in thinking the system defective in this respect, and in desiring the introduction of some regular teaching of history and geography.

14. Modern Languages

Mr. Tarver, the single teacher of French at Eton, though himself born in England, is the son of a French gentleman who held the same office before him. He has had temporary assistants for short periods, chiefly in the summer, not because his pupils increase in the summer, but because they all come to him at once. Their French lessons are taken out of their hours of play, and in summer there is but a small part of the day which they are willing to surrender. Twice, however, he has had an assistant from a different reason; on the first occasion it was "enforced" by the then Head Master, Dr. Hawtrey, in order to provide for an Italian teacher who had no pupils, and appears to have been neither a successful nor a competent instructor in French; on the second, "it was represented to him by some of the authorities that he ought to be assisted, owing no doubt to the sort of appeal the public had made to Eton in various newspapers", and he called in a French Protestant gentleman, who "happened to be in the neighbourhood", but did not retain him long. Mr. Tarver himself has no recognized position in the school, other than that of "a person holding the privilege to teach French", and describes himself - not untruly, as it seems - as "a mere objet de luxe". He receives 10 guineas a year from each pupil, and gives each two or three hours a week. He reckons his average attendance, which is mostly from the Fifth Form, at 80, or about one-tenth of the school. In July 1862 he had 75, and he has had as many as 130. Whilst the number who learn is small, the teacher is embarrassed by obstacles which, from no fault


[page 85]

of his, largely frustrate his efforts to teach. The study of French is comparatively useless, if not steadily kept up. Being optional at Eton, it is not pursued continuously, but by fits and starts; it is taken up and dropped irregularly; and as it involves an extra expense to the parents, and to the boy a sacrifice of some hours of play, we are not surprised to find that the attendance is often greatly reduced by the most trivial reasons. A boy frequently begins in one school-time, and does not return the next. Being excluded from the school-work, it wants almost entirely the indispensable stimulus of reward and punishment. The prize for modern languages given by the late Prince Consort attracts generally a fair number of competitors; but it is worthy of observation that many of these competitors, about half of those honourably distinguished, and some of those actually successful in the competition, had not attended the French Master. French is not required, nor under the present Head Master allowed, to assist a boy's rise in the school.

Dr. Goodford, acting, as he told me, upon the request of many persons to introduce it somehow into the work, allowed boys, on being examined in fifth form trials, to take up a French paper, if they liked. This used to get a few boys the benefit of some extra marks. The present Head Master has discontinued the practice.
If a boy neglects his work, or fails to attend, Mr. Tarver's only remedy is to complain either to the Head Master or to the tutor. But the present Head Master "does not appear to like to interfere". "Reports to him are unavailing". Mr. Tarver states that the second time he had occasion to complain to him, he was told that he had better find out whether the boy had any excuse for non-attendance - a thing impossible for him to do until it was too late to call the defaulter to account. If he appeals to the tutors, they either take no notice of it, or content themselves with pinning up his report on the pupil-room wall. That the boys should consider the study as of little importance in the eyes of the Head Master, and attention to it hardly a duty at all - that they should be "unscrupulous in shirking their lessons", and regard anything as a sufficient excuse for missing them, are natural consequences of such a state of things as Mr. Tarver describes; and he reasonably considers the general scale of proficiency in French at Eton, and the mode in which French can be taught there, "very unsatisfactory indeed". He sees no reason why it should not be compulsory, and thinks that three years would be enough, with proper discipline and regulations, to enable any boy to read a French book.

The opinion of the present Head Master on this subject was expressed very distinctly in his examination:

(Lord Clarendon) Would it not be considered necessary by the authorities of Eton to render obligatory a thing which they think ought to be part of an English gentleman's education? - I should not.

3527. You would not consider it necessary to devote any part of the school time to its acquisition? - No, not a day.

3528. You do not intend to do so? - No.

3529. Do you not think that it is a matter which a boy should be required to learn? - He ought to learn French before he came to Eton, and we could take measures to keep it up as we keep up English.

3530. What measures would you take to keep up French, and I may also add, what measures do you now take to keep up English at Eton? - There are none at present, except through the ancient languages.

3531. You can scarcely learn English reading and writing through Thucydides? - No.

3532. (Sir S. Northcote) You do not think it is satisfactory? - No, the English teaching is not satisfactory, and, as a question of precedence, I would have English taught before French.

3533. You do not consider that English is taught at present? - No.

To the inquiry what measures he would adopt for keeping up French in the case of a boy who had learnt it, Mr. Balston was "not prepared" to give an answer; but he subsequently explained that he had no objection to the language being taught and made compulsory in certain parts of the school - below the Remove and after reaching the upper division of the Fifth Form - though he would think it necessary to exclude it during the whole intermediate period. The interval between these two points comprises at present nine or ten school divisions and 370 boys, and appears to cover about three years out of the four and a half during which a boy commonly stays at school. Mr. Balston's objection appears to be, that the teaching of the classics at Eton is not so satisfactory that any time could safely be subtracted from it for other studies. Mr. Coleridge thinks it impossible to teach French in class. Of the Assistant Masters, the majority feel that the want of effective French teaching is a great defect, and that, if there are difficulties in the way of introducing it, they are difficulties which may be, and ought to be, removed. Several of them have expressed the opinion that it would be


[page 86]

best to entrust the grammatical teaching of the language to the Division Masters themselves, with the assistance of one or two educated Frenchmen to instruct the more advanced scholars. It is admitted that this could not be done at present; but they believe that it would be practicable in a very short time. It has been suggested also that the study of French might conveniently be combined with that of modern history.

The number of boys who learnt German in 1860 was from 20 to 25. Three learnt Italian. The teacher of Italian, Signor Volpe, has addressed a letter to us representing the little encouragement given to the study of that language, and urging the appointment of a resident Italian Master.

15. Natural Science

"Physical science is not taught." Lectures are delivered, however, once a week during the two winter school-times by men of eminence on scientific subjects. The attendance is purely voluntary, and there is a small payment, which defrays the lecturer's charges and incidental expenses. We are told that about 100 attend. At the end of each lecture some questions are proposed, to which those who are disposed to do so prepare written answers, for the best of which a prize is given; and at the end of the course questions are again proposed, to be answered from recollection. A list of the subjects has been furnished to us; they appear not to have been arranged in systematic courses, but to have covered a pretty extensive range, and embraced such portions of natural and experimental philosophy as were thought likely to be interesting to boys. Mr. Hawtrey, judging from his own observation, expresses his opinion that these lectures have been useful in imparting information and awakening an interest in scientific subjects.

16. Music

Music is not taught in the school. Some of the boys take private lessons, chiefly in instrumental music; and two of the tutors have private musical classes. An attempt to form a class on a larger scale, under Mr. Hullah, broke down a few years ago. The boys "got tired of it". Mr. S. Hawtrey has been for a long time desirous of introducing a music lesson into the arithmetic and writing lessons of the lower school, asking only an extra quarter of an hour for the purpose, but has not been able to induce Mr. Carter's predecessors or himself to give the necessary permission.

17. Drawing

There is a good Drawing Master, and a room fitted up with models and examples, and open for four hours a day. The average number of learners has been about 35 - a small proportion, even when compared with the number learning at Harrow and some other schools. It was 47 during the last six months of 1860. The instruction given is in artistic, not elementary drawing. Practical geometry and military plan drawing are taught in the Mathematical school to anyone who wishes to learn, but Mr. Hawtrey states that the demand has fallen off since the latter ceased to be required in examinations for direct commissions.

18. Deviations from Regular Course of Classical Study, in what Cases, if any, allowable

Except in the case which we are about to mention, no deviation appears to have been permitted at Eton from the regular routine of work in school and pupil-room on the ground of differences of bent or capacity, or the special requirements of a future profession.

An "Army Class" was established in 1856. Boys whose parents desired it were permitted, with their tutor's consent, to attend a separate class under one of the Remove Masters for instruction in geography and history twice a week, and to substitute three additional mathematical lessons during the week for three classical lessons. This plan was at first intended to apply only to the Fifth Form, but lower boys were afterwards allowed to join the class. The working of it appears to have been unsatisfactory; boys who attended the class - most of them very young - were generally among the idlest in the school, and lost what interest they had previously taken in the regular work; and a remonstrance was ultimately presented to the Head Master by about two-thirds of the Assistants, which led to a regulation that no boy should join who was not in the Fifth and above 16, or who did not intend to remain at Eton until he went up for his examination; and that no boy attending it should be excused any of the regular school exercises, nor attend the Mathematical school at times when his division were doing classical lessons. This change appears to have effectually cured the evil


[page 87]

complained of; but the class has ever since been very small, numbering three boys at most, and sometimes none. The universal opinion among the Masters is, that no such special preparation is necessary to enable a boy of moderate powers and moderate application to pass the examination for direct commissions, framed as that examination is with a view to the ordinary teaching of Public Schools. Some witnesses, however, think that there are cases in which a particular mental bias, or the necessity of preparing for some profession, might usefully be admitted, under proper regulations, to justify a certain amount of deviation. Mr. Birch is of opinion that less original composition might be required from boys whom a three years' trial had proved unable to succeed in it, and more French and history given in its place. Mr. Hale's experience has convinced him that there are good mathematicians who can only get through their verses and themes by means of the most heavy labour to them and their tutors, and he suggests that such boys might be excused themes and verses, and required to give the time so saved to English; additional mathematics, and modern languages; and he would allow in such cases a paper in the higher branches of mathematics to be set instead of composition in the examinations. This would meet, he thinks, the case of boys intending to try for the scientific branches of the army, or for the Indian Civil Service. Mr. Coleridge has suggested a wider scheme, of which an outline is given in his evidence. He sees no difficulty, with a little additional machinery, in establishing at Eton as many different lines of special preparation, starting at certain ages, as would train boys sufficiently for every department of the Army, for the Navy, the Diplomatic Service, and the Civil and Military Services of India. He would retain throughout some classical teaching, but no composition, except prose translations from and into Latin and Greek. He believes that this could be done without any injury to Eton as a school, and with great advantage to the public service.

19. General Arrangement and Employment of Time assigned to Study. School Books

The general difficulty which to the Head Master and some of his colleagues appears to forbid any extension of the school-work beyond Latin, Greek, arithmetic, and mathematics is want of time. This raises the question whether the time of masters and boys at Eton is now arranged and employed in the best way. For the Remove and nearly the whole of the Fifth Form in a regular week there are three whole-school-days, and on each whole-school-day four school-times, lasting about three-quarters of an hour each - in the whole about three hours. On Tuesday and Saturday there are two school-times, both in the morning - an hour and a half altogether. On Thursday there are three school-times, or about two hours and a quarter. The number of hours in a regular week during which the boys are in school is therefore between fourteen and fifteen. Besides this, they have their work in pupil-room, and so much as is necessary for the preparation of lessons and exercises. But the great number of occasional holidays make a regular week a very rare thing; we were told that in one particular school-term there was not one regular week. Every Saint's day is a holiday, and the eve of every Saint's day a half-holiday; and half-holidays are granted also on many other occasions, such as a birth in the family of a Fellow, the appointment of an Etonian to an office of distinction, and the like. But as a holiday does not excuse the boys from any part of their composition, the consequence is that the work of two days has very often to be crowded into one, and that it can seldom be exactly known beforehand what the distribution of the week will be. This irregularity, in a school where the temptations to idleness are so great as at Eton, can hardly be favourable to steady industry; and it must evidently aggravate very much (as in fact it does) the difficulty which the mathematical tutors find in making their arrangements with the classical tutors. There appears to be a general feeling that the time-table needs some revision, though Mr. Balston sees advantages in its irregularities, and Mr. Johnson is not able to assure us that the Assistant Masters agree with him in thinking that there should be fewer half-holidays or more school hours. Mr. Johnson's own words are:

I particularly desire and earnestly advise the complete reconstruction of our time-table, with a view to greater regularity, and to the increase of the number of school-hours, particularly in the summer months.
The question whether the time which is considered to be given to work is employed in the most profitable way, is one which could not be thoroughly answered without travelling through all the details of the work in school and pupil-room. We shall advert here only to some points prominently raised by the evidence. The preparatory construings, which belong to this part of the subject, have been mentioned already, and the great proportion which Homeric bears to Attic Greek.


[page 88]

The quantity of Latin and Greek poetry learnt by heart is, as has been already stated, very large. Speaking generally, every such lesson, which is construed, is also learnt by heart. A boy has to say 80 lines of Homer and 60 lines of some other author, alternately, five days in the week. Mr. Balston sets a high value on this exercise of memory as an unfailing test of industry, and "a thing which they cannot get done for them at any rate." Granting this, as well as the great advantage both of "recitation" (properly so called) and of storing the memory from the classics, the question would still remain, whether the suggested purpose requires, or is best answered by, the repetition of 300 or 400 Latin and Greek verses, and those only, in every week. We have reason, however, to think that, even as a test of industry, it is sometimes deceptive, that the manner in which the repetition is heard by no means ensures its being learnt, and that the quantity exacted has very often the effect of making the exercise of memory mechanical and slovenly, and therefore worse than useless. When Mr. Walter was at school "a quick boy learned the half dozen lines or so that he thought he was likely to be called up to say, and got off in that way." He believes that there has been a great improvement in this respect, but his impression is hardly borne out by a witness whose experience is very recent:

7467. (Mr. Vaughan) Do you know how many lines a week the Latin and Greek repetition would amount to at the top of the School, say, high in the Fifth Form? - I should think between two and three hundred lines.

7468. Could that be easily shirked by a boy? - Boys have very seldom learnt it. They have got a way of guessing the piece they are likely to have.

7469. Are they called up in order? - Yes.

7470. So that they could get piping hot four or five lines, and be ready with it at the proper moment? - Yes.

7471. Do you think that the repetition set to the boys to learn told really and effectively upon the composition by giving taste and facility? - I do not think it did.

7472. (Mr. Twisleton) That could be frustrated if the Masters were in the habit of setting on boys out of order and dodging them? - Yes, if they did not go straight through the lessons.

"7473. (Mr. Thompson) A Master would be very unpopular who interfered with that routine, would he not? - He would, decidedly.

Many of the Assistant Masters are of opinion that the quantity of repetition might advantageously be diminished.

A Latin theme is done every week in the Fifth Form and Remove, translations into Latin prose very rarely. Besides the sameness of this work, wearisome to tutor and pupil, the objections which obviously exist to the weekly recurrence, year after year, of an exercise which tempts a boy to repeat continually the same phrases, and therefore the same ideas, instead of compelling him to grapple with the difficulty of throwing given ideas and turns of expression into Latin, seem to be felt by some of the Assistant Masters. The want of practice in translation is undoubtedly felt by Eton men at the universities; it should be added, however, that the same want appears, in different degrees, to be experienced by men educated at most of the other public schools.

There is little or no Greek prose, and no English writing, prose, or poetry, except two essays in a year for the Sixth Form.

It is the practice at Eton to use school books compiled and published specially for the school, and with the imprimatur of the College. When a new edition has been wanted, the revision of the book has been undertaken commonly by one or another of the Assistant Masters. No new book, and no new edition of a book, can be used in the school without the sanction of the Provost. It seems to be an unavoidable consequence of this system that the Provost should sometimes feel bound to regard two interests, not necessarily coincident - the interest of the school using the book on the one side, and that of those deriving pecuniary benefit from the sale of it on the other, and that the change of a book or edition should be often interfered with by considerations which would not arise if a different course were adopted. Such cases, it appears, are not wholly unknown. A fact mentioned by Mr. James shows that the market value at least of the Eton school books has deteriorated:

With reference to the present condition of the books used in the school, I consider this statement, which I had from the publisher a short time ago, very important; that whereas, some twenty years ago, the wholesale part of his business was by far the most valuable branch, it has been gradually declining since that time, and is now of very little value compared with the retail business; our school books, which were at one time the best that could be procured, no longer commanding much sale elsewhere.
The system itself and several of the books now in use are considered unsatisfactory by the Assistant Masters; and an attempt at amendment has been made, of which Mr. James gives the following account:


[page 89]

Several, I believe almost the whole body, of the Assistant Masters joined about last Easter* in requesting the Head Master with the Provost to appoint a Committee of Masters to consider what alterations should be suggested in the school books used, to make arrangements for the publisher with literary persons to re-edit such books as from time to time might require reprinting, and to consider generally what improvements might with advantage be introduced. In answer to this application, the Head Master informed us the Provost declined to acknowledge any Committee of the Assistants whatever on the subject: but that, if we liked to appoint a Committee of our own body for this purpose, he (the Head Master) would undertake to give due weight to our recommendations, and, if he approved of them, to urge them as his own upon the Provost. This is the state in which the matter stands at present; a Committee has been nominated, and has held a few meetings, but has neither power nor responsibility.
Mr. Johnson, who was a member of the Committee, and took great interest in the matter, supplies its further history. The late Head Master, he says, gave the proceeding no support, and "limited the Committee to such an extent" that its members were not disposed to go on, and they have not been able to obtain any opinion from the present Head Master. Mr. Balston, in reply to a question on the subject, says that nothing is intended to be done through the Committee as such. He would wish it to be done otherwise.

20. Methods of promoting Industry - Promotion - Prizes

The system of promotion has already been briefly described. It will be remembered that a boy gets, as a rule, two steps or "removes" in every year. One he obtains as a matter of course and without examination; for the other he has to pass a test examination, called "trials", the standard of which is so moderate that it is a disgrace to fail at all, and that a boy must he "very stupid" who is kept down long. The "trials" are so far competitive that a boy who does well in them gets a higher place within his remove, though he does not advance the quicker in the school. On a recommendation from his tutor and the master of his Division, a boy may offer himself for a double remove; he is then examined, not with the boys of his own remove, but with those of the next above it; and, if he beats two-thirds of them, but not otherwise, he is transferred to it and rises with it, and thereby gains two steps in the school at once. This is not unfrequently attempted, and it generally succeeds. These examinations go on until the boy is landed in the Upper Fifth; after which he rises by seniority alone, if he be an oppidan. The King's scholars have about a year afterwards an examination of some severity, which determines their places in College. Besides the trials, there is an examination called collections, at the end of every term, in the school-work done during the term; the boys are classed in collections, but the class which each gains does not affect his place in the school, except that a certain number of marks are allowed for it, which are carried to his credit at the next ensuing trials. "It is a very easy thing to scrape through collections without any reproof or punishment." Places are not taken, as we have seen, nor marks given for the daily work in school, except below the Fifth Form. The effects of this system obviously are to prevent very idle or stupid boys from stagnating altogether at the bottom of the school; to apply a certain small stimulus to them - the fear of the discredit which is attached to "muffing a remove", and of being left behind whilst the corps in which they were originally enrolled moves on; to give them, however backward they may be, some change of work and some sense of progress. On the other hand, it renders it possible for a boy to rise in school rank, and in the difficulty of his work, without rising proportionately in knowledge. It enables a boy considerably above the average in talent or industry to rise fast; but steady and merely creditable diligence does not accelerate his rise in the school, though it gives him a good place in his remove. It keeps together each remove with its esprit de corps, and with the advantages and disadvantages which arise from accustoming each boy to feel that he is expected to move as fast as his schoolfellows about him, and no faster; but it undoubtedly operates to some extent as a protection to idleness, and fails to hold out that incentive to work which is supplied by the system of competitive promotion in use in some other schools.

Further, the absence of all examinations, except collections, after a boy has passed Upper Division trials, leaves him for some two years, more or less - years the most important, perhaps, of all to his intellectual growth - relieved from any regular stimulus to exertion. It has not been explained to us why yearly examinations, which are good for King's scholars in the highest part of the school, are inexpedient for Oppidans.

Except the Newcastle scholarship and medal, a prize of books worth £5 for Greek iambics, two prizes worth £10 each for Latin and English Essays, the Tomline prize for mathematics, and some other small prizes given by the Assistant Masters for proficiency

*Easter 1862.


[page 90]

in the same subject and in arithmetic, and the late Prince Consort's prizes for modern languages, there are no scholarships or prizes given by competition and open to both Oppidans and Kings scholars. Of these the Newcastle scholarship is open to boys in the Sixth Form, and in the Upper Division of the Fifth, and to those in the Middle Division who will leave school before the next examination; the Greek iambic prize to the two first Divisions of the school; the English Essay prize to the Sixth and such boys in the Fifth as the Head Master thinks fit to allow to write for it. There are some other rewards for meritorious school-work given by the Head Master. Thus any classical or mathematical exercise of special merit is sent up to him "for good" by the Master before whom it has come and a book is given to each boy who earns this distinction three times, and to each boy who is first in the collections of his Division; the Head Master also gives prizes for the best compositions in Latin prose and verse done in his own Division during the half year. There are other prizes confined to King's scholars, and a considerable number of scholarships or exhibitions tenable by them at the university and given according to a general estimate of merit, but without examination, and subject to various restrictions. There are thus a good many minor distinctions, but very few of any importance, and the latter, for want of that publicity which makes rewards effective, and of that general competition which brings all the highest talent of the school at once into the field, do not appear to tell much upon the school. "They are decided", says Mr. Browning, speaking of those in the Head Master's Division, "solely by the Head Master, and nobody ever knows who gets them. They are got in a great measure by Collegers, but the exercise is not recited or printed, and no pains are taken to make the school generally acquainted with who are distinguished in that way." Mr. Johnson suggests the printing of the exercises, and that they should be awarded by judges to whom the competitors are personally unknown; "that more opportunities should be given to the Masters to show some interest in scholar-like boys who are not their own pupils, and that the attention of the school should be more regularly called to those who distinguish themselves in the school, or, having left it, at the universities; that, in addition to the one Newcastle scholarship, there should be scholarships created out of the college revenues for Oppidans tenable at either university, and that mathematics should be similarly encouraged." He thinks it also very desirable that, should the College increase the number of scholarships tenable at the school, or add to the exhibitioners, the new scholarships or exhibitions should be held by boys residing in the same boarding-houses as Oppidans. Sir J. Coleridge, who has gone more fully into this matter, would found as many as 40 of such Oppidan exhibitions, and would suppress some of the Fellowships for that purpose.

We believe that we do no injustice to Eton in saying that it employs sparingly - more sparingly, perhaps, than any other great school - the spur of emulation. In the system of promotion, the hearing of lessons, even the awarding of prizes, there is comparatively little of direct competition, and the distinctions which are given are not conspicuous enough to make them objects of general ambition or respect. Instead of emulation, reliance appears to be placed on the sense of duty, the influence of association, of parents, and of tutors, and what may be called the mechanical movement of the school; there has been an aversion to positive pressure of any kind; a great reluctance to exclude on account of mere backwardness, whether caused by idleness or by incapacity; a strong and laudable anxiety to afford all the boys as much liberty as they could safely enjoy and ample scope for healthy amusements.

How far this system is likely to prove successful, and how far it has actually succeeded as regards intellectual training, are questions upon which we might have been able to form a clearer opinion had we had the opportunity, which we desired, of testing directly the proficiency of the upper part of the school. There are, however, portions of the evidence which throw some light on them.

All the Masters agree that boys who enter as Oppidans come to school for the most part very ill-prepared. Although the examination is easy, about 20 per cent fail, and take refuge in the lower school, most of these being boys of nearly 14. "Hardly any amount of ignorance", therefore, "prevents a boy's coming to Eton." This want of early education, we are assured, is an increasing evil.

The influence of parents, we are told, is by no means uniformly exerted to encourage industry. "My chief difficulty", says Mr. Birch, "in creating a love for classical literature and honourable emulation among the boys, arises not so much from idleness among themselves as from the light value generally set upon such proficiency at home." It is too often the case that boys are sent to school to form friendships and to be made gentlemen, rather than to acquire mental training and the habit and power of work. Yet Mr. Johnson has come to the conclusion, which we have no doubt is just, that the number


[page 91]

of Oppidans who have any expectation of inheriting property is much smaller than is commonly supposed, and the number who ought to be working for success in after-life much larger. And Mr. Browning "has never known any parent of an oppidan who has not shown great anxiety about getting his son on. I think a better example at home would be very valuable, but as to the anxiety expressed by the parent, and the manner in which that is expressed to the boy, I should say that there is nothing to be wished for."

It appears also to be generally admitted that with many boys, the emulation and ambition which are not awakened by the work of the school find scope in play. Position and influence in the school, which are the things that a boy most desires, are gained chiefly, and almost exclusively, by excellence in the cricket-field or on the river. The character, indeed, of a boy is important to his position; but intellectual distinctions have little weight in this respect. "There is nothing that makes work fashionable among the oppidans. A boy has no chance of becoming one of the leading boys of the school by work." "If he can do anything else, if he can row, or play cricket, or any other athletic game, I do not think", says a good authority, Mr. Mitchell, "that he is thought the worse of for reading." The charms of idleness are, as another witness has said, very numerous and very seductive at Eton, and it is not surprising that whilst amusement, and not labour, opens the readiest way to social distinction, and whilst the system of the school admits it, a healthy and active boy, with no strong natural taste for reading, should give to cricket more time and much more energy than he gives to work.

It appears a reasonable conclusion that a school to which the majority of boys come ill-prepared, to which many are sent chiefly to form their manners and connexions, and many others from wealthy homes where they have had no opportunity of seeing an example of steady work, and in which the general tone of feeling is such as we have described, is one which cannot safely dispense with any of the ordinary methods by which industry is made honourable, emulation kept alive, and the system of teaching rendered as effective as possible.

Mr. Balston himself thinks, from his experience as an Assistant Master, that from one cause or another the success of the work has not been in proportion to the pains bestowed on it.

21. Eton Education as a Preparation for the Universities - For the Army

Of the under-graduates of the two Universities of Oxford and Cambridge in Michaelmas Term 1861, 249 had been educated wholly or in part at Eton. Assuming the time passed at the University before taking a degree to be from three to four years (at Oxford it is now nearly four), it would appear that the number of Eton boys who go annually to the Universities has lately averaged about 70. Taking the average number of the school during the four years ending with the summer of 1861 to have been 800, and the average time spent at school to be nearly five years, we may compute the number who left in each year to be about 170. According to this calculation, which of course is rough, rather more than 40 per cent of the boys who annually leave Eton go to the universities. The number of boys who actually left during the period between election and Christmas 1862 was 22, and the number of these who actually went to the Universities was 8, or 36 per cent. This information was furnished to us by Dr. Goodford, in reply to an inquiry addressed to him, in common with the Head Masters of the other schools. Mr. Balston, who succeeded Dr. Goodford as Head Master early in 1862, was unable to supply us with the numbers for the remainder of the year 1861-1862; and as the period embraced in Dr. Goodford's return was obviously too short to afford an adequate criterion, we applied to the Masters and others in charge of boarding houses, and to the Assistant Master in College, and received from them returns comprising the whole year 1862-1863. From these it appears that the total number who left the school in that year was 176,* of whom 18 were Collegers; that of the 18 Collegers 11 went to the Universities, whilst of the 158 Oppidans 68 either had gone or were intended to go thither. Allowance being made for some who might possibly fail to matriculate, this gives a proportion not differing very materially from the result arrived at by the first calculation, viz., somewhat more than 40 per cent. We may assume, therefore, that more than half of the boys who leave Eton do not go to either University.

The number of young men educated wholly or in part at Eton who entered the army or qualified for Woolwich within three years from September 1858 to October 1860, and from May 1862 to January 1863, was 50,† or about 17 a year. The total number who offered themselves for examination was 66, or 22 a year. The returns received from the

*The school contained 840 boys in the slimmer of 1863.

†To this number two or three should probably be added as having failed at their first examination for direct commissions, but passed after a second. (See Enclosure D. Appendix E.)


[page 92]

boarding-houses and from the Assistant Master in College show that of those who left school in 1862-1863 about 33 either had entered the army or regarded it as their future destination; four of these were Collegers.

Of the results of an Eton education considered as a preparation for the Universities we can only form a very general opinion. The distinctions gained at the Universities by Eton men, when compared with the numbers of the school, do not certainly entitle it to rank among those which are most successful in this respect; but it sends out a fair number of good and well-instructed scholars. Within the ten years ending in 1861, during which probably 500 or 600 Eton men have gone to the Universities, it has had at Oxford 18 classical and two mathematical "Firsts", eight in law and modern history and one in natural science, and at Cambridge 17 Wranglers [third-year undergraduates gaining first-class honours] and 19* in the first class of the Classical Tripos; has twice gained at Oxford the Ireland and Hertford University Scholarships and the Craven Scholarship at Cambridge, besides other distinctions. The examination by moderators at Oxford occurring in a man's second year, and turning almost wholly on scholarship and mathematics, is the best test of school-work, and here the number of "Firsts" is 25. Etonians have gained also at Oxford the senior mathematical scholarship and the Johnson mathematical prize once, and the Latin verse prize and Gaisford prize twice; at Cambridge the Latin Ode and the Epigram prizes four times, the Camden medal twice, the Smith's prize, Chancellor's medal, Porson Scholarship and Greek Ode once, 12 Scholarships and seven Fellowships at Trinity, with other University and College distinctions. As to the mass of young men who enter at Oxford and Cambridge, and who do not try for honours, it has been already seen that the mental training which they bring from the schools where they have been educated cannot be rated high; and in this respect Eton can claim, at the least, no advantage over the rest. According to the evidence of the Dean of Christ Church and of Mr. Hedley, it is rather below the common level. The wealthiest, it is true, and therefore on the whole the idlest men, go to Christ Church; but Christ Church and University College contain one-half of all the undergraduate Etonians at Oxford, and one-third of the total number at Oxford and Cambridge.

Of 36 Etonians who entered the army by direct commissions within the three years above mentioned, 16 came direct from Eton, and 20 had been afterwards at other schools or under private tutors. Eight others failed to pass the necessary examination, of whom three came direct from Eton. Of those who succeeded, coming direct from Eton, all passed in mathematics, English, history, and Latin, and all but one in French, eleven in drawing, only six in Greek. Among the unsuccessful candidates the largest number of failures was in Latin and French. It is remarkable that of all the 42 Eton candidates, only 27 took up Greek, and of these 12 failed in it. In history, Latin, the natural and experimental sciences, and drawing, those who came direct from Eton appear to have succeeded better than those who did not. In French and German the balance is slightly the other way. The conclusion from these figures is, that this examination requires, in the case of boys of ordinary intelligence and moderate industry, no special teaching which may not be had, either in the school course or as an extra, at Eton.

The numbers of Etonians who tried during the same period for Sandhurst and Woolwich respectively were as follows:

The result of which is, that Eton has educated a very small number, but successfully, for Sandhurst, but has not yet succeeded in educating directly for Woolwich.

22. The Lower School

The lowest three Forms at Eton constitute what is called the Lower School. The number of boys in the Lower School has varied very much. Between 1812 and 1833, it ranged from 79 to 37; between 1834 and 1839, from 22 to 11; it has since risen considerably, and was 99 in 1861. These figures are taken however from the lists annually published at election, a period of the year when the Lower School is not at its fullest: the highest number in each year since 1857 inclusive has never fallen below 100, and was 139 in 1859, 121 in 1861, and 140 in 1862.

*Fourteen of these and the two Cravens had been King's scholars.


[page 93]

The Lower School is arranged, for teaching, in five divisions, the largest of which, immediately before the Christmas holidays 1861, was 31, and the smallest 13; and is taught by the Lower Master and four Assistants (all Eton men), appointed by himself, with the approval of the Provost and Head Master. The proportion of masters to boys is much greater, it will be observed, than in the Upper School; little boys require, Mr. Carter thinks, more attention and individual teaching. Arithmetic, writing, and dictation are taught by Mr. S. Hawtrey with seven Assistants, who are not University men, but of whom four are certificated teachers.

The Lower Master - the ostiarius, or usher of the ancient grammar-school - has the general management of the Lower School, subject to the control of the Provost. He receives from the College £78 16s a year, with a trifling allowance of bread and beer, and from each oppidan in the Lower School an entrance fee of £4 4s, and an annual payment of £6 6s, which are doubled in the case of noblemen's sons and baronets; and pays to each of his classical assistants £30 a year. He has a boarding-house, and is tutor to his own boarders, who pay him £130 instead of £120, the usual charge for a boy at a tutor's house. In explanation of this difference. we are informed that by a customary rule he is precluded from increasing his income by taking, as pupils, boys who are not in his house. Two of the assistants are confined as tutors to Lower School pupils, the two others are not.

The studies of the Lower School are thus described by Mr. Carter:

The system of teaching in the Lower School does not necessarily comprise any modern language, the subjects being Bible history, classics, geography, English history, arithmetic, writing, dictation, so arranged that classics, writing, or dictation are the subjects of three days in each week, while history, or geography, and arithmetic are taught on tile other three; all of these form the subjects of examination twice a year, when the papers for each form (of which a specimen is enclosed) are set from the portions of work done by each form since the last examination, and looked over by the Lower Master with the single exception of arithmetic; the places are determined by him according to a boy's proficiency in each subject, arithmetic bearing a proportion of one-fifth to the rest of the work; these are the ordinary examinations according to which boys rise from one form to another twice a year. .A deserving boy may at any time be promoted on the joint recommendation of the Master of the division and of the Tutor, a case which repeatedly happens; as, for instance, six boys were sent from the Lower to the Upper School at various times during the interval between election and Christmas. Should there be any difference of opinion, which seldom exists, between the Master and the Tutor, the Lower Master would examine the boy himself, and fix his proper position. This system, which has been changed and enlarged during the last three years, works well, and does not seem to require further change as regards the present subjects.
The Lower School boys prepare all their lessons in pupil-room in the Tutor's presence. Their hours of work are longer than in any part of the Upper School, so long indeed that they appear to have little time for play. In summer, on whole-school-days, a boy is almost always at work from seven in the morning to six in the evening, and within these hours gets no exercise except in "running about the school-yard and going from one place to another". After six in summer and after four in winter, he is able to play. Neither Mr. Carter, however, nor Mr. S. Hawtrey think that this close occupation has been practically injurious, though the former allows that the boys "have quite as much as they can do".

Hardly any age is considered too early, nor any age (under 14) too late, for admission into the Lower School. Boys may enter as soon as they are able to read; and they in fact enter, not unfrequently, at seven years old. On the other hand, we observe that out of 28 boys who were in the highest division in 1861, and were doing very easy and elementary work, 19 were above 14 years of age, and only three were under 12. Mr. Carter attempted four years ago to limit the highest age of admission to 12, but found it impossible. "There was such a pressure. Perhaps a boy had just passed the age, and was not fit for the Upper School; the parent was disappointed, and pressed that he should be taken into the Lower School." The Lower School thus opens a door to great boys who are too ill taught, or too dull, for the Fourth Form; once admitted, they move up in the regular course among boys much younger than themselves, and thus find their way into the Upper. A consequence of this is, that a considerable proportion of the boys in the Upper School are in knowledge much behind their years. Some of these, no doubt, are steady well-conducted boys, who have been kept back by ill-health or accidental causes. But the evidence shows that the most mischievous element in the school is that of the "big lower boys" - of boys, that is, who are old enough, but not advanced enough for the Fifth Form. They are the greatest bullies, and set the worst examples.

Different opinions have been expressed to us respecting the Lower School. Mr. Carter is well satisfied with it, and would gladly see its numbers enlarged. Mr. Durnford would


[page 94]

keep it as a receptacle for boys too backward to be admitted into the Fourth Form rather than as a place of training for boys of tender age, though the boys in it, he says, are very well instructed, much better than at most private schools. There has been it great improvement in it as a school, especially since the accession of Mr. Carter's predecessor, Mr. Coleridge, who had "a remarkable power of teaching". Special arrangements have of late years been effectually made to provide board and lodging under improved conditions for boys of the Lower School. These are fully described in the answers of the Rev. J. W. Hawtrey. Mr. Johnson would prefer either a new Third Form - a part, like the Fourth, of what is now the Upper School - or a lower school, with a separate staff of teachers, from which no boy should enter the Upper School when over 14 years of age, nor without a sufficiently strict examination.

23. Moral Training and General Discipline of School. Relation of Tutor to Pupil. Monitorial Power

The moral superintendence of every boy at Eton, as well as the care of his intellectual training, is entrusted wholly to his tutor. If he boards at a dame's or at a mathematical master's, the extent of the tutor's responsibility is still in theory the same, though what may be called the domestic superintendence of the boy necessarily falls in that case to the person in whose house he lives. This relation, which begins when a boy first enters Eton, and subsists during the whole time that he remains there, places him from first to last under the eye of one person, whose duty it is to watch over the growth of his mind and character, who is able to write regularly and fully to his parents, for whom he commonly acquires a strong personal regard, and whom he becomes accustomed to consider not only as a master and teacher, but as an adviser and friend. This institution has probably grown up by degrees, and is to be found, in various modified forms, in other great schools. At Eton the highest value is attached to it, and although the relation, as regarded by the boys, may not always be as confidential as it is considered to be by the tutors, we entertain no doubt that it is especially useful in so vast a school where a boy must pass quickly from one large class to another, and, until the very end of his career, must be personally almost a stranger to the Head Master.

The Sixth Form, and in some cases the upper boys in the Fifth, are empowered to punish breaches of discipline out of school by setting impositions, or by the more summary process of an immediate "licking". The captain of each house is also expected to assist the master of it in maintaining order. Among the King's Scholars the authority of the Sixth Form extends over all below the first six of the Fifth Form, and in certain exceptional cases over them also; it is frequently exercised, is considered to work well, and thought useful by the King's scholars themselves. Formerly, when tyrannical habits prevailed generally amongst the bigger boys in College, the power of the Sixth Form too appears to have furnished excuse for tyranny; but this has ceased since the appointment of an Assistant Master in College. Among the Oppidans it is confined to boys below the Fifth, and in practice is very rarely exercised at all. "It is not thought the thing"; "there is a sort of feeling against it"; and it has not the support of the public opinion of the school. There are offences, however, which a Sixth Form boy, whether King's scholar or Oppidan, would think himself bound to notice and put down, though what these are it would probably be difficult to ascertain, the question being one of feeling and opinion, rather than of law. And the Head Master considers that every Sixth Form boy holds his rank on the condition of discountenancing and putting down disorders and breaches of discipline, though it does not appear that a failure in this respect has ever actually been a cause of degradation. The Sixth Form does not, in fact, enjoy any social pre-eminence apart from that of age, and there seems practically to be no line of demarcation between them and the rest of the school. The monitorial system, therefore, with its formal delegation of powers and duties, which exists at some other schools, has virtually no existence at Eton; it has sensibly declined during the last 20 years, and has now dwindled to a shadow, and given place to the undefined prerogatives and half-recognized influence of age, popularity, and the social position won by success in the cricket-field or on the river. As these prerogatives are indefinite, so also is the sense of responsibility which ought to attend them; and as a "swell" - that is, a boy who has achieved social rank in the school - has it in his power to do much good, so he can also do no little harm. This absence of a clear sense of obligation, and this liability to abuse, are inseparable, of course, from an influence which is gained by position, and exercised by example. But they render it highly important that the influential class should be a class really worthy of influence, and that all available means should be used to make it so.


[page 95]

It appears to be the unanimous opinion of Masters and boys at Eton that this state of things works well. Eton is as thoroughly convinced of its own superior happiness in not having the monitorial authority as those schools where it exists are of the advantage of having it. But within the school itself there is the same difference; the King's scholars form in some respects a school within a school, and as between them and the Oppidans there is the same difference of government and opinion. The King's scholars, among whom the system has in great measure survived, cherish it and prefer it to the absence of system among the Oppidans.

If the general tone of feeling and opinion at Eton is sound and honourable, if disorders are rare, and there is little bullying or oppression, and if this condition of the school may reasonably be expected to endure, there is no reason for desiring the revival of a system which has passed away. The evidence that we have received under these heads is generally satisfactory, and we have reason to believe that the moral tone and standard of Eton, like those of other great public schools, have not declined, but have, on the contrary, sensibly and progressively improved, during the last twenty years.

There are two points however connected with discipline which have been brought to our notice by several witnesses, and should be mentioned here. One is the singular custom known at Eton as "shirking"; the other the practice of resorting to certain public houses.

The nominal bounds at Eton are very narrow, and practically the boys are suffered to go where they please: a boy is expected however, if he sees a Master when out of bounds, to run away; the omission to perform this ceremony is considered disrespectful, and renders the offender liable to punishment. The tradition is thus kept alive, that the privilege of taking a walk is enjoyed only by connivance and upon sufferance. If there is any advantage in this, of which we are not aware, it is purchased by making the boys act as if they were doing wrong, whilst they know that they are not, and at the cost also of two not unsubstantial evils. Some Masters do, some do not, punish the omission to shirk; a boy is therefore liable to be reproved and punished by one for that which is no offence in the eyes of another. Further, it makes the detection of misconduct more difficult, by destroying one of the plainest indications of guilt. Suppose, says one witness, that you see a boy in what you suspect to be bad company. "You would wish to get nearer, to be certain about it; and the moment he gets sight of you, it is his duty to bolt and run away as hard as he can, or hide himself in a shop. I should like to be able to say 'The fact of your trying to avoid me is a proof of your being in mischief'." The prevalent opinion among the Assistant Masters appears to be that "shirking" is useless, and not entirely harmless, that it ought to be abolished, and that in lieu of it certain localities should be proscribed, and the boys strictly prohibited from visiting them.

Boys are strictly forbidden to go to public-houses. There are, nevertheless, two places of this kind, the "Tap", and the "Christopher", to which it is perfectly well known that they do go in numbers; and where they are never disturbed. "It is very much on the same footing as shirking; if a boy takes every pains not to be seen going to such places, nothing is said to him." It is punishable, but not wrong in the estimation of the boys; and, in the fact that they are not punished if they use certain slight customary precautions to avoid being found out, they have perhaps some ground for thinking that the opinion of the Masters is not widely different. It is only by going to public-houses that a boy can get a glass of beer after a hard pull on the river, and the beer given at meals in the boarding-houses is not uniformly good. We have no reason to believe that there is anything like drinking to excess. At the "Tap" the boys have a room appropriated to them, and have established. rules for the maintenance of order, which are strictly observed. The practice, however, of drinking at a public-house, even in moderation and under regulations, is obviously one which may lay the foundation of a bad habit. Resorting to public-houses on Sunday would of course be much more severely punished, and is discouraged by public opinion; it prevails to no great extent, but is not unknown.

24. Fagging

Fagging at Eton is now much milder than it formerly was, and it does not at present appear to tax heavily the time of the younger boys, nor to subject them to any serious annoyance or oppression. The power to fag generally is confined to the Sixth Form, and to the Fifth exclusive of the lower remove, lower division; the liability to be fagged, to boys below the Fifth Form. Every lower boy in each house is assigned as a special fag to some Sixth or Fifth Form boy in the house, and every lower boy in college to one of the first eleven in college. The duties of a fag consist in running on errands,


[page 96]

when required by any boy entitled to fag, in attending on his master at breakfast and tea; and, in College, calling him in the morning. We have been told that this attendance is inconvenient to boys who do not know how to manage their time well, and interferes in some degree with the school work or the breakfast of the fag. Occasionally this may be so, but according to the prevailing tenor of the evidence the inconvenience is not general, and not oppressive. The portion of a fag's duties which is really troublesome, and which is described in the following answers, (relating it must be observed only to fagging in College), might obviously be much lightened by a trifling change:

9106. (Mr. Twisleton) Of an evening, in your room, is there any time that you are absolutely free from fagging? - No.

9107. You would never be certain of an hour or an hour and a half when you could not he called upon to fag? - No.

9108. (Mr. Vaughan) How many boys do you find answering to the call of the same prefect calling 'Come here'? - Very often all the lower boys go.

9109. How many would that be, 15? - Yes, 15 or 16.

9110. Only one would be wanted?- Yes.

9111. So there is a rush of 16 boys to wait upon one? - Yes.

9116. (Sir S. Northcote) What is the part of the fagging that is most unpopular? - I think 'Come here' is, or else fagging at dinner.

9117. (Lord Lyttelton) When there are very few it would be worse than it is now? - Yes, much worse.

9118. (Mr. Vaughan) At every call of 'Come here', every boy is expected to present himself? - Yes.

The fags in College have likewise, as has been already mentioned, to wait upon their masters at dinner before getting their own.

There is no doubt on the whole that fagging, as it now exists at Eton, is a popular institution, that it creates a connexion which is often an advantage and protection to a young boy, and sometimes leads to lasting friendships. And Mr. Lyttelton is probably right in thinking that it is not without its use in forming, on the one hand, habits of obedience and of respect for established authority, and, on the other, that of wielding power without abusing it.

From compulsory attendance at games a junior boy at Eton is more free than at some other great schools. There is no "cricket-fagging"; the power of fagging at fives is supposed to exist, but is seldom exercised or wanted, and if a little boy is called upon, in the absence of a valid excuse, to join with his house in a game of football, he does not feel it as a hardship.

25. Punishment

Corporal punishment is inflicted in the Upper School by the Head Master only, and in the Lower School by the Lower Master only. The Assistant Masters bring before their chief those offences with which they think that he alone can properly deal, and it is a rule, Dr. Goodford informs us, introduced within the last few years, that no complaint of this kind shall be made without previous reference to the boy's tutor. This regulation has been found very useful, and has materially assisted, with other causes, to diminish flogging, a punishment which is now administered much more sparingly than it was ten or twenty years ago. Dr. Goodford thinks that during his time there was a flogging five or six times a week, or perhaps not quite so often, and that it had a tendency to diminish. Offences were fewer, and there was less disposition to resort to it. This evidence does not entirely tally with that of a witness who left Eton about three years and a half ago:

8519. (Lord Clarendon) Has flogging diminished since the time when you first went to Eton? - No.

8520. (Mr. Vaughan) Is it any great dishonour to be flogged, or is it regarded as a natural incident of the day? - It is regarded quite as a natural incident of the day.

8523. (Lord Devon) Supposing a form master to send up a boy to the Head Master, does the Head Master consult with the tutor or communicate with him before he sets the punishment? - No, very seldom. He considers himself a machine, and seldom takes any excuse, observing that what has failed to satisfy the complainant cannot satisfy him.

8524. (Sir S. Northcote) Does the master who sends up the boy first consult with his tutor before he sends up his name to the Head Master? - By no means necessarily.

8525. Is not that always done. I thought it was? - No, I do not think so; the tutor generally hears of it eventually, I suppose.

8526. Is it not always considered the rule? - No, I am sure that is not the case.

If, however, the punishment is inflicted as often as five or six times a week, it is much more frequent at Eton, in proportion to its numbers, than at other great schools to which our inquiry has extended. At Eton, as at some of the other schools, "impositions" are the ordinary punishment, and are set by the Assistant Masters at their discretion.


[page 97]

26. Games

The river, the playing-fields, and much open grass country, supply Eton with abundant facilities for health, exercise, and amusement, which are amply used. The attractions of the river rival, and rather more than rival, during the summer, those of the cricket-field: the captain of the boats is the greatest man in the school, and next to him ranks the captain of the Eleven. That too much time is given to play and too little to work, is admitted by those who set the highest value on athletic sports: cricket, if not more seductive, is more exacting in this respect than the boats, for the art of cricket-playing has now reached a pitch of perfection which demands for those who are ambitious of success in it professional instruction, and long and constant practice. Five hours a day, at least, on half-holidays (or thrice a week), and two hours at least on whole-school-days, are considered by the boys necessary in order to get into the Eleven. Five hours daily, one day with another, would probably be required of the captain, "for the sake of example", and are a common allowance for diligent, though less distinguished, players. No boy is allowed to go on the river who has not "passed" in swimming before a committee of masters; this rule, which Eton owes to the present Bishop of New Zealand, has entirely put an end to accidents, which were formerly not infrequent. The rifle corps serves, with other purposes, that of giving to boys who neither row nor play cricket, something to do; but to attempt to make it compulsory would, in Mr. Warre's opinion, destroy it altogether. Inevitably, perhaps, the shooting tends to get the better of the drill.

Mr. Warre, who has himself taken an active and lively interest in what may be called physical education at Eton, speaks of the beneficial effects, not only physical, but moral, of a keen and energetic participation in games: it diminishes the class of idlers and loiterers - a class by common consent most mischievous, to whom too many temptations are offered by the street and little shops of Eton, and is an antidote to luxurious and extravagant habits, to drinking, and to vice of all kinds; and it is quite compatible with very steady reading. It would be very desirable, however, he admits, "if we could get them to put the same energy into the work". We cannot but call to mind distinct evidence by which it is satisfactorily proved that the greatest skill in cricket as well as in other games can be combined with very high proficiency in the studies of the school. To some of his colleagues there seems to be some danger lest the participation of masters in these sports should assist to exalt their importance in the eyes of the boys, and to flatter the notion that laborious pastime, by virtue of being laborious, may rise in moral worth to the same level as work; and this may doubtless be a real danger at a school where great encouragement is given to games, and not enough to industry. The true remedy is to redress the balance by adding to the incentives to industry.

The expense attending the boats appears to be rather greater than it ought to be, and might probably be reduced by judicious management. More money than formerly, Mr. Warre allows, is spent on games; he estimates the total amount that passed through the hands of clubs or societies at £1,300 a year; but he is doubtless right in thinking that what is spent in this way is thoroughly well laid out, and if not so spent, would probably go in more foolish and less healthy pleasures. The great incentive to extravagance is the foolish indulgence of wealthy parents, who supply their sons with too much pocket-money.

27. Chapel Services, Prayers, Preaching

Besides the ordinary services on Sunday, the boys attend two services on every whole holiday, and one (at three o'clock in the afternoon) on every half-holiday. The afternoon services on Sundays and Saints' days are choral. Prayers are read in all the boarding-houses on Sunday mornings; and at all the tutors', and at some, but not all, of the dames', on week-days. Some of the tutors read a short sermon or address of their own composing to their pupils on Sunday night, which is attentively listened to, and seems to produce a good effect.

The evidence of several witnesses tends to show that the afternoon service on weekdays, especially when there is no music, is too commonly regarded by the boys as little more than a roll-call; that they look upon it as a substitute for the calling of "absence", and upon the time consumed in chapel as so much taken out of their play; that they are inattentive, and anxious to get out. Many think that a short daily service, at a convenient hour in the morning, might be advantageously substituted for the present week-day services in chapel, and the morning prayers in the boarding-houses. In the upper part, at least, of the School, there appears to be a preference for choral services.

There is one sermon in chapel on every Sunday, preached by the Provost or a Fellow in residence. If a Fellow is prevented from preaching, his place is taken by a Conduct. The Head Master delivers, during every Lent, a course of sermons or lectures on the Catechism, and is occasionally asked to preach at other times; but this is rare, and the


[page 98]

same request is never made to an Assistant Master. From the evidence which we have received on this subject, we are satisfied that some change is very desirable; the nature of the change which we shall propose will be indicated hereafter.

The boys of the Lower School, for want of room in the Chapel, attend service at a church in the town of Eton, where they form part of the ordinary congregation, an arrangement which the present Provost would be glad to alter, if possible.

28. Boarding Houses

Half a century ago the oppidans lived chiefly in boarding-houses kept by ladies, who were called "dames". During that period the number of dames' houses has gradually diminished; it has become customary for the Classical Assistant Masters to keep boarding-houses, and this is now a regular and principal source of the income of an Assistant Master. Many large houses have been built which are so occupied. There are at present at Eton 30 boarding-houses in all, the largest of which contains 49 boys and the smallest 5. Of these 17 are kept by Classical Assistants, 3 by Mathematical Assistants, 1 by the Drawing Master, 5 by gentlemen otherwise unconnected with the School, and 4 by ladies. The last 9 are still called dames' houses. Of the 17 kept by Classical Assistants 2 are confined to boys in the Lower School.

As we said before, it is stated to be a rule that no Assistant Master may board (and receive payment for) more than 30 boys; or, including two pairs of brothers, 32; but this rule does not appear to be universally known, or strictly enforced. Mr. Hardisty says that "great and dangerous laxity prevails in this respect. The good old rule has recently been flagrantly broken, with great danger to the discipline and good government of the School." The number in a dame's house is not limited. Three masters' houses and two dames' houses have more than 32 boys.

A boy at a Classical Assistant's house pays £120 for board and tuition, the Master being likewise his tutor. At one house, the Lower Master's, the charge is £130, the ground of this exception being that he is not allowed to take as pupils boys who are not in the house. At a Mathematical Assistant's he pays £84 and at a dame's from £63 to £84 for board and domestic superintendence alone, paying also as a rule £20 to his tutor. Sixty guineas was the old charge at a dame's house, but it is now only retained at four or five of them. A boy, therefore, at a Mathematical Assistant's pays less by £16 a year for board than one at a Classical Assistant's, and a boy at a dame's from £37 to £16 less.

The cost of boarding a boy varies, of course, according to the number in a house, being partly made up of house rent and servants' wages, which are greater in proportion when the number of boys is small. In assessing the Assistant Masters, the Income Tax Commissioners have adopted at Eton, after careful consideration, taking one house with another, a general estimate of £75 a year; and this appears to be considered a fair calculation. Mr. Evans states, that with a charge of £84 his house is "not remunerative" at its present scale of comfort; he is only enabled to keep it by the large number he takes (47). A dame charging from 60 to 70 guineas cannot possibly, he thinks, conduct her house with advantage to herself.

From the facts which have been brought before us at Eton as well as other schools, we entertain no doubt that the real cost of a boy in a large house, managed liberally, but with ordinary prudence and attention to economy, must be less than £75 a year, whilst at a very small house it may be somewhat more.

Eight of the dames' houses, and all but six of those occupied by Assistant Masters, are the property of the College. Over the others the College has no legal control, but some control is practically exercised, and this has never been resisted, it being understood that no one can open a boarding-house without the leave of the Head Master. As a general rule, no house within the precincts and belonging to the College is let to any person not connected with the School either as a Master or as a dame, and no tenant can underlet without the permission of the Provost and Fellows.

It was evidently most important for the welfare of the school that the Provost and Fellows should retain in their own hands the entire control of this portion of the College property, and that no interests should be suffered to grow up in it which might prevent them from dealing with these houses from time to time, as the interests of the school might require. This is not, however, the course which has been pursued. Many of the houses have been let on leases for terms varying from 21 to 46 years, and several of these leases have been renewed very recently, so that a considerable time must elapse before the College can regain possession. Nine of the houses are sublet, the original lessee or his representatives commonly residing at a distance, and having nothing to do with the school. Sums, more or less considerable, have, in almost every instance, been laid out by the original lessee or the sub-tenant, and sometimes by both, in enlarging and improving the houses, and making them fit for the purpose for which they are used. The total


[page 99]

amount which has been thus spent, appears to be between £30,000 and £40,000. Besides this - and partly, no doubt, in consequence of it - the tenants and occupiers have come to consider themselves as having an equitable claim to a renewal, and this interest has been treated as a subject of sale and purchase. It has become usual for a dame, on becoming tenant, to pay a substantial consideration, either in a round sum or in the form of an annuity, to the previous tenant. for this interest, and for goodwill. One lady has thus paid £2,000 and an annuity of £100 for sixteen years, besides the regular renewal-fine to the College, and an outlay of £1,300 on improvements. Mr. W. Evans, who holds a twenty-one years lease, has paid, beside his renewal-fines, £7,300 and upwards for goodwill and improvements. A multitude of complicated and uncertain claims have thus sprung up, many of which can be measured by no legal standard.

When an Assistant Master resigns his house it is usual for him to make a private arrangement with someone who wishes to succeed him; but if the Head Master thought the intending successor unfit for the charge of a boarding-house, he would represent it to the Provost, and the Provost and Fellows would support him and refuse to accept the new tenant. A Master who has laid out money on his house would expect, on quitting it, to have some part of the money repaid by his successor. The total expense, from this cause, from the purchase of furniture, and from necessary repairs, of coming into a large house has been stated to amount to from £1,500 to £2,000. Mr. James estimates it, from his own experience, at from £3,000 to £6,000, but he rebuilt half of his house, including all the boys' rooms.

The possession of a house, being so considerable a source of profit, though attended with some risk and a heavy outlay, is naturally a great object of desire to a young Assistant Master. Some rules appear to have been laid down to govern the succession to such as become vacant; but from the various claims and interests which have grown up, from the habit which has arisen of transferring houses by arrangement, and from the somewhat indefinite nature of the control exercised by the Provost and Fellows (or by the Bursars as representing them), whilst the Head Master call only interfere by the exercise of personal influence, some uncertainty appears to rest either upon the rules themselves or on the application of them. A house which has been once occupied by a Classical Assistant is never afterwards given or allowed to be transferred to a mathematical assistant or to a "dame". One exception has been lately made to this rule in favour of a gentleman who, having been obliged by ill health to resign his mastership, has been suffered to retain his boarding-house. But if a dame's house falls vacant, the rule is much less clear. It is said to have been settled in 1851, when mathematics were introduced into the school work, and the number of Mathematical Masters increased to eight, that they should succeed to dames' houses when vacant. This has been done in some cases, and the Provost and Fellows state that they would give the next they had at their disposal to a Mathematical Master, if he wanted one. The Provost, "as far as he is concerned personally", would never give a dame's house to a Classical Master if a Mathematical Master wanted it. "I should prefer giving it to the Mathematical Master, if I had the power; but the fact is, I have not the power to interfere with the lessee, except so far as to prevent improper persons from coming there." He thinks there would be no competition between a Classical and a Mathematical Master; but it appears from other evidence that there has been such a competition in more than one case. A strict attention to the system now laid down would lead to the extinction of dames' houses; but we are told that no opinion against the dames' houses has been formed by the Provost and Fellows, and they suggest that to extinguish them would make Eton a still more expensive school. The result of this uncertainty is said to be, that "there is a regular scramble for any house that falls vacant".

We have already alluded slightly to the disadvantage at which the Mathematical Masters are placed in this respect, as compared with the Classical Assistants. The latter get houses usually within two or three years after their arrival; the former have to wait six or seven; and they not only receive £16 less for the board of each boy, but are unable to obtain houses of the larger and better class, They may, says Mr. Johnson, by "special exertions and good luck succeed in getting an inferior house to accommodate a small number of boys at a lower rate of payment than a tutor's house". Mr. Balston admits that "it is difficult to say what may be the chance of a Mathematical Master in obtaining a boarding house". It is said, and is probably true, though the small houses they now occupy are filled without difficulty, that a Mathematical Assistant, being prohibited as he is from holding the relation of tutor towards the boys in his house, would not be able to fill a large one. This, however, raises the question, to which we shall revert, whether it is desirable that the prohibition should be maintained.

Every boy at a tutor's house sleeps in a single room, except in the case of brothers, who usually occupy a room together. This is also the case, generally speaking, at the


[page 100]

dames', but in some of them, where the old charge of sixty guineas is nominally maintained, a single room costs £5 extra. They have breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper, and meat twice a day, and we have heard no complaint of the quantity or quality of the food, except that as above mentioned the beer at some houses is not good. In these respects the scale of comfort at a tutor's house does not, we believe, differ from that at a dame's. Every dame's house is deemed to be under the charge of one of the Classical Assistants, who goes thither daily for a few minutes to call absence, and reads prayers on Sundays, and receives any complaints of misconduct which the dame may have to make. This appears to be the limit of his duties. Mr. Evans, whose house enjoys a great and we believe, merited reputation for judicious and attentive management, urges that there is a positive benefit to the school in having houses kept by persons with no other occupation than the domestic care of the boys. Mr. Walter is of the same opinion; though, for other reasons, he would reduce the number of dames. The chief advantage, however, of a dame's house appears to be its greater cheapness. Besides paying less for board by £16 a year, a parent may also, if he thinks proper to do so, escape the charge of ten guineas for private tuition, though the number who avail themselves of this privilege is not large.

Of the young boys in the Lower School some, but not all, live in the two houses set apart for them, those of Mr. J. Hawtrey and Mr. Dupuis. Mr. Hawtrey's house has been built and fitted up by him specially for the reception of little boys, and has a separate and spacious play-ground, and it appeared to us to be excellently adapted to its purpose.

29. School charges and annual expenses of a boy at Eton

The expenses of a boy in a tutor's house are as follows:

A boy, therefore, who has extra mathematics and learns French, costs annually £165 3s exclusive of his clothes, journeys, pocket-money, and other petty expenses. If he also learns drawing, it would be £179 17s. The average amount of the annual bills sent in by a tutor are computed by Mr. Eliot at about £175; by Mr. James at £65 a school-time, or £195 a year; by Dr. Goodford, at from £150 to £210. The amount of the" leaving-presents" to Masters is not fixed precisely; some Assistant Masters, we believe, do not take them from all their pupils, and the ill defined character of these payments is felt to be unsatisfactory by the masters themselves.

30. Practice of giving Leaving-Books

When boys leave Eton it is the practice of their friends and acquaintances of the same standing to give them books as presents - a practice which in itself has been undoubtedly founded on kind and generous feelings, and which may be of advantage, not only great but well deserved, to boys of high and popular character, as laying for them the foundation of a good library. We believe also that it is not without effect in fostering among the boys good temper, honour, manliness, and other qualities which are the elements of popularity in its best sense in the Public Schools, and in discouraging their opposites. The popularity of boys in such Schools may not depend as much as it ought to do upon qualities even higher than these; but, so far as it goes, we believe that its constituents are mainly good and sound, and there is reason to think that the hope of obtaining a fair number of leaving-books, the fear of falling unusually short in this respect, and the general opinion of the School on these points, are, at Eton, influences of some force and some value. We should be unwilling, therefore, to condemn the system as a whole. Complaint, however, has been made to us that the practice, as it now exists, far exceeds in

*At a dame's £84 for board and £21 for tuition, or £105.

†This is double, in the case of noblemen's sons or baronets.

‡A boy in the Sixth pays £15 or £20.


[page 101]

extent the feelings which gave rise to it; that the system of giving books has become formalized, and is a matter of course; and that the consequent expense to parents is occasionally very inconvenient. We deem it right to mention this complaint in order that it may receive such attention from the Masters of the School as it may deserve. We do not, however, propose to make any recommendation on the subject, as the practice is one which it is scarcely within the province, if indeed it be within the power, of even the Masters to interfere with directly; and its continuance or modification must mainly depend on the intelligence and good sense of the boys themselves.

OBSERVATIONS

Relation of the College to the School

In the first part of the foregoing statement we have briefly described the original and present constitution of the Governing Body of Eton College, its powers and emoluments; we have now to consider whether it is well adapted for the functions which it ought to discharge, having regard to the intentions of the Founder and to the changes wrought in his foundation by lapse of time.

The main objects of this great College were evidently those which were commonly coupled together by the founders of similar institutions in the middle ages - the promotion of learning and religion and the relief of poverty. To promote learning, a home and a sufficient though frugal maintenance were provided for a limited number of men devoted to study, and a school was established in direct connexion with a sister College in Cambridge, to which the scholars were to proceed: to advance religion, a noble chapel was erected, in which stated services were to be celebrated by an ample choir, and the Fellowships were confined to men of the clerical order: while the claims of poverty were represented by the bedesmen, and recognized by requiring indigence as a condition for gratuitous education.

The Eton of the 19th century is, as we know, very different from the Eton of the 15th. The College Grammar School of 70 poor boys is now only the heart of a vast school of more than 800, which has been frequented for many generations by the sons of the greatest and richest families in England, which has risen into national importance, and has rooted itself, more firmly even than the College itself, in the traditions that have gathered round it, and the multiplied and hereditary attachments it has created. Eton College has become, in fact, an accessory to Eton School: the Provost derives from the School most of his dignity, and finds in the direction of it a great part of his employment; the Head Master, though beneath him in rank, holds a position superior even to his in real importance; the Fellows are retired Masters, married and beneficed for the most part, non-resident during three-fourths of the year, and receiving a comfortable income, which they feel justified in regarding, as the world regards it, chiefly in the light of a pension; the boys of the School fill, and more than fill, the chapel. This great revolution, which could never have been contemplated by the Founder, renders it proper, and, indeed, necessary, to re-consider from our present point of view the whole relation between the College and the School - a relation framed not only for a state of society very remote from the present, but for a totally different institution.

The Oppidans and King's scholars have hitherto in theory, and, to some extent, in practice, been subject to two separate authorities, divided from each other by a somewhat indistinct line. We think it clear that this separation should disappear altogether. Intermingled as they are in classes throughout the School, and as it is at least desirable that they should be in their hours of play, their education and discipline must practically be under one control; and any arrangement which assigns two governments to these two portions of the School must be illusory, and may be inconvenient, as leaving it to chance to determine which government shall in effect gain possession of the whole, by ascendency over the rival governing body.

Governing Body. Parish of Eton. College Livings

The most important powers at present vested in the Provost and Fellows are those of electing and removing the Head Master, and of exerting a general superintendence over the School. The first of these belongs, as has been stated, to the Provost and Fellows jointly; the second, to the Provost alone, who exerts it, however, in practice, with the advice and assistance of the Fellows. The Provost and Fellows, as at present constituted, are not, in our opinion, a body altogether well adapted for the exercise of either of these powers. The electors of the Head Master of Eton should, by their numbers, the mode of their appointment, and the position they hold in the public view, be absolutely secured from the intrusion, and even the suspicion, of personal and local influences, which can never be the case with a few men, intimately connected with one


[page 102]

another, all of one profession, and of whom all were educated, and the majority have spent most of their lives, within the walls of one school. Nor can it be beneficial to any school, as it has certainly not been beneficial to Eton, that its education and discipline should be exclusively controlled by a small number of retired masters, who cannot but have some bias, not the less real because they may be unconscious of it, against any serious change in the system under which their own lives have been passed, and with the practical working of which they have ceased to be familiar. These considerations point, in the first place, to an increase of the numbers of the Governing Body; in the second, to changes in the mode and conditions of election into it.

If the number of Fellowships is to be hugely increased, it is clear that some, at least, of them must be without emolument. This presents, however, no difficulty. The duties which will be attached to a Fellowship will demand, it is true, especially at first, some time and attention; but they will not be really onerous. They will not require residence on the spot: and men, we feel assured, will be easily found, to whom the distinction itself, and the interest and importance of the services they will be enabled to render to the School, will be an ample recompense.

The Fellowships, however, were designed not only to supply a Governing Body for the College, but to provide a maintenance for studious men; an object which, while in a national point of view it is of much importance, deserves special attention in reference to the constitution of such a body as that to which we propose to entrust the government of Eton. It is not possible, nor perhaps desirable, that literature and science should offer to men who dedicate their lives to them prizes equal to those which may be gained by the pursuit of an active profession; but it is a public advantage that some places of honour, competence, and leisure should exist, to which such men may look forward as the rewards of intellectual labour. Men of this stamp, interested by their own habits and pursuits in the advancement of education, acquainted with the progress of literature and science and of enlightened public opinion, and residing during part of the year at Eton, may be expected to form a valuable element in the Governing Body, and to exert a most useful influence on the direction of the studies of the School. We have only to add that, in order to render Fellowships really available for this purpose, it is necessary that the field of selection should be wide. We shall propose, therefore, that a moderate income shall be attached to a certain number of the Fellowships, the holders to be chosen indifferently from men who have distinguished themselves in any branch of literature or science, or have done long and eminent service in the educational work of the school. Such service is in effect a service rendered to literature.

That such a body should be wholly self-elected is not desirable. We believe that the dignity, as well as the interests of the College, would be best consulted by vesting the appointment of a portion of its members in the Crown, though it might be objectionable to give the Crown the right of nominating to the stipendiary Fellowships.

We shall recommend therefore an increase of the numbers of the Governing Body; that of its members some shall be without emolument, and a certain proportion of these nominated by the Crown; that a smaller number, elected by the whole body, shall be persons distinguished in literature or science, or for services done to the School; and that these shall have competent incomes assigned to them, and reside at Eton during a part at least of the year.

The Fellows nominated by the Crown would of course be men qualified by their position or attainments to render service to the School. It would, we think, be well to mark the character of the School, and to insure its connection with the older Universities, by providing that the gentlemen so nominated should be graduates of Oxford or Cambridge. The elected Fellows, whether honorary or stipendiary, might be elected freely, under the single condition that they should be members of the Church of England.

The same conditions should be required in the case of the Provost, but we see no advantage in requiring that he should be in Holy Orders. He fulfils, as Provost, no spiritual charge; and, though he has hitherto held the rectory of Eton, the duties have in fact been performed by the Conducts. Some of the Provosts who have shed the greatest lustre on the College, though their election was irregular, were, as we have already observed, laymen. The nomination being vested, as we think it ought to be, in the Crown, and the office being endowed with a fixed income sufficient to support its dignity, it would be an advantage both to the College and to the School that the area of choice should be very ample.

The parish of Eton should be constituted a separate vicarage, and endowed out of the revenues of the College. The population of the parish, excluding the boys in the School, is stated to be about 2,000. It is suggested that £600 a year should be set apart for this purpose, but this sum might be diminished should the vicar be provided with a house or adequate lodgings by the College.


[page 103]

The ancient connexion of Eton with King's College, which the changes now proposed will not destroy, has given to each an interest in the prosperity of the other. We shall therefore recommend that the Provost of King's, for the time being, shall always form one of the Governing Body of Eton.

The livings in the gift of Eton College have hitherto been treated as private patronage. If the distribution of these preferments were vested in the entire Governing Body, to be exercised as a public trust, we believe that a larger share of them would fall to the lot of the Assistant Masters, and we think that length of service as an Assistant Master, coupled with fitness for the care of a parish, ought to constitute a strong, though not an absolute or paramount, claim to a College living. There seems to be a special reason for this recommendation in the cases of some of the Senior Assistant Masters, who have served the College for many years in the reasonable expectation of succeeding not only to a Fellowship but to a living. We think that a College living should not be tenable with the Provostship, nor with a paid Fellowship.

Having stated the views which we have formed respecting the constitution of the Governing Body, we may content ourselves with observing that the same reasons which have led us to these conclusions forbid us to adopt either the plan of reconstruction proposed by Mr. Johnson, which is framed on the principle of making selected Masters actually engaged in the work of the School the chief element of that Body, or the suggestion of Sir J. Coleridge, that the Fellows, reduced in number, should be required to conduct the half-yearly examinations, or to participate in education in some other manner suited to their position and dignity. It must not, therefore, be ascribed to any want of respect for the authors of these proposals, if we forbear to enter into the particular objections to which they appear to us to be respectively liable.

It has been seen that the Fellowships have hitherto been regarded, in a great measure, as retiring pensions for Masters. If the changes which we recommend are carried into effect, they will serve this purpose no longer, except to a very limited extent. This presents, in our opinion, no substantial objection to those changes. The present emoluments of a Classical Assistant at Eton, compared with the work he has to do, and with the income which a young man of good and even of distinguished ability may reasonably hope to realize in any other profession, are undoubtedly high; under the scheme which we-are about to propose they will be less, but still sufficient to attract thoroughly competent men, and to enable them, by the exercise of moderate prudence, to lay by some provision for their families. This does not, it is true, render it otherwise than desirable to offer, if there are the means of doing so, an inducement to men whose health or energy are declining to retire before their efficiency as teachers is seriously diminished. It is also desirable to meet cases in which a release from work which has become unsatisfactory would be gladly accepted, if that work had not to be exchanged, as it often must, for compulsory leisure, narrow circumstances, and the absence of a recognized position. But the Fellowships, as they now exist, are not a suitable provision for such cases. They are too large for mere retiring pensions, and too few for even the existing number of Classical Masters, which, moreover, we shall propose to increase; and there are, besides, the Mathematical Assistants, who ought to be taken into account. Further, a system of prizes, large, but few and uncertain, tends to impair the ordinary motives to prudence and economy, and, operating capriciously, tempts one man to abandon his work too early and another to cling to it too long. If our recommendations are adopted, a paid Fellowship will be, as we think it ought to be, a prize, open to the Assistant Masters but not confined to them, for eminent services in literature, science, or the educational work of the School; and a wise distribution of the church patronage of the College will be another and a new provision for many who may be willing to give up employment which has become tedious and unsatisfactory to them for parochial work.

Management of Property - Fines

The management of the College estates will, under this scheme, be vested in the new body which we propose to constitute; and those members of it who will receive any emolument will receive it in the shape of fixed stipends. Some time, however, may elapse before this scheme can come into full operation, and it is therefore necessary that we should advert to the questions raised by the practice which has hitherto existed of taking and dividing fines.

Without imputing any blame to the present Provost and Fellows for adhering to this practice - blame which would be clearly unjust - we must express our conviction that whilst the practice of taking fines is prejudicial to the College by rendering its estates less productive than they would be if let at rack-rent [full market value], that of withdrawing them from the corporate revenue is not conformable either to the letter or to the spirit and intention of the Statutes. Fines, whatever they may have been formerly, are now for all practical


[page 104]

purposes a part of the ordinary profits of the lands in respect of which they are paid. A large proportion, therefore, of the actual income of the College is thus diverted from the purposes to which that income is by the Statutes directed to be applied. The whole present income of the Eton estates includes in fact their annual value at the time of the Founder, the nominal increase in that value which has arisen from the depreciation of money, and the real increase produced by improvement and other causes. A portion of the nominal increase is reserved for the benefit of the College by Sir Thomas Smith's Act, which provided that one-third of the old rents should be paid in kind; but the remaining two-thirds of it, and the whole of the real increase, are, by the system established at Eton, subtracted from the corporate revenue for the private and personal advantage of individual members of the Foundation. It is almost needless to add that, so long as the administrators of the estates derive the chief part of their income from fines, it must inevitably be their interest, and indeed necessary for their support, that the estates should be administered in a way which is not the best.

We are therefore of opinion that beneficial leases should be discontinued as quickly as the means at the disposal of the College will permit,* and in the meantime we think it desirable that all fines to be received hereafter should be brought into the accounts of the College. These changes should of course be effected with a due regard to the interests of the present Provost and Fellows. This might he done by allotting to them, should it be found practicable, fixed annual incomes equal to their average dividends for the last seven years.

College Offices - Conducts

The College offices of Vice-Provost, Bursar, Precentor, Sacrist, and Librarian have been hitherto held by Fellows. As regards the Vice-Provost, Bursar, and Librarian, we are not prepared to recommend any change, further than that we think it should be in the power of the Provost and Fellows to appoint for the discharge of the duties of Bursar a man of business not connected with their body, if they should think fit.

The office of Precentor and Sacrist might be held by one of the Conducts, who should be responsible as Precentor for the performance of the chapel services and the general efficiency of the choir. The addition of £80 a year to the £120 which is the present stipend of a Conduct, would probably make it a sufficient remuneration for the Precentor's duties. A second Conduct, appointed by the Vicar of Eton, with the approval of the Provost, might act as curate of the parish of Eton, and this would occupy the whole of his time. We see no occasion for retaining a third Conduct. Of the choristers we shall speak hereafter in connexion with the services in chapel.

*On this subject some suggestions have been furnished to us which it may be useful to insert here.

"An estate beneficially leased is, to all intents and purposes, an estate mortgaged, the lessee being mortgagee in possession; but the money advanced is advanced on very high terms, viz. 6½ or 7 per cent. Now, it is manifest that if money can be borrowed at, say, ½ per cent, it is disadvantageous to continue borrowing money at 7. Suppose when the time for a septennial fine comes round, instead of renewing, you borrow the amount of the fine at 4 per cent, and do the same at the end of 14 years, then at the end of 21 you have the estate in hand, subject to the debt incurred, which might he paid off by instalments.

It would be very easy to calculate the precise amount of gain by this process. Perhaps the following will be near enough:

I suppose the price to be £100.

£100 in 14 years, at 4 per cent =£173
£100 in 7 years, at 4 per cent =£132
Incumbrances on estate =£305

Or, if this be left as an incumbrance at 4 per cent, an incumbrance of about £12 per annum.

Now, an estate upon which the septennial fine would be £100 would be of, perhaps, £45 clear annual value; hence, when you get it in hand, it is worth to you £45 - £12 = £33. Previously you had been getting out of it only £100 in 7 years, or about £14 annually, or say, with reserved rent, as much as £16, or about half what you would get when the estate came in hand. It is manifest that you might, therefore, materially improve your income, and yet have a sinking fund for clearing the estate entirely from debt. The long and short of it is, that by the fining system the landlord gets about one-third of the real value of the estate, whereas, notwithstanding the mortgage upon it, he might by proper management get two thirds.

There is an objection to running out Ieases, viz., that there is frequently no covenant in a beneficial lease as to the condition in which the land is to be given up to the landlord, and consequently, if the lease is to be run out, the land may be given up in a very exhausted state, and a large outlay may be required to bring the estate round.

Also, it seems to me that there may be, in many instances, a moral injustice in running out a lease, the land having been treated as private property in consequence of the implied understanding concerning renewal, and being mixed up with freehold. &c. Hence, I think the plan of enfranchisement adopted by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners is not a bad one. You sell your interest in the mortgaged estate, and lay out the money in an estate at rack-rent. The best plan of all would be, I think, a mixture. In cases where running out the lease would be a hardship, I would enfranchise; in other cases I would buy out the lessee; and in cases in which neither could be done I would run out the lease. In fact, if money were got in hand by enfranchisement, you might borrow of yourself; i.e., you might take the income first by running out some leases from the money in hand by enfranchising other estates."


[page 105]

King's Scholars

Although fewest in numbers yet not the least in point of importance to the School are the King's Scholars. In the days of the Founder they were the main objects of the education given in the School, and they have become in recent times the main support of its credit and reputation. Out of 19 Etonians who in 10 years gained places in the first class of the classical tripos at Cambridge, 14 had been Scholars. The condition of this body therefore is a matter of much interest and moment to Eton.

Its condition has been practically felt to depend mainly on two things, the method of election, and the position and treatment of the Scholars when elected; and great improvements, of which we have already given an account, have been effected in regard to both. In neither point, however, does such amendment appear as yet to have reached its height. The candidates for 15 vacancies down to the end of 1861 amounted to about 50, a number hardly proportionate in our opinion to the advantages which are now actually offered, still less to such as might be reasonably offered for competition. In the course of the same year was first commenced the practice of notifying to the public through the newspapers anything concerning the election; and hitherto, the public has been thus informed only of the time at which the examination would be held. But we think that a more explicit advertisement, comprehending the value of the Scholarships and the subjects of examination, would have had the effect of raising further both the number and qualifications of the candidates. As it would be desirable, moreover, that the advertisement should be able to announce an absolutely free and open competition, we recommend that the local preference to any places where the College has property, and to the counties of Buckingham and Cambridge, be abolished, and that neither illegitimacy nor bodily imperfection disqualify anyone for election as a Scholar.

Again both the method of examination and the principle of selection seem susceptible of some improvement. The great range of age allowed to candidates, from the maximum of 16 years to the minimum of 8, tends itself to introduce difficulties. Under such circumstances it is considered but fair to set no less than five different sets of papers, each set of which is in fact addressed to boys of some one period between 8 and 16; thus, while it is absolutely necessary that answers should be compared, it is quite impossible that one answer should be compared directly with another. This difficulty, meeting the Examiners five times over in reference to each vacancy to he filled up, must of itself occasion much trouble; and here another consideration intervenes to increase the complexity of the test. It is held in order to meet fully the requirements of the Statutes that a boy in order to succeed must not only know more positively, but must know more in proportion to age and show higher talent, than a boy of any age below his own; on this principle, therefore, a candidate of 16 must exhibit extraordinary comparative proficiency and singular talent to outweigh the good proficiency and talents of a boy of 11.

There are thus not only five different standards, but each of the five must be satisfied in a different manner from that required for any of the others. The difficulty of deciding is confessedly very great, and produces much discussion; and it need not be observed that in proportion to the increase in the difficulty of deciding rightly must increase also the probability of deciding erroneously.

It is not unreasonable to apprehend that another inconvenience, quite distinct in kind, may sometimes arise out of this method of adjudication. Such a system, if effectually carried out, strongly tends to give success in the competition to the younger ages, inasmuch as with each increase of age the difficulty of succeeding becomes greater. But if success attends the competition of the younger boys chiefly, the system tends also necessarily to bring boys of tender age chiefly into the field as competitors. The strain therefore of competition, falling commonly on the age between 11 and 14, throws the strain of preparation very much on boys between 9 and 13; and here it may be remembered, too, that competitive learning involves competitive teaching, and introduces the eagerness of rival teachers as an additional spur to the efforts of their pupils. Both these combined must often prove a considerable tax on strength at such a tender age; and although they may not exhaust either the will or the power to do good work at a later period of life, yet the health may suffer for some years, and such a foundation for habits exclusively sedentary and studious may be laid as will tend to divide the School too distinctly into two classes of studious and of active boys, having little of that influence on each other which might improve both. The Provost, indeed, has not observed any such deterioration of health as affects a boy's school-work at a later period. Mr. James, however, expresses a most decided opinion that the smaller Collegers are inferior to their Oppidan school-fellows in physique, and that such "have been worked up very often tremendously" at the preparatory Schools. Under such circumstances, we think that it must at least prove the safer course to discourage such struggles at the tenderest age, by deferring the pro-


[page 106]

babilities of success to a time when the health has become confirmed, and both body and mind are more developed.

We shall therefore recommend that a single standard of excellence should be applied to all candidates: and in order that this standard may be such as will give to age its natural advantage over those who hare not long passed out of childhood we shall recommend that the Scholarships be awarded according to the same scale of merit by one examination, to which no boy shall be admitted under the age of 11, or above that of 14.

From the evidence of the Provost of King's it appears that a difference of opinion prevails between the two Colleges as to the principles on which the elections from Eton to King's should be made. The King's College electors consider that they ought to choose the best scholar presented to them; the Eton electors consider that they ought to give a preference to a boy of 18 over a boy of 17, though the latter may be the superior scholar. As each College contributes, under the Statutes, an equal number of electors, and as no provision is made for a casting vote, this difference of opinion has recently led, and may again lead, to great inconvenience and to the entire failure of an election. Differences between the electors might similarly arise in the case of elections to the foundation of Eton .

We shall recommend that in the elections to the Eton foundation a second or casting vote be given to the Provost of Eton, and in the elections to the King's foundation to the Provost of King's.

Nor is the method of election the only point of importance which presents itself to notice in considering all the possible means of making the Scholarships still more attractive than they now are. Under the original Statutes of the Founder, the annual cost of the seven Fellows to be charged on the funds of the College appears to have amounted to £104 6s, being at the rate of £14 18s for each Fellow, while that assigned to the Scholars, and provided from the same funds, was about £238, of which £33 16s consisted in the stipend and allowances of those appointed to instruct them. Thus was the expenditure on behalf of the body of Scholars designed upon a scale which gave them for maintenance and education considerably more than twice as much as was allowed to the Fellows. At the present moment, however, the sum drawn from the College property on behalf of the Fellows over and above the annual value of their houses is about £6,000, while that taken out of the same fund for the support and instruction of the Scholars may, as it appears, be estimated at about £3,400. But, if the cost of the Scholars bore the same ratio to the present cost of the Fellows as it did when the College was founded, they would now be drawing from the funds of the Institution not £3,400, but £14,000. Again, the sum allowed to the Head Master alone under the Statutes, for the instruction of the Collegers chiefly, was nearly by one-third larger than the total allowance of any Fellow, whereas at the present moment it is by one-half less.

Now we do not suggest the propriety, under present circumstances, of raising the cost of the Scholars to a sum approximating to such a proportion of the College funds. Credit must be given to the present Governing Body for having acted conscientiously and liberally by the Scholars. Yet since the intention of the Founder, thus declared by his apportionment of the funds, warrants a still larger expenditure on their account should it appear desirable, we are of opinion that the principle on which recent improvements have proceeded should be pursued further by granting them a full gratuitous course of education and a liberal gratuitous maintenance while at school. The assertion of this principle will involve the abolition of the small payments now made under the head of College charges for attendance, &c., and those for tea, sugar, and washing; it will also include not only an adequate payment for their tuition, now partly defrayed by themselves, but also an adequate payment in some form for all the services which they receive, indeed, from the Head Master in common with the rest of the School; but which are at present requited only on their behalf by a very inadequate stipend paid to him by the College. It appears hardly necessary to add that their diet should be more varied than at present.

Government of the School

In assigning to the Governing Body and to the Head Master their respective shares in the management of the School, we shall propose to follow the general principles laid down in the First Part of this Report.

The particular control which the Provost at present exercises over the Head Master in the management of the School will necessarily disappear under the new system. This control appears to have grown up as a substitute for a really effective Governing Body.

It is, however, an Inconvenient .and unsatisfactory substitute. It is inconvenient that a control over the actual Head Master of Eton should be intrusted; not to a per-


[page 107]

manent body qualified to represent the permanent interests of the School, and in which individual peculiarities of temper or opinion are sure to be corrected and kept in check, but to a single person, who has himself formerly been a Head or Assistant Master, whose views of education are probably those which he formed whilst personally engaged in it, and who consults the Fellows, when he thinks proper to consult them at all, only as private and irresponsible advisers. The extensive and minute nature of this control is such as to confuse and impair the responsibility of the Head Master. The Assistants are discouraged from offering suggestions to a chief who is not himself in an independent position; and the necessity for constant reference to a superior authority tends to impede those minor improvements of detail without which a system degenerates into a routine. By the changes which we propose these inconveniences will be removed, whilst the right to confer with the Provost, and to obtain the benefit of his knowledge and advice, which Mr. Balston so highly, and, we doubt not, so justly values, will still remain, and will, we trust, be frequently and usefully exerted.

We have already adverted to the evils which appear to arise from the want of frequent consultation on the affairs of the School between the Head Master and his Assistants. At a very large school like Eton, where the Head Master's supervision must necessarily be imperfect, and leave him uninformed of much that it is desirable for him to know, and where the Assistant Masters, from their number as well as from their occupations, are able to see very little of one another, the institution of a School Council, according to the outline sketched out in the First Part, is of the highest importance, and will, we believe, be of the greatest service.

The various subjects of study taught in the School should of course be fairly represented in the Council. We shall recommend that it should consist of not more than 15 members, and should comprise a certain number of the Classical Masters engaged in each part of the School, including one at least who has not charge of a boarding-house, a certain number of the Mathematical Masters, and some of the Teachers of Modern Languages and Natural Science. In the absence of the Head Master, the Lower Master, if present, should preside.

The defects which Mr. Coleridge has pointed out, arising from a want of organization, and which he proposes to correct in a different way, will, we believe, be substantially cured by this measure.

Number of the School, System of Admission, &c.

The tutorial system, as it exists at Eton, seems to offer facilities for a large and indefinite expansion of the numbers of the School. The proper proportion of boys to tutors having been ascertained, it seems easy to increase the number of boys by increasing proportionately the number of tutors, and as each tutor is also the master of a class in school, the due proportion of boys to class masters may in like manner be preserved. But it is to be observed that, if this process is carried too far, the School is in danger of degenerating from a single well-organized public institution into an aggregation of less perfectly organized private ones, and that it may in fact be lost in the tutors' houses.

It will be remarked that the liberty of action which the several tutors enjoy, and which is undoubtedly one of the great advantages of the tutorial system, leads to considerable diversity in their modes of dealing with their pupils. Some think highly, and some think lightly, of particular branches of study; and, as their pupils are of course much under their influence, they encourage or discourage them to pursue those branches accordingly. Some of them, for instance, attach importance to the study of French, and make more or less successful efforts to teach it. Others, and among them the Head Master, consider that the study of French is incompatible with the due prosecution of the study of the classics in the middle part, or perhaps in any part, of the School. If the several tutors were really the masters of separate schools, each entirely and solely responsible for the education of his own pupils, such diversities of opinion as this would be of comparatively little importance; but this is not the case. The boys are in daily contact with at least two different masters, their own tutor and their master in class; and if they find that what the one values highly is of little account with the other they naturally become perplexed, and it is to be apprehended that in too many cases they solve their doubts between two contradictory views by taking that which gives them the smallest amount of trouble. Thus, in such a case as that above referred to, a boy, finding that his class master thinks nothing of French, and that the boys in his remove, who are the pupils of other tutors, are not learning it, and that the Head Master does not assign any value to it at trials, will arrive at the conclusion that his tutor is crotchety, and that he need not work heartily at a study which, perhaps, is irksome to him.

It is obvious that in order to give the boys the full advantage of the mixed system of


[page 108]

class instruction and private tuition which prevails at Eton it is necessary to harmonize the work of the Masters and tutors, so that at least they may not perplex the boys by adopting inconsistent principles of teaching; and to accomplish this without unduly restraining the liberty of individual tutors must be a task of which the difficulty will be in proportion to the number of the persons engaged in the work of the School.

A somewhat different, but not less mischievous, kind of perplexity may be introduced into the School by the different views taken by the Masters upon points of discipline. This is a subject to which we shall have occasion to advert again; but we mention it here as an illustration of the difficulties which necessarily result from the administration of the School being confided to a large number of Masters having co-ordinate authority, and which must increase in magnitude with the increase of that number. If that which is a serious offence in the eyes of one Master is a slight one in the eyes of another, and none at all in the eyes of a third, the discipline of the School cannot be properly maintained.

These considerations lead us to the conclusion that some limit ought to be imposed upon the number of the Masters, and, as a consequence, upon the number of the boys in the School. Another ground for the same conclusion is to be found in the effect which an excessively large School has upon the boys themselves. The stimulus of emulation and the influence of public opinion may easily be weakened, and even destroyed, if the numbers of a School are allowed to rise to such a point as to render it difficult for the boys to know one another. When that point has been reached the tendency to split up the School into sets and smaller societies begins, and the influences of the boarding-house or of the pupil-room take the place of the influences of the School. It is stated in the evidence that in the opinion both of the Masters and the boys the present number of the School is not too large, and that the influences of the whole have not yet been lost in those of the parts; but the tendency to which we have referred is so obvious that we cannot contemplate the indefinite further expansion of the School without uneasiness as to its probable effects in this particular.

Lastly, it seems clear that the numbers of a Public School should not exceed what a single Head can himself exercise some actual personal influence upon.

These considerations are mainly of a general kind, and we have only to add that all such reasons appear on a magnified, or rather an exaggerated, scale at Eton.

From the unbounded spaciousness of the College grounds, the characteristic flexibility and absence of rigid system at the School, its popularity, and the constant increase in this country of the wealthy class, from which Eton is supplied, there seems hardly any positive limit to the extension of its numbers, which have been advancing steadily for many years.

We can understand the feelings of pride with which the authorities of the School and old Etonians must regard this increase, but we cannot think that its indefinite advance is desirable. In no long time the number of boys at Eton might be not far from that of the under-graduates at Oxford or Cambridge, whom we presume no one would think of subjecting to a single Head, and to an uniform system, such as is understood by that of the Public Schools.

The question what number is best for any individual Public School is one to be decided with reference to its past history, its general constitution and organization, its available funds, its local position, and many other circumstances which may properly be considered as giving it something of a distinctive character.

If the question were an open one, the number of 500 would appear to us, for a school like Eton, to be that which, under ordinary circumstances, might be expected to afford most effectually ample room for the beneficial influences of the system, and at the same time to be perfectly manageable by a single Head Master. The evidence to which we have referred above shows that under the present system the Head Master of Eton is unable to exercise that influence over the whole School which it is desirable that he should have. By relieving him of some portion of the labour of examinations, by organizing a School Council of Assistant Masters, and by some modifications of the course of study, means may be found for enabling him to accomplish more in this way than is at present possible; and, taking into consideration the excellence of the staff of Assistant Masters, and the length of the Head Master's personal experience as a tutor, we have little doubt that with these improvements in the organization of the School they will be well able to manage its present numbers, or about 800 boys. There are indeed actually more than that exact number; the schools and boarding-houses, since the ample additions just made to both of them, are fully adequate to it, and any material abatement of it would involve a great waste in those respects; and it is only just to leave to Eton the distinction as to this point which it has above the other schools, to which we propose that a similar rule should be applied. We should, however, be sorry to see this number


[page 109]

exceeded, and we are decidedly of opinion that it is of high importance to the welfare of the School that some such limit should be placed to its extension. In framing our suggestions, therefore, we have assumed that the number of the whole School, including oppidans and collegers, and the Lower as well as the Upper School, is not to exceed 800 boys, of whom we think there should be 650 in the Upper, and 150 in the Lower School.

The precise mode in which this limitation should be effected, we leave to the consideration of the Provost and Fellows. It may be done either by limiting the number of the tutors and assigning a maximum number of pupils to each, or more simply and directly by fixing the numbers of the School, and admitting no more boys when the list is full.

In the event of the latter plan being adopted, it will be necessary to frame a scheme for the admission of boys upon a system, which may place all applicants on an equal footing. The scheme must be framed with reference to the proper age of admission, the qualifications to be required for entrance into the Upper and Lower Schools respectively, the mode of proceeding from the Lower School to the Upper, and, as an incidental matter, the regulation of the Lower School itself. We proceed, therefore, to offer some observations upon these points.

At present the parents of any boy can obtain his admission into the Upper School up to the age of 14, if they can find a tutor belonging to the Upper School who will take him as his pupil, and a boarding-house in which he can be lodged, and if he can pass a certain examination. We are of opinion that this limit of age should be maintained, and that the same conditions as to the acceptance of the candidate by a tutor and a boarding-house keeper should be required as at present. We also think that the examination should be retained, and should be made somewhat more stringent and extensive than it now is. Great complaints are made by many of the masters, not of Eton alone, but of all the public schools, as to the state of preparation in which boys come up from private schools. The consequences are that the work of the public schools is in arrear from its very commencement, that boys are carried on in subjects in which they have never been properly grounded, and that other subjects, especially the study of the modern languages, are neglected altogether, because they have not been taken up at a sufficiently early age. We consider that every boy should be required before his admission into the Upper School at Eton to pass an examination, and to show that he has been well grounded for his age in classics and arithmetic, and in the elements of at least one modern language, which would usually, we presume, be French, but might sometimes be German. Our attention has been called to the fact that a considerable number of boys, many of them nearly 14 years old, are now rejected by the Head Master upon examination as unfit for the Upper School, but subsequently present themselves as candidates for admission into the Lower School, where there is no limit as to the age of entrance, are placed there, and after a longer or shorter time rise into the Upper School after the age at which they could have been originally placed in it. The regulations as to admission into the Upper School are thus evaded, and the consequence is that a certain number of very backward boys are placed with other boys who are several years younger than themselves, make their way with difficulty through the lower forms of the school, and leave before reaching the higher part of it. This admixture of older and backward boys with younger and more forward ones is a fruitful source of evil; the big boys are ashamed of their position, and frequently take refuge from the sense of shame in determined idleness; they embarrass the masters of their classes, and keep back the boys with whom they are associated; it is among them, too, that the greatest tendency to bully is found to exist.

It seems to us very important that measures should be taken to correct this evil. The regulations as to the age of admission should be carried further than at present. Not only should boys be inadmissible into the lowest form of the Upper School after 14, but boys who fail to proceed from form to form with reasonable rapidity should be required to leave the School. We think that no boy should be admitted into the Remove after the age of 15, or into the Fifth Form after that of 16; and that no boy should be allowed to remain in the School after he has passed either of those ages without obtaining promotion into the Form for which it is prescribed as a maximum. No boy ought to be allowed to remain in the Lower School after the age of 14. We think, too, that boys passing from the Lower School to the Upper should be required to pass the same examination as boys coming from other Schools are to pass, and that if they cannot do so, they ought not to be allowed to remain at Eton; the Lower School, in short, should be kept perfectly distinct from the Upper; the boys in it should have no preference over the boys from private schools m the admissions to the Upper School, and the admission lists for the two Schools should be kept entirely separate. The plan which we recommend is, that the Head Master should keep an admission list, upon which the names of candidates


[page 110]

for admission into the Upper School should be entered in the order in which applications are received; no boy's name, however, should be entered until he has completed his eighth year. As vacancies occur in the School, they should be offered in succession to the boys on the list, no distinction being made between boys who may happen to be in the Lower School and others. It should be optional with each boy whether he will present himself as a candidate for examination at once, or wait for another vacancy; but each boy who presents himself should be examined, and if found unfit to enter the part of the School for which his age qualifies him, he should be placed at the bottom of the list. No boy's name should be retained on the admission list after he has completed his 15th year. It will probably be found convenient to fix a minimum as well as a maximum of age for admission into the Upper School, and we suggest that the minimum be taken at 11 years.

The Lower School

We have already adverted (above, pp. 93, 94) to the differences of opinion which exist as to the advantages of the Lower School. If there were no such school it would be a doubtful question whether to recommend its establishment; but as it exists, and as several important measures have of late years been taken for its improvement, we are not disposed to recommend its abolition.

It seems to us that the School may be made practically useful as a model preparatory School if restricted to boys of tender age, and confined to the proper instruction of those boys with a view to their admission into the Upper School. For this purpose the studies of the Lower School should he carefully adapted to those of the Upper; the masters of the Lower School should devote their whole attention to that School: and they should neither attempt to combine the care of Upper School pupils with Lower School duties, nor be encouraged to look upon their posts in the Lower School as merely introductory to masterships in the Upper School. The care and instruction of little boys is as important and, in some sense, as difficult as the care and instruction of older boys. The arrangements for the Lower School boys, though much improved, are still very imperfect. Many of the boys board in the same houses as the Upper School boys, while the Lower Master takes Upper School pupils into his house, and is even allowed to take a larger number of boarders and to charge them a higher sum than the Assistant Masters may. It is true that he is forbidden to take out-door pupils, but it appears to us to be wrong that he should take any Upper School pupils at all. We shall propose that every boy in the Lower School be required, unless he lives at home, to board in the house of the Lower Master, or in one of the houses kept by the Assistant Lower Masters, and that neither the Lower Master nor the Assistant Lower Masters be allowed to receive any but Lower School boys, or to keep them after they have risen into the Upper School.

With regard to the admission of boys from the Lower School into the Upper, we have already said that it ought not to take place by way of promotion, but by a regular examination, in which a boy from the Lower School should stand on the same footing as a boy from any private school. It follows as a corollary that boys admitted from the Lower into the Upper School should not be obliged to enter the latter at the bottom, but should he allowed to take the highest place in it for which they are fit. A clever boy who, from standing low in the Head Master's list, had not obtained an admission into the Upper School till he was just 14 might be competent to take a place in the Remove, and ought to be allowed to try for it. The teaching of the Lower School would thus overlap the teaching of the Fourth Form, which would be of no disadvantage to either of them. The Lower School might be so arranged as to have an upper class in which the work done should be fully equal to that of the Fourth Form, and boys who had reached this class might be allowed, as an exception to the general rule we have laid down before, to remain in it up to the age of 15, supposing that to be the maximum age for admission into the Remove. Boys of that age would of course be inadmissible into the Fourth Form, and must understand that if they fail of the Remove they must leave Eton. These are details which the Provost and Fellows will have no difficulty in arranging. We merely desire to indicate the principles which we think should be kept in view.

While upon the subject of the Lower School we think it right to state that the work which is required of the boys seems to us to be in excess, and that the boys are not allowed a proper amount of relaxation and exercise. The Provost and Fellows should have their attention directed to the re-arrangement, in concert with the Lower Master, of the system of study, so as to obviate this inconvenience.

We shall speak of the studies of the Lower School in connexion with those of the Upper.


[page 111]

Work in the different Divisions. The Tutor's construing

It appears from what has been stated already that the extremely large classes of the old Eton system have been gradually broken up into Divisions of moderate and manageable size. With this change has disappeared the first and most direct evil consequence of such an arrangement, that of distracting the attention of one man capable of instructing only 35 or 40 boys by a throng of 200. If this direct mischief had been the only one that must have attended that excessive magnitude of the forms, the whole inconvenience of the system would have been remedied by recent improvements on this point. In our opinion, however, the system had some other indirect consequences inseparable from it so long as it lasted, and these having been unnecessarily retained still affect the teaching of the School. A school which consists of enormous Forms is necessarily a school in which the same authors are read and the same books used by a vast number of boys. Two hundred heard in one class must read the same books; and the whole of such a school consisting of 600 boys might therefore present a list of authors showing no greater variety and number than the small part of another school in which the same number of boys were distributed into Classes of 30 or 40 scholars. That the Eton, therefore, of the days of Dr. Keate should have been remarkable for the narrowness of its curriculum in classical reading was almost a necessity imposed upon it by its organization at that time.

But the present condition of Eton shows that if such a change in the size of the classes be not followed into all its legitimate consequences, large masses of boys may still be reading the same works and the same quantities of them, although arranged in several classes and taught by different class-masters. If we turn, for instance, to the work of a single Division of the Fifth Form we find the number of Attic Greek authors read to be one, the number of Latin prose authors one, the number of Latin poets two, the number of Greek poets two, these indeed the best and freshest, although not containing one specimen of the Attic amongst them. Such work, if regarded as the work of one Division, is choice and various, but considered as the work of six or seven Divisions, and of two or three hundred boys, it involves two obvious inconveniences. The first of these is that boys of all ages between the extremes of thirteen years nine months and eighteen years eleven months are performing the same tasks. A second objection is to be found in the fact that one and the same boy is compelled to read the same books, encounter the same difficulties, harp on the same styles (competing all the while with the same rivals) for two or three years together. Mr. Johnson appears to see no great harm in this, because different passages of the same author, as his style undulates, so to speak, in higher and lower degrees of difficulty, will meet the level of every age and every degree of proficiency in matters of construction and criticism. Nor does he feel much objection to it as tending to make the work stale and wearisome, because the varying style even of a single classic author may so break monotony both in language and ideas as to support students through the lucubrations [studies] of many years in the same book.

Mr. Balston does not desire even so much latitude as this; he thinks the arrangement excellent, because even the same passage of the same author may, in the hands of skilful men, open questions so different that the teacher of the young may propound out of it elementary matters to the least advanced, while the teacher of the old may extract from it materials to exercise the wit and improve the knowledge of the most proficient. Perhaps, however, very able men are here attributing to a system merits not really belonging to it, but so contrary to its tendencies that if found and realized at all they have been artificially imported into it by the ingenuity and determination of a few teachers, while in the hands of many or even of themselves, as soon as their best efforts are relaxed, the more natural tendencies of the arrangement, which are prejudicial, become its effects. Mr. Balston himself, when asked whether as a matter of fact these differences of treatment are carried out, replies that they are so in the classes. But even in the different classes of the School, according to the concurrent opinion of many who have had recent experience as teachers or learners, this possible difference of treatment is not carried out nor likely to be carried out in practice. In the pupil-room this process must be still more difficult, for the lesson lasts but about 20 or 25 minutes, and as it does not appear practicable for a tutor to subdivide all his Fifth Form pupils into more than two sets, one class contains an assemblage of boys very unequal in age and attainments, Mr. Balston himself speaks of it here as that "which may easily be" and "is expected", rather than that which actually is and can be made apparent to common observers. In fact, the teaching everywhere is likely to be the same to all. Meanwhile the younger boys find the lessons in themselves so much too hard in kind and too long in quantity, that even what they may have learned by the quick and royal road of "cribs", they are not in a state to get through at all before a searching class-master within the appointed time; and the elder, too often mistaking familiarity for


[page 112]

knowledge, slur through first-rate authors of which the professed study of years has failed to give them the real mastery. We are of opinion, therefore, that the books read in the several Divisions should be re-arranged so as to provide work more precisely appropriate to the students in the several different degrees of proficiency through which they pass in their ascent up the School. The progress of boys would be assisted by this, and the present distribution of the old unwieldy Forms into Divisions of more reasonable size permits the introduction of such a change. But here we are met by an obstacle, effectual as long as it exists, to prevent the application of any such remedy. Latin and Greek authors are, as we have seen, construed in school only after they have been construed in pupil-room; and every tutor may possibly have pupils in every Division who will look to him to superintend this preliminary lesson. If, therefore, there were different work for each Division of the Fifth Form, each tutor having pupils might be called upon to teach many different sets of pupils in Fifth Form work alone. Now the tutor cannot sub-divide his pupils into sets or classes equal in number to the several Divisions of the School. He has but the time and faculties of one man to bestow on pupils who in their class-work are taught by many. If, therefore, their class-work is different, as they cannot be taught in pupil-room together, they cannot be taught in pupil-room at all. Any thorough change, therefore, in the work of the several Divisions thus necessitates an abolition of that part of the tutorial system which consists in construing before the tutor.

Now it is contended on the part of some that, if this were the only plea for the continuance of the present curriculum of the classes, it would be sufficient. The construing to tutors is an institution so valuable in the estimate of such persons, that not only must it be preserved on its own account, but it should rescue from modification the School curriculum, whatever may be its peculiar inconveniences. It has, we are told, a good effect in the pupil-room; because, when the higher boys are set on, it puts them on their mettle, to be as smart and accurate as possible, in order to release both tutor and pupils from the pupil-room: and when the younger boys are called up in their turn, this recalls to the seniors elementary matters which they might otherwise disdain and forget. It has a good effect on class teaching, too, as enabling the master to insist on a general high standard of accuracy, and also to give some time to his own remarks and criticisms. It brings the boys into contact with two minds over the same work instead of one; it gives to the tutor fresh opportunities of insight into the character and progress of his pupil.

This view of its merits, however, is not universal amongst the Eton Masters. Hard facts stated by experienced witnesses here again speak otherwise. Boys do not generally know their lessons well in the class-room, although this is the chief object aimed at, and they notoriously have recourse to "cribs" although this is the chief evil guarded against by the practice. Those who seem to construe fluently have not learned carefully, as they appear often with the English written over the Greek and Latin. The lessons thus done a second time are often done in a hurry for the second time, because they must be twice done. There is constantly acting on the tutor's mind a temptation to call on the quicker and cleverer boy to construe in order to save time; and as it is the practice of some tutors to go through the lesson with one advanced set in the presence of another set, who listen to one construe before they have to construe themselves, a temptation is systematically offered to the pupils to neglect very careful preparation. According to the Provost of King's, who sees some reason to prefer the old practice to the new, it was the habit of the tutor in past times himself to construe to his whole pupil-room. We are inclined to consider its chief use to have been that of a supplement to a system which gave the same work to elder and younger boys. In such case the younger may generally require some artificial assistance to carry them through. A custom, therefore, which brought all before a tutor, where commonly some older boy watched or corrected by him first construed the task, supplied at once a rapid method of learning, and an easy correction of imperfect learning, to younger boys, who were thus enabled to make a fair appearance in the class-room. If, when the large classes were subdivided, the classwork of the subdivisions had also been changed and varied, the construing system, it seems to us, might have been dispensed with; and we now think it better that a change in class-work should supersede the tutor's construing, than that the tutor's construing should forbid the change in class-work. The acknowledged failure of this practice to give a real knowledge of the lessons, its occupation of valuable time, its susceptibility of abuse in various ways, its tendency to supersede the independent work of the boy, as well as its vital connexion with the faulty organization of the class-work in school, induce us to recommend its abolition. We, therefore, shall suggest both that the work in the several Divisions be recast so as to adapt the reading and composition of each boy to his pro-


[page 113]

ficiency as he rises in the school, and also that boys cease to construe their lessons in the pupil-room before taking them up to the Class-Master.

Course of Instruction

We are of opinion that the course of instruction at Eton requires modification and re-arrangement. It appears to us that the attempts which have of late years been made to introduce a certain amount of what may for the sake of convenience be called modern studies into a course originally framed with a view to classical learning alone, have not been thoroughly successful; and we attribute this want of success partly to the imperfect recognition of the value of the new studies, and partly to the fact that no serious effort has been made to harmonize what is new with what is old. It is not sufficient to add new branches of study to the old course, it is necessary to make room for them by a revision of the old course itself.

We have already recommended, not only for the sake of economizing time but upon other grounds, that the practice of construing in pupil-room should be abolished. We shall further propose: 1. A revision of the time-table and a modification of the present system of holidays during the school-time: 2. Some reduction in the length or frequency of the repetition lessons.

1. The irregularity of the time-table is a matter of almost universal complaint. It must be unnecessary for us to point out that, if it is inconvenient now, when classics and mathematics alone have to be considered, it will become infinitely more inconvenient, and indeed, intolerable, if other studies have to be introduced into the school course.

Considering how large a part of the work done both by the boys and the masters is done out of School, and how necessary it is to give ample time to the former for the preparation of their lessons and the composition of their exercises, and to the latter for looking over exercises and conducting "private business" with their pupils, it is obviously desirable so to arrange the time-table as to leave certain days in the week comparatively free from School-work; and there can be no objection to giving the boys longer play hours on some days than on others; but we can see no advantage in making the number of holidays and half-holidays in each week variable and uncertain. As long, however, as the Saints' days are observed as School holidays, this irregularity is inevitable; and we are of opinion that the first step to a reform of the time-table must be the abolition of that mode of observance. We shall propose hereafter that the chapel services should be made daily instead of occasional, and should take place at the same hour on Saints' days as on other days. It would follow that the school hours on Saints' days should be also the same as on other days. Ascension day should of course be kept as an entire holiday. No other holidays should, we think, be granted beyond those included in the regular arrangement for the week, except in obedience to a Royal command, or on the occasion of some important national event. The distinctive School festival of the 4th of June would of course be kept as at present.

2. The repetition lessons appear to occupy too much time, especially in the upper part of the School. In a regular week the Head Master spends seven hours in hearing the repetition of his Division, consisting of 32 boys. In the next Division, consisting of an equal number of boys, about six hours and a half appear to be spent in the same way. In the lower Divisions the time so occupied is not more than four hours. It is an objectionable feature in the system, that, while the master often remains in School hearing lessons for as much as an hour and a half at a time, the boys need not spend much above five minutes apiece there, each coming in when he expects his turn and going out as soon as he has said his portion of the lesson. In some cases, it appears, the boys are able to escape the necessity of learning the whole lesson, and contrive to pass muster by guessing at and learning that part only in which they are likely to be set on. This piece of evasion may of course easily be defeated by a different system of hearing the lesson; but the waste of time to which we have above adverted requires correction. It seems to us that it would be a great improvement to divide the classes, at the time of the repetition lessons, into much smaller subdivisions, and to employ the masters of several Divisions in hearing the repetition of one Division at a time, so as to get through it rapidly. Their own Divisions may meanwhile be employed with the mathematical, French, or other masters, so that there need be no waste of time.

We are persuaded that by the adoption of such measures as these, and by a careful revision of the time-table on the part of the masters, room may be made for the introduction of the Modern Language and Natural Science classes without injury to the other work of the School. It is not for us to prescribe the details of the arrangements which should be made; but, in order to show that what we recommend is not an impossibility, one of our number has so applied to the circumstances of Eton the plan of studies


[page 114]

and scale of time to be allotted to each which we have proposed for adoption in all public schools, as to afford a basis upon which a working arrangement might be made by those upon whom the practical responsibility for the School management will rest.*

*The following is the scheme referred to:

The following suggestions are offered with a view to show how it will be possible to introduce the study of modern languages, of natural science, and of music and drawing into the school course without unduly diminishing the time given to classics, or the hours of recreation.

I. The time now given to school work in class in a regular week is, in the Head Master's division, 22 hours, of which three are given to mathematics, seven to repetition, and 12 to construing. In the next division the time given is 21 hours, of which three are given to mathematics, six to repetition, and 12 to construing. In the remainder of the Upper School the number of house is 19, of which three are given to mathematics, four to repetition, nine or ten to construing, and three or two to history and geography.

In a very large proportion of weeks, however, the additional holidays and half-holidays reduce the amount of time thus allotted to school very materially. It is thought that a regular allowance of 12 hours a week for all classical work, including repetition lessons (which ought to be diminished in length or in frequency), and including also the history and geography lessons, will be sufficient. It is suggested that on three days in the week there should be three hours given to classical work in school-class, and that on the other three days one hour should be given. The time which the classical masters have to spend in school would thus be reduced from 16 or 19 hours in a regular week to 12 hours in every week. It is also proposed to relieve them of the "construing", which takes up some 10 hours a week, They will thus have more time left for "private business", for looking over exercises, and for preparing the class-work.

The total number of classical masters will be 22, viz. one Head Master, 16 assistants, who are tutors, and five assistants who are not tutors. They will he able to divide the 650 boys of the Upper School into classes averaging about 30. All these classes may be in school under their respective form-masters at the same hours.

II. It is proposed that every boy in the Upper School should receive three hours' instruction in mathematics in class every week. The number of mathematical masters being seven, and the number of boys to he taught 650, the classes may on the average contain 15 or 16 boys. The number of hours which the masters will spend in school in the week will be 18, a larger number than is required of the classical masters; but these have many other duties from which the mathematical masters are exempt. They may give four hours to class work on the days on which there is only one classical lesson, and two hours on the days on which there are three classical lessons. Each of them may thus give three hours apiece to six classes of 15 or 16 boys, or to 93 in all, so that the whole seven could teach 651 boys.

III. It is proposed that each boy in the Upper School should give two hours a week to class work in modern languages. It is proposed to have three teachers, to give each of them a class of about 30 boys, and to require them to attend in school 14 hours a week, namely, three hours a day on two days, and two hours a day on the other four. This would enable each master to give two hours apiece to seven classes of 31 boys each, that is to say, to 217 boys, so that the three masters could teach 651 boys in 14 hours.

IV. It is proposed that a certain number of boys in the Upper School, and possibly in the Lower School also, should give two hours a week to class work in natural science. It is proposed that there should be two lecturers, each of whom should attend school for 14 hours a week, namely, for three hours on two days, and two hours on the other four. Suppose that each took a class of 40 boys at a time; he could then give two hours apiece to seven times 40, or 280; and the two masters could between them teach 560, which is probably more than would learn, so that the classes might be made smaller.

V. It is proposed that each boy in the Upper School should have the opportunity of learning music or drawing for two hours a week, and that a certain number of them should be obliged to learn. It is proposed that there should be a drawing lesson of an hour every day in the week, and a music lesson of an hour twice a week, the days for the music lesson being those on which only two hours apiece were devoted to the modern language and natural science classes. One-third of the number of boys learning drawing, whatever that number might be, would attend at each drawing lesson, and a proper number of masters must be provided. All the boys learning music would have to attend each of the music lessons.

By this plan there would be 11 hours every day during which some class or other would be open, no class interfering with any other class. The following scheme will illustrate their working:

There will remain 13 hours in every day for chapel and meals, sleep, and recreation, without any interference with any of the classes.

It will of course be understood on the one hand that the boys will not all be in the school during the whole, or anything like the whole of the 11 hours for which the classes are open; and on the other hand, that they will not be without occupation during the time they are out of school.

The number of hours which a boy will pass in school will be 21 in the week, namely,

Thus, he will have somewhat more than seven hours a day school-work, the preparation connected with it, and composition; and if to this we add ten hours for meals and sleep, he will have six or seven hours left for recreation and private reading. The length of time required for preparation of lessons and for composition will of course vary with the abilities and industry of each boy, and his time for recreation will be increased or diminished accordingly. It must also be remembered that clever boys, and such as are likely to obtain distinction in competitions for prizes, the Newcastle scholarship, and so forth, as on the one hand they will he able to save part of the time which we have supposed to he allowed for preparation, so on the other hand will be sure to apply, not only the time so saved, but, some of the time of recreation, to the prosecution of their private studies independent of the school-work.

In the foregoing arrangements it may perhaps appear that sufficient allowance has not been made for the wasted time that must take place in going from one class to another. This will be not wholly inconsiderable, as the boys will often have to go from school to their boarding houses, and back to school again; but it is to be observed, that the scheme has been so drawn up as to exclude any overlapping of classes at all, and that in practice it will be found possible to allow a certain amount of overlapping without inconvenience. The classical repetition lessons, for instance, might be going on at the same time as some of the other lessons. Thus, if the repetition lesson were from eight to nine, and there were a mathematical class from half-past seven to half-past eight, and another from half-past eight to half-past nine, it would be easy to arrange that the boys [footnote continues on next page]


[page 115]

It will be observed that in this scheme provision is made for the instruction of each boy in all the branches of study which we recommend. It may, however, appear to the School authorities to be desirable for boys to defer commencing some of those branches, such, for instance, as Natural Science or Drawing, until they have made a certain amount of progress in their other work; or, on the other hand, to discontinue these studies at a certain point in case of their showing no especial aptitude for them, or in case of their being anxious to devote a greater amount of time to other portions of their education. We are of opinion that the best arrangement would be, that boys should begin the study of elementary drawing on their first admission to the School, and should be required to continue it until they reach the Fifth Form, by which time their hands and eyes will have been partially educated, and they will have been able to show whether they have such natural aptitude for the pursuit as to render its further prosecution desirable. Boys whose parents preferred it should be allowed to take up Music instead of Drawing. The study of Natural Science should, we think, be made compulsory upon all boys for a certain portion of their school life. If it should be found that there is sufficient time for it, it might be commenced on a boy's first admission, and might be continued until he reaches the upper division of the Fifth Form. The evidence which we have taken on the subject convinces us that boys may profitably begin the study of some parts of Natural Science at a very early age. Such an opinion, however, must be necessarily limited in its application by a consideration of the time which a boy has at his disposal; and as it appears to us clear that at Eton the boys in the lower part of the School are much more severely worked than the boys in the upper part, and as we think it essential that they should add French, and desirable that they should add Drawing or Music to their other studies, we hesitate to offer a positive recommendation that they should be called upon to take up Natural Science also, and we therefore suggest as an alternative that this study should not be made compulsory upon any boy until he reaches the Fifth Form, the point at which we have proposed to make the further pursuit of Drawing or Music optional. It should then continue to be compulsory until the boy reaches the upper division of the Fifth.

While anxious not to overtask the younger boys, who, as we have said, are fully tasked already, we are convinced that we may safely recommend the addition of French, and Drawing or Music, to their present course, feeling sure that the imposition of a proper examination upon their admission to the School will lead to their being better prepared before they come there, and will enable the masters proportionately to diminish the amount of pressure which it is now necessary to put on them in order to make up for time previously lost.

When boys reach the upper division of the Fifth Form, an opportunity should, we think, be given to them of varying their course of study with reference to their destinations in life or to their individual tastes and faculties. The average age at which boys reach this part of the School is about 16; and this is in many cases a critical time, as respects both the development of the boy's own character, and the decision of his parents as to his future career. Many boys are taken away from Eton at this period of their lives, because the School fails to supply the kind of teaching which they then require. Others who have worked fairly and made some progress in the elementary parts of the classics up to this time, there begin to fall off, as the work becomes more advanced. They may have learnt to construe and to compose with tolerable correctness, but they fail to appreciate the higher beauties of the authors set before them, or to compose with anything like spirit or elegance. On the other hand, this is the time at which ambitious and clever boys begin to work for the Newcastle scholarship and other school prizes, to prepare themselves for the University competitions, and to feel an interest in private

[footnote continued from previous page] attending the later mathematical class should say their lessons in the first half hour of the repetition, and the boys attending the earlier one might say theirs in the second half hour. It would also be possible to make some similar arrangement with regard to the hours of breakfast, tea, and even supper, which some boys might take half an hour earlier or later than the usual time. The school hours might also overlap the play hours, provided that two hours at least in every day were left entirely clear of all lessons, whether with the tutor or in class, so as to give the whole school the power of joining in common amusements at that time. In summer, the time from six to eight or nine, and in winter, the time from twelve to two, might be strictly reserved, so as to insure to every boy the free and uninterrupted enjoyment of either an "after 12", or an "after 6", on every day in the year.

The number of hours assigned to classical school-work in the week is 12. This would allow of 12 lessons of an hour apiece; or of 12 lessons of three-quarters of an hour and three of one hour. The best arrangement would probably be to assign 12 lessons of three-quarters of an hour each to the work of construing, and such instruction in grammar, history, and geography as may be ancillary thereto; and three lessons of an hour each to repetition lessons. The hours of the repetition lessons might indeed be extended if necessary. If four minutes were allotted to each boy in a class of 30 boys, two hours would be required to hear the whole class. These two hours might easily be given by the masters on the three days in the week for which only one hour has been set down for classics. They might be given either together or separately. In four minutes a boy could recite 40 or 50 lines perfectly; and this would be a great improvement upon the present system of "saying".


[page 116]

classical reading. It is therefore on all accounts desirable that some greater latitude than is at present allowed in the choice of studies, should be given to boys in this part of the School; and we recommend that arrangements should be made for allowing boys after reaching the upper division to drop either a certain portion of their classical, or a certain portion of their other work, in order to devote more time to the remainder. The parts of the classical work which might best be spared would probably be the Latin verse composition, the Greek composition, whether in verse or prose, and some portion of the repetition lessons. On the other hand, boys wishing to devote themselves more entirely to classics, might be allowed to give up either Natural Science or to a certain extent Modern Languages. Great care should be taken to prevent these privileges from being abused, and the exemption from particular studies claimed as a pretext for idleness. We think that the regulations under which it should be granted, should be carefully framed by the Provost and Fellows in communication with the Head Master and School Council; and that the permission to discontinue any portion of the school work should, in each individual case, rest with the Head Master, who should not grant it unless upon the concurrent recommendation of the boy's parents or guardians, and of his tutor, nor even then, unless himself satisfied of its propriety.

Subject to these restrictions and exceptions, we think that Classics, Mathematics, Modern Languages and Natural Science should continue to be studied to the top of the School, and that no boy should be allowed to take his removes without passing in each of them the examination proper to the part of the School in which he is.

The system of promotion by removes now goes no further than the upper division of the Fifth Form; and although there are examinations for the Collegers, there are none for the Oppidans after they have reached that division. We think this an error, and have little doubt that it is one of the causes of the acknowledged want of energy among the Oppidans in the upper part of the School. The remedies which we shall propose are these two: That the upper division be subdivided, like the middle and lower divisions, into two removes; and that promotions from the lower into the upper of these removes, and from the upper of them into the Sixth Form, be determined by competitive examinations. The number of the Sixth Form is, we think, too limited in proportion to the size of the School. We shall propose its extension.

The Mathematical Masters and the Teaching of Mathematics

In a former part of the report we have perhaps sufficiently indicated the measures required for placing mathematics on their due level at Eton. It is impossible to go into much detail on this point; and it seems enough to say that the Provost and Fellows should bear in mind the principle of entire equality between the Classical and Mathematical Masters, as to their share in the general discipline of the School, the behaviour of the boys towards them, and indeed in all points as far as practicable.

The ancient classical spirit of the place may indeed operate for an indefinite time in depressing mathematics; but we believe that what we have recommended will gradually more and more counteract this tendency.

School Prizes and Rewards

We shall venture to make a few recommendations under this head, but they do not appear to require many observations in support of them.

(a) Prizes confined to Oppidans

We have already adverted to the great superiority in scholarship shown for many years past by the Collegers above the Oppidans. Much will be found in the evidence on this subject. Considering the highly valuable character of the endowments of the Foundation, the unrestricted competition through which they are attained, and many circumstances bearing on the position of the Oppidans, we can hardly expect that this inequality should ever be wholly redressed, though we believe that some of the measures we have advised may have a tendency to do so. But we are disposed to recommend, in accordance with the opinion of many witnesses of authority, a more specific provision for the encouragement of the Oppidans in their studies, in the establishment of exhibitions for which they alone will be allowed to compete. Such a measure is perhaps to be justified by the existence of a special evil rather than on general grounds, though we may observe that it may be looked on as simply countervailing the separate prizes offered to the Collegers in their proper endowments.

Most of the details of these exhibitions should be left to the Provost and Fellows to settle, but we may state that in our opinion they should, if possible, be not less than 20 and probably not more than 40 in number; that they should be tenable while the holder


[page 117]

remains at school; that those who stand for them should be under the age of 16; and that not less than half of the whole number he given for classical attainments, the rest for excellence in any of the compulsory branches of school-work.

(b) Prizes for composition and translation

We recommend that prizes be given for original composition in Latin prose and verse and in English verse; and also for translations both of prose and poetry, and both into and out of the classical languages. We have already referred to the evidence of several witnesses showing that the exercise of translation is not sufficiently attended to at Eton.

We also concur in the opinion expressed to us that too little is done at Eton in the way of public celebration in honour of those who attain such prizes, as is so frequent at many schools; and we advise that the prize compositions be publicly recited by their writers, and the prizes given, before the whole school and such visitors as may be collected for the occasion.

Lastly, we add a suggestion respecting the Newcastle Scholarship. After the examination for this, which is by far the greatest classical honour in the School, the Examiners announce the names of a certain number of boys, next below the scholar and medallist, who have done themselves credit. This list, popularly known among the boys as "the select", varies in number about from 8 to 12 or 14. It is a high distinction, but it does not appear in the School lists, though all other prizes and distinctions are there recorded.

We advise that the School list of every year should contain the names of "the select" for that year and for a certain number of previous years.

Chapel Services - Prayers - Preaching

We proceed to observe on the system of Chapel Services at Eton, which we have already partially described.

We are glad to be able to express our belief that there has been of late years a great improvement in the demeanour of the boys when in Chapel, in the number of communicants among them, in their joining in the responses, and in the singing. In these latter respects, however, they are still much inferior to what they might be. As above noticed, there is a marked difference between the conduct of the boys on Sundays and their conduct at the week-day services. There appears to be still prevalent among the boys much of the feeling that has often been commented on at Eton, that the week-day services are simply roll-calls. We think that it would tend in good measure to counteract this feeling, and that it would be on various grounds very beneficial, if, according to the recommendation of the witnesses to whom we have referred, an entire change were made in the Eton Chapel system, as relates to the week days.

Before proceeding, however, we must observe that on Ascension Day, which (except Sundays) is the only great Church festival that can occur during the Eton school-time, we suggest no change. We recommend that that day be a whole holiday still, and that the full morning and afternoon services be performed as they are at present.

We propose that, with this reservation, there be no distinction, in respect of the Chapel Services, between one week day and another; that on every week day there be a short morning service in Chapel, attended by all the boys, and, as far as possible, by the Masters, in lieu of morning prayers in the boarding-houses; and that this service be, as nearly as possible, of the same length on each day. On the Saints' days that which is peculiar to the service of the day should be included according to the Prayer Book. We say "as nearly as possible", because we do not desire that the services should be necessarily identical on all the days. They should, no doubt, consist wholly of selections from the Liturgy; but these might be somewhat varied from week to week, or in other ways. Different prayers might be used; a lesson might be read alternately with the Psalms or Canticles, and so forth. These details we desire to see left to the Governing Body to arrange, expressing only a decided opinion that the length of the service should not exceed a quarter of an hour. At present, as we have observed, the Lower School do not go to the College Chapel, but to the Chapel of Ease in the town. This arrangement, which even now is obviously unsatisfactory, would become still more so under the proposed alteration. The Governing Body should provide, as they may easily do, for the attendance, at least on week-days, of the whole School in the College Chapel. We recommend that in no case, except that of Ascension Day, the boys should be required to attend any other week-day service than this.

With the services on Sunday, apart from the question of preaching, we do not propose to interfere, with one important exception, relating to the musical part of the service, and on which we have to make suggestions which will regard the week days as well as the Sundays.

We are bound to say that we can discover no justification at all of the total neglect


[page 118]

which we have described, on the part of Eton College, of the statutable provisions that require the College to maintain a proper choir and choral service in their own Chapel. We by no means intend any particular censure on the existing Provost and Fellows; for, though we have no certain evidence of the times at which the discontinuance of the ancient practice may have begun or been completed, we have no doubt that it has long been disused, and the present or recent members of the College may, to a certain extent, urge the usual plea of desuetude. But we cannot say more than "to a certain extent", because the plea of desuetude loses much of its force when the provisions of the written law, so far from being unsuitable and obsolete, are essentially the reverse, and the practical abrogation of them is manifestly inconvenient. Here the statutable enactment is most full and clear. The lay-clerks and the choristers were actual members of the College, and while the former were partly, the latter were wholly, maintained and educated by it, and enjoyed a right of preference in the election of Scholars.

The present practice is to borrow a fragment of the neighbouring choir of St. George's, Windsor, and to make certain allowances to the men and boys for their services. But this expedient does not even pretend to provide for the service with anything like completeness; for on far the most important occasion of all, the Sunday morning, there is no choral service, and its absence has recently been made even more perceptible by the meagre substitute of a few hymns, sung by a few boys from the parochial schools. The same remark applies to the mornings of holidays. We have pointed out the inadequacy of this system as relates to the Chapel services, and the bad effect, at least on the young choristers, of this hurried and compulsory attendance on the repetition of the same services on the same days has been dwelt on in the evidence of one of the Fellows of Eton themselves.

We do not propose, however, in this any more than in other matters, when dealing with the revision of the statutes, that they should be maintained, except in their spirit, and when an adherence to them seems well adapted to present times. According to this, it seems to us that the general model of existing cathedral establishments ought to be followed, and can with perfect ease be followed, at Eton. We think the College may fairly be allowed to engage singing-men on such terms as they think fit. Those persons are masters of their own time and free agents in the matter; but the case is quite different as to singing-boys. The College, we conceive, ought to take full charge of them. They should have a general school education, musical teaching, and moral superintendence provided for them according to the best examples of the cathedrals, together with a certain annual allowance in food and clothing or in money, and at the proper age they should be either apprenticed to some trade or receive some fair equivalent from the College funds. The full choral service should be had, both morning and afternoon, on Sundays and on Ascension Day. But we further believe that, as we have indicated before, in all chapel services the introduction of the musical element, and the use of the organ, tend to make them more acceptable to the great majority of boys, and we accordingly advise that music should always form a part of the daily morning service which we have recommended at Eton. We believe that this might easily be adapted to the proposed limits of the time of that service; and, further, we conceive that the choristers alone, without the singing-men, would suffice for the week days. Further details may be left to the Governing Body, and we have only to add on this point that the financial considerations which it involves will be treated in that part of our Report which deals with the College revenues.

We need hardly say that we propose in no way to interfere with the Chapel Services, except in so far as concerns the attendance of the boys at them.

Some alteration, as we have observed, appears to us to be required in the system of preaching in Chapel. At present, by usage, though apparently not by any positive law, the sermons are almost solely preached by Fellows of the College. We have already stated that we can see no sufficient ground for the restriction, which we think might advantageously be relaxed, so to speak, on both sides; the Provost or Fellows being at liberty, on the one hand, to invite suitable or distinguished preachers unconnected with the School, and on the other, occasionally to request the Masters and Assistant Masters of the School to deliver sermons, should they think fit to do so, The Fellows are, no doubt, often highly qualified for this function; but others may be no less so; and one advantage, which they justly conceive themselves to possess in their former acquaintance as Masters with the characters of the boys, belongs in our view still more to those who are actually engaged in tuition. We are quite aware, indeed, that the subject-matter of sermons in School Chapels needs to be handled with discretion, and that it may be easy to overdo the special and direct application of them to the boys. But it seems to us paradoxical to deny the advantage of such application when discreetly made; and we need hardly observe that there are many excellent and recent examples of such addresses,


[page 119]

as those of Dr. Arnold, Dr. Moberly, Bishop Wordsworth, Bishop Cotton, Dr. Vaughan, and Mr. Sewell.

Boarding Houses

The question of Boarding-houses at Eton is connected with that of the numbers of the School and the limitation of them.

We propose, as stated above, that the Upper School should be limited to 650, the Lower to 150. Assuming this basis, the main points for consideration are, who should keep the boarding-houses; how many are wanted; and with regard to the tutors, how many boys each should be allowed to have in his house. The last question is only a part of the general one of the proper number of tutors for the School; and it will be necessary to deal here, to a great extent, with that general question.

We must, however, premise that, as indeed is the case in most of such questions, the view of what might be in itself the best arrangement must be very greatly modified by the conditions of existing circumstances. But we are inclined to think that it may be practically convenient, as at least illustrating the ultimate object to which some gradual approximation may be made, that we should in the first place consider the matter as if it were res integra [whole matter], unembarrassed by particular accidents.

We think that eventually the boys should board with none but those engaged in the tuition of the School. We say so, while allowing most fully the great merits of those, whether dames or gentlemen in Mr. Evans's position, who keep boarding-houses without being Masters. But with regard to the former, apart from the fitness of individuals, we cannot think that, speaking generally, a woman is as well able to take charge of the discipline of a large number of boys of the age and class that are to be found at Eton, as a man is. With regard indeed to the latter, the case is different. Nor do we deny that there is force in the consideration which Mr. Evans has suggested to us, that a man in his position has much more time to give to the general superintendence of his boys than a tutor has; that he may in fact give nearly the whole of his time.

This strongly confirms the propriety of a judicious limitation of the number in the tutors' houses; but unless this consideration supplied an overwhelming argument in favour of such a class of boarding-houses (which it must be observed are never likely to be as numerous as those kept by dames), it is clearly better for the sake of uniformity and simplicity that the boarding-house system should be one and the same.

But it seems to us, on the contrary, that the positive arguments in favour of confining it to tutors greatly preponderate. It is more convenient to parents to look to one man only than to two for reports respecting their sons. The tutor is necessarily brought far more than any other into intercourse with the boy, in respect of all those salient features of character which are concerned in the School work, and is so far the fittest person for his general superintendence. As the general rule, allowing fully for exceptions, the tutor will be an abler and more qualified person than the boarding-house keeper; and this applies quite as much to Mathematical Masters, if appointed on a right system, as to the Classical. It has been said that it does not follow, that because a man is a good mathematical teacher he is fitted to deal with boys; but this evidently proves nothing. It applies to the case of classical tutors also, for it unquestionably is a difficult point, in the selection of tutors in such a place as Eton, to secure those who are both intellectually and morally the best for the post. We suggest, therefore, that future vacancies in the Eton boarding-houses be supplied from among the Classical and Mathematical Masters only, the details of the arrangement on the principle of full equality between the two classes being left to the Provost and Fellows to settle.

It will be borne in mind that the Collegers and the boys in the Mathematical Masters' houses must each have a classical tutor, or what is properly called "my tutor" at Eton; but the mathematical tutor should be considered the tutor for general superintendence in the case of boys in his house, as the Assistant Master in College is of the Collegers; and the classical tutor should report only on the classical work, the case being simply the converse of that where the boy boards with the classical tutor. The boys in the mathematical houses require a classical private tutor, but not vice versa, according to the present system, which need not be disturbed. Each, then, of the classical tutors, besides the boys in his own house, must have the charge, as respects their studies, of a certain number of Collegers and a certain number of boys in the mathematical tutors' houses. These two sets of boys must be distributed among the classical tutors.

Before proceeding we must recur to what was said above, that we cannot practically hope for more than an approximation - for some time a distant approximation - to what might seem in itself the best arrangement. Beside the peculiar conditions above adverted


[page 120]

to, under which so many of the houses at Eton are occupied, there would at all events be the interests of the existing tenants during their lives to be considered; and the very various sizes and capacities of the actual houses must be taken into account. We will, however, venture to present what might be a conceivable and complete plan, were the case that of a new School unfettered by any pre-existing conditions. It may illustrate our meaning and furnish some sort of standard for the guidance of the Provost and Fellows in their future regulation of this matter. Assume 800 boys, 730 oppidans. Suppose each of the seven Mathematical Masters to have 26 boys in his house, making 210. There would remain 520 of the 730 oppidans to be lodged with the classical tutors. Twenty such tutors, each with 26 boys in his house, would account for that number. But besides these, the 70 collegers and the 210 boys in the mathematical houses, 280 in all, have to be allotted among the classical tutors. This would give 14 to each, which added to the 26 would assign to each classical tutor 40 boys. But this would be quite a different thing from the present supposed maximum of 40 boys to a tutor, as that means either 40 boys in a class, of which we are not now speaking, or the sole tutorial charge of 40, which it will have been observed has not been proposed.

The School class work, however, has to be provided for. Twenty classical tutors for 800 boys make only the proportion of 1 to 40, which we conceive to be insufficient. To meet this, and to provide a further relief to the drudgery that falls on the classical tutors, we recommend the adoption of the suggestion in the able paper communicated to us by Mr. T. D. Acland, which coincides with one contained in the answers of Messrs, Brandreth and Rouse, two of the Mathematical Assistants at Eton,

"That the number of Masters should be increased by the addition of a staff of young men with advantages similar to those of a College Fellowship in the University, including chambers and a common room, such young masters to be at liberty to retain a College Fellowship, or to marry, but not to keep houses till after their powers of managing boys and their aptness for school life have been tested."

This in truth is but to systematize and to regulate the present unsatisfactory state of things at Eton, by which young tutors go there, live where they can, and get pupils as they can, till they can obtain a house. This plan will also much mitigate the inconvenience to which parents wishing to send boys to Eton are necessarily even now exposed in some measure, and which would be somewhat increased by the limitation of the numbers of the School, that of the restriction of their free selection of a tutor. If, as seems to us desirable, the ranks of the tutors keeping boarding-houses are always recruited from this new class of young Masters, they will always consist of men approved to some degree by experience, so that the parents will, at all events, not be driven to have recourse to men wholly untried.

On this part of the subject it only remains for us to recur to what we have noticed in the Statement, the complicated mass of private interests, rights of lessees, rights of sub-lessees, claims to a sort of perpetual and hereditary tenant right, and so forth, which have been allowed to grow up between the College and the occupiers of the Eton houses. We think it needless to add to the specification of these cases in detail, though we have been furnished with information which would enable us to do so very largely. We feel bound to state strongly our opinion, and we do so without imputing any special blame to the actual members of the College or to their predecessors in any given generation, that the course thus pursued is a most reprehensible one, most injurious to the interests of the School, and most embarrassing to any well-considered reform in its system. The difficulty is mainly a financial one, and will be treated more fully when we come to the question of the revenues of the College. At present we have only to remark that these interests, while uncertain in amount and wholly unprotected by law, have been suffered to grow up, and by long acquiescence have been to a great extent recognized; and that therefore in our judgment they cannot without substantial injustice be summarily disregarded. In dealing with these interests, however, when the time for doing so arrives, each case must be treated on its own merits, and it is difficult to lay down any general rule. The equitable claim of a tenant whose legal interest has expired is not necessarily to be measured by his original outlay, which may have been extravagant, or partly reimbursed; nor by his actual expectations, which may have been unreasonable; but the expectation that he would receive at the hands of the College fair and liberal treatment is one which ought not to be disappointed.

Scholarships and Exhibitions from Eton to the Universities

In addition to the Scholarships at King's College, Cambridge, which are yearly given by competitive examination, there are not less than sixteen endowments of a similar character, which the munificence of individuals has founded for the support of Etonians


[page 121]

at one or other of the Universities. The total annual value of these amounts to upwards of £800 per annum, a sum which naturally attracts attention all the more inasmuch as all experience of such endowments evinces that the real good which they are capable of effecting depends less upon the magnitude of the sums which they dispense than upon the principles on which these are distributed.

At the present moment the whole of this sum is bestowed at the discretion of one or more individuals, and it would appear that a general estimate of merit often, if not always, determines the choice of those to whom the selection is confided; but we are not informed either that this principle of selection by merit is enforced by any statutory provision, or that any guarantee of any kind is given for constant adherence to it in future.

There are some theoretical and some occasional advantages attendant upon a selection made by responsible and competent persons, and resting upon an estimate of attainments, as shown by daily habits and performances. There is, of course, more room for the action of chance in the performances of candidates, and of peculiarities in the judgments of examiners, when a decision is reached by the single test of one examination than when it is based upon a long series of trials and exercises made in all moods and all seasons, and under all circumstances. On the other hand, along with these opportunities for forming a correct judgment there grow up occasions, if not temptations, to a wrong one; and one judicious and searching trial, conducted by those to whom the whole range of subjects is quite familiar and all the candidates are little known, has been found by experience the most satisfactory method of awarding such emoluments.

But in order to give to the general estimate principle, as opposed to that of the competitive examination principle, even those advantages which under favourable circumstances it may claim, several conditions are necessary. Certainly they are not realised in any cases where the responsibility of the decision is not connected with such knowledge as should direct it.

Now, although the Provost and two of the Fellows of Eton undoubtedly have some opportunity of making themselves acquainted with the merits of the boys who present themselves as candidates for election to King's, the Fellows as a body can know little or nothing personally of the merits of boys whom they neither teach nor examine; yet the Provost and Fellows of Eton award four out of the sixteen Scholarships. The Provost of Eton has no peculiar facilities for forming a general estimate of the pretensions of youths whom he never taught, whose performances he has rarely witnessed when he had the opportunity of doing so, and who have ceased to breathe even the atmosphere in the College over which he presides; yet six out of the sixteen Scholarships and Exhibitions in question are bestowed at the discretion of the Provost of Eton alone, and some are bestowed necessarily on youths residing at the University. Even the Head Master cannot appreciate the relative pretensions of young men who since they were subject to his close observation have made a fresh start in life at a distance under new influences, of which he cannot have watched the effects; but the Head Master of Eton alone disposes of three, all of which may (as we understand the return), and two of which must, be awarded to those who have quitted Eton. The Provost of King's College, though taking part in the annual elections, cannot have any long personal acquaintance by which to select from amongst boys still resident at Eton, nor any official interest in making a fit appointment to a Scholarship at Oxford; and yet the Provost of King's selects a King's scholar at Eton to fill a Postmastership of great value at Merton College. We are of opinion therefore that the method of selection to these Scholarships and Exhibitions should be different, that they should be awarded on the result of a competitive examination, and according to the judgment of the persons who conduct it.

Again, with the description of personal qualifications which limit the selection now and would confine the competition hereafter so long as the existing designations are preserved, it is impossible to be quite satisfied. To eleven Scholarships or Exhibitions out of the sixteen, and these amounting in value to more than five-eighths of the value of the whole, superannuated King's scholars alone are eligible. For such a limitation there was probably reasonable cause at the time when they were founded. Then the normal and usual benefit to which a King's scholar might look when he was enrolled a member of the College was one of long duration. In the ordinary course of things a Fellowship at King's would follow a Scholarship at Eton so soon as the Scholar arrived at an age to quit school for the University. But it might be in any case, it was always in some cases, otherwise. By the Statutes of the Founder the election to King's College must be made from amongst the Scholars at Eton. By the Statutes of the Founder no one could remain a scholar at Eton after the age of eighteen. The age of superannuation therefore at Eton might arrive before the opportunity for election at King's had occurred.


[page 122]

If it did, it was the cause of a great personal loss, and it was also commonly the effect of an accident. A permanent provision at King's College was thus forfeited simply because the vacancies had occurred rather more slowly, or because a boy had been elected to Eton at an age rather later, than usual. A boy might have arrived at sufficient proficiency before the age of superannuation came; he might even be more fit and proficient than those elected before him while he was still under the appointed age, but his superiority would not entitle him to election over their heads. He might be, again, more fit and proficient than those elected below him after his superannuation had overtaken him, but this would not prevent their election over his head. Such cases were hard, and the system called for some supplementary provision which would meet them. In both the Colleges of Eton and Winchester the same evil produced the same remedy. Individuals, who had seen or felt the inconvenience, left funds in the form of Scholarships or Exhibitions such as might be given to boys on the foundation irrespectively of their age or even specifically on their superannuation. It would seem at first sight anomalous that pecuniary benefits should be thus amassed in one institution, and that a class enjoying so many advantages as the King's scholars should be chosen as the special object of further benefits; but as those who lose or seem to lose an advantage appear more unfortunate than those who never had it; so the position of scholars not gaining their expected emoluments in the University has been far better provided for than that of others, who neither at school nor at the University were entitled to any. And thus around the main Royal endowment of Scholarships at Eton and at Cambridge has gathered a subordinate cluster of endowments intended to regulate its action or supply its defects. But the changes which have recently been effected in both elections (that to Eton in the first instance and that to King's afterwards), having in themselves served to modify the character and working of this main system, now leave less need and even opportunity for the useful action of any lesser scheme of endowments in this respect than formerly existed. Boys are now elected by merit to the foundation at Eton; they are also elected by merit from the foundation at Eton to that of King's. As the election to Eton comes no longer by nomination and favour, but by the issue of a struggle for superiority, so the election to King's comes no longer in rotation, but by selection of the fittest by competitive examination. In this last struggle age gives a certain degree of advantage - the natural advantage of longer study and riper abilities. If in spite of these a boy fails until the age for superannuation overtakes him, he owes this misfortune to discomfiture, and not to accident, and to a discomfiture of the same kind as that which he gave to all his unsuccessful competitors when he was elected to Eton, and by means of which he must have gained the benefit of his gratuitous education so far; if he now therefore sustain the same, he may be fairly called upon to bear with the same consequences to himself, i.e., the loss of gratuitous education at King's. Indeed it is upon the whole wholesome, both for the school and for the individual Collegers, that each scholar should through his career at Eton look forward to such a possibility as one tending to make him feel that there is danger in remissness, and that his future fortunes are not altogether secured by past efforts and habits which he can safely discard. Not only therefore is it not, as before it may have been, expedient on general grounds that those who are superannuated should find compensation out of the general funds now applicable to this misfortune, but such a provision tends to defeat arrangements which are salutary, and which under present conditions may with much better effect be left to themselves to work out a cure for individual disappointments.

So far, therefore, as these emoluments are devoted to the use of those Collegers who have been superannuated without election to King's, we are of opinion that they may beneficially be freed from this restriction, and as the remainder are in effect given to those who have actually succeeded in obtaining King's, or who are still at Eton with their fortunes undetermined in this respect, we think that the advantages attendant upon both these positions are so ample, that any increase or improvement by distinct and additional emoluments should be won by new exertions, and this, if it be possible, in a wider sphere of competition. We except such cases as those of the Davies and Richards Exhibitions, which are specifically given to boys who have actually gained their election at King's.

Here the consideration recurs that there is a portion of the school so vast that it alone almost constitutes, in a numerical point of view, the whole school, which is now destitute of all encouragements of this nature. Nor is it surprising that during three and a half centuries of the existence of Eton no Etonian should have acted upon the thought that it was advisable to give the upper boys of the large Oppidan school a definite and immediate object for which the best scholars could honourably contend. During the same period the Collegers, in spite of the opportunity afforded by the nature of the endowment and the injunctions of the Statutes, were cramped into a


[page 123]

system of rotation which deadened every impulse to enterprise and rivalry. if, therefore, the very heart of the College was deprived of that stimulus to action which seems to have been a part of its original constitution, it would have been little consistent that any such motive force should nave been studiously applied to other members of the school. But now that of late this vital power has been restored to the College with the best effect, and by its return has rendered superfluous endowments the chief use of which consisted in their connection with a mischievous system of election from Eton, there appear at the same moment both the season and the power of creating that for the Oppidans and the school which has been restored to the Scholars and the College. These Scholarships and emoluments, originally annexed to the College in order to remedy the disorders or irregularities of its system, and now clinging to it without a sufficient purpose, may be made a useful and additional source of energy to the Oppidan part of the upper school, and a bond of connection between Oppidans and Collegers. If they be so far detached from the College as to be open to the competition of both Collegers and Oppidans at the close of their career at school, this will not deprive the Colleger of anything which it is desirable that he should retain, and it will give to the Oppidan that of which the want is so much felt, and of which the possession in any other way is, for the present, almost to be despaired of - a set of Exhibitions, and of endowments in the nature of Exhibitions. The contest for these will help to rekindle a spirit of study in the last and most useful years of school-life amongst those who are at present foreigners as it were to the competitive system existing in the school; and, while it will give the more studious among them an opportunity of measuring their strength against those who, as a body, in a special manner represent the intellectual habits of the school, it may awaken in Oppidans of intellectual powers and tastes, to whom the struggle for College was not necessary, the sense and the exercise of powers not otherwise aroused, and may possibly even create a new point of honour hereafter and a new sense of responsibility in them to rescue from a tame and acknowledged inferiority in knowledge a body who would not now submit to be inferior in any other point.

We shall therefore recommend that all Scholarships, Exhibitions, and other emoluments in the nature of Exhibitions, now given professedly or virtually by nomination or appointment to King's Scholars at Eton, or superannuated King's Scholars, or to King's Scholars at either University (except as above-mentioned), be henceforth given by competitive examination, to which all Oppidans and all King's Scholars at Eton shall be admitted. For the purpose of ensuring such equality in point of age as is desirable, we recommend also that none be admitted to the competition who at the time of the examination have left the School.

We shall recommend also in the case of Scholarships such as the Reynolds Scholarships and Rous Exhibition, and all others of the same character, which are absolutely or conditionally tenable at particular colleges in either University, and are not paid out of the funds of the colleges with which they are so connected, that the restriction be removed, and that they be tenable at any college at either University. Such limitations on tenure constitute a restraint on liberty which diminishes the value of the Scholarship in all cases, and therefore must virtually reduce the competition for it. They must also in many cases act to exclude positively from the competition the very best candidates, that is, such as would be likely to succeed, or even may have succeeded, in obtaining College Scholarships elsewhere. Now that most colleges too have Scholarships of their own, open to all counties and all schools, the constant infusion of a few men educated at Eton into the society of their undergraduate members must be a slight advantage to them which it is not advisable to secure by any disadvantage which can affect Eton itself.

Certain conditions or restrictions affecting these emoluments which we think it advisable to impose or to retain, as well as some other provisions concerning them not requiring explanation, will be found in the appended series of Recommendations.

The Remuneration of the Masters

The principles which we think should be borne in mind, in any fresh regulations respecting the remuneration of the Masters, are these: All extra payments for special instruction in those subjects which are to form part of the School course should be abolished. There will still, of course, remain some extra subjects, such as dancing, fencing, and swimming, for which extra charges will be made to the boys who choose to be taught; but the system of extra payments is incompatible with the due cultivation of those studies which it is desired to make general in the School. All leaving-fees and irregular or


[page 124]

ill-defined payments should be put an end to. A uniform charge for board and tuition should be made to all Oppidans, whether boarding with Classical or Mathematical Assistants, or with dames, so long as dames' houses are retained; of this a sufficient proportion should be retained by the tutor or dame to leave a profit on the cost of boarding, and the remainder should be paid into a common fund, to be called the Instruction or Fee Fund, out of which payments should be made to the several Masters, and some other expenses should be met; the Provost and Fellows should pay into this Fund the same amount in respect of each Colleger, as is paid by the Oppidans. The distribution of the fund should be regulated by the Provost and Fellows.

As an illustration of the mode in which such a fund might be raised and applied, we subjoin a scheme drawn up by one of our number, which we think would be found to work well, though we do not bind ourselves to the precise figures contained in it.*

*The following is the scheme referred to:

The following scheme for the remuneration of the Head Master and of the other Masters of all classes rests upon the assumptions -

(1) That the numbers of the Upper School are to be limited to 650, and those of the Lower School to 150.

(2) That the number of Assistant Classical Masters in the Upper School (when it is full) is to be 21; of whom 16 are to be allowed to take private pupils and to keep boarding-houses, while five are to live in chambers and to have no pupils.

(3) That the Lower Master is to cease to receive Upper School pupils, but is to be allowed to receive Lower School boarders into his house, and to treat them as his private pupils.

(4) That the number of Assistant Classical Masters in the Lower School, when it is full, is to be four; all of whom are to be allowed to take Lower School boys as private pupils and to keep boarding-houses for the use of the Lower School only.

(5) That the number of the Mathematical Assistants is to be seven, of whom five are to be allowed to keep boarding-houses for boys in the Upper School, and one to keep a boarding-house for boys in the Lower School.

(6) That no boy either in the Upper or Lower School is to board anywhere but with a Classical or Mathematical Master, unless he lives with his parents, guardians, or near relatives in the neighbourhood of the School.

(7) That every boy, whether oppidan or colleger, is to be the private pupil of some Classical Assistant Master; and that no Assistant Master is to be allowed to take more than 40 pupils in all.

It is proposed that every oppidan, whether in the Upper or in the Lower School, and whether boarding with a Classical or with a Mathematical Master, and without any distinction of social rank, should pay £120 a year, of which £90 should be retained by the Master in whose house he boards, and £30 should be paid into a fund called the Fee Fund, to be administered by the Provost and Fellows. The £90 to be retained by the boarding-house master is intended to defray the cost of board and lodging, and those small "school charges" now separately made on account of watching and lighting, and other items, and for the the sanatorium, and to allow £10 to the master in respect of the moral care of the boy. It is estimated that in a house of 25 boys the actual cost of board and lodging will not exceed £70 a year for each boy; so that the master of such a house may reckon that he will make a profit of £10 a head on the charge for board, and will in addition receive £10 a head for superintendence.

It is proposed that every classical master shall receive out of the Fee Fund on account of tuition a further sum of £10 a year in respect of every pupil, whether boarding in his house or not, and whether he be oppidan or colleger.

It is proposed that the Provost and Fellows should pay £25 a year into the Fee Fund in respect of each colleger in the School.

The annual income of the Fee Fund would thus, when the School is full, amount to £23,650, namely:

730 oppidans, at £30 apiece£21,900
70 collegers, at £25 apiece£1,750
£23,650

It is proposed to pay the Head Master by an annual salary amounting to £4,000 or at the rate of £6 3s per head on the numbers of the Upper School when full. He at present receives £6 6s per head, besides fees on entrance and leaving, and an annual payment from the College of £215, all of which it is proposed to abolish; but, on the other hand, he is subject to various charges on account of the stipends of the Assistant Masters and the school books and prizes, from which it is now proposed to relieve him.

It is proposed to pay the Lower Master an annual salary of £1,000.

The Lower Master, as well as all the Classical Assistants, will also receive out of the Fee Fund the annual payment of £10 for each of his private pupils, and when the School is full this will entail a charge of £8,000 upon the Fund.

It is proposed that a salary of £300 a year be given to each of the Assistant Masters, whether classical or mathematical, not having the charge of a boarding-house or being allowed to take private pupils. There will probably be six of these, and the charge on the Fee Fund in respect of them would therefore probably be £1,800 a year.

It is proposed that a salary of £300 a year be given to the principal Mathematical Master, and a salary of £100 a year to each of the other Mathematical Masters who have the charge of boarding-houses. As there will probably be five of these, besides the Principal Master, the charge on the Fee Fund may be taken at £800 a year.

It is proposed that two French Masters should be appointed with salaries of £600 and £400 a year respectively, and a German Master with a salary of £500, to include assistants if required. This would entail upon the Fund a charge of £1,600.

It is proposed that two Lecturers in Natural Science should be appointed with salaries of £600 apiece. This would entail a charge of £1,200.

It is proposed to provide out of the Fee Fund for the payment of Teachers of Music and Drawing. The amount which will be required for this purpose has not yet been ascertained. It Is stated conjecturally at £800, which will probably be more than enough.

It is proposed to establish 20 exhibitions of the value of £25 apiece, tenable by oppidans, and payable out of the Fee Fund. This will entail a charge of £500.

It is proposed to allow a sum of £500 for books, prizes, and for the expenses of examinations.

These several charges will amount to £20,100, viz.:

Head Master£4,000
Lower Master£1,000
Tutors£8,000
Assistant Masters (not Tutors)£1,800
Mathematical Masters*£800
Modern Language do.£1,500
Natural Science do.£1,200
Music and Drawing do.£800
Oppidan Exhibitions£500
Prizes and Examinations£500

Total
£20,100
Income of Fee Fund£23,550

Surplus
£3,550 a year.

As long as the dames' houses are retained, the boys in them should pay £120 like the rest of the boys; but, as the charges in these houses now range from 60 to 80 guineas, the dames should pay the whole difference between their existing charges and the proposed £120 into the Fee Fund. This would add somewhat to the surplus.

The anticipated surplus of £3,550 a year will probably be found useful in smoothing the way to the introduction of the proposed new system. It is obviously to be wished that [footnote continues on next page]

*The scale of remuneration to the Mathematical masters has been fixed on tho assumption that they will keep boarding-houses, containing from 20 to 30 boys. These boys would yield them a profit of from £400 to £600 a year to which £100 a year would be added by way of salary. If they should not have this advantage, some higher payment should be made to them out of the Fee Fund.


[page 125]

College Revenues and Expenditure as affected by the proposed Changes

The receipts and expenditure of the College which pass through the hands of the Provost and Fellows have always been kept in a distinct form, and will no doubt continue to be so kept, and it may be convenient that we should here deal with them by themselves and somewhat in detail, and on the assumption that effect will be given to our recommendations generally.

The total gross income of Eton College, including fines on renewals of leases, may now probably be taken at £21,000 a year. The average of the five years ending 1860 was £21,062, and the tendency of the income is rather to increase than to diminish. The estimate is therefore a safe one.

We will in the next place present a short abstract of the actual expenditure according to the 13 different heads under which it is classed in the College books. This expenditure falls far short of the income, because the receipts from fines are not brought into account. In estimating the future balance of revenue and expenditure, we shall include this item, according to the suggestion we have already made.

1. Dieta. This includes all charges for the board of the King's Scholars, Choristers, College servants, and others, with some trifling additions in respect of election dinners,

[footnote continued from previous page] the new system should as far as possible be introduced at once, and not suspended for an indefinite period until vested claims have been extinguished. Some of the musters, however, will be prejudicially affected by it, and it would be well to have the means of making up any loss they may sustain, by payments from the surplus of the Fee Fund. The income of the Head Master, after making all abatements, may now be taken at £4,500; it is proposed to reduce it to £4,000, but an additional £500 might be paid out of the surplus of the Fee Fund during the incumbency of the present Head Master.

The income of the Lower Master appears to be about £900, a year, together with the profits of a boarding-house containing 38 boys, all of whom are private pupils. If the cost of this boarding-house be taken at £70 a head, the profits of the Lower Master must be 38 times £60; as the charge to each boy is £130. This would amount to £2,280 year, making his total income £3,180. It is proposed to give him a salary of £1,000, and to allow him to keep a boarding-house, and to take private pupils at a reduced profit. If he were to take 40 pupils, and all those pupils were boarders, he would only make £30 profit on each (£10 for profit on board, £10 for superintendence, £10 for tuition), or £1,200 on the whole, making his total income £2,200 instead of £3,180. The difference of £980 a year might be made up to the present Lower Master out of the Fee Fund.

Some arrangement might also have to be made for the principal Mathematical Master. Mr S. T. Hawtrey now receives about £1,000 a year: it is proposed to give him £300 and to allow him to keep a boarding-house (or £600 if he has no boarding-house), but it is very probable that he would find a difficulty in availing himself of this permission, at all events for some time to come, and both he and the Mathematical Assistant Masters might require some aid, and, perhaps, a considerable amount of aid, out of the Fee Fund.

The same will probably be the case with the French Master, who now receives £10 10s a year for every boy who learns French. Dr. Goodford states the number who learn at about 100, which would give an income of £1,050 a year, out of which I presume the second French Master, when there is one, is paid. We now propose to assign £1,000 a year to two French Masters, and to give only £600 of it to the senior of them, calling upon them at the same time to teach a very much greater number of boys than they do at present. The adjustment therefore of Mr. Tarver's claims under the new system will probably involve a further call upon the surplus of the Fee Fund.

By this time it is probable that charges enough have been thrown upon that surplus to convert it into a deficit. Yet the largest item of difficulty has still to be dealt with.

According to the proposed scheme, a tutor having 40 pupils, of whom 25 were boarders, would receive £900 a year, namely -

£10 a head from the Fee Fund =£400
£20 a head from the boarders =£500
£900

If 30 of the boys were boarders, he would receive £1,000 a year.

Now, Mr. James states the amount which an Assistant Master, taking 40 pupils, of whom 32 were boarders, would realize at £1,845 a year; and he intimates that some masters the number of whose pupils is unlimited, may be receiving more. It is true that Mr. James mentions £1,845 as a maximum, and says that on the average of seven years he has only received £1,145 per annum. But the difficulty will arise chiefly in the extreme cases of the senior Assistant Masters; and it may very probably turn out that some eight or ten of these will lose £500 or £600 a year apiece by the new arrangement. If this is to be made up, it clearly cannot be out of the Fee Fund, unless that fund is replenished by some further payment from the boys.

The charge of £120 a year which it is proposed in future to make general, is the same as the charge now made in tutors' houses for board and tuition. Over and above this amount, those boys now pay £6 6s a year to the Head Master, and £4 18s to the mathematical fund. They have, besides, to pay £5 5s as entrance money and leaving money to their tutor and to the Head Master, amounting in general to about £26 5s more. Taking the time of a boy's stay at Eton to be four years, and spreading the entrance and leaving fees over that period, we find that his regular annual payments, exclusive of the school charges and any payments to extra masters, amount to about£19 a year above the charge for board and tuition. If the tutors were for the present allowed to charge the boys in their houses £20 a year more than the boys in the other boarding-houses are charged, a sufficient fund would probably be provided to meet all claims for compensation; and there would probably be no objection to keep up for some time longer the distinction between the charges in the tutors' houses and those in the dames' houses, particularly as the latter must still continue for some years to be kept by persons who are not engaged in tuition. It is not proposed that the tutors should retain this extra payment themselves, but that they should hand it over to the Fee Fund, and that compensation out of the fund should be made to those tutors who were losers by the change. Whenever it should be found that the Fee Fund could dispense with the whole or any part of this extra payment, it should be discontinued or reduced.

The best mode of applying any further surplus in future Years, after all claims for compensation have been extinguished, should be left for the consideration of the Provost and Fellows. It might either be applied to the reduction of charges, the increase of salaries, the creation of exhibitions, or the introduction of new masters.

It is obvious that some margin must be left in order to prevent inconvenience in the case of fluctuations in the numbers of the School. In the event of any serious falling-off in either the Upper or the Lower School, a rateable reduction of salaries must take place; and as the number of boys in the Lower School is still much below 150, it is probable that full salaries could not be paid to its masters at present, except by way of compensation.

If it should turn out after all that the amount of compensations to be borne by the Fee Fund was greater than it could bear, the Provost and Fellows must increase the charge upon the boys. This might conveniently be done by imposing an entrance fee for some time to come.


[page 126]

and a few perquisites. The charge for 1860 was £2,688, and we find that the average charge for the seven years ending 1860 was £2,684. We may estimate it at £2,700.

2. Liberatura. This charge, which is that for the gowns of the King's Scholars and the liveries of the servants, amounts on the seven years' average to £145.

3 Stipendia. This sum includes the statutory payments to the Provost, Fellows, Head Master, and Lower Master, and the payments to the Conducts, organist, lay clerks, caterer, and College servants. On the average it is £1,743, but the actual amount cannot be taken at less than £1,780.

4. Remunerationes Officiariorum. These, which are extra payments to the Provost, Fellows, and Head and Lower Masters for certain specific functions, together with payments to the Assistant Master in college and to some of the College officers, are on the average £599; but as of late years this item has considerably increased, it should be stated at £700.

5. Distributiones Ordinariæ. These are ancient payments and perquisites to the Head Master, chapel clerk, and other persons attached to the College, and also to the incumbents and curates of certain college livings. The average is £261, but this is below the actual amount, which may be taken at £350.

6. Focalia. This charge, for fuel, is on the average £351.

7. Stabulum. This item, which is that for the expense of a horse for the Provost, might be taken at £66, the amount in the year 1860. It had previously been about half that sum, but in that year the whole expense of the horse's keep appears to have been undertaken by the College.

8. Feod. Regard, et Tax.* Under this head, the amount of which varies greatly from year to year, are reckoned the rates and taxes on the College property, including the Provost's and the Fellows' houses, insurance, cost of management of all the landed property of the College, including new buildings and repairs, and an incidental charges of the usual character belonging to such property, grants towards chapels, schools, and parsonage-houses, and the interest on Mr. Wilder's post-obit gift, and on the money borrowed for the improvement of the College. The average is £4,204.

9. Quieti Redditus. The quit rents amount to £4 8s 9d per annum.

10. Reparationes. This signifies the repairs of the property at Eton. The average is £1,524.

11. Expensæ Necessariæ et Cameræ Scholarium. The main charges under this head are expenses connected with the chapel, subscriptions to charities, watching and lighting, water supply, servants, and tradesmen's bills, extra payments made by the Master in College, washing, and incidentals. This amount also varies considerably; the average is £1,670.

12. Remanentia. The average of this charge, which we presume to be that for bills remaining unpaid from the preceding year, is £84.

13. Income Tax. The average is £457: but as this average includes some years of high payments, it may be taken at £400.

The sum total of the expenditure thus calculated is as follows:

£    
Dieta2,700
Liberatura145
Stipendia1,780
Remunerationes700
Distributiones350
Focalia351
Stabulum66
Feod. Regard. et Tax.4,204
Quieti Redditus4
Reparationes1,524
Expensæ necessariæ1,670
Remanentia84
Income Tax457
£14,035

*Probably Feoda, Regarda, et Taxæ. Regardum appears to mean an annual render of payment in kind by a tenant, or under an agreement. - See Ducange's Glossary.


[page 127]

The average amount of fines divided amongst the Fellows during the same seven years has been £6,584, which added to the above total brings the whole expenditure to £20,619, or within a small sum of the income as estimated.

Proceeding on the basis of these calculations, we have now to examine what specific items of reduction are to be made in the above expenditure, assuming that effect is given to our recommendations.

We shall advise that the stipendiary Fellows should be five in number: that the Provost should have £2,000 a year, and each Fellow £700, all money allowances, as the rule, being abolished.

The total is £2,000 + (£700 x 5) = £5,500.

We have not the means of discriminating the incomes of the Provost and Fellows according to the seven years' average; but if we take them as furnished us by the College they amount from all sources to £7,653.

Under this head therefore a saving may be estimated of £7,653 - £5,500 = £2,153.

It should be observed, however, that besides the sums given in Statement A4 there are a few small items of charge, either money paid to the Provost and Fellows, or paid for them out of the College funds for specified objects. Some of these, as rates and taxes, are in respect of the houses, which are free of those burdens as well as of rent; and we do not propose to disturb that system. Others, as "Bavins", "Billet", "Provost in lieu of ale", as well as some payments in kind which appear in Statement A2, and which are not valued in money, are often considered as not out of character with ancient collegiate foundations, and the saving from the abolition of them would be insignificant.

We suggest, therefore, no further reduction as respects the Provost and Fellows than the above, namely, £2,153.

Next we propose to abolish the present payments to the Head and Lower Masters, amounting to £375 + £78 = £453.

Thirdly, we propose to abolish all payments as at present made to the singing men.

We shall have to provide for these payments in a simpler form on the other side of the account; but they are now made in an inconvenient shape, and with the daily chapel service, which we have suggested, the question assumes a new aspect.

We believe, however, that the exact amount of these payments cannot be stated with confidence from the College accounts. It would lead to an inconvenient minuteness of detail were we to go fully into the accounts for this purpose, but we may state that we have examined them carefully, and consider that the annual charge to be deducted in respect of this item may be put at £440.

We may make the same remarks concerning the Choristers or singing boys, whose establishment we also propose to reconstitute; wherefore its present cost is similarly to be deducted, and the deduction allowed as a saving.

It may, we think, be taken at £120.

Fifthly, we propose that the number of Conducts should be reduced from three to two. This would produce a saving of £120; but, as we suggest that one of the two should be paid £200 instead of £120, the saying is £40 a year.

We have now gone through all the specific items of reduction which we have been able to advise. But there remains a mass of miscellaneous expenditure of a character more or less variable, and of the description incidental to an ancient collegiate foundation of this kind endowed with land.

We think we ought not to assume that no reduction can be made in respect of this expenditure. We believe that the general administration of the College, as of the other schools with which we have dealt, will be improved under the changes we advise: though we do not intend to cast blame on that administration as it has hitherto been. But, moreover we are disposed to think that this expenditure, if looked at in its two main divisions of payments at the College itself and payments in respect of its estates, is in both branches very liberal. No one indeed would wish to see it other than liberal; and we do not suggest the practicability of more than a slight reduction.

It will have been observed that we have not been able to state the items of charge with regard to which we have suggested specific reductions according to the seven years average which we have struck in stating the expenditure. The accounts do not furnish the means of doing so; but in the case now before us, which is that of certain branches of expenditure in the mass, we will take the statement as above made and according to that average.

The material expenses of a variable character unconnected with the management of the property, whether at the College or elsewhere, come under the heads Dicta, Expensæ necessariæ, and Cameræ Scholarium. As above stated they amount to £2,700 + £1,670 = £4,370.


[page 128]

The corresponding items relating to the estates are under the heads Feod. Regard. et Tax. and Reporationes. The total under these heads is £4,204 + £1,524 = £5,728.

It would appear, however, from an examination of the accounts under the head Feod. Regard. et Tax. that some of the charges are of a fixed character. The remainder, which are more or less variable, may probably be put at £4,400.

But this sum, for expenses of management on a landed estate of the value of the one before us is perhaps rather high, for we apprehend that for this purpose we can hardly reckon the fines on renewals, nor, it is clear, should the whole of the items under the title Fortuiti proventus be counted. According to this the gross rental seems to be under £13,000 a year.

On the whole, with improved management we consider that some reduction might be effected in these two branches of expenditure.

The total saving then, under the six heads into which we have divided it is as follows:

£    
Provost and Fellows2,153
Head and Lower Master453
Singing-men440
Singing-boys120
Conducts40
£3,206

Adverting now to the new charges proposed to be thrown on the College funds, we have first to notice that the increase in the Provost's income above what it now is, whatever its exact amount may be, has been already provided for.

We have proposed that the contribution of the College to the instruction fund of the school shall be £1,750.

We have proposed to separate the Vicarage of Eton from the College, and to provide for it by a distinct charge of £600 a year on the College funds.

The singing-men, in our opinion, as above stated, would only be wanted on Sundays. It seems to us that eight such men would be enough, and including the salary of the organist, we suppose that the expense should not exceed £250 annually.

The choristers, we suggest, should be 12 in number; and perhaps their maintenance and instruction, with a moderate provision for them on leaving, may be put at £400 a year.

The total of these four items of charge is as follows:

£    
Instruction-fund1,750
Vicarage600
Singing-men250
Singing-boys400
£3,000

There remains therefore according to this calculation a balance of only £206 saving (£3,206 - £3,000) to meet the increased charge in the College revenues for tea, sugar, and washing for the Collegers, which will probably not be less than £500 a year, and for interest on whatever part of the expense of present and future new buildings may fall upon the College.

It must moreover be remembered that the above statement of the actual revenue and expenditure depends on averages, and estimates founded on them, which may not always prove accurate. On the other hand we have not taken credit for the savings which we believe may be made in the expenditure connected with the management of the property; and it is possible that upon some other points our estimates of expenditure may be found too high rather than too low.

But, further, we have already indicated our opinion that a fair claim on the College funds for compensations will in many cases arise in respect of the tenure of the boarding houses, if what seems to us a very necessary reform in the system of those houses is to be effected. It is obvious that in the state of the funds that we have described, these claims cannot be adequately met at once, which would be the most satisfactory arrangement. Each case must be dealt with at the proper time and on its own merits. It may be hoped that as this will be a gradual process, more economical management, the gradual improvement of the property, and especially the important specific increase of it


[page 129]

which is said to be certain though more or less remote, will enable the College to do so without serious inconvenience to itself. At all events that inconvenience, though it should last for some time, would be temporary and would ultimately disappear.

We must also point out that even if it should appear desirable that any or all of these lessees' interests should be bought up before it can be done out of income, it is not clear that it might not be done out of capital. A lease which is worth selling will usually be worth buying, and what the College bought up from the dames and lessees it might relet on fair terms to the Tutors.

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

All the General Recommendations (Part I, pp. 32-55) are in our opinion applicable to Eton.

We add the following Special Recommendations.

1. That the Governing Body of Eton College should consist of a Provost and 14 Fellows, of whom 5 should be stipendiary, and 9 honorary.

2. That the Provost should be nominated by the Crown, and be a graduate of Oxford or Cambridge, of the degree of M.A. or some higher degree, 35 years old at the least, and not necessarily in Holy Orders, and that he should have an annual stipend of £2,000, and the house which is now assigned to the Provost.

3. That the Provost of King's for the time being should be ex officio one of the 9 honorary Fellows of Eton.

4. That the other honorary Fellows should be persons qualified by position or attainments to fill that situation with advantage to the School; that they should be entitled to no emoluments, and not required to reside. Three of them should be nominated by the Crown, and should be Graduates of Oxford or Cambridge, and the other 5 should be elected by the whole Governing Body.

5. That the 5 stipendiary Fellows should be elected by the whole Governing Body; that every person so elected should either have obtained distinction in literature or science, or have done long and eminent service to the School as Head Master, Lower Master, or Assistant Master; that not less than three of them should be in Holy Orders; and that each of the stipendiary Fellows should have a fixed stipend of £700 per annum, and a house or lodgings within the College.

6. That, unless prevented by sickness or some other urgent cause allowed by the Governing Body, the Provost should reside at Eton during the whole of every school term, and each of the Stipendiary Fellows during three months in every year.

7. That the Provost and Fellows should be members of the Established Church, but bot necessarily men educated at Eton.

8. That the Provost and Fellows should be at liberty to elect from among the resident Fellows a Vice-Provost, Bursar, and Librarian, and to assign to the two latter small fixed allowances, or to provide otherwise, as they may think best, for the performance by members of their own body of the duties belonging to those offices respectively; that they should also be at liberty, should they deem it more expedient, to appoint, instead of the Bursar, for the performance of the duties of that office, a person not connected with the College, at a competent salary.

9. That the Provost should be relieved from the spiritual charge of the parish of Eton, and that the parish should be constituted a distinct vicarage in the gift of the Provost and Fellows, and endowed with an annual sum of £600, which should be a charge upon the revenues of the College. The amount of the endowment might be somewhat diminished, should the Vicar be provided with a house or adequate lodgings by the College.

10. That the number of Conducts should be reduced to two, one of whom, appointed by the Provost and Fellows, should have the title of Precentor, and be responsible for the proper performance of the Chapel Services and the general efficiency of the choir. That the Curate for the time being of the parish of Eton, appointed by the Vicar of Eton and approved by the Provost, should be the other Conduct. That each Conduct should receive, as such, a yearly stipend of £120 as at present; but that the Precentor Conduct should receive, as Precentor, a further yearly stipend of £80.

11. That the Provost and Fellows should procure, as they may think best, the services of singing-men for the College Chapel; but that provision should be made out of the


[page 130]

College funds for the maintenance of an adequate number of choristers or singing-boys to belong solely to the Chapel.

12. That such boys should have a general School education, musical teaching, and moral superintendence provided for them according to the best examples of the Cathedrals, together with an annual allowance in food and clothing, or in money, and should at the proper age be apprenticed to some trade, or receive some fair equivalent out of the College funds.

13. That the right and the responsibility of presenting to benefices in the gifts of the College should rest in the Provost and Fellows as a body; and that length of service as an Assistant Master, coupled with fitness for the care of a parish, should be deemed to constitute a claim, though not an absolute or paramount claim, to a College living.

14. That no ecclesiastical preferment in the gift of the College should be tenable with the Provostship, nor with a stipendiary Fellowship.

15. That the practice of granting beneficial leases should be discontinued as speedily as the means at the disposal of the College will permit, and that all fines which may be received hereafter should be brought into the general accounts of the College. That in carrying these changes into effect due regard should be had to the interests of the present Provost and Fellows, and that for this purpose, should it be found practicable to do so, fixed annual sums equal to their average dividends for the last seven years should be allotted and paid to them respectively in lieu of their respective shares of fines.

16. That, whenever the whole number of the Governing Body is complete, 7 should be a quorum; and that, whenever it is not complete, a proportion not less than one-half of the existing body should constitute a quorum.

17. That in elections to College all local preferences should be abolished; that no boy should be deemed disqualified on account of illegitimate birth or of any bodily imperfection; that longer notice should be given before each election; that such notice should state the subjects of examination, and should give information as to the value of a scholarship; and that the scholarships should be awarded according to one scale of merit, by one examination, to which no boy should be admitted under the age of 11 nor over that of 14.

18. That in the election of boys to College, or from College to King's, in case of an equal division of votes, a second or casting vote should be given in the former case to the Provost of Eton, and in the latter to the Provost of King's.

19. That all payments by Collegers for instruction and tuition of every kind (except for voluntary extras) should be abolished; that the yearly payment of five guineas to the College for attendance, &c. should also be abolished; that tea, sugar, and washing should be supplied to them at the expense of the College; that their diet should be more varied; and that such services at dinner in Hall as are now performed by fags should be performed by servants.

20. That the School Council (General Recommendation VI) should consist of not more than 15 members, and should comprise a certain number of the Classical Masters engaged in each part of the School (including one at least not having charge of a boarding-house) a certain number of the Mathematical Masters, and some of the Teachers of Modern Languages and Natural Science; and that in the absence of the Head Master the Lower Master should preside, if present.

21. That the number of boys (including Collegers) in the Upper School should never exceed 650, and that the number in the Lower School should never exceed 150.

22. That the Head Master should keep an admission-list, upon which the names of candidates for admission as Oppidans into the Upper School should be entered in the order in which applications are received; no boy's name, however, being entered until he has completed his eighth year; that, as vacancies occur in the School, they should be offered in succession to the boys on the list, no distinction being made between boys who may happen to be in the Lower School and others. That it should be optional with each boy whether he will present himself as a candidate for examination at once, or wait for another vacancy; but that each boy who presents himself should be examined, and, if found unfit to enter the part of the School for which his age qualifies him, should be placed at the bottom of the list; and that no boy's name should be retained on the admission list after he has completed his 15th year.

23. That no boy should be admitted info the Upper School under the age of 11, nor (except in the case herein-after provided for by the 25th Special Recommendation) above that of 14.


[page 131]

24. That a separate admission list should be kept by the Lower Master for the Lower School; that boys in the Lower School should have no preference, in respect of admission to the Upper, over boys from other places of education (except as to the age of admission in the case provided for by the 25th Special Recommendation); that they should be required, before entering the Upper School, to pass the same examination as boys from other schools, and should, like them, be placed in any part of the Upper School for which they may be found qualified.

25. That no boy should be allowed to remain in the Lower School after completing his 14th year, the maximum age of admission into the Fourth Form, unless he shall be in the highest class of the Lower School and there shall be a reasonable prospect of his being able to enter the Remove before completing his 15th.

26. That the maximum age for admission into the Remove should be 15, and, for admission into the Fifth Form, 16; and that no boy should be allowed to remain at the School after he has passed either of those ages without obtaining promotion into the Form for which it is the maximum, unless he shall fall within the exception mentioned in General Recommendation XXV.

27. That the number of boys in the Sixth Form should be fixed at not less than 30, and that the admission of boys into the Sixth Form should be determined by a competitive examination to be held once in every half-year, and by which as many boys shall be elected out of the upper division of the Fifth Form as are required to complete the Sixth.

28. That the upper division of the Fifth Form should be subdivided into two parts, the senior upper division, and the junior upper division; that the number of the senior upper division should be limited, and that promotion from the junior upper division to the senior upper division should take place by a system of competition once in every year, similar to that proposed for the promotions to the Sixth.

29. That the number of boys in a division should not, as a general rule, exceed 30.

30. That the system under which the School has provided books, specially designed for Eton, should be discontinued.

31. That the whole of the classical course and the books used in the School should be carefully revised.

32. That the work of all the Forms and Divisions should be arranged with the special view of providing that the boys' work may become more difficult in just proportion to their rise in the School, and that, amongst other provisions to be made for this purpose, the time of a boy should not be too long or too exclusively devoted to the same author.

33. That the amount of repetition should be diminished, and that the system of construing the School-work with the Tutor before doing it in School should be abolished.

34. That, subject to the foregoing provision for diminishing the quantity of repetition, there should be introduced occasional and careful recitation of choice passages of Latin and Greek prose, and of English poetry or English prose.

35. That a larger amount of translation from English into Latin and Greek verse and prose should be introduced; that the amount of original composition in these two languages should be diminished; and that some part of the original composition in them should be exchanged for translations into English, both oral translation (as distinct from construing) and written, and that in estimating the merit of such translations due regard should be paid to the correctness and purity of the English.

36. That the period during which each boy studies Natural Science as a regular part of his School-work should, at the least, not be less than the interval between admission to the Lower Fifth and admission to the Upper Fifth , and that the teaching of Drawing or Music should continue, at the least, until admission to the Lower Fifth. (See General Recommendation XII.)

37. That any boy who is studying French should be allowed, if he pleases, to take up German also as an additional subject at trials, and vice versa, and that the same liberty should be allowed with respect to Italian, and also with respect to Natural Science in parts of the School where it does not enter into the regular School-work; and that the marks obtained for any additional subject so taken up should be allowed to count in determining the boy's place in his Remove.

38. That the permission to discontinue some part of the School-work in order to devote more time to some other part of it (General Recommendation XIII) should not be given to any boy till he has reached the Upper Fifth Form.


[page 132]

39. That the scheme of work in the Lower School should be so arranged as to allow rather more time than at present for exercise and relaxation in that part of the School.

40. That since the labour of the Head Master in School-work (including examinations as they are at present conducted) appears to be now greater than is desirable, means should' be taken to relieve him partially from it, in order that he may have more time for superintendence; that in conducting the examinations for Removes a larger share should be assigned to Assistant Masters, and especially Assistants not having charge of pupil-rooms.

41. That at least once a year some of the more important school examinations should be wholly or in part conducted by Examiners unconnected with the School; that such Examiners should not be necessarily Etonians, and should be paid a reasonable remuneration out of the School or College funds.

42. That prizes should be instituted for original composition on given subjects in Latin prose and verse, and in English verse; and that the prize compositions, together with the Richards prize compositions, should be publicly recited, and the prizes themselves actually given, before the whole School and such visitors as may be collected for the occasion.

43. That prizes should be instituted for translation of set passages of prose and poetry both into and out of the classical languages, and should be given in a similar manner.

44. That it is desirable that a certain number of exhibitions should be founded, to be competed for by boys under the age of 16, and tenable as long as the holder remains at school; and that, in consideration of the endowments already enjoyed by the Collegers, Oppidans alone should be allowed to stand for these exhibitions.

45. That these Exhibitions should be attainable by superior merit in any of the branches of instruction (other than music and drawing) forming part of the regular course of study, but that not less than half of the whole number of them should be reserved for classics; and that a detailed scheme concerning them should be framed by the Provost and Fellows.

46. That, if possible, the number of such exhibitions should be not less than 20, and that the Provost and Fellows should create, as they may find it practicable to do so, by means of the Instruction Fund, so many of them as shall not be established by private benefactions.

47. That all Scholarships, Exhibitions, Postmasterships, and other such pecuniary emoluments now given to Etonians by nomination for their maintenance at any College at either University, should be awarded by competitive examination, subject (as to the emoluments to which those restrictions or any of them apply) to the existing restrictions in favour of sons of clergymen or others not in affluent circumstances, and to sons of clergymen or of widows with large families; provided that in any case in which it shall be proved to the satisfaction of the Provost and Fellows that peculiar hardship results from the above regulation to any boy who but for its operation would have been eligible for one of the above Exhibitions, they should have a discretionary power to dispense with it.

48. That where more than one such Scholarship or other emolument above mentioned are supplied out of one endowment, the Provost and Fellows should have power to combine several emoluments into one, or divide one into two or more, as they may deem most conducive to the interests of the School.

40. That where any such Scholarships or emoluments are now awarded to Etonians who have already left school, they should be henceforth awarded to boys quitting the school.

50. That where any such emoluments are supplied from funds not held by or for any particular College, it should be in the power of the successful candidates to hold them at any College at either University.

51. That in consideration of the changes recently effected as to the method of awarding King's Scholarships at Eton and Scholarships at King's, whereby Collegers at Eton cease to owe their superannuation for King's to accident and ill fortune, all such Scholarships, Exhibitions, and other emoluments as are now awarded to Collegers who have not obtained King's should be henceforth open to the competition of all Eton boys, Oppidans as well as Collegers, not being scholars of King's; and that in all cases it shall be in the power of any Colleger at Eton to offer himself as a candidate for such emolument in lieu of offering himself for a Scholarship at King's, if he shall think fit.

52. That in the competitive examinations for King's Scholarships and Exhibitions at Eton, Scholarships at King's College Cambridge, and other Scholarships and emoluments


[page 133]

at the Universities hereby opened for competition to Oppidans and Collegers, it is desirable that the several studies of the School should affect the success of the candidates in the same manner and degree in which in the School examinations they are allowed to affect the places of the boys in their removes.

53. That the time-table or arrangement of the hours of the classical work should be recast on the principle of equality and uniformity between the several weeks of each school-time; that to this end the due number of holidays and half-holidays should be fixed irrespective of Saints' days, which should only be observed by their proper religious service in chapel, except in the case of Ascension Day, which is the only one of the great Church festivals which can occur during the school-time.

54. That there should be a daily morning Service in the Chapel in lieu of prayers (in the boarding-houses, not exceeding in length a quarter of an hour, and fixed by the Provost and Fellows; that the choral or musical element should be introduced into this Service; that it should be as nearly as possible the same in length on all week-days, including holidays, except that on Saints' days it should comprise the proper Services of the day according to the Prayer Book, and that on Ascension Day there should be the full morning and evening Service of the Church.

55. That, except in the last-mentioned case, the boys should never be required to attend any afternoon Chapel Service on week-days.

56. That the Governing Body should frame a scheme for the preaching in the College Chapel; that in framing such scheme they should not be restricted in the choice of preachers, but that it should be provided that all the Masters and Assistant Masters of the School in Holy Orders, an well as the Fellows, have the opportunity of occasionally preaching, if they are willing to do so, in the College Chapel.

57. That permission to keep a boarding-house should in future, as vacancies occur, be granted only to Classical and Mathematical Masters; but that in carrying this recommendation into effect due regard should be paid to interests heretofore acquired, and that such equitable claims as may appear to be well founded should be met by reasonable compensation.

58. That boarding-houses kept by Masters in the Lower School should be confined to boys in the Lower School, and that boys in the Lower School should be admitted into such boarding-houses only.

59. That the Assistants in the Mathematical School should be entitled Mathematical Assistant Masters; and that, as regards the assignment of boarding-houses, the authority to enforce discipline out of School, the arrangements in Chapel, and, so far as may be practicable, in all other respects, they should be placed on a footing of equality with the Classical Assistant Masters.

60. That every Mathematical Master should be considered the Tutor for general superintendence of all the boys in his boarding-house.

61. That, in applying to Eton the General Recommendations XXVI-XXVIII, the payment to be made to or retained by the Tutor for the private tuition of each of his pupils should be distinct from the payment to be made to him as an Assistant Master in the School; and that the annual payment to be made by the College for the instruction of each Colleger should be £25; and that the general principles of the scheme suggested above (p. 124) should be pursued so far as it may be found conveniently practicable.

62. That chambers or lodgings should be provided for some of the younger Assistant Masters, and a Common Room open to the Assistant Masters generally; and that the junior Assistants should not be authorized to keep boarding-houses until their power of managing boys and their aptness for school life has been tested.

63. That no extension of the holidays should be ever allowed, except in obedience to Royal command or upon sanitary considerations.

64. That the system of "shirking" should be abolished.



[page 134]

CHAPTER II. WINCHESTER

STATEMENT

THE COLLEGE

1. Constitution of the College

The College of St. Mary of Winchester near Winchester, commonly called Winchester College, was founded in 1387. It originally consisted of a Warden, 10 Fellows, 70 Scholars, one Head Master, one Usher or Second Master, 3 Chaplains, 3 Clerks, and 16 Choristers. By an Ordinance of the Oxford University Commissioners, which took effect in 1857, this constitution has been considerably modified: the ten Fellowships are to be reduced, as vacancies occur, to six; with the income thus set at liberty the number of Scholars is to be increased to 100, and 20 Exhibitions are to be founded not tenable with Scholarships. No Fellowship has become vacant since this Ordinance came into operation. There are still, therefore, 10 Fellows and not more than 70 Scholars, but the College has found the means to elect several Exhibitioners, the annual payments to whom amounted in 1861 to £225.

2. Statutes, Visitorial Authority

We have observed in our Report on Eton that the Statutes of that College were probably modelled upon those of Winchester, and bear a strong resemblance to them. An edition of the latter was published in 1855 by the Oxford University Commissioners. By an Ordinance framed by the Commissioners and approved by Her Majesty in Council, and which is placed, under the Act 17 & 18 Vict. c. 81. on the same level in point of authority as the original Statutes, many parts of these Statutes were abrogated, and many new provisions introduced. Measures have been taken to digest the new matter, and so much of the old as remains unrepealed, into one code, and we have been informed that the completion of this only awaits the publication of our Report. The Warden and Fellows are empowered, with the consent of the Visitor and of the Queen in Council, to alter and amend the Statutes from time to time.

The Bishop of Winchester is Visitor, and has held visitations occasionally, but rarely. Under the Ordinance of 1857 he is expressly authorized to visit whenever he may think proper, or, without holding a visitation, to require answers in writing touching any matter as to which he may deem it necessary to inquire. We shall have occasion to advert hereafter to a change, very important and beneficial to the College, wrought by the spontaneous interference of the present Bishop in 1854.

What is called a "Scrutiny" is held once a year by the Warden of New College and two Fellows of that society elected for the purpose, who come to Winchester to take part in the annual election. They are empowered by the Statutes to inquire generally respecting the government of the College and all its members, and to correct and reform whatever they may find amiss, having recourse to the Bishop of Winchester in any case which they cannot themselves dispose of without grave inconvenience. In practice this investigation seems to be confined to the seven senior and seven junior boys in College, who are questioned separately as to their comforts, and any matter of which they may have to complain; and the power actually to correct abuses is considered to be lodged in the Bishop.

3. Endowments, Revenues, and Expenditure

The Endowments of Winchester College consist of landed property and funded stock, which produced, on an average or the seven years ended in 1860, a gross annual income of £15,494 17s 6d. The income of 1860 amounted to £17,622 5s 5d. The specific items during the seven years were as follows:


[page 135]

Donations, subscriptions, and expenses of management, which altogether are of considerable amount, are not deducted from the foregoing statement.

The total expenditure for 1860 (excluding nearly £1,200 spent in purchase of land and in obtaining the renewal of a lease) was £20,098 6s 7d, exceeding the receipts by £2,476 1s 2d. The excess was paid out of a balance which remained in hand from previous years.

The following table shows the general distribution of the revenue in 1860:

[click on the image for a larger version]

We are informed that the leases are being run out gradually, but. slowly. "It is the only way", says the Warden, "by which we can increase our income." According to the scale on which the fines are at present fixed, and which the Warden considers somewhat too favourable to the lessees, the latter get 7 per cent on their outlay.

The College estates lie chiefly in Hants and Wilts, but parts of them are scattered through other southern and western counties. They are managed by the Warden, with the assistance of a steward.

The College likewise holds, on special trusts for Exhibitioners and other purposes, the large sum of £60,132, with land which produces a net income of £204 14s 11d.

4. The Governing Body

The Warden and Fellows are the Governing Body of the College.

Under the original Statutes no person was eligible to the Wardenship unless he either was or had been a Fellow of Winchester, or of New College. This restriction was removed by the Ordinance of 1857; and the requisites now are that the candidate should be a Graduate in Theology or Law, or a Master of Arts, in Priest's Orders, and not less than thirty years of age. The right of election continues to be lodged in the Fellows of New College, lapsing, however, to the Bishop of Winchester, in any case in which the election does not take place within one month.

The election to a vacant Fellowship resides in the Warden and Fellows for the time being. Under the original Statutes a preference is given to Fellows, or former Fellows, of New College, and then to "Conducts" or Chaplains of Winchester College, or persons having filled that office. By the Ordinance it is provided that "the preference given to those who are or have been Fellows of New College, shall be extended alike to the Master, Usher, and Assistant Masters of the School at Winchester College, for the time being, and to those who shall have held any of the said offices, and to those who shall have been educated for two years at the said School." A local preference given by the old Statutes to natives of certain counties is abolished, but a candidate is still required to be in Priest's Orders.

The ancient statutory emoluments of the Warden, besides a suitable provision for his table not limited in amount, were a stipend of £20 a year, and 12 yards of cloth at 1s 8d a yard. Each Fellow had a stipend of £5, six yards of the same cloth, and twelve pence weekly for commons. It appears, however, that the Governing Body of Winchester, like that of Eton, have been in the habit of dividing amongst themselves the fines received on renewals of leases of the College estates, which were let at old reserved rents. In 1860, the "Warden's share of leasehold fines and allowances" is stated to have been £1,750, and the aggregate shares and allowances of the ten Fellows were £6,598: the fines were, however, above the average in that year, and we are informed by the Warden that his whole average emoluments are estimated at £1,700, and those of each Fellow at £550 per annum. The Ordinance authorizes them to divide surplus income, but this permission has not been used to the full extent. It is immaterial whether the money received from fines is divided as such, or as surplus revenue; but the question whether


[page 136]

fines, as such, are divisible, may, of course, materially affect the question what is surplus revenue.

Under the Statutes the Fellows were to sleep three in a room, whilst two rooms were assigned to the Warden. The Warden has now a good house; another house and two or three rooms are set apart for the use of such Fellows as may be occasionally resident. A suite of rooms over the Scholars' chambers is now occupied by the Second Master.

Of the 13 livings in the gift of the College,

One is under £100 in value.
Two are over £100 and not exceeding £200.
Six are over £200 and not exceeding £300.
One is over £300 and not exceeding £400.
Two are over £400 and not exceeding £500.
One is over £500 and not exceeding £600.
Seven of these, which do not include the two of highest value, are held by Fellows; one by a gentleman who was formerly Assistant Master. It should, perhaps, be added, that of the Fellows holding livings one had been Second Master, and had been presented to a living before he obtained a Fellowship.

The Warden has, by the Statutes, the general government of the Foundation, his position being that ordinarily assigned to the Head of a College. He takes also, as it appears, a principal share in the management of the College estates, and he commonly resides within the College. By the old Statutes he is not permitted to be absent more than two months in the year. Under the Ordinance of 1857 he is required to reside eight months only in each year. The Statutory provisions respecting the residence of the Fellows were repealed, and the College was directed to frame new regulations on the subject. This has not been done, but the present Warden informs us that he has been engaged in preparing some regulations on the subject which he has not yet submitted to the other members of the Governing Body.

Of the Fellows one or two, the Warden states, have been resident in his time, one of these being the Bursar, in whose case residence is necessary. But practically, says the Head Master, they are non-resident, and such rooms as there are for them are seldom occupied. They come up at stated periods, four times a year, and the Warden calls a special meeting whenever he thinks it expedient. They elect, in conjunction with the Warden, the Head and Second Masters; and the consent of a majority of them is required by the Statutes for the transaction of all the more important business (majora negotia), and for the expulsion of a Scholar on the Foundation. They are not required to take any part in the Chapel service; their position, in short, is that of non-residents who have a voice in business of importance, and whom the Warden consults as often as he thinks proper.

The Warden is of opinion that any further reduction of their number would be prejudicial to the interests of the College. He regards them as a "valuable Board of Trustees", and the Fellowships as likely to afford in future a provision for Masters who have grown too old for their work; admitting, however, that they have not hitherto served this purpose. They have supplied a Governing Body, and have afforded to a certain number of the Fellows of New College the means of marrying on a comfortable income. The Ordinance, whilst it makes Masters of the School eligible for Fellowships, requires that the electors shall choose that person who shall appear to them to be of the greatest merit, and most fit to be a Fellow of the College as a place of religion, learning, and education. The Head Master, whilst he has no wish to disturb an ancient constitution, thinks it not very material, as regards the mere educational interests of the School, whether there are any Fellowships or not. "I really do not feel their presence at all."

5. The Choristers

The choristers at Winchester were placed by the Statutes on a somewhat lower level than those of Eton and Westminster. They were to be admitted out of regard for charity - "intuitu charitatis"; to make the beds of the Fellows, and help to wait in Hall, and to live upon the "fragments and relics" of the Fellows' and Scholars' tables, if these were sufficient for them; if not, they were to have suitable nourishment at the expense of the College. The choristers are now boarded, lodged, educated, and at the proper age apprenticed, at the cost of the College. The expense under this head in 1860, including the Schoolmaster's salary, board during the holidays, books, and medical attendance, bills for clothing and apprentice fees, was £336 3s 8d.


[page 137]

6. The Scholars

The Scholars are elected, in conformity with the old Statutes, by the Warden, Sub-Warden, and Head Master of Winchester College, jointly with the Warden of New College and two Fellows of that Society chosen for the purpose. The old qualifications, preferences, and restrictions were substantially the same as at Eton, to which the Winchester regulations were transferred, except that boys born out of wedlock or in serfdom were not excluded, that a preferential claim was given to boys of the kindred of the Founder, and that, instead of the local preference given at Eton to two counties, a like preference was at Winchester given to the diocese of Winchester in the first place, and then to 11 counties concurrently. Choristers were eligible, but had no preference. By the Ordinance of 1857 the preference of Founder's kin and the local preferences are removed, and no candidate is to be ineligible on account of any bodily imperfection which might incapacitate him for Holy Orders, nor "by reason of any restriction in respect of property or pecuniary circumstances contained in the Statutes, but the electors may refuse to admit as a candidate anyone whom they may deem to be not in need of a Scholarship", and cæteris paribus [other things being equal] they are "to have regard to the pecuniary circumstances of the candidates". A boy who has attained the age of 14 is, under the Ordinance, no longer eligible. No boy has yet been excluded from the competition on the ground of comparative affluence, and it does not appear that any inquiries are made respecting the circumstances of the candidates. Dr. Moberly apprehends that it would rest with the electors to reject a candidate on this account; practically it seems to rest with the Warden and Head Master, who are on the spot and receive the papers. Neither does it appear that the cæteris paribus preference in favour of poverty has been acted upon. But it would be acted upon, we are told, should the case arise, and Dr. Moberly states that parents have within his knowledge declined to send their sons as candidates, from feeling that their own circumstances were such as to render the assistance of a Scholarship unnecessary to them.

Until 1854 the electors nominated the Scholars without a competitive examination; in that year the system was exchanged for open competition. Eton, which owes so large a debt to Winchester, set her in return the example of this great and beneficial change, which is clearly agreeable to the spirit, and not at variance with the letter, of the Statutes of both Colleges. The Bishop of Winchester, who was on intimate terms with Dr. Hawtrey, and had heard from him of its success, proposed of his own accord the introduction of it, and it was carried into effect against the expressed opinion of the Head Master. "I feared", writes Dr. Moberly -

that we should be liable to have boys brought in among us, of whose character and connexions we had no assurance, and who might prove to be very undesirable members of our community; and I wished that in our elections (a thing which I still think much to be desired in the competitions of older candidates for public positions) a scheme might be devised to combine the advantages of a very real competition with the responsibility of nomination. But I am bound to acknowledge that with us the change has been unmixedly beneficial. The candidates are very young, and we find that we have the best of securities for the character and connexions of such young boys, when we find them capable, from 10 to 14 years old, of winning such a race on such subjects. It is not in ill-conducted families that little fellows of that age learn their grammars so well, or know how to write Latin verses. Let me offer my testimony without reserve. The open elections have been excellently successful. In point of ability, good conduct, and general promise, we have lost nothing. and we have gained much. We do not know what it is to have a thoroughly stupid boy a scholar." - Letters to Sir W. Heathcote, pp. 5, 6.
The whole School has reaped great benefit from it. "Of old we had a small connexion and a considerable narrowness in the system altogether. We were comparatively poor in boys. This open competition brings boys of all abilities, of all families, from all parts of the country, and so spreads our connexion very widely."

In 1857 the system of open competition was rendered obligatory on the College by an Ordinance of the Oxford University Commission, which had been appointed by Act of Parliament in 1854.

It is the custom to give previous notice of every election in the "Times", and to send circulars conveying further information to every person who makes inquiries on the subject. It has not been usual to mention in the notice the limit of age, the subjects of examination, or the value of a Scholarship, facts which it would be convenient for parents to know, and the statement of which would probably diminish the necessity for subsequent correspondence. The average number of vacancies has hitherto been 10, and the average number of candidates about 100. In 1861, the candidates were 108, of whom 8 were admitted. In 1862, there were 137 competitors for 7 vacancies.


[page 138]

Under the Statutes a Scholar had 8d a week for commons, those under their 16th year "having breakfast also of the aforesaid commons at the due and accustomed days and times"; each was to have also cloth enough for a long gown and hood, to be worn, during the first year, only on Sundays and holidays. The Warden, Fellows, Master, and Usher were permitted to give away their old gowns, after five years' wear, to the poor scholars and choristers, if they chose to do so. The Scholars were to sleep in the rooms on the ground floor, under the chambers occupied by the Fellows.

We have little information about the treatment of the Scholars until within the last quarter of a century, during which it has been much improved in various ways. Custom and tradition have always possessed great power at Winchester, and the progress of change has been slow. The "children"*, as they were formerly called, still eat their dinners on little trenchers of wood, which they would be unwilling to exchange for plates, and sleep in the six chambers originally allotted to them (to which, however, the ancient schoolroom has since been added as a seventh) on oaken bedsteads more than two centuries old. Until the 16th century, they slept on bundles of straw, and their chambers were unfloored; the bedsteads and flooring were the gifts of a famous Wykehamist, Dean Fleshmonger. In the early part of the 17th century, a Scholar paid on his entrance for his bedding, for his surplice, for the making of his gown, for candles, and for his "scob" (box) to hold his books in school. He paid also 1s to his predecessor for "glasse windowes", and 14s "for learning to write". There is a Visitor's letter extant, dated early in the 18th century, which orders that bed-makers should be appointed for the chambers, "and the children relieved from the servile and foul office of making their own beds, and keeping the chambers clean". We gather, however, from the Warden's evidence that no bedmakers were in fact provided till lately. The choristers were previously made to perform this office.

The chambers, the Warden informs us, have been much improved since he was a boy, and are much better kept. We agree with him in thinking that they are hardly spacious enough for the numbers they contain; the largest holds 13 or 14, the smallest 8. Their antiquity, however, makes them dear to Winchester Scholars; and they seem to realize in a considerable degree a boy's idea of comfort, especially when lighted up in the winter evenings with the "half-faggots", a somewhat scanty allowance of which is assigned by old custom to every room.

The Statutes of Winchester, like those of Eton, prohibit the Master and Usher in the most precise and stringent terms from "exacting, asking, or claiming" any payment for instruction from the scholars, their parents or friends; the Eton clause was in fact a copy of the Winchester clause, with the insertion of words extending the privilege of free instruction to non-foundationers. It was nevertheless the practice at Winchester for a charge of £10 to be put into the bills of each Scholar, for "Masters' gratuities", the words "if allowed" being parenthetically inserted, out of respect for the statutory prohibition. This charge was, in fact, necessary to eke out the scanty pittances allowed to the two statutory Masters by the College, and it was rarely, if ever, objected to, until, in the mastership of Dr. Goddard or of his predecessor, an appeal was made against it to the Visitor. The Visitor decided that it was saved by the parenthesis from being an actual charge, and was therefore not illegal. Dr. Goddard, who was Head Master for not more than seventeen years (from 1793 to 1810), received the money during his tenure of office; but he felt that, if not illegal, it was morally questionable, and after his retirement, but several years (Walcott says, ten) before his death, he made a voluntary gift to the College of £25,000 stock, in trust to pay the dividends to the Head and Second Masters for the time being. The Head Master now receives from this source £450, and the Second Master £300. From that time no charge has been made for the instruction of the Scholars, except in respect of Modern Languages. But we must observe that this is due not to the College, but to Dr. Goddard. The instruction of the Scholars has been paid for, and the Head and Second Masters have been saved from the necessity of continually violating the Statutes they are bound to observe; but this has been done, not by the Warden and Fellows, whose duty it certainly was to provide adequately for the teaching of these boys out of the College revenues, but by the generosity of a private person, who had a more tender conscience or ampler means than his predecessors.

The total payment out of the funds of the College for the teaching of the 70 Scholars, before the regular introduction of Mathematics into the School, was £250 per annum, of

*"If you are a commoner, you may say your prayers in your own chamber, but if you are a child or a chorister, then," &c. - Bishop Ken's Manual, quoted in Mackenzie Walcott's William of Wykeham and his Colleges, p. 196. So also Christopher Johnson (De Collegio) - "Nomine seu Pueri vociteris sive Choristæ."


[page 139]

which the Head Master received £150, and the Second Master £100. The payments under this head in 1861 were as follows:

The situation of the Scholars of Winchester at the present day is undoubtedly a very advantageous one, and reflects credit on the Warden and Fellows, who appear to have been actuated by a just sense of their duty to the boys under their charge. A Scholar is well boarded, lodged, and educated without any expense to his parents, beyond a payment of £1 10s a year to the French Master (with an additional two guineas if he learns German) and, if he is not a prefect, a further payment of two guineas to his "boy-tutor", a phrase which will be explained hereafter. His position is equal, and in his own estimation superior, to that of a boy "in Commoners"; and if the two bodies have not hitherto associated quite as freely as it is to be wished they should, this is probably owing to the circumstance that they have been separately lodged, and until lately have used separate playgrounds.

THE SCHOOL

7. Number and Composition of the School

The greatest number of boys at Winchester in 1861 was -

Scholars70
Commoners131
201

In May 1862, when we visited the School, there were 216* boys, and therefore 146 Commoners. The number of Commoners was 31 in 1668. During the 18th century it fluctuated greatly, being 87 in 1730, and in 1750 only 10. In 1846 it had risen to 148, but it then began to fall rapidly, until in 1858 it did not exceed 68. "We suffered", says Dr. Moberly, "for some considerable time under the reputation of bad health, which had the effect of lowering our numbers considerably." From this depression the School has since been gradually recovering. The opening of the scholarships to competition, the opening of New College to Commoners - a change which will be mentioned hereafter - and the establishment of additional boarding houses, have already had very beneficial effects, and there seems to be good reason to hope that the School will continue, under judicious management, to advance in this respect.

The Statutes permit a limited number, not exceeding 10, of sons of nobles and great men, special friends of the College, "filii nobilium et valentium personarum dicti Collegii specialium amicorum", to be educated within the College walls, but without charge to the College. It appears, we are informed, by old College accounts that such boys were in fact received, and that they paid, not for their instruction, but for their commons or board. These are regarded as having been the forerunners of the present "Commoners" or non-foundation boys. At what time Commoners ceased to board within the College does not appear. In 1681, says Mr. Walcott, we find, according to the roll, two Commoners in College, three in the Warden's house, and the remainder out of College. The distinction, he says, did not disappear till 1747.

There is nothing in the Statutes to show that the Founder of Winchester contemplated, as the Founder of Eton certainly did, the resort of other boys to his School besides the Scholars and the small privileged class above mentioned. The Head Master has, however, long been in the habit of taking boarders, who are said in the dialect of Winchester to be "in Commoners", and are regarded as successors of the class from whom they seem to have inherited the name. The number was formerly limited by the Warden and Fellows to 130, but this limitation exists no longer. Two additional boarding houses had been lately opened when we visited Winchester in 1862. A third, to hold 25 boys, was then building, and it was in contemplation to establish a fourth. Dr. Moberly

*In 1863, we believe, 230.


[page 140]

wishes to see the number of Commoners rise to 200, 25 in each of the four additional boarding houses added to 100 in his own. The School would then contain 300 boys, including the 100 Scholars. With its present site and machinery it could not, he thinks, well hold more; and, in order to supply six Scholars a year to New College, it ought not to have less.

Boys undergo no examination, the Scholars excepted, before admission to the School; but if a boy is sent to school whose attainments are not such as to enable him to join the lowest classes with good prospect of advantage, he is not received. This happens occasionally, but rarely. There are no limits of age, and there is no rule as to the highest Form in which a boy can be placed on admission. Boys seldom come at an earlier age than eleven, or so late as sixteen, and in practice are never placed higher than in the senior part of the Fifth, and very rarely so high. A Scholar stays on an average five years at school, a Commoner between three and four.

8. Government of the School. Head Master's relation to the Warden and Fellows, and to the Assistants

The general government of the School is vested in the Head Master, subject to such control as is exercised over him by the Warden, or by the Warden and Fellows.

The legal position of the Head Master of Winchester is the same as that of the Head Master of Eton. As Master of the Foundation Scholars, he is an officer of the College, "hired and removable" by the Governing Body, and subject to the superintendence of its head. The control appears, however, to be in practice less strict and minute than at Eton. "The Warden and Fellows do not interfere", says the Warden, "with the studies of the School unless some great cause is shown. If they saw such a cause they would." They have a right to be consulted if there are any great changes in the subjects of study, for instance. As to the books used by the Scholars, the Head Master does not think that the Warden has ever meddled with matters of that kind, but has no doubt that he might do so. "If the Warden were to tell me he approved or disapproved of a book, I should think it proper to attend to that." A Scholar sentenced to punishment by the Head Master can appeal to the Warden, who would commonly dispose of the case himself, but would bring it before a meeting of the Fellows, if that were insisted on. The Warden and Fellows only, or the Warden with the consent of the Fellows, can expel a Scholar. The Warden and Fellows appoint the Second Master and the College Tutor, and the Warden also appoints the Mathematical and Modern Language Masters, because it is part of their duty to teach the Scholars. Over the Commoners the Warden and Fellows have, in the Head Master's opinion, no statutory power whatever. "They are my own boys; still, being supreme over the Scholars, as it is but one school, it is obvious that he (the Warden) gets an indirect supremacy over the Commoners as well, so that even in Commoners I should never think of doing anything remarkable without consulting the Warden, and ascertaining his wishes about it." "If my boys are allowed to come and learn with the College boys, they must follow the College rules." He would not give leave to open a boarding house to anyone who had not been previously approved by the Warden.

The Warden himself appears to take rather a different view. He regards the Commoners as the successors of the filii nobilium, and has no doubt that the Governing Body would have a statutory right to interfere in matters of discipline with the Head Master's government of them, though such a right would be exerted in grave cases only, and he is not aware of any precedent for it. He thinks decidedly that they have a control over the number of the Commoners. The Head Master's view of this question is probably the more correct of the two. The filii nobilium at Winchester, like the corresponding class at Eton, were admitted to lodge within the College walls, paying the College for their board. The present non-foundationers live outside the College, and pay nothing to it. If, therefore, the Warden and Fellows have any control over the Head Master's management of them, it probably arises from their general hold over an officer whom they appoint and can remove.

We asked the Head Master's opinion on the working of this system. It has always, he says, within his experience, worked harmoniously, and he only knows by hearsay that there have been times when the Warden and Head Master did not act amicably together. It is a part of the ancient constitution of the place, though the present magnitude of the non-foundation element of the School was, he allows, never contemplated by the Founder; and, "so long as things can be kept together under it", he would not destroy it. But to establish it if it did not exist, would, he thinks, be "monstrous": he sees no practical use in it, and some positive disadvantage. The influence of New College over


[page 141]

Winchester is exerted, of course, chiefly through the Warden and Fellows of Winchester, and this influence has not been beneficial to the quality of the teaching of the School.

364. (Lord Clarendon) Do you consider the institution of the Warden and Fellows has any appreciable effect in improving the quality of the masters you get here? - No, on the contrary, it rather dis-improves them, if I may coin such a word. We must consider the Warden and Fellows of this College, and the Warden and Fellows of New College as one joint body, and I have no hesitation in saying that the consequence of restricting the choice of masters to any single College, cannot be to improve the quality of the teaching in a School. When I was introduced here as Head Master, though bred here as a boy, I belonged to another College. I was an undergraduate, fellow, and tutor of Balliol; my life at Oxford was spent in my College; and you may easily suppose that this being a place, which more or less, was always looked upon as one of the privileges of New College, it has never been a very pleasant matter that a Balliol man should be here. Again, when I was elected, not only was I, a Balliol man, made Head Master, but the then Warden and Fellows elected Mr. Charles Wordsworth Second Master, who was not only not a New College man, but not a Wykehamist at all; he was bred at Harrow, and was a Christ Church man; and to have him brought here as Second Master was not altogether acceptable to the body of Wykehamists. We went on working together here for 10 years with great cordiality, and with great and growing kindness from all the Wykehamists. I have always felt it to be my duty to fill up the masterships that were in my patronage as far as I could from New College. If I could find a fit man at that College I felt I must appoint him. The only excuse that would be felt to be adequate if I brought in another man was, that I could not find one to suit me at New College. The question I was asked at first, then, must be answered in this way - so far as the quality of the teaching goes, I think it is not improved by the constitution we have now. If you put an adequate man as Master at the head of a School of this kind, he ought to be supreme. That of course is a Head Master's view.
"Many improvements", he says, "have been made by the Warden and Fellows relating to the comfort and well-being of the College boys, but they have not had any part in the changes which refer to the learning of the School." What he thinks abstractedly desirable is that the Head Master should be supreme over the teaching, and the appointment of assistants, but that there should be "a body of men (not a single individual) to meet occasionally to superintend, to lay down general rules for his guidance and to have the power to remove him if necessary." "At the same time", he adds, "we really get on very well as it is."

It is not the practice, as at Rugby and Harrow, for the Head Master and Assistants to meet for the discussion of matters affecting the studies of the School. "We are all very much together", Dr. Moberly says, "and often talk over things relating to the School." "No doubt", he observes in his written answers, "the Head Master would always be anxious that the opinion of the Under Masters in charge of classes should have great weight in these matters. Practically, indeed, the Under Masters, with the control and sanction of the Head Master, arrange these things for their classes." And he is not sure that it would not have been better if on his part there had been rather more systematic interference.

9. Emoluments of Masters

The old statutory emoluments of the Head Master were a stipend of £10 a year (each Fellow having £5) with the same commons, and the same allowance of cloth, as a Fellow, and he was to be lodged, with the Usher, in one of the upper rooms, a Fellow sharing it with them should that be necessary. The whole emolument which he actually received from the College until about three years ago was £150. It is now £300. He has a large house erected about 20 years ago in substitution for the "old Commoners'" building, and intended for 150 boys, but capable of holding comfortably, according to present estimates of necessary air and space, about 100 besides his own family. This house he occupies rent free, but subject to a yearly payment to the College of £350, being interest at 3½ per cent on a sum of £10,000 furnished by the College towards the cost of building it, after a large but inadequate sum had been raised by voluntary subscriptions. His profits from his boarders he estimates at from £20 to £25 per head. He also receives £10 10s for every Commoner out of his house, and £450 from the Goddard Fund, the origin of which has been already explained. Out of the entrance fee paid by each new boy in his house he has been accustomed to retain between £6 and £7, and for each new boy in the other houses he has received £3 3s from the boarding Master. When the School is prosperous, £3,000 would be a just estimate, he thinks, of his net income.

The statutory stipend of the Ostiarius or Usher, who is now called the Second Master, was five marks, with a shilling a week for commons and five yards of cloth for a gown; he was lodged, as we have already seen, in the chamber occupied by the Head Master. He receives at present, annually, £200 from the College, £300 from the Goddard Fund, and


[page 142]

£6 8s from every Commoner in the school. He has also had £2 2s for each new boy. His whole emoluments would thus be from £1,400 to £1,500 a year when the number of Commoners was 140. He has also a set of rooms in College. He is appointed and removable by the Warden and Fellows. His statutory duties are to assist the Head Master, and to fill his place when he is absent. The Second Master is now considered responsible for the maintenance of discipline and order among the Scholars, a charge which probably devolved upon him when the Head Master was permitted to live out of the walls of the College and keep a boarding-house. He also takes a share of the teaching in School.

The College pays also £210 to the Mathematical Master for the mathematical teaching of the Scholars, and for more than 20 years it has paid £200 a year to a "College Tutor" whose duties will be described hereafter. It likewise pays a Lecturer on Natural Science, whose lectures the Scholars and Exhibitioners attend gratuitously. Such of the Commoners as desire to attend pay a fee of 10s a quarter.

The other Masters are remunerated out of the payments made by boarders not on the Foundation, the Modern Language Masters being paid also, as has been already stated, by the Scholars for the instruction which the latter receive in this branch of study. For the rest of the classical staff £10 a year has been paid by the Head Master for each boy in his house, and £4 4s has been paid for each boy in every other boarding-house; £2 12s 6d is also paid on the same account on the entrance of each new boy in the Head Master's house, and It. for each new boy in the other houses. Two of the Assistant Classical Masters, the Third and Fourth, have boarding-houses. For the Mathematical Masters £3 are paid on account of every Commoner in the School, and the Head Master likewise pays £50 a year to a Mathematical Assistant. To the French Masters £1 10s are paid for every boy in the School, and to the German Masters £2 2s extra by those who learn German.*

10. Course of Study. Arrangement of the School for Classical Teaching. Forms and Divisions. Distribution of Forms among the Masters

The course of study at Winchester is principally classical, but every boy in the School learns during the whole time that he remains there both arithmetic and mathematics, and one modern language, either French or German at the option of his parents. What has been done in the way of teaching natural science will be explained hereafter. There is a Drawing Master, who has usually about 20 pupils. The School affords no means of learning music, but "occasionally one or two boys take lessons from teachers of music in the town".

The classical staff comprises, beside the Head and Second Masters, a Third and a fourth Master respectively taking classes in School, an Assistant to the Head Master, who likewise takes a class, and three Composition Masters, who are employed in looking over and correcting the exercises and compositions of the whole School, except the Upper Sixth. One of these, called the "College Tutor", performs this office for the Scholars; the other two, called "Tutors in Commoners", for the Commoners. The two latter are also employed to preserve order and discipline in the Head Master's boarding-house.

In 1861, when our printed questions were issued and answered, the arrangement of Forms (or "Books", as they are called at Winchester) and sub-divisions of Forms was as follows:

There were no lower Forms. The whole School was thus distributed into eight ascending divisions.†

The distribution of Classes among the Masters was as follows: The first three divisions, numbering altogether 75 boys, were nominally under the Head Master; he,

*A new scheme of payment adapted to the increased numbers of the school is described in Dr. Moberly's Letters appended to his Answers, II. 10.

†In the sixteenth century there were four Forms - the sixth, fifth, fourth, and "second fourth" (quarta secunda). - Walcott, p. 227


[page 143]

in fact, took the First and Third, numbering together 56 boys, an Assistant having almost exclusive charge of the Second. Dr. Moberly's account of the reasons which dictated this arrangement will be found in his oral evidence. The arrangement is not likely to be permanent. The Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Divisions, numbering 85 boys, were under the Second Master, the Seventh and Eighth (37 boys) were under the Third Master. There was at that time no Fourth Master.

In 1862, when we visited the School, the Junior Part of the Fifth Book had been broken into two divisions, containing together about 40 boys, and placed under the Third Master, the lowest part of the School being assigned to a Fourth Master, who had been lately added to the staff.

It will have appeared from the foregoing statements that the 200 boys whom the School contained in 1861 were divided for class-teaching among four Masters, of whom one took only 19 or 20 boys, and one about 85. The 216 boys in 1862 were divided among five Class Masters, one taking, as before, a small division, and the four others two divisions and from 40 to 50 boys a piece. The Head Master's two divisions, unless they had been reduced below what they were in 1861, contained nearly 60. The duty of looking over and correcting exercises (except those of the Upper Sixth) was and is, as we have already observed, entrusted wholly to distinct Masters or "Tutors", who do not take classes in school. They not only correct the exercises, but mark them, and have thus in fact the sole charge of the compositions, the Class Masters rarely, if ever, looking over an exercise at all. The Head Master alone acts as Composition Master to one of the divisions (the Upper Sixth), which he hears in school.

The inconveniences which arise from placing so many boys under the direct teaching of the Head Master are strongly dwelt upon in his Evidence.

11. Boy Tutors. Private Tutors

An institution may be mentioned here which is among the peculiar features of Winchester, though it has now lost much of its former importance - that of "Boy Tutors". To each of the 10 senior boys in College some of the juniors are assigned as pupils. It is his duty to overlook and correct a certain part of their exercises before they are shown up, and to help his pupils when they want help in their lessons. He is responsible also, in some measure, for their general conduct and diligence, and is the person of whom the Head Master would make inquiries if he had reason to think that any of them were going on amiss. For each pupil so placed under his charge the "Boy Tutor" receives two guineas a year from the pupil's parents. This practice has been traced to a provision in the Statutes, whereby the Founder directs that "to each Scholar of his own kindred there should always be assigned, by the Warden and Head Master, one of the discreeter and more advanced Scholars to superintend and instruct them in grammar under the Head Master all the time that they should remain in the College." Each of these instructors was to receive for each pupil 6s 8d a year out of the funds of the College. The functions of the Boy Tutor were much circumscribed about 26 years ago by the appointment of the College Tutor or Scholars' Composition Master - a change introduced by the then Warden on the advice of the Second Master, the present Bishop of St. Andrew's, who had been educated at Harrow, and against the opinion, though not against the positive dissent, of Dr. Moberly, who was then, as now, Head Master. Formerly the Boy Tutor took all the compositions of his pupils; now he takes only a small part of them. Dr. Moberly regrets the older system, and thinks that much has been lost by abandoning it. "The Boy Tutor would correct mistakes of the little boys; now he makes all the blunders himself. Again, he dealt with the pupil as a boy; whereas the College Tutor, who has these things to do, deals with him as a man. A boy dealing with a boy is more effective in that way than a man dealing with boys."

Private tuition, in the ordinary sense of the words, was, until lately, quite unknown at Winchester. At present three of the Masters - the Head Master's Assistant, the Fourth Master, and the Mathematical Master - take a few private pupils, Scholars and Commoners - perhaps 20 in all - each of whom pays £5 for the half-year, and works with his Tutor from two to three hours a week. This is not done, however, without an express request from the parent. Dr. Moberly himself is very desirous of introducing the system generally. He attaches great value to private tuition:

My own impression is this: I think the boys at the top of a public school want more help than can be given by the master who hears the form. It seems to me, the quantity of learning which can be obtained in class work, though as much as will save a boy from punishment or complaint, is not as much as he ought to learn and is capable of learning; therefore I think, besides any amount of class instruction, he wants something else; something to tell upon his own

[page 144]

personal needs, to make known to himself his personal deficiencies, and to suggest the means of filling them up; in short, to give that which class instruction generally must fail to give.
"If I could have my own way", he adds, "I should have private tutors for the whole of the upper school", that is, for an the boys in the upper Sixth, all those below it having Boy Tutors. But the traditions of the School are against it. There was a time when it was altogether forbidden by a former Warden, and he still finds difficulties in the way. "It is very alien", he is sorry to say, "to the genius of the School."

12. Miscellaneous points respecting the Classical Teaching

We may mention here some traditional peculiarities in the Classical Teaching of Winchester. One is the system - called "pulpiteers" probably from the rostrum formerly used for the purpose - of assembling periodically all the boys of the first three divisions, for construing lessons in certain authors, when some of the seniors construe first in presence of all the rest. This had its inconveniences as well as its advantages, and we learn that it has been in great measure abolished since we visited Winchester in 1862. Another is the practice of writing a Latin epigram called a "vulgus" thrice a week, which is thought to bring out cleverness and cultivate neatness of expression. Another, again, is that of devoting a week, or a week and a half, in the summer to what is called "standing-up". The work of "standing-up week" consists chiefly in repeating portions of Greek and Latin grammar, and in repeating and construing considerable quantities of Latin and Greek verse or prose, which the boy has been able to store up in his memory. One lesson of English verse is allowed to be taken up, and one of Euclid. The late Second Master, Mr. F. Wickham, spoke warmly of the beneficial effects of this custom. Mr. H. Moberly, the Third Master, thinks it would be more useful still if it were "more of an examination", and conducted partly on paper. It is confined to the boys below the senior part of the Fifth. The comparatively small quantity of translation which is done, and the undue proportion of original composition in the classical languages, can hardly be counted among the peculiarities of Winchester. Little or no Greek prose is written, even in the highest form.

13. History

Neither ancient nor modern history is taught in set lessons, and ancient history does not enter as a separate subject into any of the School examinations. Questions in portions of English history, specified beforehand, are set in the general half-yearly examinations lately instituted, to which we shall refer hereafter, and in the examination for the Goddard Scholarship, and this leads in the latter case to a very careful reading of the history of a considerable period. There is a prize also of £5 for an English essay on a historical subject. "I wish", says Dr. Moberly, "we could teach more history." But as to teaching it in set lessons, "I should not know how to do it." He has occasionally, however, himself given some short lectures on parts of English history.

14. Recitation

Special mention is due to the practice described in the following extract from Dr. Moberly's evidence:

During "Easter time"* we have speaking; the greater part of the school is divided into six chambers, as we call them, and each chamber speaks upon its own Saturday morning. The masters come in and take their seats in the school, and from 20 to 25 boys speak speeches extracted from the works of the chief English poets.

818. In the presence of the whole school? - Yes .

819. Dialogues? - Sometimes. It is almost always Shakespeare or Milton. After that we have one day upon which there is a more considerable speaking. About 20 boys who speak best in the school speak separately, and then we invite the people in the town. There come about 20 or 30 gentlemen.

820. Is that on the occasion of the visit of the Examiner? - No; it does not go beyond the neighbourhood. A few gentlemen come down, and in the last year or two we have had some ladies. At the election recitations there are two speeches for which medals are given. I think it very useful; they get a clearer utterance and articulation from it, and learn a good deal of the art of elocution.

821. (Lord Lyttelton) And it takes away a good deal of their false shame? - Yes; which of itself is a great thing.

An annual prize, as we shall see hereafter, is also given for reading aloud well.

*"Easter time" is a part (about six weeks) of the "long" or spring and summer half year.


[page 145]

15. Arithmetic and Mathematics

Both mathematics and arithmetic are taught in every division of the School, and the amount of time allotted to them, especially in the upper part of it, is unusually great. Seven or eight hours a week are devoted to these subjects by the first three divisions, the lowest of which is commonly reached at about 13 or 14; three or four hours by the rest of the School. The marks for mathematics are allowed to count for about one-fourth of the weekly total. The highest subjects read in the Upper Sixth were, in 1861, Conic Sections and Trigonometry.

16. French and German

It has been previously stated that every boy is obliged to learn either French or German during the whole time that he remains at school, but it is not deemed practicable to allow both languages to be taught at the same time. For learning German there is an additional payment of £2 2s a year beside the £1 10s charged for the French Masters. The number learning it in 1862 was about 40, and consisted chiefly of older boys, or of boys who had been in Germany or had some family connexion with it.

There are two French Masters, both Frenchmen; during ten years preceding 1862 there was only one, probably on account of the diminished numbers of the School. An hour and a half in every week is assigned to two French lessons, occupying three-quarters of an hour each. Every lesson, M. Angoville thinks, ought to take an hour to prepare. The French Master has the power to set impositions for inattention or misconduct during lessons, but no authority out of school. Dr. Moberly informs us that he makes it a rule to support the French Master, and to treat any complaint made by him as a serious matter. The latter divides his pupils into classes of from 22 to 24 each, but as they come to him in groups according to their places in the School, and their places in the School depend chiefly on their proficiency in classics, his classification can only represent very imperfectly their comparative attainments in French. The marks for modern languages count for about one-eighth in the weekly total, and French and German enter into the half-yearly examinations.

The senior French Master is not dissatisfied with the progress made by the boys under his charge. The upper boys attain, he thinks, a fair grammatical knowledge of the language, and can translate fairly a common French book, and most of them pronounce pretty well; the study has advanced during the last ten years, and he has not the same difficulty in keeping order which he had ten years ago. Dr. Moberly fears that not much is learnt in the French Classes, but believes that in German more is acquired than in French, chiefly because those who learn German do it from inclination or from some other special motive, whilst there is little anxiety amongst the boys or their parents about their progress in French. It appears, however, he tells us, by the "classicus paper", that those who work for distinction in classics also try to get the best marks they can for French. He would like all the senior boys, after becoming tolerably good French scholars, to learn German.

17. Natural Science

Before stating what is done in the way of teaching Natural Science at Winchester, we think it right to refer to the circumstances to which it is due that this branch of instruction receives there any attention at all.

In the original scheme of the Oxford University Commissioners for Winchester College, it was proposed that three of the Fellowships should in future be filled up with especial reference to the excellence of the candidates in one or more of the Natural Sciences, and that the Fellows elected to those Fellowships should be bound to give lectures to the boys in that department of knowledge. With reference to this part of the scheme the Commissioners, in a letter dated the 25th April 1856, and signed by Mr. Goldwin Smith, one of their secretaries, observed that they were aware that its success must depend on the willingness of the Governing Body to introduce the Natural Sciences among the subjects of instruction, and to facilitate the attendance of the boys at the lectures of the three Fellows appointed for the purpose. They proceeded -

The Commissioners therefore desire to learn whether the College are disposed to co-operate with them in this respect before they frame more specific regulations for carrying out this portion of their scheme. But to them it appears that good elementary instruction in physical science is most essential in the case of many boys, desirable in all cases, and perfectly compatible with a first rate classical education. The object might be effected without prejudice to other studies, by setting apart two or three hours every week for lectures in the physical sciences, by putting good elementary works on the subject into the hands of the boys, and by examining them on the lectures once at least in every half year.

[page 146]

On the following 29th of April the scheme of the Commissioners was rejected, as a whole, by the Warden and Fellows, on grounds not specially connected with the proposed appropriation of three Fellowships to the promotion of natural science. In regard to this particular proposal, the only statement of the College was contained in the following passage of a letter from Dr. Barter, then Warden of the College, dated May 5th, 1856, and addressed to Mr. Goldwin Smith:

We would gladly see our fellowships applied to the promotion of learning in this place, especially by making them an attraction and a reward to talented and deserving masters. With respect to the proposal of devoting three of them to the promotion of physical science, we would only suggest the fear that first-rate men (and no others would, in the capacity of lecturers, be either for the honour or good of this College) would neither find sufficient employment nor emolument.
In consequence of the rejection of their first scheme, the Commissioners subsequently framed another scheme of Ordinances for Winchester College; and in communicating with the Warden on the subject, they wrote as follows on the subject of instruction in natural science, in a letter dated November 4th, 1856, and signed by the Rev. S. W. Wayte, one of the secretaries of the Commission:
In reference to the opinion expressed by the Warden and Fellows of Winchester College respecting that part of the former scheme of the Commissioners, by which it was proposed to devote three of the fellowships of Winchester College to the purpose of instruction in the physical sciences, the Commissioners direct me to inquire by what means the Warden and Fellows would propose to secure competent instruction in the physical sciences at the school, if the three fellowships are not so appropriated.
To the letter in which this passage occurred, the Warden replied, by a letter dated December 8th, 1856, in which there was the following passage:
With respect to the required instruction in physical science, on the means of providing which the Commissioners have been good enough to express a readiness to receive our views, we would engage from time to time the best lecturers of the day in the various branches of such science, who should come to Winchester and give our scholars successive courses of lectures. The instruction thus imparted would, we believe, be more interesting, of:1 higher kind, and more in unison with the yearly progress of science than could be obtained from Professors, who would accept our fellowships and confine themselves to the duties assigned to them."
To this passage in the Warden's letter the Commissioners gave a reply as follows, in a letter dated January 12th, 185i, and signed by Mr. Goldwin Smith, as secretary, which finally closed the correspondence on this subject:
The Commissioners receive with pleasure the proposal of the College to engage from time to time the best lecturers of the day in the various branches of physical science to come to Winchester and give the scholars successive courses of lectures and in reliance on the College acting on this system, or on a system equally efficient, they abstain from pressing their former propositions in reference to this subject.
The Ordinance finally framed by the Commissioners and accepted by the College, directs that "in addition to the branches of instruction specifically mentioned in the Statutes, the Scholars and Exhibitioners shall be instructed in the mathematical and physical sciences, and such other branches of instruction as are proper to complete a liberal and religious education." Dr. Moberly states that he himself suggested the answer which was given to the Commissioners' first proposal, and that he suggested also the plan which was subsequently pursued. This consisted simply in having a course of 10 or 12 lectures ("we have hardly", said Dr. Moberly in 1862, "more than 10 a year now") on some branch of natural science delivered once a year in summer, between the Easter and Midsummer holidays, by lecturers engaged for the purpose from time to time. The subjects of these courses in the five years were chemistry, geology, electricity, heat, and the constituents and properties of water and atmospheric air. All the boys were required to attend, but it appears that attendance was not enforced very strictly. There have been no examinations, and no prizes or rewards for attention to, or proficiency in the subject. We cannot refrain from observing that less could hardly have been done consistently with the narrowest and most literal construction of the Warden's letter quoted above. Dr. Moberly, indeed, appears himself to be sensible of this; the Warden's words, he says, "are stronger", but he thinks them compatible with the interpretation which has been put on them in practice; and he is sure that the College did not mean to promise anything more. We would observe, however, that Dr. Moberly did not see the Warden's letter before it was sent to the Commissioners, nor the reply of the Commissioners to that letter. We may add that we are not led to expect from him much encouragement for this branch of study, since he has entertained a strong opinion, and has expressed it to us very frankly, that for a school like Winchester, and taught in the only way which he thinks practicable at Winchester, it is "worthless". Several of the


[page 147]

boys, he admits, derived much good from the lectures, and gained an interest in the subjects of them, which outlasted the lectures themselves. But, "except for those who have a taste for the physical sciences, and intend to pursue them as amateurs or professionally, such instruction", he repeats, "is worthless as education." On the part of the present Warden, who appears to have been unacquainted with the correspondence above referred to, we found no objection to a more effective teaching of the subject; and we cannot allow ourselves to doubt that Dr. Moberly himself, whatever may be his individual opinions on this point, will act in accordance with the existing statute and the deliberate engagement of the College.

The Warden has since addressed the following letter to our Secretary:

The College, Winchester,
December 5th, 1862.

Dear Sir

As the Public Schools Commissioners on the occasion of their visiting Winchester, expressed an opinion that the amount of instruction in Physical Science given at Winchester College, did not appear to satisfy the requirements of clause 24 page 67 of the Ordinances, I have to inform them that in future instruction in this branch of knowledge will be continued throughout the year, and that the boys will be examined after each course of lectures.

I am, &c.
GODFREY B. LEE

To Mountague Bernard, Esq.

We have been further informed, in answer to inquiries addressed to the Warden, that of the Commoners those only attend the lectures whose parents desire it, paying (as has been stated in a previous section) a fee of 10s per quarter. Not a very large number of them attend, we are told by the Warden, their parents not wishing it. The lecturer divides the school into two parts, and is thus enabled to give two lectures on the same day.

In connexion with this subject, it is right to mention an annual prize, which has for the last four or five years been given by Dr. Moberly for the best collection of wild flowers. This has been found very useful. Several boys, he says, have taken to botany. The late Second Master spoke more strongly:

I cannot tell you how thoroughly and universally this encouragement has laid hold on the boys. I seldom 'call names' on their return to college from 'hills' or elsewhere, without seeing a large number of them, each with a handful of wild flowers.
18. Deviations from the regular Course of Study, how far allowed

Our system of education, says Dr. Moberly, is uniform and single:

We have no separate departments. In special cases we should not disallow of a boy's paying particular attention to a particular subject, with such assistance as our own staff or the city of Winchester might furnish; and in very special cases we might commute some part of the classical work for mathematical or other work duly testified; but our school is not large enough to break up into subordinate schools, nor do we contemplate instituting any systematic departure from our uniform course of instruction.
"I have one or two boys", he adds, in his oral evidence, "in whose case such a commutation is made."
If a boy comes to me and says, 'My father wants to know whether, instead of doing Latin verses, I may not do mathematics?' I say, 'It is not a thing I generally allow; but is Mr. Walford or Mr. Hawkins reading with you in that subject?' 'Yes, I have Mr. Hawkins as a private tutor.' 'Then give my compliments to Mr. Hawkins, and say, if he will send me every week a return of such a quantity of extra work in mathematics as will be equivalent to the classical task, I will accept that instead.' I have done that in a few cases. I do not wish to institute it as a system, but to have it discretional, so as to be possible in cases where it is expedient.
Dr. Moberly's own opinion is, that a division of the School into departments would be very desirable, if it were as large as Eton, but is not practicable with its actual numbers.

19. System of Promotion - Examinations, Prizes, and Emoluments tenable at School

The system of promotion at Winchester is nearly the reverse of that at Eton. At Eton a boy rises in the School chiefly by seniority; at Winchester his rate of progress is determined by his success in an incessant competition, in which every lesson and every exercise counts for a certain numerical value, and which never pauses or terminates till he reaches the Sixth Form. Places are taken in every division below the Sixth Form, and each boy receives for each lesson a number of marks answering to the place he holds in the division at the end of the lesson. Thus, if he is twentieth from the bottom he receives twenty marks. Marks are likewise given in the Mathematical and Modern Language Classes, but the number of marks which can be given for a French or a Mathematical lesson is limited to a maximum, which is supposed to represent roughly the relative value of each of those studies compared with Classics. The highest marks


[page 148]

which a good Mathematician can gain are one-fourth, the highest that a good French or German scholar can gain are one-eighth, of the grand total. At the end of every week the marks gained for all the lessons are added up, and the same thing is done at the end of every month. This record of each boy's progress is called the "classicus paper". The promotion of each boy at the end of a half-year depends on the number of marks he has obtained in the "classicus paper" during that half-year, with the addition of those which he has gained (if his place in school is below the senior part of the Fifth) for "standing up" at the end of the summer half.

A consequence of this system is that a clever and diligent boy rises quickly to the top of the School, and that the duller or more idle boys are left to stagnate at the bottom of it. There is the advantage of a sharp and unceasing stimulus applied to those who are capable of rising, and the disadvantage, such as it is, which a steady but slow and backward boy suffers from the disheartening effect of being constantly outstripped and left behind.

From this cause, and from the fact that boys are admitted at almost any age, the number of great boys in the lower classes doing very elementary work is singularly large. In the lowest class, doing Greek Delectus and a little Ovid, there were in 1861 two boys of 16, one very nearly 17, two others not far short of 16, and the average age of the whole division was very nearly 15, and higher than that of the division next above it, which was 14 years and 4 months. Mr. H. Moberly, the Master who was then in charge of these two divisions, observes, in making his return, that the boys in them are too old for their place in the School, and attributes it, apart from exceptional cases of extreme dullness or of ill-health, to want of early training and preparation. It is hard work, he says, to keep boys of such an age, in such a position, from being idle and mischievous. "It is hard to say where, up to a certain age, old neglected boys can go better than to a public school. At the same time the school does them more good than they do the school."

The absence, until very recently, of any general periodical examinations has been among the peculiarities of the Winchester system. There have been regular examinations for prizes, which will be mentioned hereafter, but the boys who compete for prizes form, of course, but a small proportion of the School. The peculiar stimulus which periodical examinations afford, and the particular mental discipline which they supply, have thus in a great measure been wanting, and the School has lost the assistance which they give in correcting the defects inseparable from the system of "taking places" as a method of promotion. Dr. Moberly has lately made an innovation in this respect by instituting a half-yearly examination, turning partly on the Classical work of the previous half-year, but comprising also papers in French and German, and in set portions of English History, of Geography, and of the Old Testament. Success in this examination, which is held in the first week of the half-year, does not contribute to promotion in the School, but is rewarded by prizes given to each division. He is pleased with the result of the first trial, and thinks it will work well.

The system of promotion above described, and the stimulus afforded by it, do not, however, reach to the top of the School, nor do the half-yearly examinations; they cease on entrance into the Sixth Form. Until about 12 years ago, promotion by taking places stopped on entrance into the Senior Part of the Fifth, that is, about half-way up the School, and at a point which a boy generally attained when about 13 or 14 years old. From that time till he stood for New College his place was never changed, and the examination which he eventually underwent for New College was formerly, we believe, little more than nominal. It used, Mr. Fearon says, to be "almost a farce", the election being really decided by seniority. Up to that point, therefore, a boy worked very hard. A great number of marks were formerly to be gained in the middle part of the Fifth, by "standing up", and the quantities of verse and prose learnt for this purpose in that part of the School were enormous. "I have known", says Dr. Moberly, "of a boy repeating a play of Sophocles without missing a word." The result was, that a Fellowship for life was the prize of a struggle which was over at 14, and success in which was won in great measure by a hard strain on a retentive memory. This system had its natural effect. It produced intellectual languor and idleness in a considerable portion of the Upper School.

New College is now thrown open to the Commoners, and the examination for it is real and competitive. The Sixth Form boys have now, therefore, a stimulus to exertion which the Upper School had not before, and Dr. Moberly trusts to this, to the examination for the Goddard Scholarship, and to the various School prizes, to combat the tendency to stagnation, which is likely to begin at the point where "taking places" ends. He admits that they serve this purpose imperfectly, at least in the lower part of the Sixth,


[page 149]

where the boys are not advanced enough for these competitions and are at some distance from the struggle for New College, but he thinks he perceives a moral benefit in releasing a boy altogether at a certain stage of his course from the pressure of emulation.

The examination for the Goddard Scholarship is practically confined to about twenty boys, many of whom work very hard for it. It takes place once a year; it is conducted by examiners from one of the Universities, and turns on Classics, Divinity, and English history. The books, or subjects, are set beforehand, and are outside the range of the school-work of the year. This is a Scholarship of £25 a year, tenable for four years. As the endowment is not sufficient to maintain four of these Scholarships, it is supplemented every third year by a Scholarship of equal or somewhat greater value given by the Pitt Club.

There are also two Mathematical Scholarships, one for the Upper and one for the Lower part of the School, awarded annually by the same examiners as the Goddard.

The Crown gives two gold medals annually for compositions in Latin verse and English prose, or for English verse and Latin prose, and two silver medals for elocution in Latin and English. In each year the Warden and Fellows give prizes for the two sorts of composition which in that year are not rewarded by gold medals. They also give prizes for Greek iambics, and (to boys below the Sixth Form) for Latin verse. There is a prize for an English historical essay, and one for reading aloud; and there are prizes of books given by Lord Saye and Sele to the two boys in each class who obtain the greatest aggregate of marks in the half-year.

The Commissioners' Ordinance of 1857 provides, as we have already stated, for the establishment not only of additional Scholarships, but of 20 Exhibitions, to be of the value of £50 each, tenable as long as the Exhibitioner remains at school. An Exhibition is not tenable with a Scholarship. The Head Master is directed to make an annual report to the electors (who are the same as the electors to Scholarships) respecting the conduct and proficiency of the Exhibitioners; and the electors, or the majority of them, may deprive any Exhibitioner, upon an unfavourable report. Although the funds to which the Commissioners looked for the foundation of these Exhibitions, as well as of the 30 Scholarships, have not yet become available, no Fellowship having dropped since 1857, several Exhibitioners have been elected. In 1861, when it was intended to elect two, there were no candidates who, in the judgment of the electors, came up to the proper standard. The Exhibitions have been very serviceable to the School. Since the Scholars have been elected by open competition, some of the Commoners have always been amongst the candidates for Scholarships; and, although the number was not very large (12 perhaps at the utmost, of whom three or four have succeeded) the Commoners who have thus migrated into College have been above the average in cleverness and industry. The Exhibitions serve to keep up in some degree the standard of proficiency among the Commoners. "All the best blood", says Dr. Moberly, "would be drained into the College" without them.

20. Scholarships and Exhibitions not tenable at the School

The 70 Fellowships at New College, to which Scholars of Winchester were exclusively eligible, have been converted, by the Ordinance framed for the former College by the Oxford University Commissioners, into 30 Fellowships and 30 Scholarships, the latter tenable for five years. The Scholarships are open to "boys receiving education" at Winchester, whether Scholars or Commoners; and any Scholarship for which there is no candidate of sufficient merit in the judgment of the electors is to be thrown open for that turn to general competition. Two were thus thrown open last year. One half of the Fellowships are to be open, the other half confined to persons who have been educated for at least two years at Winchester, or have for 12 terms been members of New College.

The effect of these changes is -

1. To deprive Winchester, not wholly, but in a considerable degree, of the succession it formerly possessed to perpetual Fellowships - a succession which was of course irregular, depending on the avoidance of Fellowships by death or otherwise. Mr. Walcott (p. 192), writing in 1852, estimates the average number of vacancies at about nine in two years. Of these the first two in every year were appropriated to Founder's kin, who were not superannuated until 25 years of age.

2. To provide, instead, Scholarships tenable for five years, of which, when the scheme is in full operation, six will regularly fall vacant every year.

3. To throw open these New College Scholarships, and the 15 Fellowships also, to Commoners, as well as Scholars, of Winchester.

We believe that these changes were based on sound principles, and that a new era of usefulness and distinction for the School will be dated from the introduction of them, in


[page 150]

accordance with the real paramount object of its illustrious Founder, "the promotion of the liberal arts, sciences, and faculties". The privileges of Founder's kin were a burden on the energies of the School, and the perpetual Fellowships, obtained at the early age of 18, combined with the certainty of College livings for such Fellows as might become clergymen, took away from young men a valuable stimulus to industry at a most important period in their mental growth. These disadvantages, for such in fact they were, should not be forgotten in founding any estimate of the instruction given at Winchester upon the honours obtained at Oxford by Wykehamists.

A Scholar is superannuated on completing his 18th year. The effect of this rule, if strictly adhered to, would be to send Winchester Scholars into the field of competition at the Universities younger by a year than most of the boys who enter the same field from other Schools, and therefore at a certain disadvantage, which can only be escaped by going for another year into "Commoners". It is, however, modified in practice. If, in the examination for New College which every Scholar undergoes before attaining 18, he acquits himself well, though not so well as to be elected, it has become usual to permit him, on the recommendation of the electors, to stay an additional year, and try again. The tabular returns furnished to us in 1861 showed that there were as many as four or five Scholars then taking advantage of this custom. It appears, therefore, that the exception has, in the case of boys who, though not obtaining their election to New College, have attained a certain standing and proficiency, superseded the rule. But it is still an irregularity; the privilege is dependent on the will and pleasure of the electors; the standard according to which it is conferred is not fixed; and there is some practical inconvenience in requiring boys to be examined, in order to get a recommendation, a year before the examination which will really determine whether they are, or are not, to proceed to New College.

There are also two funds, each of considerable amount, for supporting at the University Scholars who have been superannuated without being elected to New College; one of these, the "Bedminster Fund", consists of the accumulated profits of a copyhold estate held on two old lives which will shortly expire, and it now amounts to £15,600 Consols, and produces a yearly income of £468. The other, which goes by the name of the "Superannuates' Fund", has been accumulated by subscription, and is now above £16,000, partly in Consols and partly in 2½ per Cents [sic], and produces somewhat more than £400. Out of the income of these funds it has been the practice to give exhibitions of varying amounts (the highest is £50 per annum) tenable for four years at any College in Oxford or Cambridge. These Exhibitions are not gained by examination, but are given by the Warden, Head Master, and Second Master jointly, to Scholars selected for good conduct and poverty. The object of both of these foundations was to afford an encouragement and provision for Scholars of Winchester who might be disappointed of succeeding to New College, when vacancies were much fewer and more irregular than they now are. It is now found that a boy who fails of election to New College may possibly be better off than if he had succeeded, since he may get, in addition to a Bedminster Exhibition, a Scholarship or Exhibition at some other College. An apprehension has arisen lest this should possibly do harm to New College; and to prevent it, it has been determined that the Superannuates' Exhibitions should, whenever the electors might think fit, be diverted from their established purpose (which in the memorandum creating the trust is not very clearly expressed), and given to boys having actually gained Scholarships at New College. This, we were informed in 1862~, had already been done in one case.

It is clear that the interests of New College do not here coincide with those of the School. It is the interest of the School that the ablest boys in it should stand for open scholarships, and match themselves with those of other Schools in the open field of competition. The interest of the College demands that only the inferior ones should do this, and the interest of the College prevails. An extract from the evidence will throw some light on this point:

87. (Mr. Vaughan) New College now is not entirely open to public competition? - No; not to scholars of other schools.

88. Then suppose a young man obtains a Scholarship in a college where there is free competition, he has been successful in a larger sphere, has he not, that being open to the free competition of all schools. - Yes.

80. So that the free competition of all schools must be acting as an extra stimulus to exertion on any boy intending to compete in open colleges beyond what the more circumscribed competition of New College would afford? - Yes.

90. Was it not then for the good of Winchester School that the boys during their career at Winchester should have looked forward to this extra, competition? - Yes; but it operated to the prejudice of New College, because they got only the second best scholars. If they had failed they would have fallen back on New College. If they got their Scholarships at Oxford, and then


[page 151]

got a Winchester exhibition, they would be in a better position than if they had gone to New College.

91. (Mr. Thompson) In fact, I presume, that if New College had been out of the question you would rather have encouraged that practice among your boys of going in and competing for entirely free scholarships? - Yes; they are at liberty to go in and compete for any scholarships they like.

92. Not only would they be at liberty, but you would think it for the credit of the School that they should do so? - Yes; but we are so connected with New College, we do not like to injure it.

93. (Mr. Vaughan) Have you made any practical regulation which puts a stop to it? - Yes; that we would not restrict the superannuates exhibitions to those who failed to get scholarships of New College.

The Warden is of opinion that these exhibitions are very useful, and wishes for no change in the mode in which they are given. The Head Master thinks it desirable that they should be thrown open to the whole School; that some of them should be awarded by examination, (taking, however, comparative scantiness of means into account); and that the Bedminster Exhibitions should be tenable with a Scholarship at New College, as the Superannuates' Exhibitions practically are at present.

Besides these exhibitions there are two others, the endowment of which consists of a portion of the tithes of the Parish of Mears Ashby, in Northamptonshire, and yields in the aggregate about £50 a year.

21. Hours of Work - Games, Bounds

The hours of work and play at Winchester, like most other parts of the system, are fixed by ancient usage. They will be found described in the Head Masters' written answers (III. 33) and in his oral evidence (785-815), and in the Returns headed D. The boys prepare, as well as say, their lessons in school, and the rule is to allow, for every lesson an hour long, an hour of preparation. Speaking roughly, on two days in the week a boy is in school between six and seven hours, on the other days between four and five hours, besides the time given to composition or private work in the evenings. Of the school-hours, he spends about half in preparing his lessons, and the other half in saying them. In the Sixth Form, says one witness, "a large portion of your time was taken up with reading for examinations, and it entirely depended on how far you chose to read for them as to the time you had at your disposal." A hard-working Sixth Form boy would generally work about seven hours a day, before an examination perhaps nine or ten hours. If he also made a study of cricket he would probably give, one day with another, three hours a day to the game, and it is worth observation not only that Winchester, with very inferior numbers, has played a great number of successful matches against Eton and Harrow, but that the hard-working Winchester boys are able to contend successfully with the idle boys.

1317. (Mr. Vaughan) Should you say that the very idle boys were on the whole the best cricket players? - I do not think they were on the whole; for instance, the last half year I was at Winchester, the first ten Prefects, with a bowler given, played the rest of the School at cricket, and beat them.

1318. They represented the intellect of the School, I suppose? - Yes, in that case they certainly did. In that case six of those who were at the top of the School were in the eleven at cricket. That was, perhaps, a stronger instance than was likely to be at all usual.

1321. When you were at Winchester, did you play any cricket match against Eton? - I never played myself.

1322. I mean the School? - Yes.

1323. Do you recollect with what results; which won? - It varied different years.

1324. Do you think it was as often on the side of Winchester as Eton? - For the last 12 years it certainly has been. The last two years I was at Winchester we beat both years. The three years before that we were beaten; and for five years before that I think we beat them.

1325. Do you recollect whether, when the boys who played cricket best were studious, Winchester was beaten more in those years? - Certainly the two years I was alluding to, when the boys at the top of the School were such good cricketers, we beat Eton both years.

There is, we believe, no want of emulation at Winchester, or of respect for work. A boy who gets on is looked up to, and the Scholarships and other competitions excite general interest in the School.

We may notice here one wholesome innovation which has been introduced within a few years past, the enlargement of the hounds. By old Winchester usage the Scholars were confined within the "meads" or playground attached to the School, which are of very limited extent, except when they went, on three afternoons in the week, to St. Catherine's Hill. The pilgrimage to "Hills", which was a part of this system, is still kept up, though not with the same strictness as formerly; but the boys are now allowed to range the country freely, whilst they are prohibited from going into the town. The play-grounds themselves have lately been improved by the erection of fives courts, the gift


[page 152]

of the Rev. C. H. Ridding, one of the Fellows, and by the demolition of a wall, which, when we visited Winchester, divided the Scholars' ground from that of the Commoners.

Swimming is not systematically taught, but we have learnt from the Warden that of the 41 boys in the Sixth Book all but 5 could swim, and of the 216 in the School at least 149.

22. Monitorial System - Prefects

Winchester, the oldest of our great Schools, undoubtedly produced the earliest type of what is called the monitorial system, and appears to have preserved that type almost unaltered during several centuries. The beginning of the system may be traced to the Founders' Statutes.

In each of the lower chambers let there be at least three Scholars of good character, more advanced than the rest in age, discretion, and knowledge, who may superintend their chamber-fellows in their studies, and oversee them diligently, and may from time to time certify and inform the Warden, Sub- Warden, and Head Master respecting their behaviour and conversation and progress in study.
There were six chambers, and therefore 18 "Prefects", and the number was not increased when the original school-room was turned into a seventh chamber. The 18 chamber-prefects still exist; of these eight have power only in the inner quadrangle, practically only in the chambers; the remaining ten (pleâa potestate præfecti) have power everywhere; and five of the ten, called officers, are invested also with special authority, and have charge respectively of the hall, school-room, library, and chapel. The Prefect of hall is the chief of these five, and has large powers of general superintendence; he is "the governor of the school among the boys", and their organ of communication with the Head Master. All the Prefects, except the five and the ten respectively, obtain their positions by seniority; the five officers are chosen by the Warden, with the advice of the Head Master, with reference to their character and power of influencing their schoolfellows. All are invested with authority by the Warden in a traditional and appropriate form of words (præficio te sociis concameralibus - præficio te aulæ, &c.). They are empowered to punish corporally. It is not the practice for them to set impositions.

This system, as clearly appears from the Latin poem De Collegio before referred to, was in active operation in the 16th century. Dr. Moberly deems it of "vital importance", as substituting a responsible authority, bestowed according to character and progress in the School, for the irresponsible power of mere size and strength; as providing for the maintenance of discipline without espionage; as a safeguard against bullying; and as accustoming boys to exercise over others a control checked by usage and opinion. He admits, at the same time, that it requires careful watching; that it might become extremely mischievous were the Prefects themselves to be ill-conducted or disorderly; and that it is necessary, to prevent this, that the boys should be well trained, the Masters watchful, and the right of appeal to the Head Master (though seldom used) kept always open. Mr. Fearon's experience is, that it works well, and he does not remember any instance of its having been abused. Mr. Thresher, who was a Commoner, agrees in this opinion. It is submitted to cheerfully; and if it is not a perfect safeguard against bullying and some of the minor offences which it would be deemed the Prefect's duty to punish, we believe that it serves its intended purposes to a very considerable degree, that there is little bullying, and that the general tone of opinion and conduct is sound.

The "officers" have authority over the whole School, those Prefects who are not officers, only over the Scholars. There are, besides, 12 Commoner Prefects, who have power over all the other Commoners. Dr. Moberly has explained in his pamphlet the rules which he has laid down for regulating and limiting the powers of inflicting punishment possessed by the Commoner Prefects.

23. Fagging

The system of fagging among the Scholars is connected with that of government by Prefects. The 18 Prefects, and they only, have power to fag; all the Scholars who are not Prefects are, strictly speaking, liable to be fagged, but the burden falls chiefly on those most recently elected, whatever may be their position in the School. A junior Scholar whom we examined, and who had come in at the head of his election a few months before, was, at the time we saw him, in the senior part of the Fifth, which is considerably above the middle of the School. It would be a year and a half, he informed us, before he ceased to be liable to be fagged. The system is somewhat complicated. A boy may be "valet" to one Prefect, whom he waits on in his chamber; "breakfast fag" to another, whom he attends at tea - not at breakfast - in hall; and liable also to be sent on errands, and to be obliged to field at cricket, at the bidding of any Prefect who may happen to want those services. This would ordinarily be the case with a boy who was not one of the seven juniors, but was just above them. If he were one of the seven


[page 153]

juniors, he would be general fag (instead of "valet") in his own chamber. Some of the services done by the fags are such as might, and as we think, should, be done by servants; but the only service which seems to be very troublesome, is that of fagging at games. It is a rule, we are told, that no junior may be fagged at cricket more than two hours in the day. But we doubt whether this rule is strictly kept or regarded as an effectual protection by the fags; and were it observed never so strictly, two hours a day subtracted from the playtime of a little boy can leave very little time during which he is his own master. It is further to be observed that, as the fagging in College is on a different principle from the fagging in Commoners, the one depending on length of standing in College, tho other on position in the School, a boy who, being a Commoner, is elected a Scholar, may have to go through a second period of servitude, after having already served his time, a prospect which might well deter a clever boy from standing for College.

24. Punishments

The chief punishments at Winchester, as elsewhere, are flogging and impositions. The practice of giving impositions to be written out is, however, adopted more sparingly, and the better alternative of setting them to be learnt by heart more frequently, than in some other schools. Flogging, which is administered publicly (as a general rule) and by the Head and Second Masters only, has greatly diminished in frequency. "When I was here", says Dr. Moberly, "in my boy time, there was a very large number of boys flogged, and nobody cared about it." "I have known 20 in a day, and all for slight offences. Sometimes boys did not answer to their names in time. Now we punish in this way very rarely. There are now", he adds, "from 10 to 20 floggings in a year, perhaps in some years a few more." The diminution has had a good effect. The instrument with which this punishment is inflicted is described in Dr. Moberly's evidence; he doubts whether it is as well adapted for its purpose as a birch rod, and would evidently have exchanged it for the latter (as, indeed, he occasionally has) if it had not been held sacred by the traditions of the School.*

25. Chapel Services. Sermons. Religious Instruction

The boys go to chapel every morning for a short service, which consists of a part of the Liturgy with chanting. It omits, however, both the Psalms and the lessons for the day, and in this respect Dr. Moberly desires some alteration. On Sundays there are two choral services in chapel, at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., and the boys also go once to the cathedral, where they have the Litany, the Communion Service, and a sermon. The late Warden introduced the practice of having a sermon also at the chapel service on Sunday evenings, and the present Warden has continued it, and has arranged a cycle of preachers to share the duty with himself. The Head and Second Masters have preached constantly (we need hardly refer to Dr. Moberly's acknowledged eminence as a preacher) and the Warden thinks it very desirable that it should be considered the duty of every Master who is in Holy Orders to address the boys from time to time.

We think it right to advert here to the remarkable care with which the boys are prepared for confirmation; to Dr. Moberly's custom of reading Greek Testament for half-an-hour every morning (except Monday) with the boys of the highest three divisions, and giving catechetical teaching on Monday mornings to the boys who have not been confirmed; to the daily Bible reading in the Fourth Form; and to the practice described in the subjoined extract, which is in keeping with the old religious usages of Winchester School:

1152. (Lord Clarendon) So many being together, did it not interfere with private prayers? Did boys say their prayers? - Do you mean regular evening prayers?

1153. No; I mean the boys saying prayers to themselves before they went to bed? - That was always done. Prayers were always said at nine o'clock in the evening, and the Prefects took it in turn every week to be responsible. It was called being 'in course', and the Prefect in course made every boy kneel down and kept silence for five minutes or so. Every boy was required to kneel down; of course you could not make a boy kneel down longer than he liked.

1154. Of course you could not make him say his prayers when he knelt down, but he had an opportunity of doing it, and he was not laughed at for doing so? - No; everyone was expected to kneel down, and I think in every well-ordered chamber silence was kept; of course there were one or two Prefects in the room. The Prefects did not say their prayers then.

*The vimen quadrifidum is said to have been invented by a Warden in the middle of the 15th century. - The College of St. Mary Winton, p. 9.


[page 154]

26. Commoners' Boarding-houses. Expenses of a Commoner at Winchester

The charge for each boy in the Head Master's, house is £84, in the other boarding-houses £105. This includes all the School charges. German and Drawing are the only extras, and are paid for as such by those who learn them. The £105 includes also medical attendance. Dr. Moberly states that, including travelling-money, pocket-money, and tradesmen's bills, the total expenses of a boy boarding in his house average about £115 a year. Every new boy in the Head' Master's house pays £11 18s 6d for entrance fees. Out of the £84 charged for each boy, the Head Master has paid about £21 10s to the support of the general staff of Assistant Masters, including the Second Master, the Classical, Mathematical, and French Masters; and a small customary payment to the senior Prefects in College. He calculated his housekeeping expenses some years ago at £29, but he states that this estimate was formed when prices were lower than at present, and on the assumption that his house would contain 120 boys. With 90 boys in his house, he calculated his profits in 1861, as has been already seen, at from £20 to £25 per head. His number had risen to 100 in 1862.

Out of the £105 charged for each of the other boarders, £26 9s 6d is paid to the staff, including £10 1Os to the Head Master, and leaving a balance of £78 10s 6d. The boarding master has likewise paid on the entrance of each new boy £6 11s, which has been divided in certain proportions among the Head, Second, and Third Masters. The numbers in the two boarding-houses which were open in 1861 were respectively 23 and 20. The estimated profits on each boy were nearly £23, after payment of house rent and repairs, servants' food and wages, and two guineas for medical attendance on the boy.*

Of the three boarding-houses now open in addition to the Head Master's, two are kept by Assistant Masters, the third by a gentleman who was formerly a "Tutor in Commoners", but now has no educational duties beyond superintending the work of the boys in his house. We visited, when we were at Winchester, the two houses which were then occupied, and were favourably impressed by them.

The boys sleep five or six in a room, and do not use their bedrooms during the daytime. The 20 seniors in the Head Master's house have little private studies; the others, when they are not in School, sit in a common hall, where each has his "toy" or cupboard. With the Scholars it is otherwise; they sit in their chambers after six in the evening. The want of privacy is probably less felt at Winchester, from the fact that the lessons are prepared as well as said in School.

Before quitting this part of the subject, we think it right to direct attention to the Warden's evidence respecting the want of effective drainage in the town of Winchester. Last autumn, says the Warden (speaking in 1862):

Mr. Rawlinson came down at the request of some of the most respectable of the inhabitants to give us some statistics touching the advantages and expenses of the drainage of large towns, and of this town in particular. A public meeting was called by the mayor, at which there was a large assemblage; Mr. Rawlinson was present, and although he had come down at the request of a large number of the ratepayers he was refused a hearing. Still it is a subject we have not lost sight of; it is one of primary importance, and one which makes me very anxious. Before Mr. Rawlinson's visit we consulted Mr. Haywood, an engineer of the Metropolitan Board of Works, and he came down and gave us an opinion.
We may be permitted to express a hope that the improvements which appear to be required in this particular will not be much longer delayed.

27. Results - The Universities - The Army

Of the Undergraduates at Oxford in Michaelmas Term 1861, 60 had been educated at Winchester; of those at Cambridge, 2. The average number of the boys leaving Winchester of late years who have gone to the Universities we compute to be about 17 a year, and the average proportion to be about 43 per cent. Of those who left Winchester in the year which ended at the summer holidays 1862, the proportion who went to the Universities was 41 per cent.

Within the ten years ending in 1861, Winchester obtained at Oxford in the final examinations, seven Classical "Firsts", one Mathematical and two in Law and Modern History; in Moderations, 13 Classical and two Mathematical "Firsts", one Craven Scholarship, one Latin verse and three Latin Essay prizes, and several prizes for English essays, with other distinctions. We have no return of honours gained at Cambridge, and the number of boys who go thither is probably too small to supply materials for a return .

*See the new scheme of payments in Dr. Moberly's Letters appended to Answers, II. 10.


[page 155]

The number of the Winchester boys who enter the army is small, as is shown by the subjoined Table, in which the letter A indicates those who have not, and the letter B those who have, had intermediate tuition.

WINCHESTER CANDIDATES FOR DIRECT COMMISSIONS, SANDHURST AND WOOLWICH, IN THREE YEARS

The total number, therefore, who passed these examinations in three years was five, of whom two came direct from Winchester.

OBSERVATIONS

The changes introduced at Winchester by the Oxford University Commissioners have already proved beneficial to the College, and, when they take complete effect, will greatly extend its usefulness. It is to be observed, however, that the primary object of that Commission was University Reform; that it dealt with Winchester School only in connexion with the College, and as a part of the collegiate establishment; and that its powers were materially limited by the right of veto which the Act 17 & 18 Vict. c. 81 gave to the Warden and Fellows - a veto which, as appears from the foregoing Statement, was in fact exercised. We have felt it to be our duty, having regard to these circumstances as well as to the terms of our Commission, to institute with respect to Winchester College, as well as to Winchester School, the same thorough and comprehensive inquiry as we have applied to other colleges and schools; and, as the result of that inquiry, we think it right to propose further and more extensive changes, harmonizing, however, in principle, as we believe, with the reforms of 1857.

The observations which we have made on the constitution and government of Eton College are in substance applicable also to Winchester. Differences might be pointed out in the character of the Governing Bodies of the two Colleges, and in the relation which they respectively bear to the Schools; but, on the whole, the reasons which have induced us to recommend important changes in the one case have led us also to the conclusion that similar changes are advisable in the other. We shall recommend, therefore, the reconstitution of the Governing Body on a plan resembling that which we have suggested for Eton. According to this plan, there will be a resident Warden and 11 Fellows, some of them receiving a fixed income out of the revenues of the foundation, and required to reside during a part of the year, the others honorary, and under no other obligation than that of attending stated and special meetings and taking part in the transaction of business at those meetings.

These changes will undoubtedly affect, to some extent directly, and to a much greater indirectly, the relation between Winchester and New College, which has been already weakened by the Ordinance of 1857. This, however, presents, in our opinion, no substantial objection to them. The connexion which the Founder created between his two Colleges was doubtless in his time of the greatest value to both. Boys went up to Oxford at that time untaught, for want of grammar schools, in the simplest rudiments of learning, and lived, when there, in private hostels or lodging-houses amongst a vast throng of students like themselves, with little of discipline or restraint, exposed to many hardships and many temptations. The design of William of Wykeham was that his Grammar School at Winchester should educate for his College in Oxford, and his College afford a home and the means of maturer training for the more capable and industrious among the Scholars of his Grammar School. The old state of things is now entirely changed; and whilst no Founder of a College would now think it desirable that it should be fed exclusively from a single school, no Founder of a School would wish that its best Scholars should all be drained off into a single College. It would be beyond our province to recommend, had we come to the conclusion that it was expedient, that the ancient connexion between Winchester and New College should be destroyed altogether. But whilst that connexion is preserved, by the maintenance at New College of the thirty Winchester Scholarships, and with it the old traditional attachment between the two foundations, it is evidently very undesirable that the College in Oxford should retain a dominant influence over the School.


[page 156]

We shall propose that the Warden of New College for the time being should always be ex officio a Fellow of Winchester College, but we shall not recommend that members of New College should enjoy any preference in nominations or elections to the Wardenship or Fellowships at Winchester.

We shall recommend that the Bedminster and Superannuates' Exhibitions should be thrown open to Commoners as well as Scholars; that they should be won by examination instead of being given as at present; and that they should be tenable at any College of either University.

The present staff of Classical Masters is clearly inadequate, and there should, in our opinion, be one Class Master for each division, assuming the average number of boys in each division to be about thirty.

It is proper to consider whether the changes which in this respect and in others we propose to introduce into the scheme of education, would involve of necessity any increased charge upon either the parents or the College. It appears to us that the present scale of payments, if the amount thus raised is properly adjusted and distributed, is sufficient to provide an adequate staff for the School, and that no permanent addition to it is required.* The first introduction of these changes at Winchester, as elsewhere, will doubtless be a matter of some nicety and difficulty, and there are personal rights and interests to be

*Supposing the total number of the School to be 220 (it was 216 in 1862 and is now, we believe about 230), and of these 70 to be in College, 100 in the Head Master's house (as in 1862), and 50 in other boarding houses, and supposing the scale of payments to be the same as in 1861, the annual payments for the teaching staff would appear to be as under:

To this sum is to be added entrance fees and the profits of boarding.

A Commoner stays at school, we are told, from three to four years. Supposing the number of entrances in the Head Master's house to be 30 a year, and those in the other houses to be 15, the amount from this source would be from £400 to £500.

The Head Master estimated his boarding profits in 1861, when he had 91 boys, at from £20 to £25 not taking into account (as we conceive) the £350 a year paid by him to the College, the two sums of £50 each paid by him to the Mathematical Assistant and a Tutor, or the keep of the Tutors in Commoners. Taking all these things into account, he may, as it seems, fairly be considered as making, when he has 100 boys, not less than £20 a head, and having a house rent free. His profits from this source may therefore be computed at £2,000 a year with a residence.

The boarding profits on 50 boys at other houses, after all outgoings paid (including payments to the staff), may be estimated altogether at not less than £1,150 of which however about £530 at present goes to a gentleman who is not a Master.

The aggregate sum available for the support of the staff at Winchester, including boarding profits and entrance fees, may be calculated therefore at somewhat more than £8,500 with two houses rent free for [footnote continues on next page]

*Probably now increased, as the Lectures go on throughout the year.

†A small portion of this (12s for each boy in the Head Master's house) goes to the prefects in College.


[page 157]

taken into account which neither can nor ought to be disregarded. With this observation, and with the recommendation which we shall presently make on this subject (Recommendation 24), we must leave the matter in the hands of the Governing Body, who will be able in dealing with it to take all the circumstances into consideration, and whose duty it will be to pay due regard to all personal claims which are just and reasonable, as well as to the wants and interests of the School.

Of the special recommendations subjoined, some will need no explanation, whilst others will be sufficiently explained by the foregoing statement and observations.

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

All the General Recommendations (Part I., pp. 52-55) are, in our opinion, applicable to Winchester, with the single exception of XXIV.

We add the following special recommendations:

1. That the Governing Body of Winchester College should consist of a Warden and eleven Fellows, of whom four should be stipendiary and seven honorary.

2. That the Warden should be elected by the Governing Body, and be a Graduate of Oxford or Cambridge, of the degree of M.A. or some higher degree, 35 years old at the least, and not necessarily in Holy Orders; and that he should have an annual stipend of £1,700, and the house which is now assigned to the Warden.

3. That the Warden of New College for the time being should be ex officio one of the seven honorary Fellows of Winchester.

4. That the other honorary Fellows should be persons qualified by position or attainments to fill that situation with advantage to the School; that they should be entitled to no emoluments, and not required to reside. Three of them should be nominated by the Crown, and should be Graduates of Oxford or Cambridge, and the other three should be elected by the whole Governing Body.

5. That the four stipendiary Fellows should be elected by the whole Governing Body; that every person so elected should either have obtained distinction in literature or science, or have done long and eminent service to the School as Head Master, Second Master, or Assistant Master; that two at least of them should be in Holy Orders, and that each stipendiary Fellow should have a fixed stipend of £700 a year.

6. That, unless prevented by sickness or by some other urgent cause allowed by the Governing Body, the Warden should reside at Winchester during the whole of every School term, and each of the paid Fellows during three months in every year.

7. That the Warden and Fellows should be members of the Established Church, but not necessarily men educated at Winchester.

[footnote continued from previous page] the Head and Second Masters. This appears to be not insufficient for a school of 220 boys, supposing it to be distributed as under:

£    
Head Master2,500
Second Master1,200
5 Classical Assistants (at from £200 to £800)2,500
Mathematics900
Modern Languages600
Natural Science400
Music and Drawing400
8,500

When the boarding house now held by Mr. Wickham falls vacant, another £500 would become available for the Classical Assistants or for other purposes. An increase in the number of Commoners would proportionately increase the fund. The increase in the number of Scholars from 70 to 100 will not add to the fund, while it will add to the work of the staff. The substitution, however, of four Fellowships at £700 for six at £550 will save £500, and the College will therefore be able to pay more than it now does for the tuition of the Scholars.

The present incomes of the Head and Second Masters exceed those assigned to them in the above scheme, and an additional sum, which may be reckoned at about £800, would be required on this account if the scheme were to be brought into immediate operation.

The payments at present made by the College in respect of the teaching and discipline of the 70 Scholars, including the Lecturers on Science, amount, as has been seen, together with the payments from the Goddard Fund to nearly £1,800 (probably at present to more than this sum) or about £25 for each Scholar. It appears reasonable that the College should pay £20 at least for the instruction of each Scholar, which would amount to £2,000 when the whole number of Scholars is 100; and that until the number of Scholars exceeds 90 the College should pay, in addition to £20 for each, such additional sum as will make up its total payment to £1,800. The payments from the Goddard Fund are to be accounted for this purpose as payments by the College.

The scale of emoluments given above is suggested by way of illustration; the actual distribution we leave to the Warden and Fellows, with the observation that the net emoluments of future Head Masters should not we think, exceed £2,500 while the number of the school is below 300. Neither do we intend by the above estimate of receipts to suggest that the payments of the non-foundationers should always be the same in form or amount as at present. The estimate is intended only to show that the aggregate amount of these payments would be sufficient, without increase, to meet our recommendations.


[page 158]

8. That no ecclesiastical preferment in the gift of the College should be tenable with the Wardenship, nor with a stipendiary Fellowship.

9. That whenever the whole number of the Governing Body is complete or is not less than ten, five should be a quorum; and when it is below ten, a proportion not less than one half of the existing body should constitute a quorum.

10. That the Governing Body should be authorized to fix the times and duration of the holidays, notwithstanding the provisions of the Founder's Statutes on that subject.

11. That advertisements respecting the elections to Scholarships and Exhibitions should afford information respecting the limits of age, the subjects of examination, the value of the Scholarships or Exhibitions, and, as far as possible, the number of vacancies; and that such advertisements should be inserted in the newspapers three months at least before the day of election.

12. That the Bedminster and Superannuates' Exhibitions should not be confined to boys who have been superannuated or have failed of election to New College; that they should be open to Scholars and Commoners indifferently, and should be tenable at any College at Oxford or Cambridge, but that a Bedminster and a Superannuates' Exhibition should not be tenable together; that they should be awarded by competitive examination, but that, cæteris paribus [other things being equal], the pecuniary circumstances of the candidates should be taken into account.

13. That the annual value of the Superannuates' Exhibitions should be fixed by the Governing Body; that it should not be less than £50; and that all of them should be of the same value.

14. That the two Exhibitions endowed out of the tithes of Mears Ashby should be consolidated into one; that the consolidated Exhibition should be awarded by competitive examination, open to both Scholars and Commoners, and should not be tenable with a Scholarship at New College, nor with a Bedminster or Superannuates' Exhibition.

15. That as regards that part of the scheme of studies which relates to instruction in natural science, no distinction should be made between the Scholars and the Commoners.

16. That the maximum age for admission into the Fourth Form should be 13; for the junior Part of the Fifth, 14; and for the senior Part of the Fifth, 16. (See General Recommendation XXV.)

17. That the permission to discontinue some part of the course of the study, in order to give more time to some other part (General Recommendation XIII), should not be granted to any boy who has not reached the senior division of the Fifth Form.

18. That the promotion of the boys from division to division should not depend wholly, as it has hitherto done, upon the marks gained for class-work and compositions during the half year, but should depend also in part upon their performances in a special competitive examination occurring once at least in the year.

19. That a larger amount of translation from English into Latin and Greek verse and prose should be introduced; that the amount of original composition in these two languages should be diminished; and that some part of the original composition in them should be exchanged for translations from Greek and Latin into English, both oral translation (as distinct from construing) and written, and that in estimating the merit of such translations due regard should be paid to the correctness and purity of the English.

20. That English composition should be cultivated in the junior division of the Sixth Form.

21. That the practice of learning by heart passages from Latin and English authors should be introduced in the Sixth Form.

22. That the number of Classical Masters should be increased as soon as may be, so as to provide one Master for each division of the School.

23. That in applying to Winchester the principles of General Recommendations XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII, the sum to be paid by the College for the instruction of each Scholar should be not less than £20, and that, until the number of Scholars exceeds 90, the College should pay, in addition to £20 at least for each Scholar, such further sum as will raise its total payment for the Scholars' instruction to £1,800, and that the annual payments from the Goddard Fund to the Head and Second Masters should be deemed pro tanto [to a certain extent] payments by the College for the instruction of the Scholars.

24. That arrangements should be made by which the Scholars under the Sixth Form, instead of being left almost wholly to themselves after six in the evening, should prepare their lessons for the next day in the presence of a Tutor, or Master, as is now the practice in Commoners.

25. That the application to Winchester College of General Recommendation XXX should receive the special attention of the Head and Second Masters and of the Governing Body.


[page 159]

CHAPTER III. WESTMINSTER

STATEMENT AND OBSERVATIONS

1. Foundation of the School - Its relation to the Chapter - Its Composition and Numbers

WESTMINSTER SCHOOL is a Grammar School attached, as is the case in many Cathedral Establishments, to the Collegiate Church of St. Peter, Westminster, and founded by Queen Elizabeth for the free education of 40* scholars in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. The Statutes providing for the establishment and regulation of the collegiate body were passed in the second year of that sovereign, and, though apparently never confirmed, have been uniformly treated as of binding authority, and, in most of their important particulars, observed. The original copy is in the possession of the Dean and Chapter. The scholars were to have an allowance of a small annual sum for commons in Hall, and to receive gowns. It was further provided that there should be for their instruction a Head and Under Master, with certain annual allowances. In addition to the 40 scholars, the Masters were to be allowed to educate with them other boys, of whom some were to be admitted as pensioners;† provided, however, that the total number of the School should not exceed 120. The stipends of the Masters and the cost of maintenance, &c. of the Scholars constituted a charge on the general revenues of the collegiate body or Chapter, the School being not endowed with any property or estates of its own.

The government of the whole School, so far as relates to the discipline, instruction, and ordinary School regulations, rests with the Head Master, subject as respects the 40 Scholars on the Foundation to the authority of the Dean and Chapter.

The Queen is Visitor.

There appears to be no doubt that, in fact, from a very early period other boys than the 40 Foundation Scholars were taught at the School, under the name of Pensionarii, Oppidani, or Peregrini. The number of such boys, and consequently the number of the whole School, have varied from time to time very considerably, but it appears that, from a very early time, at least as early as the year 1600, the statutory limitation to 120 has been practically set aside. Thirty-five years ago the total number was about 300; in 1843 it was 77. Since 1849, however, there has been but little variation, the maximum being, in 1854, 141, the minimum in 1860, 123. In the school-list of 1861, the number is 136.

2. Queen's Scholars

Candidates for admission to the Foundation (the members of which are called Queen's Scholars) are under the Statutes, cap. 5, to be examined by the Electors, with whom also rests the selection of those boys among the seniors who are to receive at the Universities the Exhibitions hereafter referred to. These electors are the Dean of Westminster, the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, aided by two Examiners from their respective Colleges, called Posers, and the Head Master, and this is, in form, still the case, the boys being tested in some author before the Electors at their annual visit. The real test of qualification, however, is that which is afforded by a system of competition which is termed "the challenge", and which is thus described by Dr. Liddell, formerly Head Master. "It partakes somewhat of the nature of the old academical disputations. All the candidates for vacant places in College are presented to the Master in the order of their forms: there were commonly between 20 and 30 from the fourth form upwards." The number of vacancies is usually about 10. "The two lowest boys come up before the Head Master having prepared a certain portion of Greek epigram and Ovid's Metamorphoses, which has been set to them a certain number of hours before. In preparing these passages they have the assistance of certain senior boys, who are called their 'helps'. With these boys too, it should be remarked, they have been working for weeks or months beforehand in preparation for the struggle. The lower

*It is enacted, Stat., cap. 6, that preference should be given to Choristers and sons of the Chapter tenants, if possessed of the necessary qualifications. There is no reason to believe that this provision has ever been attended to.

†See answers of the Chapter, II, 1. "They were permitted to have commons in the Hall with the 40 scholars upon payment for the same being guaranteed to the College by a tutor, who, it appears, must have been formerly either the Dean or one of the Prebendaries, or the Masters." Stat., cap. 6. See further, infra, the section headed "Town Boys".


[page 160]

of the two boys is the challenger. He calls on the boy whom he challenges to translate the passage set them, and, if he can correct any fault in translating, he takes his place. The upper boy now becomes the challenger and proceeds in the same way. When the translation is finished, the challenger (whichever of the two boys happens to be left in that position), has the right of putting questions in grammar, and if the challengee cannot answer them and the challenger answers them correctly, the former loses his place. They attack each other in this way until their stock of questions is exhausted." "The 'helps' stand by during the challenge, and act as counsel to their 'men', in case there be any doubt as to the correctness of a question or answer. The Head Master sits as moderator and decides the point at issue." The boy who at the end of the challenge (or contest between the two boys) is found to have finally retained his place, has subsequently the opportunity of challenging the boy next above him in the list of candidates for admission, and of thus fighting his way up through the list of competitors. The struggle ordinarily lasts from six to eight weeks; the ten who are highest at its close obtain admission to the Foundation, in the order in which they stand. This position, as far as the College is concerned, they formerly retained for the period of their stay, which is ordinarily four years, though their places in class in School are regulated by the same principles as those of the oppidans. Mr. Scott, however, has lately introduced a change by which a boy can obtain promotion in the list of his own year, so as to obtain a higher place in the annual review of the College by the Dean, and in the order in which the candidates for Studentships and Exhibitions present themselves to the Electors. We cannot doubt that this will be a great improvement. The system of competition thus described is peculiar to Westminster, and is much prized by old Westminsters generally. It should be added too, that, until lately, the foundation at Westminster was the single one among an the public schools to which admission was obtained by competition.

Among the results of this system are pointed out by Dr. Liddell its "introducing relations between the seniors and juniors of a praiseworthy character", and its making "the elder boys keep up their grammar". Mr. Scott, too, remarks that "it brings the Head Master into pleasant relations with the boys, and gives opportunities of knowing them which are hard to find otherwise"; and he adds that he considers that one of the most valuable characteristics of the system is that it tends to encourage presence of mind, self-reliance, and fluency of speech. It may also fairly be expected to stimulate the candidates to exertion and promote accurate grammatical knowledge. On the other hand, it is said that boys, on admission to College, upon the termination of this severe competition, sometimes become slack, and that this result may be observed to continue until the period arrives for the election to the Universities. For this, however (if it be so), another cause has been assigned, as at any rate contributing to bring about this result, so far as the junior year is concerned, viz., the work which the juniors are called upon to do as fags for their masters. There certainly appears to us reason to suppose that the time of the juniors is unduly subject to interruption from this cause, and their opportunities of continued study are very limited. This evil, however, it is obvious, admits of mitigation or removal by proper regulations.

We do not on the whole feel ourselves warranted in positively recommending that the system of admission which we have described should be abandoned. It is however desirable that the Governing Body should be empowered to throw open the foundation to the competition of all boys wheresoever educated, in case they should think, as we are disposed to do, that this would conduce to the general credit and efficiency of the school. The introduction of some greater variety than exists at present in the subjects in which the boys compete would, at all events, be desirable and practicable. The present Head Master has, we learn, taken a step in this direction by introducing, in addition to the challenge, papers to be done by the candidates in Latin prose and elementary mathematics.

The accommodation provided for the Queen's Scholars has been much improved within the last 20 years. Up to 1846, there was one large dormitory, in which all the 40 Queen's Scholars lived by day and slept at night, there being nothing whatever in the nature of private rooms for study. They dined, as at present, in the College Hall, but resorted for their breakfasts (and also for their lodging and the whole of their board, when sick), to the boarding houses to which they had respectively belonged when town boys. "No breakfasts were then provided by the Dean and Chapter."* The cost of main-

*See Mr. Scott's evidence, 381. It is stated however, by Lord John Thynne (now, and for many years a Canon and Sub-Dean of Westminster), that there was an allowance of bread and cheese and beer for breakfast, of which few ever availed themselves, and that thence arose the custom of half-boarding at one of the dames' houses.


[page 161]

tenance, coupled with that for tuition, averaged, at that time, from £80 to £100 per annum. When the late Dr. Buckland was Dean, he appears to have been much struck with the undue amount of this charge, and with the inadequacy, in many respects, of the accommodation provided for the Queen's Scholars; and by his advice, and under his personal superintendence, various improvements were effected, as well in the arrangements of the dormitory as in other respects, in consequence of which the boys are better and more comfortably lodged and fed, and the expense is, at the same time, very materially reduced. The total cost of the new arrangements was between £4,000 and £5,000, of which the Dean and Chapter appear to have contributed £700, and the Queen the sums of £500 and £300*, the balance being met by the charge† of £5 per annum to the parents of each scholar, until the total debt should be paid off. At the same time the Chapter undertook that the total expense of each scholar should not exceed £45 per annum. The debt upon the new buildings having been paid off, and it having been found practicable to make certain reductions in other respects, the charge to the parents of a Queen's Scholar has been further diminished, and now is from £34 to £35 per head, of which £17 are paid for tuition. Under the new arrangements the dormitory is divided into 40 distinct sleeping-places, ranged on each side of a central passage, which runs the whole length of the building, and separated from each other by close permanent partitions of about 8 feet high, and from the passage by partitions in which curtains are substituted for the panels.

There have been also provided under the dormitory, by closing up what was in the original construction of the building an open cloister, two large rooms, intended for the junior elections (or divisions of the Queen's Scholars) to read in, with a certain number of small private studies partitioned off, and each holding two of the upper boys, with the exception of one which is occupied by the Captain alone. The number of these private studies might, we think, be usefully increased; and, with regard to the dormitory, we have some reason to doubt whether in winter it is sufficiently warmed. On the whole, however, the arrangements of the dormitory, &c., appear to afford adequate accommodation. The sanatorium connected with the dormitory, and intended for the use of the Queen's Scholars, was built at the time at which the alterations were made which are above adverted to, and is very well adapted for its purpose. It is under the charge of a resident matron. The Chapter have also recently formed a covered playground for the Queen's Scholars at a very considerable expense.

As regards board, the Queen's Scholars breakfast, dine, and sup in the College Hall. Of the quality of the food no complaint was made, but it was stated to us that the supper is furnished by what remains from the dinner, and that the quantity at the later meal is therefore occasionally insufficient. This evil, if it exists, would obviously be remedied by providing meat for supper distinct from that which is served up at dinner, and by the exercise of a strict control on the part of the Chapter over those who attend upon the boys at their meals.

The boys ordinarily have tea or coffee in College after their Hall supper. This is made by the juniors, but is paid for by the boys of the two upper divisions (seniors and third election), and the lower boys have what remains of it after the upper boys have finished.

The immediate charge of the College rests, under the general superintendence of the Head Master, with the Under Master, who occupies a house immediately adjoining the dormitory, and communicating with it by a passage. There appears, however, reason to doubt whether this arrangement tends to produce as constant and easy an intercourse between the Under Master and the senior boys as would result if it were practicable for him to occupy apartments in more immediate connexion with the dormitory, as is the case in some other schools; and it was pointed out to as that it would be very desirable that a new building should be erected at the south-eastern end of the dormitory which should contain rooms for this purpose, besides affording space for additional studies and, perhaps, for one or two other purposes connected with the College.

3. Monitors

The practice of recognizing in certain senior boys the power, and of imposing upon them the responsibility, of repressing or punishing breaches of discipline exists at West-

*The Queen's subscriptions seem to have been applied specially to the Sanatorium.

†It is right to add (Evid. 1769) that the present dormitory appears to have been originally built "by contributions from persons educated at Westminster, in addition to large grants from the Crown and from Parliament".


[page 162]

minster as at various other public schools. Mr. Scott tens us that "the four head boys on the Foundation, called the Captain and Monitors, are formally entrusted with authority by the Head Master in the presence of the School"; a set form of words being used on the occasion. "They are specially charged with the maintenance of discipline generally, and in respect of Queen's Scholars particularly, having a recognized and limited power of punishing breaches of discipline or offences, such as falsehood or bullying." Over the town boys they have, says Mr. Scott, "a certain authority, but there is jealousy about this." "The town boys in the sixth form have all a certain authority and responsibility, especially in the boarding houses to which they may belong." The head town boy has, in respect of the town boys, a somewhat similar authority to that possessed by the Monitors, not, however, received in any public or formal way.

Mr. Scott further states that "the head boys are responsible for the lists of absentees when leave is given, and are charged with the duty of seeing that station is kept," i.e., that "in play hours the boys be in the play-ground, unless some reason has been allowed for absenting themselves."

Mr. Scott considers "some such powers, as are possessed by the Monitors highly conducive to discipline, as enlisting the elder boys in support of law and order", but he appears to think (and, as it seems to us, justly) that the system is one which requires watching.

4. Fagging

A system of fagging exists, and has long existed, here as in other public schools.

With the general question of its advantages and drawbacks we have dealt in another part of this Report; but there are one or two points connected with this subject, and specially referable to the foundation at Westminster, which we deem it our duty to notice. While the evidence clearly shows that in later years, and especially since 1845 (when, among other improvements, servants were appointed to render various menial services which had formerly devolved upon the junior boys), the duties of a fag have been lightened, it appears to us that some further alterations are urgently required. Junior boys are frequently obliged to get up (and more particularly in winter) at unreasonably early hours, sometimes 5 or even 4 o'clock, to call their masters, and to light and attend to the fires and gas in the morning, and to prepare hot water, &c. These duties we think should be performed, so far as they are really required, by a servant or servants to be appointed for tho purpose. Again, junior boys are liable at all times of the day to be called off from their own studies to do some service for their master, and their opportunity of preparing for school-work is thus seriously interfered with. We think that this ought to be effectually guarded against by proper regulations, such, for instance, as would provide that, during a portion of the evening, no fagging should be allowed.

In connexion with this part of our subject, we think it right to call attention to certain statements which were made to us by Mr. Meyrick (the parent of a boy who had been in College, and who had been recently taken away), and by his son, to the general effect that the duties which fags are called upon to perform are often of a very vexatious and oppressive character; that the power of inflicting punishments which seniors claim is often exercised capriciously, and with very undue severity, and that practically no adequate check exists to prevent tyranny and bullying on the part of the upper elections towards the Juniors. To allegations of so grave a character it was, of course, right that the Masters immediately connected with the College should have full opportunity of replying; and we thought it necessary also to examine upon them two boys who were in College at the time to which the statements referred. The evidence on both sides will, so far as is material to the subjects of our inquiry, be found in the oral evidence relating to Westminster; and ample opportunity for forming an opinion upon the statements made will thus be afforded.

We feel bound, however, to state that, in our judgment, there is reason to conclude from this evidence that abuses of power may and sometimes do take place, and that undeserved or excessive punishments may be inflicted without the knowledge of the Masters, and without their interference, and that they are too often unchecked by public opinion in the School. To prevent such evils as far as possible, proper regulations are required, and should be strictly and impartially enforced. The Head Master has, since Mr. Meyrick's complaint was brought under his notice, laid down rules, which we hope may be found sufficient, for the purpose of controlling the system of punishments in use among the boys, and preventing their infliction from individual caprice or in the excite-


[page 163]

ment of passion, and for diminishing in several material respects the amount of fagging. Mr. Scott tells us that he has given orders -

1st, That no boy should ever be kicked by way of punishment, on any pretence.

2nd. That no senior should delegate the power of punishment to a second election, nor commission him to punish a junior.

3rd. That no boy should be punished again for any school offence which had been already dealt with by a master.

4th. That there should be only one boy "call" each morning, and that no boy should be required to get up before 6 a.m. more than once in the week.

5th. That there should he no fagging from 8 to 10 p.m., unless for the junior in attendance on the Monitor of Chamber.

6th. That juniors should not be sent on messages by the second election.

7th. That juniors should not any more carry or keep the supply of pens, paper, ink-bottles, &c. for the seniors.

8th. That there should no longer be general "station" in College, after breakfast and dinner, for the juniors, but that two or three boys by rotation should remain in College at those times. And that negligence in fagging or routine College duties should be punished by putting the offender "on station" during those intervals.

He has further stated to us that for giving full effect to these reforms additional servants ought to be provided, an opinion in which we entirely concur, and to which we invite the serious attention of the Dean and Chapter, out of whose funds the necessary additional expenditure must be provided.

The whole subject is one which should continue to be carefully watched by those who are charged with the government of the School.

5. Bishop Williams's Scholars

Tn addition to the Queen's Scholars there are four boys on the Foundation of Bishop Williams (Lord Keeper in the reign of James the First) to be elected, under a rule of the Court of Exchequer made in April 1836, "from boys born in Wales and in the Diocese of Lincoln alternately, and, in default of these, from Westminster. Vacancies are to be advertised", and the election made after an examination conducted by the Head Master. The income of the Foundation is about £72 per annum. The boys were to have blue gowns provided for them, and to receive the rest of their dividend in books. Dr. Liddell abolished the blue gown, and offered to parents to remit all tuition fees on condition that the money (about £17) payable to each boy yearly should be paid to the school funds; and this is the present usage. It appears to us that the amount of benefit thus received from this Foundation by each boy is so small as hardly to be a sufficient reward for success in an examination, and that it will be desirable to reduce the number of these Foundationers, and increase proportionately the amount payable to each. It appears !o us also that some material modifications should be made in the rules at present defining the areas from which alone candidates may present themselves.

6. Town Boys

The Statutes, as already observed, contemplate the admission of boys to a number not exceeding 80 (in addition to the Queen's Scholars and choristers), designated by the various names of Pensionarii, Oppidani, Peregrini et alii. The first-named (Pensionarii), answering, as we have pointed out in speaking of Eton, to the Commensales of that Foundation, were, it seems, to receive their education gratuitously, and to be lodged and boarded by the College with the Queen's Scholars at a certain fixed rate of charge. Each boy of this class was to provide himself, within 15 days, with a tutor who was to be responsible for him to the College or Body Corporate. There does not appear to be any conclusive evidence as to what number of boys were ever admitted on this footing, though they are mentioned in a Chapter Order of 1584. The "Oppidans, strangers, and others" were not required to have a tutor, but they were manifestly sharers, says Mr. Scott, "in the instruction and general advantages of the School; and from their ranks mainly the Foundation was to be recruited." It does not appear that they were to be taught gratuitously, and they were to defray the expense of their own board and lodging. The Town-boys in 1861 amounted to 96, and were, with the exception of those living at their own homes, boarded and lodged in two boarding houses, kept each by an Assistant Master. The general control of these is in the hands of the Head Master, and Mr. Scott states that some years since he laid down 35 as the limit of numbers in each. In


[page 164]

these houses the sleeping rooms usually contain from two to five beds; occasionally, if there be room, one or two of the elder boys have small single rooms. As regards the diet we heard no complaint. The necessary expenses of a boarder are as under -

A home boarder (of which class there were, at the date of the replies to our inquiries, 37 in the School) pays for entrance £10, and annually for tuition £26 5s.

A half boarder, that is a boy sleeping at home, but having his breakfast and dinner at the School in one of the boarding houses (a class however which has never been large) pays the same tuition fees as the boarders, viz., £10 at entrance and 25 guineas per annum. The half boarder pays also 35 guineas, or £36 15s per annum, to the boarding house master for his board. Some years ago, when the numbers of the School were considerably larger (amounting, for example in 1823, to nearly 300), two other boarding houses existed in Great Dean's Yard, kept, as all the boarding houses then were, by dames, with an Assistant Master resident in, and having the charge of, each. When the numbers of the boarders became such as not to require these boarding houses, one was let by the Chapter for other purposes; on the site of the other a house has been recently erected, and is to be rented by the Head Master for the double purpose of giving accommodation to those Assistant Masters who have no boarding houses, and of providing a room in which home boarders can remain in the intervals between school times, both of which objects appear to us to be of much importance to the School.

Before quitting this part of the subject, we ought to add that it has been represented to us, that the difficulty of obtaining additional boarding house accommodation would necessarily present a serious impediment to the growth of the School, and, further, that it is very important that as far and so soon as possible all intermediate interests should cease to exist between the original lessors (the Chapter) and the Master occupying the house.

7. Arrangement of the School into Forms - Course of Study - System of Promotion, &c.

The School (both Queen's Scholars and Town Boys being comprised under this general term) is distributed into ten forms, which at present are arranged for teaching purposes in six divisions, the numbers now in the School readily admitting this.

The Forms are arranged as follows:

Of these the Head Master takes the Sixth Form, and the Under Master, besides having the partial charge of the Under Fourth, takes the Under School. The other Divisions are allotted to four Assistant Masters.

"The mathematical divisions of the School are generally coincident with the classical, subject only to an exception in the occasional case of a boy who is so far advanced beyond his class fellows as to make this a real injustice to him."

"In French, the two highest forms are thrown together and divided anew to form the French classes; the same is done with the youngest. The intermediate classes are at present coincident with the forms." Mr. Scott adds, however, that he hopes to alter this if he can obtain a class-room and an additional French Master. French and Mathematics form a part of the regular school work, without extra fees. No other modern language is taught, nor are there "any appliances for the study of natural science". Both music and drawing are voluntary studies. "A singing class is formed from time to time under the instruction of Mr. Turle, the organist of the Abbey."


[page 165]

A drawing master (Mr. W. W. Fenn) attends for three periods of two months each in the course of the year, and sometimes more, if required. Each pupil is, ordinarily, with him for a period of an hour and a half in the week. "A class has comprised twelve or fourteen members."

In regard to the mode in which boys pass from one form or sub-division of form to a higher one, Mr. Scott thus explains the system:

"Removes are given mainly according to proficiency, estimated partly by the weekly marks for lessons and exercises, and partly by examination. Twice a year, at Christmas and at Whitsuntide, trials take place, in which the boys are required to translate on paper passages from Greek and Latin into English, and from English into Latin prose and verse, an new to them at the time. Marks are given for this, and likewise examinations, vivâ voce and on paper, are conducted by the Masters, by which all the work of the half year is tested; no Master examining his own form. There is also an examination in August, but no 'trials'. The marks for examination are then combined in certain proportions with those for form work, and the places" (or order in which the boys, if qualified, pass to a higher form) "are fixed by the result. In estimating the relative value of different subjects, I should say that classics reckon as fully two thirds of the whole, the remaining third being Greek Testament and Scriptural subjects, History, Geography, and English, so far as answers to historical and other questions on paper may be considered English composition."

"In cases of marked proficiency, Mathematics are admitted as giving a claim to promotion. French has never done so, but I think that it might with advantage."

A detailed statement of the work done in school during the year which ended with the summer holidays 1861, with an account of the methods of teaching, will be found in the returns for Westminster, headed C and D; the ages of the boys in the several forms will be found in return B.

The hours of study in school are on whole school days, viz., Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, from 8 to 9, from 10 to 12.30, and from 3.30 to 5.30; on half holidays, viz., Wednesday and Saturday: the work in school terminates at 12.30. Those boys who board at home are allowed to come (having breakfasted) at 9 instead of 8, and it is arranged that one of the Masters should remain with them in school during the school breakfast hour, viz., from 9 to 10.

There is no definite rule as to the proportion of Masters to boys. All the Assistant Masters are appointed by the Head Master. The Head Master himself and the Under Master are appointed by the Dean of Christ Church and the Master of Trinity alternately, with the consent of the Dean of Westminster. At present there are, in addition to the Head and Under Master, four Assistant Classical Masters, no one of whom seems to have more than 30 boys to teach, while one or two have a much smaller number.

8. Private Tuition

A system of private tuition in some respects similar to the Eton system formerly existed at Westminster. The Assistant Master attached to each boarding house was in the habit of correcting in his pupil-room the composition of each boy in his house. A certain special fee, we believe £10, was paid for this. "Dr. Liddell", says Mr. Scott, "altered this, and the practice of private tuition has been in great measure discontinued until this year, when I have in a few instances introduced it again, as an exception, however, and not as the rule." It appears, however, that Dr. Liddell also, whenever a backward boy required assistance, always allowed him a private tutor. "Private pupils come to the tutor ordinarily about three hours per week." It appears too, from the interesting evidence of one witness, Mr. Mure, that in his time, under Dr. Carey, there existed a system of private study for boys in the Shell and Sixth, independent of form-work, and that the supervision of these private studies, and the periodical examination of the boys in them rested with the Head Master alone. We regret to learn that this practice has been long discontinued, and we think that the practicability of restoring it, and of extending it to other forms than those above named, is a subject well worthy of the consideration of the authorities of the school.

We may mention here that the present Head Master has lately introduced the practice, which exists at some other schools, of sending regularly, at short intervals, to the parents of each boy a brief written report of his conduct and progress.

9. Exhibitions, Prizes, &c.

As regards prizes, books are given annually for Greek and Latin verse and for a Latin Essay, as well as prizes for the various forms at the half-yearly examinations. The


[page 166]

present Dean (Dr. Trench) has also offered, since his appointment, ten guineas yearly in prizes to encourage the study of the Greek Testament. Mathematical prizes too are given periodically. There are two classes of exhibitions for boys proceeding to the Universities, viz. -

1st. Those confined to the Queen's Scholars.
2nd. Those open to the whole School.
Under the 1st Class are comprised:
(a) Three junior studentships of Christ Church, Oxford, tenable for seven years, the total annual value of each (with the aid of certain benefactions) being at present about £100 per annum, but to rise to £120 "when the new system" (at Christ Church) "is in operation".

(b) "An additional benefaction", Mr. Scott further states, "has just fallen in, from the gift of the late Dr. Carey, Bishop of St. Asaph, under which £600 per annum is to be distributed by the Dean and Canons of Christchurch at their annual audits in sums of not less than sot, and not more than £100, to such of the Westminster students as shall appear most to need such assistance by reason of poverty or to deserve it by reason of industry and diligence."

(c) Three exhibitions at Trinity College, Cambridge, of the annual value of £40 each, tenable until the holder be of standing for his B.A. degree, and capable of being held with a Foundation Scholarship of the College, if the holder of the exhibition succeed in the competition. In the first year an augmentation, termed the Samwaies benefaction, is divided amongst those elected to these exhibitions. These studentships and exhibitions are only open to the competition of the Queen's Scholars, boys in the senior election (or division) of which body are examined and selected once in the year by the electors to Queen's Scholarships.

Looking to the value of these studentships and exhibitions, to the very limited number of those who can at present compete for them, and to the great advantage which the School as a whole may be expected to derive from the introduction among the boys of any additional stimulus to exertion, we think that it will be proper to admit Town boys to the competition, under such conditions, (not being of course inconsistent with the principal object, viz., that of securing from among the Town boys a fair number of candidates) as the Governing Body may see fit to prescribe, and we propose to recommend accordingly.

2. There are annually open to the whole School (except such Queen's Scholars as are elected to the Christ Church studentships):

(a) Two exhibitions* from the bequest of Dr. Triplett, value £50 for three years tenable at any College of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and

(b) An exhibition provided from the interest of money given by the late Dr. Thomas, Bishop of Rochester, and of about £40 annual value for two years, tenable on the same conditions as the Triplett exhibitions.

These studentships and exhibitions are awarded according to the report of the two examiners before referred to, appointed severally by the Dean of Christ Church and the Master of Trinity College. The latter, however, are themselves present at the vivâ voce examination on the last day. Consequent upon the examination the selection of candidates takes place annually in the week before Ascension Day, the electors being the Dean of Westminster, the Dean of Christ Church, and the Master of Trinity. Neither the two examiners mentioned above, nor the Head Master, have any right of voting.

The examination is in the ordinary work of the School, with this addition only, that, at the request of the present Head Master, on the last occasion the results of the French examination were submitted to the Electors.

As regards the persons by whom this examination is conducted we see no reason to suggest any change, since we cannot doubt that the electors are as much impressed as we can be with the necessity of making the test a real and stringent one. We must point out, however, that if, as we shall be prepared to recommend, other branches of study are hereafter included in the School system than those which it at present comprises, the range of the examination should be similarly extended.

10. Results - The Universities - The Army

In Michaelmas Term 1861 there were 28 undergraduates from Westminster at Oxford and 22 at Cambridge. The number of boys leaving Westminster in the year 1861-2 was 27 of whom 10, or 37 per cent went to one or other of the Universities. This proportion is probably somewhat below the usual average. We collect from the list of

*"There is a surplus accumulating to form more exhibitions, and out of which gratuities may be awarded in cases of special merit." - Mr. Scott's Answers, III. 13.


[page 167]

University distinctions appended to the Head Master's answers that by boys who left Westminster within 20 years, ending in 1857, there were gained in the Final Schools at Cambridge, three "Firsts" in mathematics; in the Final Schools at Oxford, one "First" in Classics, and one in Natural Science, and in the Moderation Schools at Oxford five Classical and two Mathematical "Firsts". Three Classical "Firsts" in Moderations have been gained subsequently. One Fellowships has been gained at Trinity, Cambridge; at Oxford a Mathematical Studentship at Christ Church, and a Hebrew Scholarship.

The number of Westminster boys who entered the army or offered themselves for the various military examinations within three years is shown by the subjoined Table, in which the letter A indicates those who have not, and the letter B those who have, had intermediate tuition.

11. Punishments

The punishments in use in the School are the rod, applied either to the back of the hand or in the ordinary mode of flogging, impositions to be learnt by heart or written out, confinement to Dean's Yard and refusal of leave out. Flogging, we understand from Mr. Scott, has very much diminished in frequency, there not being ordinarily more than one or two cases in a half-year. It takes place in a room in the back of the school, and is inflicted, so far as the Upper School is concerned, by the Head Master, in the presence of one boy besides the culprit. Boys in the Under School are punished by the Under Master.

12. Amusements

The principal amusements of the School are, according to the time of year, football, cricket, and rowing. The first takes place in all inclosed space, well adapted for the purpose, in Great Dean's Yard; cricket is played in a large and level inclosure, belonging to the Dean and Chapter, in Vincent Square, about half a mile from the School. As regards rowing, there is one person who lets boats, from whom alone it is permitted to hire them, a system which has been adopted with a view to obtain some adequate security that the boats should be safe and properly appointed.

Rowing is and has long been regarded with special interest by all Westminsters, and we trust that in any alterations which may take place in Abingdon Street, as has been recommended to Parliament by the Commission on the Embankment of the Thames, due provision may be made for a convenient and (as far as may be) private landing place for the boys.

13. Religious Services

The boys attend the Abbey services according to the Statutes, on Sundays twice (unless they are absent at home on leave) and on Saturday afternoons during school times. On Saints' Days they attend either at the ordinary 10 a.m. service or, under a system introduced by Dr. Liddell when Head Master, at a special (non-choral) service, held in the Abbey at 8 a.m., at which the Masters officiate, and the Head Master (or occasionally the Under Master) preaches. These special morning services, held at an early hour and of a character obviously not very attractive to boys, afford the only opportunities which the Head Master can have of addressing them in his character of their Pastor, and we accordingly can fully appreciate the feeling of regret entertained by many old Westminsters, that as there is no chapel specially appropriated, the boys do not fully and systematically enjoy the advantages in this respect which are possessed by Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester, and perhaps some other schools. Still it is to be borne in mind, as stated by Mr. Scott, that the system of Saturday's leave out for the Sunday, which has long prevailed, and under which "ordinarily not more than from 12 to 18 or 20 in college, and from 20 to 30 in the two boarding houses taken together " (and those a varying body), remain behind in the winter time, and fewer in spring and summer," tends to diminish the force of the plea for a separate chapel by materially reducing the number of those who would attend service there. At any rate, however, it appears to us that it would be very desirable that the special services now attended by the boys in the Abbey should be of a choral character. We think that it would probably


[page 168]

be sufficient for this purpose if the choristers only without the lay vicars were to attend, and that some of the boys themselves would be glad, if duly trained, to take part in the service.

As regards the attendance at the Holy Communion, we have reason to believe that, not indeed from any positive regulation, but from the long continuance and recognition of a usage which has thus almost acquired the force of an established rule, it is practically deemed by the Queen's Scholars, who have been confirmed while at school, obligatory upon them to attend four times a year. We do not doubt that the Dean and Chapter will agree with us in the opinion that, while the Masters should take all due pains in the preparation of those who desire to communicate, it should be distinctly understood that attendance is strictly voluntary.

14. Finances of the School

We proceed to consider the position of the School in reference to its finances. There are, as has been before observed, no separate estates, and it is dependent therefore for its maintenance upon the payments made by the Dean and Chapter in respect of the tuition of the Queen's Scholars, and upon the sums paid by the parents of the boys, as well those on the Foundation as the Town Boys. The Head Master and Under Master do not take boarders. The payments made by the Dean and Chapter in respect of the tuition of the Queen's Scholars are -

1st. The statutable stipends of

£39 6s 8d to the Head Master, and
£15 0s 0d to the Under Master
£54 6s 8d

2nd. The sum of £7 7s in respect of each Queen's Scholar.*

From these two sources the sum of £338 is annually paid to the credit of a School Fund, out of which, by an arrangement among the Masters, their salaries are paid. The payments made by the parents of the boys for tuition are as under, viz.:

1. For each of the 40 Queen's Scholars£17 17s 0d
2. For each Town boy£26 5s 0d

The total sum received under these two heads from the parents is likewise paid into the School Fund for tuition. Each Town boy, too, pays for entrance £10 to the same fund.

"The amount", says Mr. Scott, "receivable annually in school fees at present rates, supposing 120 boys and 25 entrances in the year, would be, without the new Chapter grant":

The general result as regards the salaries of the Masters and Assistants is thus stated by Mr. Scott:

*With regard to this payment it appears that in the year 1860 Mr. Scott applied to the Dean and Chapter for some payment from their funds in respect of the tuition of the Queen's scholars (in addition to the statutable stipend), representing that the fee of £17 17s paid by the parents of each Queen's scholar, while at the same time the parents of each Town boy paid to the school fund for tuition £26 5s, was an inadequate remuneration. To this application the Dean and Chapter, with the assent of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, acceded in July 1861 by granting £7 7s per annum for the tuition of each scholar. Mr. Scott had suggested a grant of eight guineas.


[page 169]

"Taking the average of the last five years, during my own tenure of office, the salaries stand thus" -

In addition, it is to be recollected that as the First and Second Assistants keep boarding houses, the profits derivable from this source is to be taken into account.

The First Assistant returns as his profit for 1861£260
The Second Assistant returns as his profit for 1861£270
The Third Assistant receives also for private tuition£40

We learn that, in addition to the above-mentioned Masters, there is now a Fourth Assistant, who receives as his share of the Tuition Fees £225 per annum, and, for attending to composition, £25.

The total amount of the fund available for the general purposes of tuition arising from all the sources above mentioned, independently of the profits of boarding in the case of the first and second assistants, may be put as before stated at £3,336, a sum barely sufficient to provide salaries at the above very moderate rates of remuneration, and wholly inadequate to provide for instruction in the additional branches of study which it is desirable to include in the School course. It appears to us, therefore, absolutely necessary that a certain addition should be made to the amount at present paid for the tuition of each boy, and we accordingly recommend that in lieu of £26 5s, the present amount, £31 10s be paid annually for each Town boy. As regards the Queen's Scholars, for each of whom are paid, as above mentioned, at present to the School Fund the sums of £7 7s by the Chapter, and £17 17s by the parents, we recommend that in future the like sum of £31 10s should be paid for each by the Chapter, and the payment for tuition by the parents be discontinued. We recommend that, concurrently with this alteration, all leaving fees be abolished; and, further, that the statutory stipends to the Head and Under Master be no longer paid. Even supposing the School to consist of no more than 130 boys, the amount which may be expected to be available for tuition will be somewhat more than £4,000, a sum which, after providing for necessary School expenses will, it is hoped, besides rendering it practicable to make some moderate advance in certain of the present salaries, leave an adequate balance available for the additional branches of instruction which are to be introduced. We shall propose that in future £70 per annum be charged for boarding, in lieu of £68 5s, the present charge.

In thus recommending that the Chapter should take upon themselves the whole cost of the tuition of the Queen's Scholars, we do not feel called upon to pronounce any opinion as to whether a literal adherence to the Statutes would not have justified, or even required, the adoption by them of that course in past times; neither do we deem it necessary to decide whether the Statutes, which are alleged never to have been confirmed by the Sovereign, are nevertheless of binding authority. Upon both points difference of opinion has existed, and may fairly exist. As regards the future, however, and for the purposes of our inquiry, it will be sufficient to state that it appears to us consistent with at least the spirit of the Statutes, that instruction in the prescribed branches of education should be given gratuitously to the Queen's Scholars. We may add, too, that we have the more satisfaction in making this recommendation, because we are at the same time recommending the abolition of the exclusive claim of Queen's Scholars to the Studentships and Exhibitions. We shall further recommend that the sum of £20 per annum, and no more, be charged to the parents of each Queen's Scholar, such payment to cover the charges for matron, servants in sanatorium, medical attendance, servants in College, and washing. The charge for these items at present amounts to £16 16s, making, with the £17 7s charged for tuition, the sum of £34 13s at present paid by parents.


[page 170]

It may be convenient to state here briefly the effect of the proposed changes as regards the Chapter funds.

At present the Chapter pays -

For the tuition, independently of the expense of the maintenance, of the 40 scholars294
Masters' stipends54
£348

According to the proposed plan the payments will be as follows, viz.:

40 boys at £31 10s1,260
Deduct payments at present made348
Net additional payment to be made by the Chapter£912

That the payments to be made on account of the School from the Chapter funds should be increased to this extent appears to us no unreasonable proposal, regard being had to the close connexion of the school with the ecclesiastical foundation, and to the fact of the very large recent increase in the capitular corporate income. We find that in 1860 it was £48,000, and in 1861 upwards of £60,000.

15. Government of the School

The government of the School, absolutely as regards the Town boys, and subject to the control of the Dean and Chapter as concerns the Queen's Scholars, rests, as has been stated, with the Head Master.

It is unnecessary for us here to repeat the reasons on which we ground the opinion expressed in a former part of this Report in favour, generally speaking, of the existence of a Governing Body of mixed character, who should deal with all matters not necessarily connected with instruction. Fully recognizing the interest taken by the Dean and Chapter in the School, and justly appreciating the weight due to the fact of the statutory connexion which has existed for centuries, we yet think that the general principles previously laid down on this subject should be, judiciously and with due qualifications, applied to Westminster. Here, as in many other instances, we think that benefit to the School will result if a lay element be introduced into the Governing Body; and we propose to make a recommendation to this effect. We must add, that the influence and means of useful action of that body will be largely increased if some part of the Chapter estates, adequate to the support of the School, can be permanently transferred to it, and placed under its exclusive management and control. We have reason to hope that the latter arrangement will not be disagreeable to the Chapter, and we are convinced that it will tend materially to the benefit of the School. We think, too, that all buildings necessarily connected with the School, as well as the play-grounds, should be legally vested in the newly constituted Governing Body, on the condition that, in the event of the removal of the school, such buildings should revert to the Dean and Chapter.

16. Site of the School - Question of Removal

Before concluding this part of our Report, we cannot omit to touch upon one subject which is of very considerable importance, as bearing upon the interests of the School, and which has accordingly attracted much public attention. We advert to the question of the removal of the School from London. The general observations which we have already made upon London schools are more or less applicable to Westminster. In regard to this, as to the other schools to which we have referred, various considerations are brought forward on each side of the question. It is, for instance, contended on the one hand in regard to Westminster, that parents who possess adequate means are now much more desirous than they formerly were of sending their sons to a school in a country situation; that a London school is considered necessarily less healthy; that it offers more temptations to vice; that the social standing of the boys who go to Westminster is in consequence less high than formerly; that it is therefore not to be expected that the number of boarders will keep up, and that the School will ultimately become one principally attended by home-boarders.

On the other hand, it is said that as respects soil and water the School is well situated, that it has less often than other schools been broken up on account of illness; that its


[page 171]

play-grounds are adequate, and its buildings, if certain practicable improvements are made, well adapted to their purpose; that its neighbourhood to the Abbey and to the Houses of Parliament is calculated to exercise a useful influence on boys' minds; that the boys, if due regulations are enforced, are not more exposed to temptation than in several other large schools; that the power of going home on Saturdays is much prized by parents; and is morally advantageous to boys; that the removal of the School into the country would be, practically, an attempt to establish a new school, an experiment involving considerable risk of failure and very great expense, which there are no adequate funds to meet, and that though, like other schools, it has greatly fluctuated in numbers, there seems to be no reason why, if certain improvements are made, it should not again attain something of its former extent and prosperity.

We do not feel ourselves able to pronounce a decided opinion upon the question under discussion between the advocates and opponents of removal. We have indeed already indicated our impression that day schools are what London chiefly wants, and that it is not to be expected that any very large number of boarders will ever resort to schools in London. We may go still further and say that we are inclined to think that there are difficulties in the way of combining in one school large numbers of each of the two classes, viz., day-boys and boarders. It is very doubtful, for instance, whether the arrangements in respect to hours which are best suited to day-scholars are also those which are the best adapted to boarders. The fact certainly seems to be, from whatever cause, that while those schools which like Merchant Taylors', St. Paul's, and King's College arrange their hours of attendance with a view to the convenience of day-scholars find no difficulty whatever in keeping up their numbers, the schools in which a decline is reported are those which are intended principally for boarders and frame their table of hours accordingly. To those who, like ourselves, attach great importance to numbers as an element and condition of efficiency in a public school this fact will appear to be one of much weight. Did we feel ourselves obliged to regard the removal of the school as impossible, we should think it right to point out in detail the manner in which this noble foundation might be made available for a large body of day-scholars, and might thus be placed on a footing which, though somewhat different from that in which it has hitherto stood, would be in no degree inferior to it; but we prefer to leave it to the new Governing Body to consider whether the removal of the School is financially and otherwise possible; and we content ourselves with expressing our opinion that the true interests of the School demand that a decided step should be taken in one of two directions; either it should remain a boarding school and should be removed into the country, or it should be retained on its present site, and should be converted into a school in which the foundation scholars should be day-scholars, or day-boarders, sleeping at their own homes. We can only in concluding our remarks upon this point, direct attention to the evidence of Mr. Hunt, the Surveyor to the Dean and Chapter, as indicating generally the school property in the metropolis which might be made available by sale for the purpose of removing the School should other considerations seem to render it advisable.

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

Having regard to the preceding observations respecting the present site and suggested removal of the School, it seems necessary to state that the following Recommendations (as well as some of the remarks which have been already made and would obviously be inapplicable to an altered state of things) are based on the supposition that the School remains where it is, and that it retains its double character as both a boarding and a day school. It has been necessary to assume some particular state of circumstances as a basis for our observations, and none appeared to us so suitable as that which exists. Should any change take place with regard to either the local situation of the School or its continuance as a boarding school, it will be for the Governing Body to apply to it in its altered condition such of our recommendations as may appear to them applicable and expedient.

All the General Recommendations (Part I. pp. 52-55) appear to be applicable to Westminster School.

We add the following special recommendations:

1. That an Administrative Body should be constituted, to be called the Governors of St. Peter's College, Westminster, to be charged with the administration of the School Fund hereafter mentioned, and with such general powers as we have considered advisable


[page 172]

for other Governing Bodies (General Recommendation III), and to be composed as follows, viz.:

Ex-Officio:

The Dean and Chapter of Westminster.
The Dean of Christ Church, Oxford.
The Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.
Nominated or Elected:
Six persons, five of whom at least should be laymen, and of whom four should be nominated by the Crown, and two elected by the Governing Body. The four Crown nominees should be graduates of Oxford or Cambridge, and should, as well as the elected Governors, be members of the Established Church, three at least of such nominees to be selected with especial reference to their attainments in literature or science.
2. That when the whole number of Governors is complete seven should be a quorum, and whenever it is not complete then a proportion of not less than one-half should constitute a quorum; the Dean of Westminster, and in his absence the person selected by the meeting, to be Chairman, and to have a second or casting vote.

3. That such a portion of the Chapter Estates as may be adequate to the support of the School on the scale recommended by this Report should be legally vested in the Governors, to be by them applied to the due maintenance and education of the Queen's Scholars and to defraying the expenses connected therewith, to repairs or new buildings necessary for or advantageous to the College and School, and, generally, to the promotion of all improvements which may benefit them.

4. That, further, such portions of the Chapter estates as are necessarily and exclusively connected with the College and School, and essential to their well-being, should be vested in the Governors, such portions to comprise the dormitory with its appurtenances, the hall, the school and class rooms, the covered play room, the houses of the Head and Under Master, the three boarding houses, and the play-grounds in Great Dean's Yard and Vincent Square, and such additional buildings as may be erected or adapted for the purposes of the College or School; provided, however, that they should revert to the Dean and Chapter or to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (as the case may be), in the event of the removal of the College and School from its present position.

5. That provision should be made for payment to the Governors by the Dean and Chapter, or, in the event of the adoption of any arrangement under which these estates pass into the hands of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, then by the last-named body, of £31 10s for the tuition of each scholar, as above recommended.

6. That as an additional building appears necessary, to include, amongst other things, a large room for the teaching of natural science, music and drawing, with a sitting room for the junior elections, the Chapter or the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (as the case may be), be applied to with a view to obtaining a grant for that purpose. Such a building might also be readily adapted for the performance of the play, and the expense thrown upon the Chapter Funds at present for that purpose be thus obviated.

7. That whether the ownership of the boarding houses be in the Chapter, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, or, as proposed above, the Governors, there should be no intermediate interest between the Lessors and the Master occupying the house; and further, such arrangements should be made, either as regards some other house (besides those which already exist as boarding houses), in Great Dean's Yard, or in respect to an adequate portion of some vacant space yet unoccupied by dwelling houses, as would admit, should circumstances require, of the adaptation or erection of another boarding house.

8. That the Governing Body should be empowered to throw the Queen's Scholarships open to general competition without any restriction as to place of birth or the requirement of any previous education in Westminster School.

9. That the town boys should be admitted to the competition for the Christ Church Studentships, the Exhibitions at Trinity College, Cambridge, and all Exhibitions at the Universities.

10. That the Scholarships on the Foundation of Bishop Williams should be reduced in number to two, of double their present value, and be awarded by competitive examination, and be open alternately to boys from the Principality of Wales alone, and to all British subjects: Provided that if in the judgment of the Examiners no candidate of sufficient merit shall appear to fill up a Scholarship limited to Wales, such Scholarship should be thrown open to general competition.

11. That so soon as the School Funds may admit of it, or funds given by private


[page 173]

benefaction shall be forthcoming, a prize should be instituted for an English Essay in the highest form in the School.

12. That at least once a year some of the more important school examinations, other than those with regard to which this is already the case, should be wholly or in part conducted by Examiners unconnected with the School, and that they should be paid a reasonable remuneration out of the School or College Funds.

13. That encouragement should be given by separate prizes, to a system of private studies, independent of the School-work, whether with or without the aid of a private Tutor.

14. That in applying to Westminster the principles of General Recommendations XXVI-XXVIII the yearly payment to be made for instruction by the parents of each town boy should be fixed at £31 10s, and that the same amount should be paid by the Chapter on account of each Queen's Scholar. That if private tuition be required in any branch of study forming part of the regular course, a sum not exceeding £10 per annum should be paid by the parents of the boy requiring it to the private tutor. That the charge for boarding should be £70 for town boys. That £20 per annum, and no more, should be charged to the parents of each Queen's scholar,* such payment to cover the expense of matron and servants in sanatorium, medical attendance, servants in College, and washing.

15. That, as there is reason to believe that, in order to meet the requirements of boys belonging to the Senior Election, juniors are frequently obliged, and more particularly in winter, to get up at an unduly early hour, and are obliged to perform offices of a menial character, such as lighting the fire and gas in the morning - and further, that the time which they might usefully devote to their own preparation for school-work is often seriously interfered with by the summons of their seniors - an additional servant or servants in College should be provided, whose duty it should be to perform such offices as lighting and attending to the fires and gas, and who should also call those boys who wish it at such hour as shall be permitted by the regulations of the Head Master. That such additional servant should be also porter of the College, and be stationed between certain hours at or near the door, thus rendering it unnecessary for a second-election boy, as at present, to remain out of school for the purpose of acting as "Monitor ostii".

16. That for an hour and a half or two hours in the evening - say, from 8 to 10 - no fagging should be permitted, but that the juniors should prepare their lessons during that time in some fitting room in the presence of a Master.

17. That in order to prevent the tyrannical exercise of power on the part of seniors over juniors, the attention of the Masters should be directed to the importance of entirely reforming the present system of punishments in use among the boys, and especially of putting down the use of rackets, caps, and other such instruments or punishment, and the practice of kicking, unless already effectually suppressed by Mr. Scott's recent rule; and that they should be also recommended to take steps for confining the right of inflicting any punishment at all to the seniors, and for providing that any offences

*At present they pay £34 13s.

† [Note There appears to be no reference to this footnote in the text.] In the apportionment of the Fund, something like the following scale may, perhaps, be adopted, viz.:

£    
Head Master1,200
Under Master700
Senior Assistant300+ from Boarding House 260
Second Assistant250+ from Boarding House 270
Third Assistant260
Fourth Assistant250
First Mathematical Teacher230
Second ditto225
French ditto100
Church Ushership40
3,565

The total of the school fund
(assuming there to be 130 boys
and 20 entrances each year) will be

4,295
Deduct for instruction as above3,565
Balance730

remaining for additional French, Natural Science, German, Drawing, and Music Masters.


[page 174]

requiring more than a very slight punishment should be dealt with by the seniors as a body, and not by individual boys.

18. That in order to ensure a thorough compliance with the Head Master's regulations respecting the treatment of juniors by seniors, as well as to encourage and maintain in the School generally a correct tone of feeling and opinion there should be frequent and cordial intercourse between the seniors and the Master specially appointed to take charge of the School; and that it should, therefore, be an object of immediate and primary consideration on the part of the Governors whether the present arrangement as regards the communication with the Under Master's house is adequate and satisfactory.

19. That the Governors should also inquire whether it may not be desirable to separate the Junior Elections more completely from the seniors, either by the erection of a separate dormitory for them, to be built in the corner of the College garden, or by partitions in the present dormitory, or otherwise.

20. That additional studies should be provided in the two election rooms, so as, if possible, to arrange that no more than two boys at the most should occupy any one study.

21. That means should be provided for giving additional warmth and more light at night to the two election rooms, and more warmth to the dormitory; and that, generally, an air of greater comfort should be given to the two election rooms by painting or whitewashing as may be required, providing the necessary number of chairs, and otherwise.

22. That whenever the house which now stands between the Head Master's and Dr. Cureton's is pulled down, there should be erected in its place only a wall of sufficient height to form a fence between Great and Little Dean's Yard, unless it be deemed desirable to carry it a few feet higher for the purpose of forming a fives' court on the eastern or inner side.

23. That upon the demolition of this house, the room in the tower adjoining the Head Master's house should be formed into a School Library, to be used by the boys under such regulations as may be deemed proper by the Head Master and the Governors.

24. That the wall and low buildings between the dormitory and School buildings should be taken down, and an iron fence (with a gate) of sufficient height, placed between the College Garden and Little Dean's Yard.

25. That on Sundays from one o'clock until four in winter, and until nine in summer, the boys, town boys as well as Queen's Scholars, should be allowed to use the College garden under proper regulations.

26. That the Under Master, or in his absence, an Assistant Master, should be always present in College Hall during the dinner of the Queen's Scholars.

27. That the daily allowance of meat for the Queen's Scholars at supper should be sufficient and constant, and should not depend on the quantity consumed at dinner; and that the existing practice under which an insufficient provision is made for the tea of the junior boys should be altered.

28. That, having regard to the spirit of the Statutes, the choristers at the proper age should be either apprenticed to some trade or receive some fair equivalent at the expense of the College Funds.

29. That the attendance at the Holy Communion in the Abbey on the part of the Queen's Scholars should be in future strictly voluntary.

30. That some arrangement should be made by which the special services attended by the boys in the Abbey may be of a choral character, it appearing to the Commissioners probable that the attendance of the choristers only would be sufficient, and that some of the boys themselves would be glad, if duly trained, to take part in the service.

31. That in case of Westminster School continuing to occupy its present site, the hours should be so fixed as, without prejudice to the interests of the scholars and boarders, to facilitate the attendance of boys residing in London and the immediate suburbs.



[page 175]

CHAPTER IV. CHARTERHOUSE

STATEMENT AND OBSERVATIONS

1. Origin of the Foundation. Statutes. The Governors. The Master of the Hospital

The Hospital of the Charterhouse was founded by Thomas Sutton in the reign of James I. In 1609 he procured "An Act of Parliament for the foundation of a Hospital and Free Grammar School at Hallingbury in Essex, but having subsequently purchased from the Earl of Suffolk the lately dissolved Charterhouse beside Smithfield, in Middlesex, he sought and obtained in the 9th of James I certain Letters Patent, which empowered him to found such hospital and school in the Charterhouse." By these Letters Patent, among various other provisions, 16 persons therein named were appointed "Governors of the lands, possessions, revenues, and goods of the Hospital of King James founded in Charterhouse", and they then were incorporated by that name, with power to hold lands and chattels for certain defined objects. In pursuance of these Letters Patent the founder in 1611 conveyed to the Governors certain estates. "In 1627 the Governors published a set of statutes, to which their common seal and the seal of Charles the First were respectively attached." By these statutes, except so far as they have been altered by subsequent orders of the Governors and by the Acts of Parliament named in the margin, the Hospital is professedly governed, and from these instruments and Acts the objects contemplated in the foundation and the present constitution of the Hospital are to be collected.

There were two objects which, by the Letters Patent referred to, Thomas Sutton was authorized to carry out, and carried out accordingly, viz., firstly, the foundation of "one hospital, house, or place of abiding for the finding, sustentation, and relief or poor, aged, maimed, needy, or impotent people"; and, secondly, the foundation and establishment in the Charterhouse of "one free school for the instructing, teaching, maintenance, and education of poor children or scholars". Power was given to Sutton during his life, and after his death to the Governors, to place in the said hospital and school such Master or head of the said hospital, such number of poor people, such other members and officers of the said hospital, and such number of poor children or scholars as to him or them should seem convenient; and likewise one learned, able, and sufficient person to be the schoolmaster of the said school; and one other "learned, able, and sufficient person to be the usher thereof, and teach and instruct the said children in grammar; and also one learned and godly preacher to preach and teach the word of God to all the said persons, poor people and children, members, and officers at or in the said house." In the event of the Governors neglecting for the space of two months after a vacancy to nominate to any of the above-named offices or positions, the power of filling up the vacant place devolves on the Crown. In their own body the Governors themselves have the power of filling up vacancies, it being ordained, however, that the election should take place within two months.

The names of the present Governors are as follows, in the order of their election, viz. -

The Ven. W. H. Hale, Archdeacon of London, Master,
The Earl Howe,
Duke of Buccleuch and Queensbury
Earl Russell,
Earl of Dalhousie,
Earl of Derby,
Lord Cranworth,
Earl of Harrowby,
The Bishop of London,
Lord Justice Turner,
Earl of Romney,
Archbishop of Canterbury,
Viscount Palmerston,
Earl of Devon,
Archbishop of York,
Lord Chelmsford.
By the statutes of 1627 above referred to, it is provided, that there should be "two set and certain assemblies of the Governors, one in December to take the year's account, view the state of the hospital, and determine and order any business occurring; the other in June or July to dispose of scholars to the Universities or trades, to make election both of poor men and poor scholars into places vacant, as also to determine and order any other business." By an order, however, of the 29th March 1651, altering in this respect the above statute, the times of holding the assemblies are changed. Besides these set assemblies, other assemblies, termed in the statutes "accidentary", are to be held upon occasion of the death or resignation of a Governor, officer of the Foundation, or


[page 176]

incumbent of any living belonging to the Governors, with a view to the necessary election or presentation.

Under 8th Geo. I. c. 29 (altering in this respect one of the statutes of 1627) any number of Governors, under nine and not less than five, assembled on four days' notice at the Hospital, may act as a corporate meeting, in which five are necessary to constitute a majority. It is further provided by the said statutes of 1627, that "a committee of five, at the least, shall be chosen for the whole year at the assembly in December, whereof any three, the Master being one, may proceed in any business left to the committee".

Of the two objects mentioned above as authorized by the Letters Patent, the first, viz., the establishment of a Hospital for poor and aged men, does not come within the scope of our inquiry, though it has been necessary thus far to allude to it, as well because the Hospital and School are under the same body of Governors, being in fact two parts of one foundation, as because they both derive support in different proportions from the same trust funds in the hands of the Governors. We shall, therefore, confine our attention to the School. The powers of the Governors in respect to it comprise the appointment of the Master, preacher, schoolmaster, and usher; the nomination of the scholars in such number, on such conditions, and under such regulations as they may think fit; the authorizing such houses as they may think proper to be used as boarding-houses, and the regulation as well of the number to be received in each such house as of the total number of pupils to be permitted to resort to the School; the visitation of the School,* including the power of reforming and redressing all abuses and disorders, and of punishing and displacing, if necessary, any officer or member of the Foundation; the election of foundation scholars to exhibitions at the universities, and the grant of outfits (now fixed at £100 each) to those scholars who produce from the schoolmaster certificates of good conduct, and who, not proceeding to the universities, enter the army or navy, or are articled or apprenticed to any trade or business. They have also authority to make under their common seal such rules, statutes, and ordinances, for the government of the Master and other officers of the Hospital (including the schoolmaster) and the scholars, as they may think meet and convenient. As regards the assistant masters not mentioned in the Letters Patent, their appointment rests with the schoolmaster, subject to the approval of the Governors, or of the Master, who it appears is held to represent his colleagues in this as in certain other respects. We may here observe that we have been unable to trace in the Letters Patent or in the statutes of 1627 any distinct authority for such individual action on the part of one member of the body. In the former, though the Master of the Hospital for the time being is constituted ex officio a Governor, no mention is made of any special duties to be discharged by him. In the latter, it is, indeed, specially provided that "he should have the economical government of the house and household during the Governors' pleasure", and in subordination to them, have the power of "putting in or out" certain of the inferior servants of the household at his discretion; but the power thus given is plainly of a defined and limited character, and does not, as it appears to us, comprehend the right to interfere in certain other ways, in which, however, we collect from the evidence that interference sometimes takes place. It may he said, indeed, and we believe with truth, that in the majority of such cases of individual action, the Master acts either as one or the Committee of Governors above referred to, or at any rate with their knowledge and under an express or implied delegation from them; but admitting this to be often the case, we yet think that it is essential to the interests of any school that the functions and powers of those connected with it should be distinctly defined, and the limits of their respective powers adhered to, and we shall, therefore, recommend provisions to this effect in the suggestions which it will be our duty hereafter to make.

2. Endowments, Income, and Expenditure

As regards the property of the hospital, no part of that which was originally granted to the Governors "is held in trust especially for the school, but the hospital for poor men and the school for poor scholars are one foundation, supported by a common fund. The kinds of property held in trust by the Governors consist of houses and buildings in London; 16 houses in Sutton Place, Hackney; farms in various counties, tithe rents, manorial profits, and quit rents, timber, interest of monies, principally in the hands of the Accountant-General, and of the Trustees for Charitable Funds and interest on funds held on special trusts for the benefit of the school. Every farm is surveyed and reported upon once in three or four years." They are ordinarily let on lease for

*It is stated, however, by the Master (Answer II. 8) that no visitation has ever taken place.


[page 177]

periods of 12 years at rack-rents [full market value], and land is let on building leases at annual ground rents. No fines have ever been taken. Detailed particulars are given in the Answers of the Master of the Hospital. The total annual income from all the above sources, on all average of seven years ending 1861, was, as will be there seen, £22,747 5s 9d. Of this sum £140 is the aggregate amount of interest on funds held on special trusts for the benefit of the school. It does not appear that there is likely to be in future any very large addition to this annual income. Of the total expenditure for one year (1860-1861), a statement is also given in the Master's Answers, and from this, as elucidated by the "Analysis of Items of Payment in respect of the Establishment charged in the Receiver's Account for the years ending respectively 1860, 1861, and 1862", also printed in the Answers, a sufficiently accurate result is obtained to show, approximately, the amount expended on the school. It appears from these returns that the expenditure upon the school, combined with that portion of the divisible items of the general expenses which appears properly assignable to the school, amounted in -

£    
1860 to7,223
1861 to8,104
1862 to11,492

In the last-named year, no less a sum than £4,162 16s was laid out in the improvement and enlargement of the scholars' apartments, obviously not a charge annually recurring. Taking, then, the present annual expenditure for the school at £8,000 in round numbers, we see no reason to doubt that, even if the changes which we may feel it our duty to recommend as regards the school should involve a certain additional expenditure, sufficient means will be available to meet it, without interfering with the other objects of the Foundation. We should add, that by the Charter it is provided that surplus revenues arising in any one year are to be employed in the same way and for the same objects as the revenues specially appropriated, and the Governors have recently acted upon this provision, first, by augmenting the payment to each poor brother from £26 10s to £36; and secondly, by increasing the number of the scholars.

3. The Foundation Scholars

The School contains boys of the three following descriptions, viz.:

1st. Foundation scholars;
2nd. Boarders in the houses approved by the Governors for the purpose of receiving such boys; and
3rd. Day boys.
The Foundation scholars are, with the exceptions hereafter stated, nominated, as has been said, by the Governors, who exercise this right in rotation. The maximum number fixed by the statutes of 1627 was 40; to this number, however, certain additions have been made from time to time, the result of which is, that there are now 44 on the Foundation as scholars. We understand that it is the intention of the Governors to increase the number to 60. Of the present number, 44, under orders made by the Governors in 1850 and 1860, eight places are appropriated as prizes for competition among boys in their 14th or 15th years who shall have previously spent not less than one year at the School. The present result of this is "that every year two scholars are selected by competition, and on their names being reported to the Assembly, they are appointed scholars, and become entitled to all the advantages" belonging to that position. Those boys who are nominated "must be between the ages of 10 and 14, and able to pass all examination proportioned to age in classics and arithmetic." This examination was first instituted, and its subjects and extent defined, by orders made by the Governors in 1844 and 1845. It appears, as stated by Mr. Elwyn, the Head Master of the School, to be "of the most elementary kind", and we cannot but think that the interests of the school and of the individual boys would be materially promoted by the adoption of an examination more extended in its range and more stringent in its character. It is true that Mr, Elwyn states that "it is more severe now than it used to be", but the fact, also stated by him, that, so far as he is aware, no boy has ever been rejected, would certainly seem, if the system of nomination is to continue, to show the necessity of some material change as regards the test of qualification.

We think, however, that an alteration of a more complete and organic character is necessary, as regards the admissions to the Foundation. The very beneficial results which have followed the introduction of the principle of competition at Eton and Win-


[page 178]

chester, the success which, as appears from the list of honours appended to the printed answers, has attended its partial introduction by the Governors, and the opinion strongly expressed in favour of the modified plan at present in operation by the Head Master combine to recommend the adoption of it without restriction at the Charterhouse. Where a nomination has been actually given or promised, the reasonable expectation thus created ought not to be disappointed; but, subject to an exception in favour of such cases, we shall recommend that all the places on the Foundation should be thrown open to the unrestricted competition of boys between the ages of 11 and 14, wheresoever previously educated, according to a scheme to be framed by the Governors with the assistance of the Head Master of the School.

"The Foundation scholars board in a house appropriated to them", to which, as already stated, very considerable additions have recently been made by the Governors at a cost of more than £4,000, the result of which is a material improvement previously much required, as well in sleeping accommodation as in the arrangements for washing, &c.

In this house there are two common rooms, one for the upper, the other for the lower boys, breakfast and tea being taken by all in the latter. There is also a dining hall. "For a few of the upper boys there are small studies. The Head Master is responsible for the management and discipline of the house." There is also an Assistant Master resident in the house, who directly superintends it. In this house, as now enlarged and improved, we see no reason to doubt that adequate accommodation will be provided for the contemplated number of scholars, nor have we any occasion, except in one or two points to which we shall hereafter advert, to question the general sufficiency of the diet. We believe that in special cases, on the recommendation of the medical officer, extra diet is given. As regards the bedrooms, however, we desire to advert to one point, viz., the custom of locking the junior boys into their rooms. Mr. Irvine (the Assistant Master in charge) is strongly in favour of this practice as tending to the maintenance of discipline, and to the protection of the younger boys from disturbance at night; but, if it be necessary to lock the doors at all, we think it would be better to intrust the key to the head boy in each room, as in the Head Master's house.

The privileges and advantages of a Foundation scholar are as follows: "He receives gratuitously board, lodging, medical attendance, and education, including classics, mathematics, French, German (if in sixth form), history, geography, and divinity. He is also provided with clothes during the school terms, and with a gown, and, if in the upper school, with a cap or trencher. If he passes a satisfactory examination at the age of 18 he receives an exhibition of £80 a year for four years at any college in either of the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge." A gratuity of £100 is also granted in the case of any Foundation scholar who goes into the army or navy, or any profession or trade requiring an outfit. "In case of illness they are taken care of by the matron in the apartments provided for them in her house, and are nursed and dieted in any illness without any charge for medical attendance or medicine." "The only school charges to which a Foundation scholar is liable are for books and stationery, and a payment of four guineas per annum by lower boys, and five guineas by upper boys, to the matron for private washing and the care of private clothes." "Foundation scholars have also the preference, under the Charter, to the nine livings in the patronage of the Governors." "By an order of the Governors of 4th March 1856, scholars on the Foundation are considered superannuated on completing the 17th year of their age, unless they are reported by the Examiners as fit to remain as candidates for exhibitions. Such candidates leave the School on completing their 18th year, unless they are in the sixth form, in which case they remain until the completion of their 19th year."

For the exhibitions there is at present no competitive examination, for it appears that "every Foundation scholar who satisfies the examiners" (gentlemen nominated by the Archbishop of Canterbury) "so far as to render it most probable in their opinion that he will pass the first public examination in the University, is entitled to an exhibition."

At present all these exhibitions are of the same value, viz., as has been stated, £80 per annum for four years, with all additional sum of £20 in the last year. It appears to us that, with a view at once to raise the standard of qualification for these valuable exhibitions, to graduate the rewards to be obtained according to the merits of the competitors, and to render the Charterhouse a more desirable place of education for town boys, the following alterations in the present system are desirable, viz., to substitute a competitive for a mere test examination, to open these exhibitions to the competition


[page 179]

of the town boys, and to divide them into two classes, one of £80, the other of £60, per annum, and we intend to recommend accordingly.

4. Boys not on the Foundation

The boys not on the foundation may be classed, as has been said, under two heads, boarders and day boys. The former are lodged in houses sanctioned by the Governors. In February 1862, when the last written return was made to us, they were 45 in number, viz., 30 in the Head Master's house, and 15 in that of the second Master. Occasionally, also, a few boys have lodged in the private house of the Reader. The charge in the houses of the two Masters above named are, for board and education, including washing and medical attendance, £80 per annum up to the fifth form, and in and above that form £90. "Education" includes classics, mathematics, writing, geography, history, and divinity.

There are extra charges for -

French, £2 2s 0d (Voluntary except for Foundation.)
German, ditto. (Voluntary except in 6th Form.)

Voluntary:

Chemistry, £2 2s 0d.
Singing, ditto.
Drawing, £5 5s 0d
Drilling, £1 1s 0d.
"In the few cases in which a boy has private tuition the charge made by the private tutor for each is from eight to twelve guineas per annum, varying with the place of each boy in the School, and his want of individual superintendence."

For day boys the annual charge is £18 18s per annum. "The average number is from 30 to 35." The Governors have recently provided for these boys two comfortable rooms, which they may occupy, if they wish, between school hours.

5. Number and Arrangement of the School

The total number of the School has varied very materially from time to time. A table showing the numbers and fluctuations since 1818 is given in Mr. Elwyn's Answers (II. 11). It appears from this that the numbers were -

In 1825480
In 183599
In 1845187
In 1855133

The number is now limited by an order of the Governors to 200. At present it is 136.

The School is arranged in separate classical, mathematical, and French departments. Of these the classical department has six forms, one of which, the fifth, is divided into two parts; the mathematical has seven divisions, and the French three. In each of the departments (with the exception of the 5th and 6th classical forms) "a boy rises mainly by proficiency, though age is not disregarded". "The boys take places at, and are marked at the end of each lesson, and according to the marks gained are arranged at the end of the week in order of merit. The plan of adding marks for attention and progress in the mathematical divisions and those gained in the classical work has been lately adopted, and appears to work well. In the fifth and sixth classical forms marks are given for work done; in the former changes in place are made from time to time according to merit (more consideration being given to age than in the lower forms), in the latter, besides arranging the boys according to the marks gained, a prize is given each term for the highest marks.

6. Masters

"There are six resident masters, all of whom take some part in the classical instruction. All take part also in the mathematical teaching, though not in the same order" as in the former case.

"For the instruction in French, two masters attend twice in a week for two hours on each occasion. The study of French is, under a recent order of the Governors, obligatory upon all who do not learn German. A German master instructs the sixth form (all in that form being obliged to learn it) once a week for two hours," and those of


[page 180]

other forms who choose it. A drawing master, a singing master, and a chemical lecturer attend respectively twice a week. These, as before stated, are voluntary subjects.

The following is the gross amount of remuneration stated by Mr. Elwyn to be received on an average of years from all sources by himself and those masters who are engaged in teaching those branches of education which are obligatory upon the whole or some portion of the school.*

£    
Head Master1,100
Second Master700
First Assistant200 without rooms
Second Assistant (who superintends the Foundation boys, and has a few private pupils)200 with rooms
Third Assistant (also "Reader " with an independent salary)110 with rooms
Mathematical Assistant (including income from private pupils)200 with rooms

The French Master receives £80 from the Governors, and two guineas from each of the non-foundation boys who learn (from 40 to 50 in number), in an about £170 per annum. The Assistant Mathematical Master about £110. per annum. The German Master about £42 per annum. In several of these cases it appears to us that the average rate of remuneration is not such as is likely to secure permanently the services of duly qualified men, and we shall therefore include some suggestions on this head in the recommendations appended to this portion of our Report.

The great importance of some increase in the pecuniary remuneration of the Masters becomes more obvious when it is considered that, on the construction of those words of the Charter which relate to benefices, they are held not to be eligible for appointment unless they have been Foundation Scholars. Some doubt, we are informed, has arisen as to the propriety of this construction from the circumstance that in the first Statutes framed by the Governors after the grant of the Charter (in 1627), there occur words which apparently were intended to alter the provisions of the Charter in this respect, and to render eligible for "spiritual livings of the patronage of the Hospital", before any other persons, "those who do or have done actual service to the House, or have been members thereof". This point, it appears, was brought under the consideration of the Governors in 1847, and they then held (rightly, as it appears to us) that the expressions of the Statute of 1627 could not over-ride the provision of the Charter, which makes scholars eligible before any other persons, provided "they be fully qualified and become meet". It is clear, however, that all ambiguity on the subject should be removed, and, in our opinion, no less clear that the interests of the School will be advanced by rendering all those who are doing or have done service to the School as Masters, whether they have been Foundation Scholars or not, and wherever they may have been educated, eligible for the benefices in the patronage of the Governors. We propose, therefore, to recommend accordingly,

As has been already stated, the appointment of the Head and Second Master rests with the Governors, the nomination of the Mathematical Usher with the Head Master, subject to the approval of the Governors; and the other Assistant Masters are appointed by the Head Master, with the approbation of the Master of the Hospital. As regards the power of removal of the Assistant Masters some doubt appears to exist, and we think, therefore, that it should be distinctly laid down that the Head Master should have the uncontrolled power of selecting and dismissing the Assistant Masters; that of appointing and removing the Head and Second Masters remaining with the Governors. In regard to the two latter, the Statutes of 1627 provide for a cæteris paribus [other things being equal] preference of persons educated at the School. As regards the Assistant Masters there is no such limitation; in fact, on several occasions, persons educated at other schools have been appointed. We think that for the future there should be no preference in favour of persons brought up at the Charterhouse as regards any of the Masterships.

As regards the number and ages of the boys in each Form (at the date of the Return, December 1861), the dates of the entrance of each into such Form and of his admission into the School respectively, a detailed statement, containing also certain other

*Since this statement was made, however, the Governors have increased the salary of the Head Master from £240 per annum to £400, and that of the second Master from £140 to £250. The boarding profits of the Head and second Masters respectively are returned by them as for 1860, the Head Master £600, Second Master £400; 1861, Head Master £700, Second Master £468.


[page 181]

particulars, is given in Table B of the Appendix: Table C will be found to contain full and valuable information supplied by the several Masters in reference to the kind and amount of work done in each Form or Division, and Table D will show the employment of time in lessons and the amount of composition in each Form or Division during the year to which the Returns apply. In Table E will be found a Return by the only two Assistant Masters who at the date of the Return were taking private pupils, of the work done with them by such pupils out of school hours and distinct from the work of the school.

It will be seen from this last-mentioned Return that private tuition, as has been before stated, does not exist at the Charterhouse otherwise than exceptionally and under peculiar circumstances.

7. Promotion in School - Prizes

The ordinary and regular promotion from one form to another takes place once a year, and depends upon the annual examination, which applies to the whole School. "Every boy, then, unless he is very backward, moves up from the form in which he is." "A clever boy", however, "would get a remove oftener than that", his promotion depending upon his marks, and his general conduct.

In promotion in the classical forms no weight is attached to French, promotion in the French department being entirely distinct and independent. As regards mathematics, however, Mr. Elwyn has introduced a plan under which "every week a boy is marked according as he has done his mathematics, and these marks are added to his classical marks", so as to affect his place in the classical form, though his position in the mathematical classes is distinct from his classical position.

In the annual examination above referred to, the whole school is examined in divinity, classics, and mathematics, and papers are set for the higher forms. "This examination as well as those mentioned below in these subjects is conducted as above stated by examiners appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury." Those boys who learn French, German, drawing, or chemistry, are also examined in these subjects. "For the Foundation scholars there is an additional examination in the month of December in classics and arithmetic, and a report is also presented from the head French Master of "their progress and conduct".

At the annual examination prizes are awarded in all the Classical, Mathematical, French, and German divisions, and there are also medals given in the Fifth and Sixth Forms for Latin prose and Greek verse translation, and for original composition in English and Latin verse. Divinity prizes, too, are given by the Reader, and two prizes, one in each of the Fifth and Sixth Forms, by the Preacher for a Theological Essay. In Chemistry and Drawing prizes are given by the respective teachers of these subjects. These are all open to the competition of the whole school.* As regards exhibitions, besides those above referred to, limited to the Foundation scholars, and available at any College at Oxford or Cambridge, open to the whole school, there has also been recently established, in memory of Sir Henry Havelock, an exhibition called "the Havelock Exhibition" of the annual value of £20. "The subjects for this examination are Latin, French, History (Modern and Ancient), and Geography (definite portions), English Dictation and Mathematics", the latter forming a principal element in the examination. "This examination is conducted by special examiners, appointed by the Master and Schoolmaster. Cæteris paribus [other things being equal], a preference is given to a boy intending to enter the army or some Government office."

For those not on the Foundation there has recently been established, in memory of the late Hon. J. C. Talbot, a Scholarship tenable at any one of the four Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, or Durham, an annual Gold Medal, and a prize of books. For these latter rewards all boys who have been two years in the School may compete.

8. Results. The Universities. The Army

In Michaelmas term 1861 there were 23 undergraduates from the Charterhouse at Oxford and 10 at Cambridge. In the year ending at the summer holidays 1862 the number of boys who left the Charterhouse was 27, and of these five, or 18.5 per cent,

*Prizes are also given for private study done out of school.


[page 182]

went to one or other of the Universities. This is a lower proportion than is furnished by any other school except Merchant Taylors'; but it seems by reference to the number of Carthusian undergraduates to be below the usual average of the School. A calculation founded on the number of undergraduates actually at the Universities in 1861 would give an average of eight or nine per annum.

In the nine years from 1853 to 1861 inclusive, three first classes in the final Schools at Oxford and two at Cambridge were gained by Carthusians, also seven first classes in moderations at Oxford, three University scholarships at Cambridge and two at Oxford, and five University prizes, besides several College prizes and a number of Fellowships and scholarships.

From the returns furnished to us by the Council of Military Education, we find that only two Carthusians offered themselves for direct commissions within the three years over which those returns extend. There were no candidates for Sandhurst, and only one for Woolwich. This last was not successful.

9. Discipline. Punishments

As regards punishments, Mr. Elwyn states as follows: "There is a book in which the name of a boy who has been guilty of any ordinary fault, such as inattention, being late, imperfect, &c., is entered. If the name of a boy appear three times in one week in this book he is flogged; impositions are also given, the mode of marking an offence in ordinary cases being left to the discretion of each Master." "Grave moral offences are visited with immediate punishment, as are also serious breaches of discipline. In the case of upper boys, flogging (which is the only corporal punishment employed in the School) is most rarely employed, and their punishment consists in imposition and in degradation from their rank and privileges."

On this we remark that the practice of flogging as a matter of course for three "ordinary faults" exists, so far as we are informed, in no other public school, and that it appears to us undiscriminating and unduly severe; and if this usage rests on any rule of the school, such rule ought in our opinion to be abrogated. We think further that the power of administering corporal punishment should be strictly confined to the Head or Under Master or both, and that no "upper boy" ought under any circumstances to be subjected to it. It has been for years the aim of most schoolmasters to minimize the amount of such punishments, and the Head Master of Charterhouse ought, we think, to be supported by the Governors in any efforts he may make to carry out this object.

10. Monitorial System. Fagging

The monitorial system is in operation at the Charterhouse, and Mr. Elwyn attaches much importance to it as a valuable aid in the maintenance of school discipline, as beneficial in creating a sense of responsibility, and as tending to prevent bullying. From the Foundation scholars four are selected by the Head Master, whose duty it is, in turn, to maintain order in School, and also in the house where the Foundation scholars board. In each of the boarding houses two, or sometimes three, are selected to perform similar duties in the house.

The power of fagging is assigned by the Head Master to the monitors and to others of the Sixth and Fifth Forms, and is exercised over boys below the fourth form, implying the right to exact certain personal services, such as making tea, fetching anything which the senior boy may want, fagging out at cricket (limited to one hour a day), and occasional attendance at football. "No menial services, such as cleaning shoes, &c.", says Mr. Elwyn, "are allowed". It appears, however, that two fags are obliged to look after the fires in the two rooms where the Foundation scholars sit, and to attend to the lavatory, duties both of a menial character, and the former of which, at any rate, entails, often upon small boys, the necessity of carrying heavy coal scuttles. We think that servants should be employed on these duties. As regards the time during which fags can be employed, we are glad to learn that, by a recent regulation made by Mr. Elwyn, no fagging is to be allowed between 8 and 10 in the evening; a certain period is thus secured to the junior boys for the preparation of their lessons, for reading or amusement. In other respects, we see no reason for adding any special observations in the case of the Charterhouse, in regard to fagging, to our general remarks on the subject, though here, as elsewhere, we think that it should engage the attention of the Governing Body. We shall annex, however, one or two recommendations.


[page 183]

11. Religious Observances and Teaching

As respects religious observances and religious teaching, "all the boys attend the church service" in the chapel "on the mornings of Saints' days, and all boarders and Foundation scholars upon Saturday evenings and on the morning and evening of Sunday, the latter service being one especially for the boys" and partially choral.

"The Holy Communion is celebrated on the great festivals and on the first Sunday in every month; but, independently of the general celebrations, on the first and last Sunday in each school term (six times in the year), there is special Communion for the School, to which those who have been confirmed are specially invited. There is no compulsion on any boy to attend, but very few ever absent themselves from these celebrations, though there is caution from time to time given against any mere formal attendance."

"The boys are specially prepared for Confirmation by the Head Master, who has a Confirmation Class for some weeks previous to the Confirmation, which is annually administered in the chapel by the Bishop of London."

"The duty of preaching in the Chapel belongs to the preacher, who is one of the officers of the Foundation, appointed by the Governors."

"Opportunities also are given from time to time to the Head and other Masters of preaching in the Chapel." "Prayers selected from the Prayer Book are read every morning on the assembling of the school by one of the Foundation scholars, and at night before bed-time a portion of the Bible is read to the boys in each house by the master of the house, and then prayers are read either by the master himself or by one of the monitors in the presence of the master."

Boys are regularly instructed during a portion of the Sundays, Mondays, and Saints' Days respectively in the Bible, Church Catechism, and Greek Testament.

12. Amusements

"The acreage of the ground allotted to the boys for their out-door amusements and games is five acres. There are also cloisters in which games can be played when the weather is unfavourable." "Cricket, football, hockey, and fives played with bats are the principal games." We would suggest to the Governors the propriety of considering whether some arrangement cannot be made for teaching swimming.

13. Constitution of the Governing Body (Observations)

We have already alluded to the constitution and powers of the Governors. The latter we shall propose in this as in other cases to modify and define; we do not think it necessary to recommend any large alteration in the former. We have already stated our opinion that the Governing Body of a great public School should be permanent in itself, and independent "of personal or local interests, of personal or professional influences or prejudices, and that it is very desirable that it should include men conversant 'with the world, with the requirements of active life, and with the progress of literature and science'." The Governing Body of the Charterhouse is now and has long been composed of men eminent for their rank and character, and little liable to be influenced by local interests or by personal or professional prejudices. Many of them have distinguished themselves in different professions, and not a few occupy or have occupied high positions in public life, while several have achieved literary success or have shown themselves active promoters of the cause of education. They all possess an amount of experience and knowledge of the world which we believe to be of great value to the interests of a public school. We should think that we were doing an ill service to the Charterhouse if we were to propose any material alteration in the general constitution of this body. It appears to us that a slight modification only is needed to adapt it to the duties which we propose to throw upon it in common with the Governing Bodies of the other schools under our review.

The task which these bodies will have to undertake, if the recommendations of our Report are adopted, is one of considerable importance and much delicacy. It is that of blending a due proportion of modern studies with the old classical course without destroying the general character of the public schools. In order to the accomplishment


[page 184]

of this task it is desirable that the Governing Bodies should include a certain number of members specially chosen on account of their familiarity with and proficiency in the new studies which it is desirable to introduce or to regulate. The presence of such men will at once give confidence to the public and enable the Governors themselves to conduct their discussions with the advantage of having always at hand the best information and the best advice upon points on which they are likely to require it. We recommend the introduction of this element into the Governing Body of the Charterhouse, as we have recommended it in the case of other schools. We propose that, before proceeding to re-arrange the studies of the School, the Governors should associate with themselves four new members chosen with especial reference to their attainments in science or literature, thus for a time raising their number to 20; we do not, however, propose that the number should permanently exceed 16; and we recommend that the first four vacancies which may occur should not be filled up. When the number falls below 16, it should be replenished by fresh elections; but one Governor in every four should, we think, continue to be chosen with special regard to the qualifications which we have described.

14. Proposed Removal of the School (Observations)

Before concluding this part of our Report, the subject of the removal of the School into the country, which is alluded to in many parts of the evidence, calls for some observations. Of those general disadvantages to which we have already adverted as belonging to London schools, the Charterhouse has its share, subject only to qualification upon two points, viz., that its playground is of considerable size, and (differing in this respect from Westminster) close to the School, and that the whole of the premises are surrounded by a wall and accessible only through one gate, so that it is easy to prevent injurious intercourse with the streets outside. We see no sufficient reason, however, to modify in their application to the Charterhouse, our general remarks upon London schools. We believe that, as a boarding school it would thrive much better if removed to some eligible site in the country, while, for those day boys who at present resort or would be likely to resort to it, St. Paul's or Merchant Taylors' Schools (with such modifications and improvements as we shall suggest) in conjunction with the other large London day schools to which we have adverted, would probably supply adequate means of education. We may add that we cannot doubt that the sale of that portion of the present area and buildings which would not be wanted for the fitting accommodation of such part of Sutton's Hospital as would be retained in London, would realise a considerable proportion of the amount of money necessary for the removal. We recommend the subject, therefore, to the serious consideration of the Governors.

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

All the General Recommendations (Part I. pp. 52-55) appear to be applicable to Charterhouse School.

We add the following special recommendations:

1. That the number of 16 Governors should be forthwith increased to 20 by the election, as new Governors, of four persons distinguished for literary or scientific attainments; that the next four vacancies should not be filled up, unless occasioned by the death or retirement of any of such four persons, or of persons elected in their room; and that in future one-fourth at least of the 16 Governors should always be chosen with special reference to attainments in literature or science.

2. That whenever the permanent body of 16 Governors is complete, seven should be a quorum; and that whenever it is not complete, or so long as the number of Governors provisionally exceeds 16, a proportion not less than half of the actual number should constitute a quorum.

3. That all the Scholarships on the Foundation should be thrown open to the unrestricted competition of boys between the ages of 11 and 14, according to a scheme to be framed by the Governors with the assistance of the Head Master. Cases in which a nomination has been actually given or promised should be excepted from the operation of this change.

4. That no declaration should be in future required from the parents of candidates for admission to the Foundation, either as to their intention of sending their sons to the University, or their inability to do so without the aid of an exhibition.


[page 185]

5. That the exhibitions at the Universities should be divided into two classes, one of £80, the other of £60 per annum, and be apportioned to the candidates according to merit.

6. That the examination for these exhibitions should be conducted, as at present, by examiners unconnected with the School, and apply to the whole of the school work; the proficiency to be tested by marks on the same principles as those which regulate promotion from class to class.

7. That the town boys should be admitted to compete for these exhibitions.

8. That a distinct fund should be formed, to be called the "School fund", and a separate account be in future kept of an receipts and expenditure relating to the School, as distinct from those connected with the pensioners, the general management of the estates, or other matters under the superintendence and control of the Governors.

9. That all tuition fees should be paid into this fund.

10. That in future the sum of £26 5s should be paid by or for each boy as a tuition fee, such sum to cover instruction in every subject which will form part of the regular course of study; and that the Governors should pay this sum to the credit of the School fund for each Foundation scholar.*

11. That if, after the payment of the salaries from the School fund in such proportions as to the Governors may seem fit, any surplus exist, it should be applied either in the augmentation of salaries, or in some way which is conducive to the permanent benefit of the School.

12. That no extra payment be required for any of the branches of study for which provision has been made, except that if private tuition be required in any of them, the sum of £10 per annum, in addition to the £26 5s above mentioned, be paid to the private tutor.

13. That the sum of £70 should be charged for boarding,† to include washing and ordinary medical attendance.

14. That in future, as regards the Foundation scholars, the charges for private washing and for the matron should be borne by the Governors.‡

15. That no boy be admitted into the School after 15 years of age, or remain there after 19, and that the age of admission to the Foundation should be between 11 and 14.

16. That public speeches should be delivered and prize compositions recited in ancient or modern languages at stated times in the presence of such friends of the School as may wish to attend.

*The School fund would then be (assuming 120 boys) £3,150, and might, perhaps, be thus appropriated, viz.:

School Fund
£
Boarders
£
Total Income
£
Head Master6006001,200
Usher400400800
Four Assistants (at £300 each)1,200
£2,200

Leaving for French, German, music, drawing, and natural science, £950.

†At present the total charge for boarding, including washing and education, but excluding modern languages, music, drawing, and physical science, is £80 per annum: including these, the total charge will be £96 5s.

‡The Governors now pay annually for tuition £1,081.

They will pay according to the proposed plan:

£
For 60 Foundation scholars (at £26 5s each)1,575
For Master in College80
Matron and washing for Foundation scholars (at, say, £5 for each Foundation scholar)300
£1,955

Deduct, at present paid

1,081
Total additional annual charge
874

Add also for the maintenance of six. Foundation scholars in addition to the present number of 54.


[page 186]

17. That duties of a menial character, e.g., that of keeping up the fires of the three sitting rooms occupied by the Foundation scholars, should be performed by a servant instead of a fag.

18. That no fagging should be allowed between eight and ten in the evening.

19. That an improved arrangement should be made as to the supply of tea to the Foundation scholars.

20. That meat should be supplied twice a day to all the boys.

21. That as regards locking the bedrooms, if it be deemed necessary, the head boy of the room should, in every case, have a key.

22. That there should, as far as possible, be a gaslight burning all night in the passages of the boarding-houses, and of the building occupied by the Foundation scholars.

23. That the attention of the Governors should be directed to the desirableness of making an arrangement by which all the services attended by the boys in the chapel may partake of a choral character.

24. That in regard to the benefices which are in the gift of the Governors, all persons who have done service to the School as Master, Usher, or Assistant Master be henceforth deemed eligible, though they may not have been educated there as Foundation scholars or otherwise.





[page 187]

CHAPTER V. ST. PAUL'S

STATEMENT AND OBSERVATIONS

1. History of the Foundation

THIS School owes its existence to the bounty of John Colet, D.D., who was Dean of St. Paul's from 1505 to 1519, and son of Sir Henry Colet, twice Lord Mayor of London, and a member of the Mercers' Company. The Dean was the eldest of a large family of sons and daughters, all of whom except himself seem to have died young. He was educated at Magdalene College, Oxford, where he subsequently became the intimate friend of Erasmus, and an ardent admirer of the new learning of which that extraordinary man was perhaps the most influential promoter. Being left by the death of his father (1510) in possession of an ample patrimony, he shortly after, in 1511, conveyed certain estates in Bucks to the Mercers' Company for the "continuation of a certain school in the Churchyard of the Church of St. Paul's". The school itself is stated in the Ordinances of Dean Colet to have been founded in 1512, but it seems to have been already in operation* in 1510, the year of Sir H. Colet's death, that being the date of a letter of Colet's to William Lily the Grammarian, who is recognized in it as "primus hujus novæ Pauli Scolæ Præceptor."†

In the school were to be taught children of all nations and countries indifferently, to the number of 153. These were to be instructed gratis, each child paying "at his first admission once for ever 4d for writing of his name". Previously to admission they were to be examined in the Catechism, and the Master was to see that they could "read and write Latin and English sufficiently so that" each child should "be able to read and write his own lessons."‡ The scholars were entitled to no advantages of board or lodging, the school, says Erasmus, being furnished neither with cænacula nor cubicula. They were even forbidden to bring with them any meat or drink - "if they need drink let them be provided in some other place."

That indigence was not a condition of admission follows both from its being nowhere mentioned as such in the Ordinances,§ and also from the curious direction that tallow candles were at no time of the year to be used in the school, "but all only wax candell at the costs of their friends". That this expense was more than nominal appears from the circumstance that the school assembled at seven and separated at five throughout the year. It should also be remembered that while the Dean provides that "the instruction should be free, the class of books and kind of instruction he prescribed evidently "contemplates children not of not the lowest class".

For the instruction of these 153 boys salaries of £34 13s 4d and £17 6s 8d were allotted to a High Master and a Sur-Master respectively, the latter being appointed by the High Master, whom he was to succeed "if in literature and honest life according". There was also to be a Chaplain, who in addition to his religious duties was empowered to teach in the school, if it should seem convenient to the High Master. From a statement of Erasmus it seems to follow that this chaplain or "priest" was from the first intrusted with the teaching of at least the lowest class;|| and indeed three masters do not seem to have been more than sufficient, even according to the notions of those times, for the instruction of so large a school, larger by 33 than that of Westminster as constituted by Elizabeth.

The High Master himself was to be chosen, with the advice of "well-literate and learned men", by the Wardens and Assistants of the Mercers' Company, to whom, as we shall see presently, the government and regulation of the School were entrusted by

*Possibly in the "old scole" which Colet seems to have purchased, and the site of which he bequeathed to the Mercers' Company.

†This inference is confirmed by a statement, of George Lily, William's son, who in his Latin Chronicle. quoted by Knight, p. 108, places the foundation of the school in 1509. The new building was nearly finished in 1516. - Appendix Epist. Erasm., Ep. lxxxv.

‡This was by no means a nominal test. Erasmus says: "Nec quosvis admittunt temere, sed delectus fit indolisiet ingeniorum." Epist. ccccxxxv, So Dean Colet, "Ellis let him not be admytted in noo-wise".

§ One "pore scholer" only is mentioned, who was to receive the admission fees of the others, on condition of certain menial services. - Ordinances. By the Amending Ordinances the services and the fees are transferred to a man, who is now called the porter.

|| Primus ingressus (sc. scholæ) habet ceu catechumenos. Nullus autem admittitur nisi qui jam nôrit et legere et scribere. Secunda pars habet eos quos hypodidascalus instituit. Tertia quos superior erudit. Epist. ubi-supra. The phrase "ceu catechumenos" is ridiculously misunderstood by Knight and Carlisle as referring to instruction in the Catechism.


[page 188]

the Founder. He might be priest or layman, wedded or single, provided that if in orders he held no benefice with cure; a man, it is added, whole in body, honest, and virtuous. We have already mentioned Dean Colet's attachment to the new or classical culture of the Revival;* and we are therefore not surprised that as a further qualification he insists on a knowledge of good and clean, i.e., pure and unscholastic, Latin Literature, and also of Greek, on the part of the Master, "if such may be gotten". Such a master we have seen was "gotten" in the person of William Lily, the earliest teacher of Greek in London, whose appointment was an earnest of the services which St. Paul's School has since rendered to Classical scholarship.†

Among Lily's successors may be mentioned the learned Thomas Gale; among the earlier scholars of the School we find the names of Leland and Camden the antiquaries, Milton, Samuel Pepys, Robert Nelson, Roger Cotes the astronomer and editor of the Principia, John Duke of Marlborough, and others. It seems down to the present time to have had its fair share of men personally or officially eminent, and until recently, more than its share of academical distinctions.‡ That of late it has fallen off in the last particular is attested by the High Master, by Canon Blakesley, and by young Paulines now at the University; and their testimony is confirmed by the lists of honours furnished to us by the School. We believe that the causes of this decline are not far to seek, and we shall in the sequel endeavour to point out what appear to us to be the appropriate remedies.

2. Endowments

Mention has already been made of the deed of conveyance by which the Mercers' Company was put in possession of Colet's estates in Buckinghamshire. There is also extant a will, executed somewhat later, in which, describing himself as "Citizen and Mercer of London", he bequeaths to the same body numerous lands and tenements in the metropolis, together with the School and Chapel.§ "The income of the property" thus made over was, "at the time of the foundation of the School, £118 4s 7¼d. The "present income", including £1,254, interest on consols, is stated at £9,549 16s 5½d. According to their own view, the Mercers' Company are beneficially interested in the surplus revenues of this property, after maintaining the School according to Dean Colet's ordinances. The correctness of this view depends on a question of law, upon which we cannot pronounce an opinion; but it is evidently most desirable that steps should be taken without delay to obtain a judicial decision on the subject. It is fair to add, that the Company have not exercised the power, which they suppose themselves to possess, of appropriating the surplus revenues, but have managed the property for many years past with a view solely to what they have considered the interests of the School. The enormous increase in value is itself evidence of a pure and diligent administration; nor do we conceive that better care would have been taken of the property by any other body to which Dean Colet could have intrusted it. We entirely agree in the remark of Chief Baron Pollock, that "his selection of a London Company (as Trustees) was very wise and sagacious".

3. Government of the School

It is to the Governing Body of the Company of Mercers, "that is to say, the Master and all the Wardens, and all the Assistance of the Fellowship",|| that "the care and charge, rule and governance of the School" are intrusted by Colet in his Ordinances. They are annually to "choose of their Company two honest and substantial men, called

*Dr. Colet's literary character is favourably sketched by Erasmus in a well-known epistle. In his own letter to Erasmus (the 12th in the 2nd Book of Erasmus' Correspondence) we find him lamenting his ignorance of Greek, and resolved to learn it, "quanquam jam provectus ætate et prope senex, memor Catonem senem Græcas literas didicisse". His Latin, though not inelegant, is censured by Erasmus as by no means free from grammatical faults. On the other hand, Erasmus looked up to Colet in the matter of theology. The Dean's views, it would seem, were more advanced in the direction of reformation than his own. See Erasm. Epist. ccccxxxv. an. 1519., col. 458, ed, 1703. In fact, he owed to the favour of the King (Hen. VIII) his escape from a prosecution for heresy.

†St. Paul's is mentioned by Erasmus as the best school then existing; he boasts at the same time that a certain pupil of his own "plus scire Latinitatis quam fuerit in ullâ scholâ, no Lilianam quidem excipio, triennio consecuturus".

‡The school reached its palmy state in the time of Dr. Sleath, to whose skill as a teacher its then flourishing condition is attributed by Canon Blakesley, himself one of the most distinguished of the Doctor's pupils.

§It is not true, as Carlisle states, that Colet "consecrated the whole of his very ample estate" to the support of St. Paul's School. He had large estates in Northamptonshire, which by another and later will he leaves, after the death of his mother, to relatives by the father's and mother's side. Knight's Life, Misc., No. xx. The school buildings, according to Antony Wood, had cost him £4,500.

||In 1833 there were one Master, three Wardens, and 31 Assistants of the Mercers' Company. - Herbert's Companies of London, vol. I, p. 228.


[page 189]

the Surveyors of the School, which, in the name of the whole Fellowship, shall take all the charge and business about the School for that one year."

The powers of the two officers (now called the Surveyor Accountant and Surveyor Assistant) are not defined by Dean Colet further than by the direction that they are to enter the School on fixed days four times in the year, and then and there to pay the Masters their quarterly stipends. Once in the year they are to give the Masters "their livery in cloth", (now represented by an annual present of an academic gown), and at the same time to render their account to the "Master, Wardens, and Assistance of the Fellowship". The School has, properly speaking, no Visitor, nor are any powers of interference given by the Ordinances to the Surveyors, as such.

On the other hand, the Governing Body have full powers granted them, not only of interpreting the Ordinances, but also, with the advice of the "well-literate and learned men" before mentioned, to "add to and diminish from them," and "to supply" in them "every default, as time and place and just occasion shall demand." These powers were exercised on a large scale in 1602, when, with the advice of the Solicitor-General and another Counsel, a body of Amending Ordinances was drawn up by the Court of Assistants, doubling the stipends of the Masters and otherwise modifying the original Ordinances in conformity with the alleged requirements of the time. In particular, the office of Chaplain was abolished, and an "Under-Usher" appointed in his stead; and an important change was made in the disposition of the surplus income, which, instead of being placed, according to the Dean's old-fashioned direction, in a "coffur of iren", is henceforth to be "employed either in exhibitions to poor Scholars proceeding from Paul's School to the Universities, or else lent out to poor young men of the said Company of Mercers upon good security." We are not aware whether the latter alternative was ever acted upon, but the former remains in full operation at the present day.

Besides these "Amending Ordinances", of which we have received a copy, we are informed that new ordinances and regulations have from time to time been made in the mode and system of education, and the general management of the School and property under the authority of the original Ordinances. While they have largely added to the stipends of the Masters, the Court of Assistants appear to have made no change since 1602 in the statutable allowance of Dean Colet to their officers the Surveyors, who in effect perform their services for a nominal remuneration of £4. On the other hand, the customary allowance to the Assistants for attending Courts and Committees on the business of the School has been increased eightfold, and the expenses under this head amounted in 1860 to the considerable sum of £229 19s.*

4. Masters

In place of the High Master, Sur-Master, and Chaplain, of the original Ordinances, there are at present seven Masters - four Classical, one for Mathematics, and two for French. The present stipends paid out of the School revenues are as follows:

£  
High Master900
Sur-Master400
Third Master320
Fourth Master300
Mathematical Master200
French Master150
Assistant French Master100

"In addition to the above, the High Master has the rents of two houses at Stepney, a residence for himself" contiguous to the School, "with rates, taxes, and repairs found him, and a gown every year." The other three Classical Masters have likewise residences, the rates and taxes of which are paid for them, and "a gown every year".

As the original number of eight classes fixed by the Founder has been retained to the present day, it follows that each Classical Master, the High Master included, has

*This charge attracted the attention of the Commissioners for Inquiring into Municipal Corporations in 1835. It then amounted to £287 14s, and the account they give is that, "many members were said to come from the country, and others to quit their business, whose loss of time is not compensated by the pay they receive." On which the Commissioners remark, that the payment "certainly appears, at least with regard to the latter class of persons, to militate against the rule that a trustee is not entitled to charge for his time and labour; and it is obvious", they add, "that if it amounts to more than a mere indemnity, it must have a tendency to produce an unnecessary multiplication of Courts and Committees." - Herbert's "Companies of London", vol. i, p. 277.


[page 190]

the entire charge of two classes of from 15 to 20 boys each. This arrangement, we think, throws too heavy a burden upon the Head Master, who ought, undoubtedly as he himself urges, to have ample time for the general superintendence and occasional examination of the School. We think, therefore, that at least one additional Classical Master should be appointed, even if the present number of scholars and classes were not increased. All the Masters are now appointed by the Court of Assistants, and are removable at the pleasure of that body, who, on the other hand, are empowered by the Coletine Ordinances to pension at their pleasure a discharged or superannuated Master. According to the Ordinances, the Sur-Master was to be appointed by the High Master, and we have not ascertained at what time or for what reasons this power was taken from him. The Court, it seems, still enforce the somewhat antiquated rule that the Masters shall every year go through the ceremony of re-election. Each Master is "called in and informed that his place is vacant, and then he is asked if he wishes to apply for the vacant appointment; he retires, and in a few minutes he is called in, and is told that he has been appointed to the vacant appointment." We think that the Court might advantageously omit this not very graceful mode of asserting an indisputable right, and we are strengthened in this opinion by the fact that, in the time of the last High Master, Dr. Sleath, an unhappy feeling between him and the Governors arose in consequence of the practice in question. The High Master has no power to alter or modify either the original Coletine Ordinances or the regulations defining the system and course of study which have been subsequently made by the Court of Assistants; but he is left free to select the authors and editions of authors read in the School. "The Sur-Master and Assistant Masters have no voice, consultative or other, in the direction of the general studies of the School." We shall propose that a School Council be constituted at St. Paul's analogous to that which we have recommended in the case of all the other Schools which have come under our review, and comprising the existing staff of Classical Masters, one Mathematical Master, and one Master in each modern language, together with a Lecturer in Natural Science, whom we desire to see appointed and furnished at the expense of the Foundation with the requisite apparatus.

We find that in this alone of all the schools we have had to do with, no provision whatever is made for instruction either in Music or in Drawing. The objection that St. Paul's is a classical school will hardly, we conceive, be urged as a sufficient apology for this omission, or rather, perhaps, oversight on the part of the Governing Body. A German Master is also a desideratum in a school of this eminence, and a plan for introducing German into the School routine is proposed by a former Sur-Master. These additional Masters should be chosen by the High Master, who should also have the power of dismissing them; and we shall propose that he should hereafter resume the power conveyed by the original Ordinances of appointing the Sur-Master. We think, indeed, that the Court might advantageously extend to him the power of appointing and dismissing all the Assistant Masters, and we shall be prepared with a recommendation to that effect.

5. Number and Mode of Appointment of the Scholars

There is at St. Paul's no distinction between Foundationers and Non-Foundationers. Every boy is a scholar on the Foundation from the moment of his admission, and as such receives, in accordance with the intentions of the Founder, a perfectly gratuitous education. The number of the scholars has been always restricted to 153, the number fixed by the pious Dean, in memory, doubtless, of the miraculous draught of fishes recorded in the last chapter of St. John's Gospel. This quaint but innocent direction deserves the respect it has received; but we are by no means sure that equal care has been taken to carry out the Founder's intentions in their spirit. It is not clear to us that he contemplated or would have approved the mode in which the scholars are now appointed. The nomination of a scholar, whatever it may have originally been, has now become an affair of simple patronage.* "The scholars are nominated by each Member of the

*The directions to Lily, which are given at length in Knight's Life of Colet, p. 124, ed. 1, begin thus: "The Master shall rehearse these articles to them that offer their children, on this wise here following: If your child can read and write Latin and English sufficiently so that he be able to read and write his own lesson, then he shall be admitted into the school for a scholar. If your child, after reasonable season proved, be found here unapt and unable to learning, then ye, warned thereof shall take him away, that he occupy not our room in vain." Not a word is said, either here or in the Ordinances, of the necessity of a nomination by an Assistant, which indeed is allowed to be a quite recent innovation. If the Founder's directions had been carried out, the examination would have remained virtually, though not in form, competitive, as the words of Erasmus imply that it was during the lifetime of the Dean. No meaning short of this is conveyed by the words, Nec quosvis admittuut temere, sed delectus fit indolis et ingeniorum. It is instructive to compare with this the letter of Dr. Kynaston to the Surveyor Accountant. Correspondence and Reports, Appendix K.


[page 191]

Court of Assistants in rotation, and they are admitted to the School by the High Master under the direction of the Surveyor Accountant." The examination to which the nominees are subjected is of the most elementary description, and does not even reach the standard fixed, in the original Ordinances, to say nothing of that higher standard which the altered condition of the times evidently suggests; and though we are informed that one distinguished Member of the Court has introduced an important improvement in the case of his own nominees, it does not appear that this enlightened example has been followed by others. It is not too much to say, that so far as regards the personal and intellectual fitness of its recipients, the benefits of a gratuitous education are conferred at haphazard, and with these benefits the chance, at least, of a handsome provision at the University. The contrast which this mode of appointment presents to the excellent and most successful system now in force at Eton and Winchester* is too obvious to need illustration; and, without instituting comparisons which may seem invidious, it is clear that in this respect the practice of the School falls as far short of the ideas and requirements of the present age, as the directions of the Founder rose above those of his own day.

We may even go further, and say that the present system of admission is positively injurious to the cause of education, inasmuch as it offers a temptation to parents to neglect the early training of their children; and we have it on the authority of the High Master that this temptation is but too often yielded to. "Some", he says, "are occasionally brought to us even twelve years old, utterly ignorant of the first elements of the commonest knowledge." And the evil seems to be a growing one. "Formerly the best boys came at 11 or 12 years of age, having previously had some good training; but now the case is reversed, and they either come a little younger, knowing nothing at all, or at the same age knowing little more; so that they must be taught their accidence." These evils are indeed but the natural result of the vicious system of nomination, and can only be cured by introducing some form of competition among the candidates for admission. We should prefer that such competition should be unrestricted, as it is at Eton and Winchester; but even in a modified form, it would be of great value; and in recommending the following scheme we are confident that we act in accordance with the intentions of the liberal and far-sighted Founder. Let two examinations be held annually, to be conducted either by two of the Masters, or by two paid examiners appointed for the purpose. On the occasion of each examination, let any member of the Court who may desire it, have the privilege of nominating two or three candidates, so as to provide a body of 50 or 60 candidates for each 10 or 15 vacancies. After the examination, let a list be formed of the candidates in the order of merit, those standing first on the list to be first admitted, and those who fail to obtain admission in the course of the half year to have one other chance, if their patrons choose to nominate them at the next half-yearly examination. This scheme to remain in force so long as the school shall remain on its present site. We suggest 11 as the minimum and 14 as the maximum age of candidates for admission.

6. Number of Classes - Promotion

In fixing the number of classes into which his 153 scholars were to be divided at eight instead of six, the usual number in the old Grammar Schools, Dean Colet probably conceived that he was introducing an important improvement. Whether a further subdivision is under present circumstances necessary or expedient may be doubtful, but provided that eight be retained as a minimum, it is clear to us that a full power of subdivision should be vested in the High Master, who alone can judge of the exigences of the School in this respect.

The classes, like those of most public schools, are counted from the first or lowest upwards. At Christmas 1861, the age of the youngest boy in the school was nine years and nine months, that of the oldest, who was seventh in the eighth or highest class, was 18 years and five months; while the youngest boy in the same class was little more than 14 years old. We observe a similar inequality in the ages of the boys in the seventh class, in which the greatest age is 17 years 2 months, the lowest only 13 years 6 months. The average age of the seventh is rather small in proportion to that of the eighth class. But in the middle part of the school the disparities are so great as to suggest the expediency of some strict rule as to the maximum age at which a boy should be permitted to remain in any class but the highest. We propose, accordingly, that no boy should be admitted into the fifth class after the age of 15, nor into the sixth

*We earnestly invite attention to the evidence of Drs. Goodford and Moberly on this head, and in particular to an extract from a printed pamphlet by the latter gentleman, which will be found in our Report on Winchester School.


[page 192]

after 16; and that no boy should be allowed to remain in the School after he has passed the maximum age prescribed for the admission of boys into the class above that in which he is.

Such a rule, we conceive, is more imperatively called for at St. Paul's than at schools where the number is unlimited, and where no gratuitous advantages are enjoyed. If accompanied by a mode of admission more in harmony with the Founder's wishes, it would go far towards removing the languor and stagnancy which, from the evidence before us, appear to prevail in some parts of the school. We may add that in our opinion the minimum age of admission ought to be raised to 11 years, and that no boy should be admitted into the School unless he be fit to enter a class in which the maximum of age allowed does not exceed his own, nor any boy admitted at all who has not passed an examination similar to that indicated in our General Recommendations.

Promotion to a superior class depends, according to Dr. Kynaston, on proficiency in classical scholarship alone, no account being taken of mere seniority. He explains classical scholarship as including to some extent History and Geography. We recommend, as in the case of the other schools, that the conditions of promotion in the School be enlarged so as to include Arithmetic and Mathematics, and one modern language; and that it be determined partly by a special examination, and partly, as at present, by reference to the class marks. The principle of separate classes, and separate promotion in each branch, side by side with the general school promotion, as recommended for the other schools, is, we believe, a sound one, and we think it should be introduced at St. Paul's so far as it may be found practicable. We also think that when Drawing and Music Masters are appointed, every boy should, during some assigned portion of his school career, be required to receive instruction in one of these branches. We would not conclude this part of our subject without expressing our satisfaction at the efficient manner in which, according to the evidence, Arithmetic and Mathematics are taught in the School.

7. Prizes and Exhibitions

In respect of prizes and exhibitions no school in proportion to its numbers is better provided than St. Paul's. Of exhibitions annually disposable, there are:

1. One of £120 a year, tenable at any College in either University.
2. One of £100 founded by Viscount Campden, and tenable only at Trinity College, Cambridge.
3. One of £80 founded by Viscount Campden, and tenable only at Trinity College, Cambridge.
4. One of £30, tenable for seven years at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
5. One or more of £50, tenable at either University.
"These are awarded strictly in accordance with the results of the Apposition Examination, in which the mathematical marks count in the proportion of one-third to the classical."

Dr. Kynaston makes the somewhat unusual, but in the present state of the School not, we believe, unfounded complaint, that the exhibitions are too numerous and too easily obtained. Certainly the principle of giving a boy an exhibition on the mere certificate of the examiners that he is not absolutely unfit to hold it is to us a novel one; and it must in our opinion tend to deaden competition, and defeat the object of giving a stimulus to industry, of which the givers of such prizes ought never to lose sight. The improved system of admission and promotion which we recommend would to a certain extent remedy the evil complained of; but we are clearly of opinion that in order to an effective competition the number of exhibitions awarded ought always to fall considerably short of the number of candidates. Without going so far as to say with Mr. Blakesley that at least "90 per cent of those who leave the School ought to go to the Universities", we agree with him that the proportion who at present go thither is smaller than it might fairly be expected to be in a School where the education is and ought to remain thoroughly, we do not say exclusively, academical. A system of vigorous competition for admission would rapidly raise the low proportion complained of, and at the same time restore the proportion between the candidates for exhibitions and the exhibitions competed for.

Of the annual exhibitions founded by private benefactors we observe that one of £100 a year can only be held at Trinity, while the holder of another of £30 which is tenable for seven years, must reside at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. In the interest of the School we think that both these should be made tenable at any college in either University, and we would suggest that the smaller of the two should be raised in value and made tenable for only four years.

The smaller exhibitions of £10 and £13 a year, payable at the same colleges and at St. John's, might probably with advantage be consolidated; but this is rather a question


[page 193]

for the Cambridge authorities who have the disposal of them. In the present condition of the School we conceive that four annual exhibitions are fully sufficient, and that a larger number can only pro tanto [to a certain extent] do harm.

Before we leave the subject of exhibitions we notice two regulations, one of which is found to work ill in practice, while the other seems likely to be attended with needless hardship in particular cases. It is directed, 1. That in order to be eligible for an exhibition a boy must have been admitted to the School under 12 years of age. 2. That a scholar who has been deemed worthy of all exhibition, remain at the School until it is time for him to go up to the University. This latter rule is strongly reprobated by Mr. Carver, Head Master of Dulwich School, who was recently Sur-Master of St. Paul's, "The evil is felt especially by the Masters of the Upper School (both in the classical and mathematical departments) in the consequent postponement of our annual removes, and the delay thus occasioned in the commencement of our work for the ensuing year with the new draughts into our classes; but in its effects upon the boys themselves it is, I think, even more prejudicial, for it can scarcely fail to induce or encourage, at a most important period of their lives, those habits of listlessness and indolence which they will find it far more easy to acquire than to shake off again when once indulged."

In our opinion the rule should be at once rescinded, and the eligibility to exhibitions extended to all boys who have been admitted under 15. On the other hand we approve of the rule which obliges every scholar to leave the School on attaining the age of 19.

The prizes not in the nature of exhibitions are enumerated by Dr. Kynaston in his Answers. We have only to make the obvious suggestion that in case of the introduction of Natural Science, of German, and of Music and Drawing into the School course, prizes should be given every half year for proficiency in each of these subjects.

Besides prizes and exhibitions there is another class of rewards which requires notice. It appears from the table of expenditure that during the year 1860 the sum of about £160 was expended in gifts to former scholars on the occasion of obtaining certain emoluments or distinctions at the University, and certain supposed distinctions in public competitive examinations. Priâ facie it does not appear to us that this sum has been altogether wisely laid out. To bestow a sum of money upon a young man as a reward for having obtained a considerable addition to his income, as in many of the cases alluded to, is a proceeding the reasons of which are not self-evident, nor are we able to say that a 17th or 24th place in the Indian competitive examination appears to us to constitute a claim for the special consideration of the Court of Assistants. We are glad, however, to be informed that the subject of these rewards has already engaged the attention of the Governing Body, and that a scheme has been drawn up by one of its members, which will limit the future expenditure under this head. Quite irrespectively of the financial question, we think harm is done by any custom tending to produce the impression that mediocre attainments are viewed by the authorities of the School as a subject of complacency or congratulation.

8. Hours of School. Recreations

The school hours were fixed in the original Ordinances at from 7 to 11 and from 1 to 5. These eight hours have wisely been reduced to six, and the hour of assembling put off until nine. Afternoon school lasts from 2 to 4, winter and summer, the interval of an hour only being allowed between morning and afternoon school. But the long morning school is broken by an interval of a quarter of an hour. These hours have been fixed with a view to the convenience of day-scholars, who form the great majority of the school. The time for play, as will be seen, is very short: indeed the absence of anything deserving the name of a playground would prevent advantage being taken of it longer interval, unless indeed for walks in the city, to which there are obvious objections. The hours are probably as well arranged as under the circumstances they could be. We are glad to find that on half holidays, which occur twice in the week, the boys have the use of a part of Kennington Oval during the cricket season. While regretting that they have not fuller opportunities of outdoor recreation, we do not see how the defect is to be supplied so long as the school remains on its present site. The interval of an hour between schools is partly employed in luncheon or dinner, for which, in pursuance of Dean Colet's directions, no provision is made by the Company, though the High Master furnishes dinner to a limited number in his own house. The rest are left to seek it where they can, the Court declining to take any responsibility in the matter.

It does not appear that this system, or rather this absence of system, is thought satisfactory by the chief officials of the School. The best arrangement would probably be that all the boys should be provided with a mid-day meal on the school premises at a fixed


[page 194]

charge, but this the character and limited extent of the buildings forbid. There is notoriously in St. Paul's Churchyard or the neighbourhood a great number of eating-houses and taverns of various degrees of respectability; and we should imagine that arrangements might be made with the keepers of some of these establishments for providing a certain number of boys with a suitable meal at a reasonable cost, and in a separate apartment. Such an arrangement might probably be made by the Head Master in conjunction with the parents of the boys, and without directly involving the Court of Assistants in a responsibility from which they shrink.

Similar remarks are suggested by the unsystematic manner in which boys from a distance are boarded. The Masters, it seems, following the example of the High Master, decline to take boarders in their houses, though not prohibited from doing so by the School authorities. The number of boys answering to the description of boarders forms but a small proportion (an eighth, according to one witness*) of the whole; but after allowing due weight to the argument founded on Dean Colet's Ordinances in favour of keeping St. Paul's in the main a day-school, these exceptional cases are not, we think, without a claim on the attention of the Governing Body. As the Prime Warden, Mr. Lane, observes, a parent who had a son at St. Paul's, and who happened to remove from the neighbourhood of London to a distant county, would probably be unwilling to take his boy from the School; and in that case "would be glad if he could place him in some recognized boarding-house". In past times the Masters exercised this right of taking boarders, who accordingly formed a substantial proportion of the entire School. The privilege was voluntarily surrendered by the present High Master for reasons highly honourable to himself; but as these reasons do not necessarily apply to the case of the other Masters, it seems not impossible that one or more of them might be induced to reconsider their determination. We purposely speak with reserve on this subject, being unwilling to recommend any measure which might limit or impair the usefulness of the School as a place of education for London boys; but we think that some at least of the difficulties suggested by the High Master, in his evidence, would not be found insuperable. We do not think that the proportion of boarders to day-scholars is likely ever to be very large, as there seems to be a growing disinclination on the part of parents in the country to send their sons to London for education. This consideration relieves us from the necessity of discussing the weighty remarks of the Bishop of Manchester, who entertains a strong opinion of "the advantage of boarders, to a certain extent, in a public school". The experience of such schools as Westminster and the Charterhouse affords a striking proof of the difficulty, at least in London, of forming arrangements equally favourable to both classes of boys.

9. Means of maintaining Discipline

The relations of boys to each other and to the Masters are of a much simpler kind in a day-school than in one consisting chiefly of boarders. We have, consequently, not much to say on the subject of the discipline of St. Paul's. There is a monitorial system, adapted chiefly to the end of preserving order and quiet in the school-room (an object of primary importance amid the din of St. Paul's Churchyard), but probably capable of development in other directions. The whole of the eighth class are monitors; they "have no power of inflicting punishment, except by placing a boy in the middle of the room, and that is understood more as a mark to catch the master's eye than as a punishment".

The power of punishment with a cane over the hand to the extent of six blows is possessed and exercised by every Master; but the use of the rod is unknown. This comparative mildness is the more commendable, as the "Schola Liliana" appears, in the time of Erasmus,† to have been the scene of much unnecessary severity; and even in the late Master's time the cane is said to have been applied with undue rigour and frequency. The impositions given are said not to exceed 50 to 100 lines; the practice of the school standing in this respect in favourable contrast with that of some of the other schools that have come under our notice. It is true, as the High Master remarks, that in a day-school "the really great offences seldom come under the eyes of the Master";

*Dr. Kynaston, however, thinks that there are not more than a dozen boys out of the 153 who are not London boys. Evidence, 505.

†See a passage from Erasmus, De pueris instituendis, quoted by Knight (Life of Colet, p. 175). The occurrence related - discreditable to all who took part in it - is not expressly said to have happened at St. Paul's, but the terms of the description leave no doubt that Colet and his masters were the actors in it: "Novi theologum quondam et quidem domestice, cujus animo nulla crudelitas satisfaciebat in discipulos, quum magistros haberet strenue plagosos." Then follows the anecdote, at the end of which the humane narrator asks: "Quis unquam ad eum modum erudivit mancipium, imo quis asinum?" Opera, t, i, col. 505, ed. Lugd. 1703.


[page 195]

but we apprehend that the excessive impositions we hear of elsewhere are frequently set for offences of a secondary order, amounting to little more than those "breaches of school discipline" which at St. Paul's are successfully combated by much milder measures. The power of expulsion rests between the High Master and the Surveyor Accountant, but "in any grievous case" Dr. Kynaston "would suspend the boy, refer the matter to the Surveyor Accountant, and take his opinion whether he should be allowed to come back again". In the time of the present Master there has been "only one single instance of expulsion".

10. Religious Observances and Instruction

We have already mentioned the early abolition of the statutable office of Chaplain, and the conversion of that functionary into an Assistant Master.* The chapel itself was not restored after the great fire of London, which consumed the original Coletine buildings, and this was the less important, as its dimensions were small, and it does not seem to have been occupied by any but the officiating priest. From the first the religious observances required of the scholars seem to have been neither numerous nor burdensome.† The only observances prescribed are, 1. that every child on entering the school shall salute the child Jesus, an image of whom, well sculptured, stood at the upper end of the room; 2. that at the time of "sacring", (i.e., the elevation of the Host) in the adjoining chapel every child should remain kneeling upon his seat; and 3. that "thrice in the day prostrate they shall say the prayers with due tract and pausing as they be contained in a table in the school, that is to say, in the morning, and at noon, and at evening."

At present, according to the High Master, at the beginning and end of each school-time "Latin prayers are read by the Captain, two of which were written by Erasmus for the school."‡

The High Master is better able than we to judge of the effects of this practice. If, in his opinion, the prayers as now read are not impressive, we think that he should have full power to modify the order of proceeding.

The present religious teaching is considered by the High Master "very satisfactory". It comprises "Scripture lessons and Greek Testament lessons according to the boy's position in the school". As there is no chapel, there are no sermons; but the boys are not present at the school on Sundays, and for their religious education they must, therefore, be held to depend in a great measure upon their parents. Preparation for confirmation is supposed to be the care of their parochial clergyman, but Dr. Kynaston has taken this duty occasionally "if asked to do it". Boys of all denominations are admissible to the school provided they can produce a certificate of baptism.§

The Christian authors, Lactantius, Sedulius, &c., prescribed by the Dean, are no longer read in the school. On the other hand, it is singularly in accordance with his predilections that the Greek Testament should be studied, under intelligent guidance, by the elder boys; and this we regard as the most effective kind of religious teaching which can be given at a school circumstanced like St. Paul's.

11. Results

The number of boys leaving St. Paul's for the Universities is not more than six or seven annually (in 1862 it was only 5); of these by far the larger portion go to Cambridge, where between 1838 and 1862 the following distinctions of the first class were obtained by Paulines: 4 wranglerships; 9 classical firsts; 1 Norrisian and 2 Burney English essay prizes; 1 Members' prize (Latin essay); 1 Bell's University Scholarship; 2 Trinity Fellowships; 1 Clare, and 1 Queen's Fellowship; 12 Trinity Scholarships and 1 Trinity Minor Scholarship, besides numerous College prizes; 1 Foundation Scholarship at St. John's. At Oxford, during the same years, we observe 2 first-class men in classics, and 1 in mathematics at the final examination; and 1 first-class in each at Moderations;

*See above, Sections 1, 4. The name of Chaplain seems, however, still to linger in the school, as the customary title of the Third Master. Evidence, 395.

†Of Colet himself Erasmus says - "Cum apud Anglos mos sit ut sacerdotes fere quotidie faciant rem divinam, ille tamen contentus erat diebus Dominicis ac festis sacrificare, aut certe pauculis diebus extra hos: sive quod sacris studiis ... distineretur, sive quod comperiret se majore cum affectu sacrificare si id ex intervallo faceret." - Epist. ccccxxxv.

‡These two are quoted in a note to Knight's Life, p. 146, and are such as the strictest Protestant might use.

§A statement occurring in the vivâ voce evidence (146) "they are examined by Dean Colet's rules according to the catechism that was in existence in his time", seems to have arisen from a misapprehension. The High Master informs us that no catechism of the kind is now in use.


[page 196]

1 Installation Greek verse prize, and 1 mathematical University Scholarship. To these may be added 1 open Fellowship (at Queen's), and 21 open Scholarships of various relative importance. In the list also appear prizes and distinctions obtained at Durham, at London University and King's Colleges, at Haileybury and Calcutta Colleges; 5 prizes at Addiscombe; 2 at Woolwich; one successful candidate for Engineers; 2 Indian, and 2 China Civil Service appointments. This list is respectable, and seems to prove that the system and mode of classical and mathematical instruction are sound. But we agree with the High Master in thinking that much more ought to be done. The paucity of Fellowships obtained at Trinity as compared with the Scholarships seems to prove that first-rate attainments are at present rare, and confirms us in the view we have already expressed, of the necessity for a more effective and vigorous competition, and a better system of admission to the School. It is certain that the Founder looked for great literary and educational results, and in past times, as we have seen, his hopes were not disappointed. But of late years the School appears to have contributed little to the educating body at either University; nor, with one or two exceptions, do the public schools appear to derive much assistance from former alumni of St. Paul's.

Within the three years over which the returns furnished to us by the Council of Military Education extend, two young men educated at St. Paul's were examined for direct commissions, and both passed. Neither had had intermediate tuition. None offered themselves, during those years, for the examinations for Sandhurst and Woolwich.

12. Proposals for Improvement of the School and Application of the Surplus Revenue

In the suggestions hitherto made we have gone on the assumption that St. Paul's School is to remain on its present site, and continue to provide for the education of the original number of 153 scholars only. But there is one remarkable phenomenon presented by the returns made to us which it is impossible to overlook, and which demands the most careful and serious attention.

In the detailed statement of expenditure for 1860, which will be found in the Answers of the Mercers' Company, under date May 19, we come upon the following item:

New 3 per cent annuities, purchase of £2,684 11s 3d stock at 93, and commission: £2,500.

This item represents pretty nearly the excess of the ordinary annual revenue of the School over its ordinary expenditure; according to our evidence, rather less than more. We have it also in evidence that this surplus is increasing, and that it is likely at a not very distant period (1888), to rise to more than double its present amount. It also appears that for several years past a surplus has existed, and that the accumulations from this source amounted in 1860 to a sum not less than £33,000, yielding at that time an income of upwards of £1,250. We are not told for how many years this process of accumulation has been going on, but even so long ago as 1835 the Corporation Commissioners were led to remark, "that the present large and improving revenue, under a somewhat more economical system, would be adequate to the production of a far more extensive benefit than the mere instruction in classical learning of 153 scholars"; and they "recommend the remedy to the anxious consideration of the Company".

What attention was paid at the time to this recommendation we have no evidence to show; but the large amount of subsequent accumulations, and the still increasing surplus, have of late years led to some preliminary action on the part of the Court of Assistants; and of this we shall proceed to give the history as we derive it from the oral evidence of the Wardens, and from the documents which have been furnished to us by the courtesy of the Surveyor Accountant in reply to the application of our Secretary.

The first step taken by the Court was the appointment of a Committee in the Spring of 1856.

This Committee was to consider "if any and what improvement or addition can be made to St. Paul's School, in consequence of the funds of that institution annually producing so much more than the expenditure, and the savings having reached an amount exceeding £20,000."

Their Report, dated September 23rd, 1859, states that their first step was to obtain Counsel's opinion "as to the powers of the Trustees of St. Paul's School". According to this opinion, the Court have the power of increasing the number of boys on the Foundation; but have not the power, without Act of Parliament, to remove the School and buildings from their present site, or to sell the ground on which they now stand, and purchase other ground and erect another school out of the metropolis. Neither have


[page 197]

they, in the opinion of the same Counsel, the power of applying the funds of the School towards the boarding and lodging as well as the education of the scholars. In conclusion they are recommended to apply for an Act of Parliament to empower them to remove the School and extend the benefits of the Foundation in the manner above indicated.

In conformity with the spirit of the Founder's directions the Committee very properly applied for the advice, not only of three of the Masters and the two official Examiners of the School, but also of the Bishops of London, Llandaff, and Manchester, and the Lord Chief Baron, of whom the three last had received their education at St. Paul's.

These opinions will be found in the Appendix to our Report. We shall make much use of them in the sequel; but as an immediate result of these communications, and of the legal opinion obtained, the Committee were enabled - 1. by the casting vote of their Chairman to recommend the removal of the School from its present site; 2. to advise unanimously that, if removed, it should be rebuilt in some place within the limits of the Metropolitan District. They add that "Haileybury College has been suggested as well suited to the purposes of the School, but, as it is not within the range of the Metropolitan District, your Committee cannot recommend it."

The Report of this First Committee is dated the 23rd September 1859; but in the previous July a Second Committee had been nominated, to which the Report was referred by the Court of Assistants. We have received a copy of the first part only of the Report of this Second Committee (dated 18th May 1860), in which, of seven names, five are those of gentlemen who served also on the First. This Second Committee, while acknowledging the great present and greater prospective increase in the revenues of the School, differ widely from the former in their view of the best use to be made of the accruing funds. Having "satisfied themselves that there is a present available surplus of at least £2,500 per annum arising from the Coletine estates, and that there is an additional prospect of at least £2,000 more per annum in the year 1888"; and having also "satisfied themselves that the utmost possible increase of school accommodation on the present site would not allow of the education of more than 280 or 290 boys in the whole, while even this extension would involve the displacement of all the Masters but one from their residences, and a thorough alteration of the whole arrangements of the existing school buildings at an expense not ascertained, but undoubtedly very great"; they state that the increase of numbers does not seem to them to justify "the expenditure of so large a sum as the present, and yet more of the prospective income of the Coletine estate"; and then proceed to recommend a wholly different measure, "the creation of another School in the country", on principles which they go on to enumerate, the retention of the present School in St. Paul's Churchyard, and the increase of the number of scholars from 153 to 200.

It will be observed that this latter Report passes over in complete silence the proposal of the First Committee to remove the School to a site in some other part of London, and substitutes for it a plan which was recommended by none of the eminent advisers of that Committee. But we are informed by one of the members of the Second Committee, Mr. Blakesley, that during its earlier deliberations "Haileybury College was in the market", a circumstance which probably accounts in some measure for the change of counsels adverted to. "The College" however was "sold while the Committee were deliberating", and we are therefore not called upon to discuss the details of an able paper put in by Mr. Blakesley during his examination, which contains a scheme for acquiring and applying it to the purpose of enlarging the utility of St. Paul's School; still less are we required to express either dissatisfaction or the contrary at the failure of this particular proposal.

It will be seen that in the two Reports three several schemes of dealing with the surplus funds are advanced:

1. That of simply extending the usefulness of the school as it stands, by increasing the number of scholars from 153 to something less than 300, and altering the present buildings to provide for the accommodation of the increased number.
2. That of removing the school to another site in the metropolitan district, and selling the existing buildings.
3. A two-fold scheme, combining a small increase in the numbers of the present school, which is to remain on its present site, with the erection of a second school for boarders in some locality in the country.
Of these schemes we dismiss the first for the reasons stated by the Second Committee, which appear to us conclusive. We have very carefully considered the relative merits


[page 198]

of the second and third schemes, and we proceed now to mention the principal reasons which have led us, upon the whole and after much discussion, to decide on recommending the second, premising that the matter is still res integra [whole matter], no step having as yet been taken by the Court in furtherance of any one of the three proposals enumerated.

We have first to remark that the present site at the east end of St. Paul's Churchyard appears to us in itself objectionable. Mr. Carver, a former Sur-Master, mentions many inconveniences to which both masters and boys are subjected in consequence. Great interruption, it appears, is "occasioned by the noise of the traffic outside, which renders it necessary to have as few boys as possible congregated in one room". The boys can "talk aloud to one another with almost perfect impunity", nay, are almost "compelled to do so if any communication at all is to be allowed them. The Masters also in the attempt (under such circumstances only partially successful) to make themselves heard by the class with which they are immediately engaged, necessarily occasion serious interruption to each other. while the boys around their very desk are able to communicate with one another without a chance of detection, except by the eye of the Master." This account appears to us to carry probability with it, and we are prepared to accede to Mr. Carver's concluding opinion that "there are drawbacks necessarily incident to the present site of the school", which is consequently "in the present state of city traffic peculiarly unfit for the purposes of such an institution". We cannot but think that the effects of such a condition of things upon the progress, the faculties, and in some degree upon the bodily health of the scholars must be injurious; and it seems not unlikely that the frequent cases of illness and consequent failure at the Universities of which the High Master complains may in part at least be traceable to this cause. A similar view is taken by the Bishop of Llandaff, who remarks that "the site is so objectionable that if the same reasons had existed three centuries ago", he "cannot persuade himself that Dean Colet would have selected it", neither does he think "that the spirit of his will or his intention in founding the school would be violated by a mere transfer of the site. When Charing Cross was a mile out of town, which is said to have been the case long after his time, it must have been comparatively an easy thing for boys educated in St. Paul's Churchyard to obtain fresh air and exercise in the open fields." On this last observation we remark parenthetically, that St. Paul's School does not, like Westminster, stand in any relation to the Cathedral or to any neighbouring institution, national or religious; and that no objection on the score of sentiment has been raised against the removal by any former Paulines with whose opinions we have been made acquainted.

Having spoken thus decidedly in reprobation of the present site under existing circumstances, we guard ourselves against the inference that the question of locality is entirely open, or limited only by sanitary or financial considerations. We agree with the Bishops of Llandaff and Manchester, and with the Chief Baron, in thinking that Dean Colet must be held to have designed a special benefit for the inhabitants of the metropolis, native or foreign;* and that this benefit was intended by him to be conveyed through the agency of a day school, to which the dwellers in London were to have access for the purpose of acquiring the highest literary culture attainable in his time. Were we compelled to choose between retaining the School on its present site and the removal of it to a country neighbourhood, we might, perhaps, experience some difficulty in deciding between the educational interests of London and those of the country at large; but before we can acknowledge the existence of such a dilemma, two things must be proved. It should be shown: 1. That London is in no want of extended means of classical education; and 2. that whatever this need may be, a suitable metropolitan site is absolutely unattainable. On the first point, we have only to express an entire concurrence with the Bishop of London, whose "decided opinion is, that since the very existence of such schools as that of King's College shows that there is as much call now as at any other time for thoroughly efficient day schools of the character of St. Paul's School, the Trustees would not be justified in removing this school into the country and converting it into a boarding-school."

We also acknowledge with the Bishop of Manchester the urgent need of introducing " a more thoroughly grounded or higher educated element into the secondary classes of our professions", the "want of which", Dr. Lee thinks, "is producing in some quarters slow but irremediable mischief."

*Dr. Kynaston in his Evidence (588-590) asserts that Dean Colet specifies Londoners "as the recipients of his bounty". This, however, is not the case; nor when Erasmus, in a letter to Colet, names the "cives" of the Dean as the parties benefited, does he necessarily mean more than "countrymen" by that word.


[page 199]

With regard to the other question, that of site, we can well understand that differences of opinion may exist; but we think that for the sum which the present site would fetch (reckoned by one competent witness at £60,000) a considerably larger plot of ground might be obtained in a less frequented, and therefore more suitable part of the metropolis, and that within a mile or two of the present school. The Chief Baron is clearly of this opinion, and suggests "the continuation of Farringdon Street, now called Victoria Street" as a good position. We do not, however, think that the Court ought to restrict their inquiries to the city, where any site that could be acquired might hereafter become liable to the objections on the score of noise, traffic, and insalubrity, which are urged against St. Paul's Churchyard. We conceive that in the present state of communication by omnibus or rail, such localities as Pentonville, or even the town approaches to Regent's Park, are liable to no objection. Healthiness, quiet, and accessibility are the main points that should be looked to, and these advantages seem to be possessed in a fair degree by the inhabitants of the region which lies N. and N.W. of St. Paul's and within a radius of two or three miles from it as a centre. A few, say four acres of land by way of playground would be an inestimable advantage; but if that were found unattainable, even room, as Sir F. Pollock suggests, for a fives court or two, with something in the nature of a cloister for wet weather, and an open area for walking or running about and for gymnastic exercises in the intervals of school, would be a great improvement upon the present state of things. As we recommend a retired site, high architectural embellishment would be unnecessary, and the building funds should be devoted as much as possible to securing the very best internal accommodation. The memories of the past would be preserved by the existing and perhaps a few additional busts of distinguished Paulines, and by other simple expedients; and a principal school-room, plain but imposing from its dignified proportions, would leave the architectural taste of the scholars uncorrupted if not improved. We need not say that an ample supply of class-rooms and a library capable of containing a large addition to the present collection are indispensable. At least one Master's house should be built close to the school, and we think with the Bishop of Manchester, that means should, if possible, be found of providing at any rate luncheon if not a plain dinner on the premises. We mention 500 as the number of boys which the buildings should accommodate, but it would not be necessary, nor perhaps desirable, that this number should be reached at once. As the same authority suggests, the buildings might be so contrived as to admit of future increase.

With the large means at the command of the Court, this scheme cannot, we think, be considered chimerical, and we point with satisfaction to the City of London School in proof of what can be done with funds comparatively limited.* When we mention 500 as the future number, we do not intend that all the additional boys should be scholars entitled to a gratuitous education. Enough would be done if the scholars proper were increased from 153 to 200, and of the expediency of even this increase we have doubts. The remainder might reasonably be called on to pay a school fee of £10 in return for an education for which from £20 to £30 is paid elsewhere. In the School thus reorganized we strongly recommend that even the modified system of nomination which we have previously suggested should be abandoned and the Foundation thrown open, as at Eton and Winchester, to perfectly unrestricted competition. Until this is done, St. Paul's will not take that rank among schools which its Founder designed, and which, as we have seen, it once actually possessed.

The number of exhibitions would not need to be increased nearly in proportion to the increase of boys. Probably twice the present number would suffice for a school of 500, and the additional exhibitions need not, and in our opinion should not, exceed £50 or £60 in value. The additions to the salaries of the High Master and other Masters, and the entire salary of the additional masters, would be nearly met by the School fees, which should be paid into a fund for the purpose. The Head Master of a school so large and important as that we have proposed should be liberally remunerated. £1,800 with a house, or £2,000 without a house, would not, in our opinion, be too much; and the Sur-Master should receive a considerable addition to his present emoluments. The High Master should be invested with the power of appointing and dismissing all the Assistant Masters hereafter to be appointed; and it should be clearly understood that in the choice of such masters no preference is to be given, beyond a strict cæteris paribus preference, to former Paulines, nor any advantage to Oxford or Cambridge as against each other.

*The site of this School is in Gray's Inn Lane, and was given by the Corporation of London. The building is said to have cost about £20,000. See a communication. from Dr. Mortimer, Appendix P.


[page 200]

Pending the arrangements necessary for carrying out this scheme of extension, we should advise that a moderate increase of 40 or 50 be made in the present number of the School; but these additional boys should pay a fee of £10 per annum for their instruction, with, perhaps, a moderate entrance fee. The money thus obtained would provide for the remuneration of the additional Classical Master, and diminish the charge on the School funds which would be entailed by the appointment of a Lecturer in Science, a German Master, and teachers of Music and Drawing.

These non-foundationers should, we think, be entitled to compete for exhibitions under the same conditions as the present scholars, and their admission might advantageously be left in the hands of the High Master, subject to conditions as to age and attainments to be fixed by him with the concurrence of the Surveyors.

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

Of our General Recommendations the first and as we believe the most important, are those affecting the constitution and powers of the Governing Bodies. In these we have in the majority of cases proposed important modifications; and if we hesitate to do so in the case of St. Paul's it is not because we regard with entire satisfaction either the organization of its board of Governors or the manner in which their powers have been exercised. As guardians indeed of the School property, the Court of Assistants appear, as we have already remarked, to have performed their duty both honourably and efficiently; nor are we disposed to criticize too severely their distribution of its annual income, though we may think that in some important particulars its ample funds might have been, not more honestly, but more wisely applied. But the administration of the School property is one thing, the government of the School is another; and assuredly a body constituted as is the Court of Assistants, cannot be considered as in all respects "suitable and efficient for the purposes and duties" which the Governing Body of a School is or ought to be called upon to fulfil. The number is, in our opinion, too large, and as it is impossible that the members of the Court should be selected with any special view to their knowledge or experience of educational matters or to their literary or scientific attainments, it must, we think, inevitably happen that the majority will consist of persons indisposed to trust to their own judgment in considering any plan that may he brought before them for the improvement of the School or the extension of its field of usefulness. The tendencies of such a body will not be progressive, and it is therefore no matter of surprise that we should have had to echo the complaint of a Commission which reported more than a quarter of a century ago. The plan for the extension of the School which we have proposed will probably necessitate important changes in the nature and working of the system, and it is evidently most desirable that the renovated institution should be watched during its early years with an attentive and intelligent eye.

That a school of such magnitude as this will be should be administered with a view solely to the higher educational interests of the metropolis is what the country has a right to demand of those who will have the distribution of its ample resources; but the recent history of St. Paul's School has shown that there has been a growing tendency in the Court of Assistants to narrow the sphere of its operation, and convert it more and more from a public school into a mere charitable foundation, useful, doubtless, to individuals, but of inferior public importance. It would be a grievous injury to the cause of classical education if the same principles of exclusive patronage were allowed to obstruct admission to a school which might and ought to become the first in London and one of the first in Great Britain. More liberal views we know to be entertained by those members of the Court who have taken the most active part in the management of the School and whose opinion is therefore most valuable; but the evidence of these gentlemen gives us little reason to suppose that their views are gaining ground among their colleagues.

These in our opinion would, under circumstances otherwise favourable, be valid reasons for recommending some modification in the Governing Body, similar in principle to the changes proposed in those of Eton, Winchester, and Westminster. The time seems to have arrived when more formal and systematic effect should be given to the memorable ordinance of the Founder, that on important occasions recourse should be had to the advice of "well-literate and learned men". The spirit of this ordinance would be preserved by such a re-constitution of the Governing Body as should include on the one


[page 201]

hand the Master, Wardens, and Surveyors, with perhaps one or two elective members of the Mercers' Company, and on the other an equal number of persons extraneous to the Company, to be selected by the Crown in consideration of personal eminence or special fitness to superintend a place of liberal education. Unhappily, however, the tenure of the School property is hitherto an undetermined question; and so long as that is the case, it would be premature to bring any such scheme under the attention of the Legislature. We advise, therefore, that in regard to the first four General Recommendations action be deferred, in the case of this School, until the legal question be definitively settled.

Recommendations XXVI, XXVII, and XXVIII, are also clearly inappropriate, but, with these exceptions, all the General Recommendations apply wholly or partially to this school. Of the special Recommendations occurring in this Chapter of our Report the following are the principal, which we urge upon the attention of the Governing Body with an earnest desire that they may be carried into effect.

We have recommended -

1. The immediate appointment of an additional Classical Master.

2. The abrogation of the rule that the Master shall annually go through a pro formâ re-election, and the transference of the power of appointing and dismissing the Assistant Masters (including the Sur-Master) from the Governing Body to the High Master.

3. The abolition of the present system of nomination; and the substitution of the system of limited competition described in Section 5. When the School is removed from its present site, we have recommended that the foundation be thrown open to the unrestricted competition of boys between the ages of 11 and 15, according to a scheme to be agreed upon by the Governors with the assistance of the High Master.

4. A small immediate addition to the numbers of the School of 40 or 50 boys above the age of 11 and below 15 to be admitted at the discretion of the High Master after an examination such as that proposed in General Recommendation XXIII, these additional boys to pay £10 per annum for tuition, with a moderate admission fee, should it be deemed advisable; and to be allowed to compete for Exhibitions on the same footing as the 153 boys on the Foundation. The number of these Non-foundationers to be gradually increased to not less than 300 after the removal of the School to a new site.

5. That eligibility to Exhibitions be extended to all boys who have entered the School under the age of 15.

6. That any boy who may have been recommended for an Exhibition be permitted to leave the School at the end of the half year in which the recommendation has been made.

7. That all Exhibitions in the gift of the Company be made tenable at any College in either University.

8. That a Lecturer in Natural Science be appointed by the Court and furnished out of the school funds with proper apparatus.

9. That the Head Master be authorized to appoint a German teacher, and Masters of Drawing and of Music, to be paid out of the School funds, and that half-yearly prizes be given for proficiency in these subjects and in Natural Science.




[page 202]

CHAPTER VI. MERCHANT TAYLORS'

STATEMENT

MERCHANT TAYLORS' SCHOOL has been included in the limited number of Public Schools referred to us, and is of the same general character with the rest, in the antiquity of its foundation, the nature of the studies pursued in it, and its connexion with one of the ancient Universities; but there is an important difference affecting it, to which we shall advert after first briefly noticing its origin, history, and present condition.

The school was founded about the year 1560 by the Merchant Taylors' Company. It is supposed, but there is no clear evidence to show, that the foundation was mainly suggested and directed by Sir Thomas White, a member of the Court of Assistants of the Company, and who was also the founder of St. John's College, Oxford; and that he encouraged it by the promise that he would connect it with that College by endowments. He did so within three years after the School was established, by endowing it with 37 fellowships in the College.

The School was established out of the general funds of the Company, aided by subscriptions from individual members. But it is to be observed that one such member, Mr. Richard Hills, is stated to have given £500 towards the purchase of the site, a sum which probably in those days must have amounted to the whole or very nearly the whole of the purchase money.

The first Head Master was appointed on the 24th September 1561, and on the same day the original Statutes were promulgated. These are evidently copied from Dean Colet's Ordinances for St. Paul's School, but with several interesting variations. Dr. Bessey, the present Head Master, has adverted to those Statutes in his Answers, but we have not received a copy of them. They are, however, to be found in the works we have above referred to, and we have thought it well to reprint them in the Appendix. In this place it is enough to observe that much of them is obviously obsolete and inapplicable to the circumstances of these days.

These Statutes, and the whole establishment of the School, have always been considered by the Company to be entirely under their own control, and they conceive that they are at liberty to deal with them from time to time as they please. The School, however, has been kept up by them continuously since the date of its foundation, on its original principle as a Grammar School, and for the education of children "in good manners and literature". We believe it has always held a most respectable position among English Schools. The copious work of Dr. Wilson consists chiefly of biographies of worthies of the School; and we have the clear testimony of a distinguished scholar, who acted for some time as examiner, to its goodness as a place of classical learning.

The School was established for 250 boys. It has probably always been full, and in fact the above number is generally somewhat exceeded. In 1861 it was 262.

The number of Masters was fixed in the Statutes at four, viz., a High Master, a Chief Usher, and two Under Ushers. It so remained, with only a slight change in the names, till 1828, when on the introduction of Mathematics into the ordinary work of the school, two Masters for Writing and Arithmetic, and two for Mathematics, were added. In 1845 a fourth Classical Master was appointed. In the same year French was introduced experimentally and as an extra. In 1846 it was added to the regular work, and two French Masters were appointed. In 1851 and 1855 two more Mathematical Masters, in 1856 a Drawing Master, and in 1857 a Classical Assistant to the Head Master were added.

The payments from the boys, the emoluments of the Masters, and the arrangements for such of the boys as are boarders, subjects which are much connected with each other, appear to have varied considerably, not only since the foundation of the School, but since the date of Carlisle's book. The old Statutes provided liberal payment to all the Masters from the funds of the Company; and besides that, of the 250 boys 100 were to pay 5s a quarter, 50 were to pay 2s 6d a quarter, while the remaining 100 were to be free. The last of the Statutes intimates a desire on the part of the Founders that 150, or even the whole number, might be free, if at any time, "by the gifts and legacies of good and well-disposed men", the Company should be enabled to afford it.

The stipends of the Masters, and the boys' quarterly payments, were raised at different times, and notably in 1805. In 1818 the quarterage of every boy was 10s, or £2 a year. It is now £10 a year.

At all times there have been some slight additional payments from the boys, which need not be noticed in detail.


[page 203]

The receipts of the Masters, as officially known to the Company, will be found in the Answers. Without giving the particulars, we may state that the Head Master receives, in stipend from the Company and in fees from the boys, about £1,000 a year.

£    
Head Master's Assistant (wholly from the Company)200
First Under Master525
Second ditto380
Third ditto380
Fourth ditto280
First Writing and Arithmetic Master180
Second ditto150
First French Master130
Second ditto50
Drawing Master100

The four Under Masters at present act also as Mathematical Masters, the three seniors receiving additional stipends on that account, which are included in the amounts above mentioned. The fourth receives no payment for his mathematical services as such. We have stated the receipts "as officially known to the Company", because two of the Masters keep boarding-houses, and of course derive the usual profits from them. These houses are unconnected with the School, and in no way recognized by its authorities; and we presume that all the Masters might keep such houses if they thought fit.

The system seems to have been somewhat different formerly. In 1818 three Masters out of the four, including the Head Master, received boarders, and though it is said that they might have fixed such terms as they pleased, they did in fact agree to make uniform charges.

The Company have always undertaken all expenses of every kind connected with the school, without any set-off, except that of the boys' fixed payments. These last, however, constitute no small proportion of the whole. From a Statement in Dr. Hessey's Answers, it will appear that of the sum actually paid for tuition to the masters of the school, amounting to £3,383 a year, £1,565 is paid by the boys, besides £1,300 more paid by them and retained by the Company. But it must be observed, that while the above payments are all that are made by the boys, we have by no means stated the whole of the costs borne by the Company. We subjoin two financial statements with which we have been furnished, showing on in average of two years a balance of expenditure falling on the corporate funds of about £1,915.

MERCHANT TAYLORS' SCHOOL

[click on the image for a larger version]


[page 204]

[click on the image for a larger version]

Mr. Thrupp in his evidence says, that the last year's account will be probably still more against the Company, and he raises the total to a sum much exceeding £2,000 a year, by adding the sum (which he says is much below the mark) of £500 a year for the value of the school-premises. But this last item raises a question to which we shall hereafter recur.

On the whole we think there can be no doubt that the Company, and not least the present body, have dealt with the School in a liberal and generous spirit. Besides the current expenditure the Company have lately laid out £20,000 in the purchase of adjacent buildings, in order at an early period to improve the school accommodation.

The minimum age of admission is nine. There is no absolute maximum. Boys are admitted on the nomination in rotation of the members of the Company, without any condition except that of a moderate amount of attainment according to age.

The Scholarships, Exhibitions, and Prizes of the School are enumerated in the written Answers. We have only to notice, with respect to them, that the ancient endowment of Sir Thomas White to which we have above referred has been recently greatly modified by an Ordinance of the Privy Council under the authority of an Act of Parliament. The Fellowships at St. John's are thrown open to general competition, but the School has 21 scholarships at the College of £100 a year, tenable for seven years, so that vacancies in them will regularly recur. Further particulars on this subject will be found in Dr. Hessey's Answers.

Of Prizes and Exhibitions the amount, in Dr. Bessey's opinion, is ample.

Respecting the School studies, we may first notice that it has been a distinction of this School, ever since the time of its first master Dr. Mulcaster (though nothing is said on the point in the original scheme) that Hebrew has formed part of the ordinary course. Dr. Bessey speaks very favourably of the results of this part of tho system.

The amount of mathematics taught in the school, and the time given to them (no less than the whole afternoon on five days in the week), are considerably above what we have found in any other school.

English literature and ancient and modern history and geography receive a fair share of attention, but physical science is not taught. Of modern languages French alone is taught, and with fair success, but Dr. Bessey seems to desire to introduce German.

Drawing is taught to the classes of the first and second Mathematical Masters.

Classics, we need not say, form the staple of the intellectual teaching of the School. Particulars on this head, which, especially, as regards Dr. Hessey's own part in the teaching, are remarkably full and clear, will be found in the tabular Returns furnished to us. The list of classical authors, and of modern works used for the explanation and illustration of them, is a very copious one, and the methods used in the classical teaching bear marks of much care in selection and diligence in application. The list of University


[page 205]

honours shows that at Oxford, since 1839, Merchant Taylors' has gained in the Final Schools 11 Classical "Firsts", 10 Mathematical, and one in Law and Modern History; in Moderations, 16 Classical and seven Mathematical "Firsts". It has 18 times carried off one or other of the Hebrew Scholarships, beside various College Scholarships and Fellowships, and some other distinctions. The Cambridge list includes three Bell's Scholarships and a Fifth and two Sixth Wranglers.

There appears to be no great amount of original classical composition in the schoolwork, but on the other hand the quantity of translation is unusually large.

We must observe however that this amount of classical distinction is attained in spite of what we cannot but regard as an inadequate number of Classical Masters. As we have stated, there are but six Masters for 260 boys, being nearly 44 boys to each Master. The work, moreover, is, as was probably inevitable, very unequally divided among these six; and lastly, the whole time of the Masters is not given to classics, for, as we have above noticed, the four Under Masters are also the Mathematical Masters.

In the Michaelmas term 1861 there were 27 undergraduates from Merchant Taylors' at Oxford and seven at Cambridge. The number of boys who left the School in the year 1861-2 was 59, of whom eight, or 13.5 per cent, went to one or other of the Universities. This is the smallest proportion furnished by any of the Schools under our review.

The number of Merchant Taylors' boys who enter the Army is shown by the subjoined table, in which the letter A indicates these who have not, and the letter B those who have, had intermediate tuition.

Dr. Hessey refers in the tables to public speeches as in use at the School. They take place twice in the year, at Christmas and in June, and are limited to the eight monitors. Dr. Hessey himself superintends them, and considers them a "most valuable means of bringing out boys' talents and character, and of giving them ease and self-possession".

The ancient religious character of the foundation appears to he kept up as far as possible, consistently with its being only a day school and the consequent absence of the boys from the School on Sundays. We would notice with much commendation the pains which the Head Master takes in preparing the boys for Confirmation and for their first Communion, which they very generally receive at his hands in the Chapel of Gray's Inn, of which he is the Preacher.

The School formerly consisted of eight Forms, but is now reduced to seven. The system of promotion is described by Dr. Hessey in his Answers. The boys appear to pass through the School from the lower to the upper parts by test examinations, but their places within the forms are determined by competition.

The punishments in the School are of the ordinary kind, but flogging (which is inflicted solely by the Head Master) is very rare, "not once in three years". The use of the cane is allowed to the Under Masters, and is more frequent. Dr. Hessey speaks well of the system of public rebuke in the presence of the whole School, to which he sometimes has recourse.

Fagging of course cannot exist in a school of this description. The monitorial system, as it is established here, consists merely in this, that a few of the elder boys, for a small fee, assist in the work of the School, which Dr. Hessey thinks answers well.

There would, probably, be some difficulty in establishing any system of private tuition in this School, even if the authorities of the School wished it, but Dr. Hessey, far from wishing it, is strongly against it as the general rule, and though it is not actually forbidden it is discouraged, except in peculiar cases.

The condition of the School buildings and premises seemed to us good; but they are greatly in need of extension, both for purposes of study and of recreation. Dr. Hessey has stated that there is much need of more and better class rooms; and it may be said that at present there is no playground at all. There is indeed a very small paved courtyard, of which the boys make some use for the purpose. The Company also pay 20 guineas a year for rent of part of Kennington Oval for cricket.


[page 206]

the School as a day school appears to provide well, to the extent of its numbers, for the education of children of the mercantile and professional classes in and near London.

As the Company bear the whole expense of the School beyond what the boys contribute, so they retain in their own hands the appointment of all the Masters, and the power to dismiss them, and the whole authority over the management of the School. They appear however to entrust great discretion in this latter respect to the Head Master.

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

We observed at the outset that there was an important difference between Merchant Taylors' School and the others into which we have inquired. At St. Paul's School the Mercers' Company do not admit themselves trustees, in the legal sense of the term, of the Coletine estates, but they acknowledge that they are bound to maintain the School; at Merchant Taylors', on the other hand, the Company hold themselves free from any legal obligation whatever. They consider that the School is theirs simply, and that no one could challenge their act if they were to abolish it altogether. A fortiori [for an even stronger reason], they consider that they can deal with it in the way of regulation and modification as they please.

Whether this position be tenable or not in law, we do not feel called upon to pronounce. It is clear, at any rate, that the original Statutes, which are the constituent documents of the School, indicate on the part of the Company at that time an intention that it should be a permanent Foundation, as indeed it has hitherto been. In the preamble it is said that "the Master, Wardens, and Assistants have ... decreed and do ... decree that the said School shall ... have continuance by God's grace for ever." The 35th Statute directs that the "Master, &c., for the time being shall yearly for ever make their assembly. &c." The 36th and 37th contain similar expressions.

We think it right also to notice the material facts, that considerable endowments have been bestowed and accepted for the benefit of the School, and that its present site was in great part if not wholly acquired by money given for the purpose of establishing a School there by an individual member of the Company.

As the case stands, however, we do not recommend any change in the present government of the School, nor in the powers of the Company, nor do we criticize minutely the details of their expenditure on it, the liberality of which we have acknowledged; but we are bound to suggest such alterations on material points as seem to us desirable, leaving it to the Company to adopt them should they see fit so to apply their funds.

Of the General Recommendations, those only which are numbered I-V, XXVI-XXX appear to be inapplicable to Merchant Taylors' School. We advise the adoption, in substance, of the rest, so far as they do not already form part of the system and practice of the School.

It will follow that, whilst the ancient classical character of the School is maintained, the same studies which we have recommended as compulsory at other schools would be introduced here. In this case the addition would be Natural Science, German, on an equal footing with French, music, and (to a greater extent than at present) drawing.

This course of study might be graduated, under the direction of the Company, on the same scale as we have recommended elsewhere; and we do not anticipate any serious disturbance of the present arrangements in consequence of the change, except indeed that a material reduction must take place in the amount of mathematical work. But this, as we shall have occasion to observe hereafter, seems in itself desirable.

1. The first suggestion which we have to make specially relating to this School refers to the system of Nomination, which we should wish to see modified on the same general principles as we have recommended elsewhere. We do so here with the more confidence, as we have in substance adopted Dr. Hessey's proposals. We think it would be very advantageous if the members of the Corporation would agree to surrender their right of absolute nomination, and would in lieu thereof establish a system of limited competition for admission into the School among their nominees. As an illustration of the mode in which such a system might be introduced, we suggest that two examinations might be held in the year, for each of which every member of the Corporation might nominate a competitor, and that after examination a list should be formed of the boys in order of merit, from which list boys should be admitted into the School in the same order as vacancies occurred until the next half-yearly examination, when a fresh list should be formed in like manner for the half year following. It would be in the power of the members to nominate the same boys for a second competition if they had not been


[page 207]

admitted within the half-year following their first. We would also call attention to a recommendation which has been brought under our notice, viz., that it would be an improvement to establish certain scholarships in the School to be given to boys whose performance may have been the best upon the competitive examination for admission, and to be held for a certain portion of their stay in the School.

2. We think that the occupation of the whole of the afternoon in Mathematics is disproportionate to the rest of the work, and that the range of the mathematical subjects is clearly beyond what is good for boys. Dr. Hessey states this, though not very strongly; nor does this excess in mathematical teaching seem adequately represented in any preponderance of mathematical distinction at the Universities. We conceive that the mathematical work should be reduced at least one-third, both in time and in amount.

3. On the other hand, we think that at least two more Classical Masters are required.

4. We recommend the Company to consider whether arrangements might not be made by which some of the boys, according to circumstances, should have their luncheon on the school premises. This, and the still more important points of additional class room and a better playground, both of which are strongly dwelt on by Dr. Hessey, will no doubt receive the immediate attention of the Company on their becoming actually possessed of the property which they have lately purchased.

Dr. Hessey has also stated that he should be glad if a school chapel existed in the premIses.

5. We do not advise any return to a regular boarding-house system, which in actual circumstances would be practically an innovation. It has appeared to us, as we have before intimated, that in London, while such ancient boarding schools as are to be found may still be kept up, there is no demand at all for the extension of such schools, though there is a very active and increasing demand for good day schools. We think, however, that the Head Master and the Company might advantageously have some more formal and direct power of visiting and controlling such boarding-houses as are used.

6. In reference to what we have just said as to the demand for day-school instruction in London, we suggest that it might he desirable to extend the benefits of this School by admitting boys unconnected with the Foundation into the School upon application for that purpose before the close of their 16th year, upon the terms of paying a moderate sum for the cost of their education; and that the Exhibitions, Scholarships, and other benefits of a similar description now enjoyed by boys educated at Merchant Taylors' on quitting School, either at one of the Universities or elsewhere, should be open to the competition of all such boys.

7. We advise that the competition for such Exhibitions and Scholarships should be conducted by means of special examinations, and that these examinations should be conducted by examiners to be appointed for the purpose; that where any such Exhibitions or Scholarships are supplied from funds not held by or for any particular College, it should be in the power of the successful candidates to hold them at any College at either University; that such portion of the Exhibitions and Scholarships should be awarded to proficiency in the subjects of mathematics, modern languages, and physical science respectively, as may be proportionate to the weight and value of each subject in the whole course of education at Merchant Taylors'.

8. Finally we think it is expedient that the ancient Statutes of the School should be revised and published under the authority of the Company.




[page 208]

CHAPTER VII. HARROW

STATEMENT

1. Foundation and Endowment of the School

HARROW SCHOOL is a Grammar School, founded in 1571 by John Lyon, a yeoman living in the hamlet of Preston within the parish of Burrow, "for the perpetual education, teaching, and instruction of children and youth or the same parish". The Governors are a Corporation by Charter.

The Founder possessed several small estates situated at Harrow and at Preston and Alperton, both hamlets in that parish, at Barnet, at Malden in Bedfordshire, and at Paddington and Kilburn in the parish of Marylebone. He conveyed these lands to the Governors by separate conveyances, and directed that the whole profits of the lands at Kilburn should be employed in repairing the highways from Edgeware to London and from Harrow to London, and that the whole profits of the Marylebone estate should be likewise devoted to the Harrow and London highway. The profits of his other estates were dedicated to the School, and to the maintenance of two Scholars at Oxford and two at Cambridge. The manner in which the rents were to be applied to these several purposes was left to the discretion of the Governors; but it does not appear that they were invested with any power to vary the purposes themselves, or to apply to one of them money which the Founder had appropriated to the other. The repair of highways was an object constantly associated in the sixteenth century with religious and educational trusts, and the value of the lands devoted to this purpose by tile Founder appears to have been less than one third of that of the lands given to the School. These proportions are now reversed. The present yearly value of the School estates is a little more than £1,000; that of the road estates is about £3,500. The proceeds of the road estates are, under several Acts of Parliament passed within the present century, paid over by the Governors to the Commissioners of the Metropolis Turnpike Roads north of the Thames, and are applied partly to the paving of Oxford Street, and partly to the repairing, watching, and lighting of other Metropolitan roads. There can be little doubt that the appropriation made by the Founder of the rents of his different estates has led to a result which he never contemplated, and which is probably very remote from his intentions. But this could now be remedied only by the interference of Parliament, and we are unable to satisfy ourselves that an application could be made to Parliament for this purpose with any reasonable hope of success.

Beside the rents of the School estates, there are the dividends on a sum of £1,494 17s 2d consols, which is held by the Governors in trust for the School. The total income, therefore, which the School derives from its endowments is less than £1,100 a year, and this is charged with some small payments to local charities. The Governors hold also £9,724 5s 7d consols on special trusts for Scholarships, Exhibitions, prizes, and other like purposes connected with the School.

2. Statutes

The Founder was empowered by the Charter of incorporation to make Statutes and Ordinances for the School: and the Governors were also empowered to make Statutes and Ordinances, not contrary to those of the Founder. A body of Statutes and Ordinances made by John Lyon pursuant to the power given to him is in existence, together with certain Rules likewise made by him relating to the discipline and studies of the School. A general power to alter these rules is conferred on the Governors; the rules themselves are now practically obsolete. It does not appear that any Statutes or Ordinances, or rules, have ever been made by the Governors.

3. Government of the School - Governors - Head Master - Assistant Masters

Under the Charter there are six "Keepers and Governors", who are empowered to fill up vacancies in their own body by the election of "fit and discreet persons" (or, according to the Founder's Statutes, "honest and substantial inhabitants") within the parish of Harrow. The Bishop of London is authorized to nominate to any vacancy which is not filled up within six weeks. By the Founder's Statutes the Governors are directed to meet once a year. They have the management of the property and expenditure of the foundation: they appoint the Head Master, and the Second Master or Usher; and have power to remove either of them for unfitness or misconduct. They are


[page 209]

empowered also to admit boys on the foundation with the consent of the Head Master, to elect to John Lyon's Scholarships at the two Universities, "to see that the Schoolmaster and Usher do their duties, and that the scholars be well taught and used", and to determine all doubts and controversies relating to the School. Whenever they are equally divided, the question is to be referred to the Archbishop of Canterbury.*

It has been the practice of the Governors of Harrow to leave the administration of the School entirely in the hands of the Head Master. "They never interfere", says Mr. Butler, "in any way." "I should prefer", he says, "to decline giving an opinion as to the strict obligation under the Statutes of John Lyon, but I conceive I am acting in conformity with long and well recognized usage in maintaining that in all the ordinary circumstances of administration the Head Master would not feel it his duty to communicate with the Governors, and I am clearly of opinion that it is most desirable that in the administration of the School the Head Master should be wholly independent." "If any change in the studies of the place which I might consider of an organic character seemed to me desirable, I should certainly, as a matter of courtesy and expediency, think it well to consult the Governors, though I should not consider myself directly responsible to them for the change." "The Head Master at Harrow is completely unshackled by any superior administrative authority, and consequently it is open to him, and must therefore be his duty, to make such changes from time to time as may appear to him at once desirable in themselves and opportune in respect of circumstances." He appoints all the Assistant Masters, gives permission to open boarding-houses, and "is responsible for the financial arrangements of the School".

It is the custom for all the Assistant Masters to meet regularly once a fortnight at the Head Master's house, and there to discuss freely all questions which may arise respecting the studies or discipline of the School. Mr. Butler believes he is correct in stating that in Dr. Vaughan's time these meetings took place once a week. "They assembled once a week in the drawing-room of the Head Master, when, if there was any business which it was considered expedient to discuss, they adjourned into another room, where the usual business meetings were held."

4. Emoluments of Head and Lower Masters - Number and Emoluments of the Classical Assistant Masters

The Head Master receives from the Governors a small annual stipend and an allowance for coals, making together £50 a year. He receives also a small annual payment (£2 10s) from every boy on the foundation, and £5 from every member of the "English Form", a phrase which will be explained hereafter. His emoluments, however, really arise from two principal sources - from the annual payments and payments on entrance made by boys not on the foundation, and from the profits of a large boarding-house, which holds 63 boys when full. From the first of these sources he derives, when the School is full, between £8,000 and £9,000 a year; from the second, about £1,400. His total gross receipts, assuming the number of non-foundationers to be 450, are calculated by himself at about £10,000 a year.

His gross receipts, however, far exceed his net income. By various charges and deductions enumerated in Mr. Butler's Answers, the £10,000 is reduced to £6,288, and the income which he can really consider his own is practically, we believe, much less than this. There is no building-fund at Harrow; the revenues of the foundation are, as we have seen, inconsiderable; and it has been usual for the Head Master to subscribe largely to those new buildings and improvements which the growth of the School has demanded, whilst the expense of maintaining them (which there are no funds to meet) falls on him alone. "A tradition of long growth", says Mr. Butler, "has thus been formed imposing practically upon the Head Master pecuniary obligations more or less recognized, which cannot indeed be defined or stated as uniform outgoings from his income, though it may safely be asserted that no Head Master, during the prosperity of the School, is likely to desire to evade them." It is due both to Mr. Butler himself and to his predecessor, Dr. Vaughan, to say that whilst their receipts have been undoubtedly large, their voluntary expenditure on objects connected with the School has been liberal to munificence.

The Second or Lower Master, the "Usher" of the old Grammar School, has at Harrow, as we are informed, no specific powers or duties other than those of the Assistant Masters. He is supposed to have charge of the Lower School, that is, of the Fourth and Third Forms,

*"It is a circumstance worthy of observation, that, in the three last instances, when the Head Mastership has become vacant, the votes have been so divided as to render it necessary to refer the matter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, as ordered by the Statutes, who has in each case nominated one of the candidates." - Carlisle's Endowed Grammar Schools (1818). ii.146.


[page 210]

but it does not appear that he exercises in practice any peculiar control over it. He is, however, appointed and removable by the Governors alone, and receives from the income of the foundation a customary stipend of £49 8s 4d. He receives also a capitation payment of £3 on account of every boy not on the foundation; and, under a recent arrangement,* we are told, pays £300 a year to a Master who takes a division of the Fourth Form.

The number of Classical Assistant Masters, exclusive of the Lower Master, is 14. Their emoluments consist of a stipend of £150 a year paid to each of them by the Head Master, (it was originally £60, and was raised to its present amount by Dr. Vaughan), of the payment (£15) which they receive as tutors from each private pupil, and the profits of boarding. The number of pupils whom each tutor is allowed to take is limited to 40, a restriction which has not been extended to some of the older tutors. The profits of a boarding-house are variously estimated. A Master who has a house of 50 boys, the largest in Harrow, estimates his profits on board alone at £15 per head, and the same estimate is adopted by other Masters having 41, 36, and 28 boys respectively. Another, who has 351 calculates it at £18. The payment for board, &c., exclusive of tuition, in these houses is £84 or £85. Mr. Bradby, who had 16 boys, and whose charge was £90 for board, estimated his profits on each at £29. The profits of a small house (where the charge for board is £135) are said to range from £10 to £50 per head as the number of boys varies from five to seven. The Head Master, whose house holds 63, and who charges £68, states his profit at £20. It is evident that these various calculations do not assume a uniform estimate of the average cost of a boy's maintenance or of the saving of expense which attends a large as compared with a small number. In addition to the yearly payments, an entrance fee of £6 is received from each boarder in a large house, but it is stated that in a small house no payment for entrance is made. One Assistant, who has a small number of pupils, receives £210 from the Head Master, and another, who has none, £300.

5. Foundation Boys

The Founder's main object, as stated in the Charter, was the education of children and youth of the parish of Harrow. The Statutes direct that "a meet and competent number of scholars, as well of poor to be taught freely for the stipends aforesaid, as of others to be received for the further profit and accommodation of the Schoolmaster", should be "set down and appointed by the discretion of the Keeper and Governors from time to time"; and, under the Rules and Orders, the Master is to "take pains with all indifferently, as well of the parish as foreigners, as well poor as rich". From "foreigners" he was allowed to take such stipends and wages as he could get, unless they were of the kindred of the Founder. The Founder, therefore, contemplated the reception of two classes of boys, poor boys belonging to the parish, who were to be taught gratuitously, and "foreigners" who were to pay for their schooling, and whom he expected to be a source of profit to the Head Master. The number of each class was to be fixed by the Governors at their discretion from time to time. Whilst, therefore, the sole qualification for admission to the privileges of a Foundation Scholar was the inhabitancy of the boy's parents within the parish, and no specific period of residence was required to constitute inhabitancy, the right was not an absolute one, the number to be received being left to the discretion of the Governors, with the direction only that it should be a "meet and competent number".

A foundation boy is exempt from the annual payments for public tuition (£15); for mathematics (£4); for French and German (£2 5s); and half the fee (£5) for "school charges". He pays annually £15 for private tuition; £2 10s for school charges, and 7s as a fee for the bathing-place, making £17 17s in all; whilst a home boarder who is not on the foundation pays for the same advantages £41 5s. "Private" tuition having become a part of the regular system of teaching at Harrow, a foundationer receives it as a matter of course, and is expected to pay for it. If payment were refused, "some arrangement", says Mr. Butler, "would probably be made by the Head Master and the tutor for bearing the expense".

Mr. Carlisle states that Harrow was almost exclusively a parochial school till about the middle of the seventeenth century, when the great increase in the number of non-foundationers began. At the time when he wrote, there were, he says, only 5 or 6 boys on the foundation. During the 18 years prior to 1863 the number varied from 16 to 37; the

*In Carlisle's time, if his information is correct, the Lower Master received "one-fourth of the general schooling" - that is, of the charge for "public tuition", which was then £10, and is now £15; and the remainder of which is received by the Head Master. He paid a stipend of sixty guineas to an Assistant in tho Lower School. The Assistants in the Lower School were appointed by him. - Carlisle, i, 152.


[page 211]

average was 27. Since 1849 they have hardly increased at all. It does not appear that the Governors have ever refused an application, or thought it necessary to limit the number. The average number of the home-boarders during the 18 years has been 10. This class has increased at a greater ratio than the foundationers.

The present foundationers are the children of parents belonging to the higher classes, many of whom have come to live in the parish for the purpose of obtaining this advantage for their sons. "In many instances", says Mr. Butler, "they are the sons of widow ladies who come to reside in Harrow, who, having, previous to their husband's death, been moving in affluence, are now in comparatively reduced circumstances."

None of the farmers or tradesmen of Harrow now send their sons to the School. The altered character of the School in this respect was in 1810 made the subject of a complaint to the Court of Chancery. Sir W. Grant, then Master of the Rolls, in a well known judgment, which has since been often referred to, held that there was no sufficient ground for the interference of the Court. For the benefit, however, of the classes above-mentioned, Dr. Vaughan established a separate day-school, which still exists, and is called the "English Form", and where a commercial education, including French, is given by a teacher or teachers appointed and paid by the Head Master. The Head Master examines the boys periodically and they are also examined by one of the Modern Language Masters, and the Senior Mathematical Master. A fee of £5 a year is paid for each boy. The aggregate amount received from this source is about half of the total salaries of the teachers employed. The number of boys attending was 24 in 1862. It had diminished since the English Form was first established. The boys who attend are chiefly sons of tradesmen in Harrow and its neighbourhood.

The permission given to the Head Master by the Rules to take "stipends and wages" from "foreigners", is limited by an exception in favour of the kindred of John Lyon. So far as we have been able to ascertain by inquiry, it does not appear that this privilege has been ever actually enjoyed.

6. Number of the School - System of Admission - Course of Study - Arrangement of the School

The number of boys in the School was, in January 1862, 481, of whom 32 were Foundationers and 10 others home boarders. It has fluctuated considerably. In 1842 it was 114; in 1844 it had fallen to 79. It rose in the three following years to 314, and afterwards steadily increased till it was 492 in 1861.*

No boy is admitted after completing his fifteenth year, "except for reasons which the Head Master may deem to be of peculiar urgency". The majority of those who come have attained fourteen; hardly any are under twelve. The Remove, about half-way up the School, is the highest form in which a boy can be placed on entrance.

There is an entrance-examination, conducted by the Head Master and some of the Assistants, in Greek and Latin, and in Latin composition, prose and verse. "If a boy were to show a very gross ignorance of the elements of these subjects - still more, if he were unable to write or spell with tolerable accuracy, his temporary removal would be recommended. In practice, however, such an instance would scarcely ever occur." At one time mathematics formed a part of this examination; but this is not now the case. It is "not thought desirable to lower a boy's place in the School because his proficiency in mathematics at the time of entry may be poor". It is admitted that a minimum of knowledge might be required in this subject, but this is not done in practice.

The course of study consists of Classics, Arithmetic and Mathematics, French and German. Natural Science is not taught, but there is, as we shall see hereafter, a periodical examination in it, which is voluntary, and success in which is rewarded by prizes.

The School is arranged as follows for classical teaching:

*"In the last 12 years the number of boys has fluctuated from 250 to 350. The present number is about 300." - Carlisle, ii. p. 146. The number of Classical Assistants, besides the Lower Master, appears to have been then five. Carlisle's book was published in 1818.


[page 212]

There are thus 14 ascending Divisions, including the Remove, which is not subdivided, and counting the Third Form and the third Fourth, which are heard together, as one.* In 1861 the average number of boys in a Division was 35, the highest 37, the lowest 21. It is understood that in future 35 is to be the maximum. This limit was fixed about five years ago. For a short time before the limit had been 40. The highest Division is taught by the Head Master, each of the others by an Assistant Master. One Assistant Master, Mr. Westcott, does not take a Division in School, but is employed as Composition-Master of a part of the Head Master's Division. The late Lower Master took no Class-work. Both Mr. Oxenham and Mr. Westcott, however, acted as tutors.

7. System of Promotion

The system of promotion is thus described by Mr. Butler:

Each Division throughout the School is considered to have a maximum number. When, at the beginning of a new School quarter (of which there are three in the year), it is found that the numbers in each or any Division have fallen below the maximum, the vacancies are filled up by promoting boys from the Division below. In regulating the promotions, two-thirds of those promoted are selected by merit, the remaining third of the vacancies being reserved for any boys who may have been in the Division below for three School quarters. Even in this latter case a boy would be refused his remove if he had been "grossly idle - notoriously idle - ostentatiously so", as Mr. Butler elsewhere explains. In general, he says, the number of boys who have thus remained for a whole year in the same Division is very small, so that practically, except in the lowest two Divisions of the School, nearly all the promotions are given by merit.

The merits of the boys are ascertained as follows: Marks are given throughout the quarter for each lesson, whether in classics (including divinity, history, and geography), mathematics, or modern languages. These marks are added together at the end of the Quarter, when there is an examination for each Division. The sum of the marks of the quarter, and the marks gained in the examination, determines the new position of each boy in his Division, and the order in which he is promoted to the Division above. Except in the Sixth Form, where the marks of the quarter count as something more than one paper in the examination, the marks of the quarter and the marks of the examination have an equal influence in fixing each boy's final position. In the Upper Sixth places are not changed. A boy once placed in it retains his position till those above him leave the School.

With respect to the relative weight assigned in promotion to mathematics and modern languages as compared with classics, he states that, at the end of each School quarter, when the list showing the result of the examination is prepared, the following arrangement is adopted. The average of the marks of the first four or five boys in each Division in classics is taken as a standard. Of this average one-fourth is taken as the average for the same number of the highest boys in mathematics, and one-ninth as the average in modern languages. For instance, supposing that the four or five best classical scholars gained, on an average, for classics 3,600 marks, the average gained for mathematics by the four or five best mathematicians would be assumed to be 900 marks, and the average gained for modern languages by the four or five best scholars in modern languages would be assumed to be 400 marks. Thus classics are to mathematics in the proportion of four to one, and to modern languages in the proportion of nine to one.

This system couples together, though in very different proportions, the two principles of promotion by merit and promotion by seniority, or (to speak more correctly) by the time during which a boy has remained in a Form. The latter principle is applied only to boys too dull or too idle to keep pace in any degree with the general movement of the School, so that they are perpetually outstripped and passed by boys younger than themselves. To prevent such boys from "stagnating" (as it will have been observed that they do at Winchester) in the lower Forms, they are moved slowly up.

*The arrangement in 1818 seems to have been different. There were two divisions of the Sixth, two of the Shell, and three of the Third. There was no Remove. - Carlisle, ii. 148.


[page 213]

In ascertaining merit, again, it combines two tests, that of daily marking and that of periodical examinations; and these examinations occur thrice a year. This system of promotion stops on entrance to the Upper Sixth Form, that is, it includes about 94 per cent of the School.

The marks given for each lesson serve, however, another purpose besides that of contributing to the quarterly promotions. Besides these, there is a weekly or fortnightly placing within the several Divisions, according to the marks of the week or fortnight. This extends to the entrance of the Sixth, and includes about 88 per cent of the School. "A list", says Mr. Butler, "is made out, showing the new order, and on the first day of each week (Monday) the boys who are respectively the heads of their Forms, according to the new places, bring the list to the Head Master. The head boys seem to like this custom. I have them up singly. I then compare the list they bring with the list of the previous week, and it leads to a pleasant little conversation with each boy." Copies of the list of weekly "placings" are likewise sent to all the tutors.

Again, in addition to a weekly placing, the boys in the lower part (about 40 per cent) of the School take places during the lessons.

Two printed lists of the whole School are published each quarter. One of these shows the places of the boys in their several Forms, the other shows how they have done in the quarterly examination.

This system appears on the whole to be a good and effective one, and must afford, if thoroughly worked, a very considerable stimulus to industry. It provides, at the same time, a place for the duller boys, who are not allowed to settle down into despondency. On the other hand, idle boys may avail themselves of it, provided they manage so as just to avoid notice. A boy who cannot be quickened by punishment, and is callous to the disgrace of being always left behind, is enabled to creep slowly up by the system of "charity removes".

8. "Private" Tuition

Every boy has a tutor, and the relation between tutor and pupil is in principle the same as at Eton. As at Eton also, the work done with the tutor consists of preparation of lessons for School, of composition, and of what is called at Eton "private business". In the Sixth Form two hours, and in the Fifth Form and Shell one hour, a week are given to private reading with the tutor, the subject being chosen in the former case by the Head Master, in the latter by the tutor himself. In the Fourth Form there is no private reading. At Harrow, as at Eton, all the compositions are looked over and corrected by the tutor before they are shown up to the Form Master, except in the Upper Sixth Form. And in the Shell and Fourth Form the composition is not only looked over by the tutor but done in pupil-room in his presence, and, if help is wanted, with his help. Mr. Harris states that his pupils in the Remove and in the lowest division of the Fifth also do with him so much of their compositions as they can do in a certain time, finishing their work by themselves. The manner in which composition is done "with the tutor" is thus described by Mr. Harris. His method is not uniformly adopted, but from his great experience and eminence as a tutor, and from the large number of his pupils (generally upwards of 60) his practice furnishes the best specimen.

807. (Lord Devon) I do not quite comprehend the doing compositions with the tutor? - It means doing in his presence. A limited time is given for doing these verses. Two hours are allotted as the time during which the exercise should be done. When the boys first come in, on being called over, they are told what the exercise is, and paper is given to them, and they set to work by themselves. Four exercises are set, one for the fourth Fifth, and Remove, one for the Third and Fourth Shells, and one for the Fourth Form. I always begin with the easiest of the exercises, and do it myself on paper. As I do it I see where the difficulties are, and I call up first one boy, then another, of that Form in his place to ask him a question. I should question one boy, then another, as to the way in which he would get over the difficulties, and his answer, of course, is aloud. I correct him, if he is wrong, and if I find he has no chance of finding it out, then I assist him, and in assisting him I assist the whole Form. Having done that one exercise, I go on to the second in the same way, doing it myself on paper. The three exercises requiring to be so treated take perhaps three-quarters of an hour; all that the boys have done is shown up at the end of two hours, and I fix another time for them to finish the remainder and to have them looked over.

808. As regards the Master of the Form, does he see merely the corrected exercises, or does he also see them in their corrected state? - The exercises shown up at the end of the two hours are never altered by the boys; their corrections are all on another paper. I always show up to the Master in School the original draft of the boys' exercises as shown to me, with simply my marks upon it, and with no corrections. I also show up to him a fair copy, which is written out by the boy after being corrected by himself and revised by me.

At Harrow, as at Eton, it is the custom for all the boys in the lower part of the School to prepare in pupil-room the lessons which they are to construe in School, the kind and


[page 214]

amount of assistance which they obtain from the tutor being left, in great measure, to his discretion. But in practice the Harrow and Eton systems differ materially from each other. At Eton only the first two divisions are exempt from construing in pupil-room; at Harrow, the first six divisions (the whole of the Sixth and Fifth Forms) are exempt from it, except that one or two tutors require such of their pupils as, are in the lowest division of the Fifth to attend for preparation. Again, it does not appear to be usual for those who do prepare their lessons in pupil-room to construe them to the tutor before going into school. The practice of the different tutors varies in this respect. Some hear particular pupils construe, or hear particular lessons, or portions of them, construed. "I do not myself hear lessons construed", says Mr. Bradby, "except in the case of a particularly difficult lesson, as my experience is that it occupies the time during which a boy ought to be learning his lesson, and impairs, instead of improving, the style in which the lesson is done in school. I confine myself to giving help, when needed, in the parsing or meaning of difficult words, the occasional explanation of allusions, and the construing of hard passages." Other tutors adopt a like course. Mr. Lang speaks of the system of preliminary construing as pursued by only one or two tutors, and as "not liked" by the Masters before whom the boys so prepared came in school. Mr. Ridley's impression is that it was "never done", unless where a boy was notoriously careless in preparing his lessons. To the question "Would it have a tendency to make the boys idle?" he replies: "Of course they would not have done so much work for themselves." He thinks it advantageous, however, that the younger boys should be obliged to prepare their lessons in pupil-room (which is a different thing), because it compels them to be occupied during a certain part of the day, and initiates them into habits of regular work.

Mr. Butler's opinion on the practice of assisting boys in the preparing of their lessons is as follows:

In the upper part of the School, where a boy cannot only be presumed to be fairly industrious, but also to have acquired considerable powers of self-reliance, I think it is certainly better, not only because it economizes time, but also in the interest of the boy himself: that he should be entirely responsible for the preparation of that lesson. On the other hand, I have no doubt that there are many boys in the lower part of the School who would really neglect their lessons, partly from natural disinclination to work, and partly from real incapacity to work without help, unless they received some kind of aid from the private tutor before going into school. On the other hand, even in the case of this latter class, I conceive that a tutor would make a serious mistake if he gave his assistance in the preparing of a lesson in what I may call a wholesale manner. It requires great discretion to determine exactly what amount of encouragement should be given, and the discretion of the tutor would doubtless be exercised in considering the peculiar character of the boy, whether he was a boy of an industrious or indolent nature.
He admits that there is a temptation, which the tutors are conscious of, to anticipate difficulties and give greater and earlier assistance than is wholesome for the boy; and that there is a danger lest the boy should idle away part of the hour of preparation in reliance that at the end he will get just enough aid from his tutor to enable him to tide over the difficulty. But he thinks these dangers "cheaply purchased by the guarantee that is secured against undue discouragement"; and that it prevents the waste of time in Form, and, to some extent, the use of translations.

The private reading done with the tutor, in class though not in school, does not appear to be regarded by the boys as of much importance; but the advice and help in his studies which an able and diligent boy can obtain, at irregular times, from an able and painstaking tutor are highly valued.

The system of private tuition at Harrow is the Eton system, considerably modified.* Mr. Butler states that it has existed at Harrow for sixty or a hundred years, and that it was probably moulded on the Eton model by a succession of Head Masters who had been Etonians. He is not aware that it has received any material modification in the present century. The differences which exist are in part, perhaps, coeval with its introduction at Harrow, but in part, also, are evidently due to subsequent and probably very gradual alterations.

9. Mathematics. The Mathematical Masters - their Number, Position, and Emoluments

The study of Mathematics was first made compulsory at Harrow in 1837. Before that time it had been voluntary; the present Senior Mathematical Master, Mr. Marillier, gave private lessons to such boys as desired it. He had himself been at the School since 1819.

*"It seems not generally understood of Harrow and Eton that the education chiefly goes on in the pupil-room of each Master with his own pupils. They meet in the school in certain Forms, only to undergo examinations in lessons which have been previously prepared in the pupil-rooms. The same is the case with the compositions." - Carlisle, ii. p. 148.


[page 215]

When he came there mathematical instruction could only be obtained from a Writing Master (who was then very old), except that the boys in the Sixth Form read Euclid once a week with the Head Master, a practice introduced by Dr. Butler, who had been Senior Wrangler. There were at first, after 1837, two Mathematical Masters; there are now four.

Every boy learns mathematics during the whole of his stay at School. For mathematical instruction the School is re-arranged upon the same principle as is adopted at Eton and Rugby. The Monitors and Sixth Form - two Classical Divisions, and about 60 boys in all - are sent together into the Mathematical School, and there re-distributed into six divisions of about 10 boys each; the Fifth Form - four Classical Divisions and about 144 boys - is treated in the same manner, and divided into eight Mathematical Divisions; the Remove and Upper Shell - 72 boys - form the third group, and are taught in four Mathematical Divisions; and each of the lower Classical Divisions is a group by itself, and is broken into two Mathematical Divisions.

In all the groups below the Sixth Form the classification of the boys in Mathematical divisions is governed by their proficiency in mathematics. In the Sixth (about 60 boys) this is found impracticable, because, says Mr. Middlemist, "they are not all with us in mathematics at the same time; one portion of them must be with Mr. Westcott, or Mr. Butler, or Mr. Harris, to do composition, and we are obliged, therefore, to take them according to numbers, not proficiency." That is, they are merely parcelled out among three of the four Mathematical Masters in convenient numbers, without reference to their attainments, each Master generally taking such boys as had been under him in the Fifth Form.

Every boy above the Fourth Form has three hours a week with the Mathematical School; and every boy in the Fourth, two. Preparation usually occupies them from two to three hours a week more. We have seen that in the examination the highest number of marks that a boy may gain for mathematics is one fourth of the highest number that he can gain for classics.

Any boy whose parents desire it may have private tuition In mathematics. Two of the Mathematical Masters have generally about 20 private pupils each. It is understood that the boy is not to do with his private tutor work that he has to show up in School.

There is a special voluntary examination once a year for four mathematical prizes - a gold medal of the value of ten guineas, founded by the late Mr. Neeld; books worth five guineas, and two other prizes of two guineas and a half each, likewise in books. The first and second prizes are given to those who stand first and second in the examination, the second and third to those who do best in Euclid and arithmetic respectively. The number of competitors ranged from 12 to 40 or 50. The medal is a high distinction, and is said to be as much prized as any other in the School.

The position and powers of the Mathematical Masters, in and out of school, are the same as those of the Classical Masters. Their emoluments are derived from the payments made by the boys not on the foundation on account of mathematics (£4 a year with £1 entrance), from private tuition, and from boarding-houses. The privilege of keeping boarding-houses they share equally with the Classical Assistants. The aggregate amount derived from these sources, with a stipend of £150 a year paid to the junior by the Head Master, seems to be quite adequate for their suitable remuneration. Nearly £400 of it, however, may be considered to come from private tuition. The Governors pay £16 13s 4d to one of the Mathematical Masters as Writing-Master, but nothing on account of mathematics. The foundation-boys therefore are taught mathematics at the expense of the rest of the School.

Mr. Middlemist informs us that the study of mathematics has advanced much during the last 17 years. When he came to Harrow, the time given to them in school was two hours instead of three, and there was no preparatory work out of School. "I think", he says, "none of the boys were reading beyond arithmetic and a little algebra and Euclid." Mr. Watson computes that nearly half the boys who leave the Sixth Form will have gone through six books of Euclid; about a third through Trigonometry; two-thirds, he thinks, may have a very fair knowledge of Algebra, including Quadratic Equations. "Speaking in round numbers, probably a third leave with very little knowledge of algebra." "They take much greater interest in arithmetic." In the Sixth, Mr. Middlemist says, "there are a small number in Conic Sections and Mechanics; and in private tuition, we have some in the Differential Calculus." During the last two or three years the study has been stationary, Mr. Watson thinks.


[page 216]

10. Modern Languages - The Modern Language Masters, their Position and Emoluments

The study of Modern Languages has been compulsory at Harrow, Mr. Butler believes, since 1851.* Every boy below the Fifth Form learns French. In the Fifth, if he has acquired such proficiency as to be able to read and translate a French Classic with facility at sight, he is transferred to German, unless his parents specially request that he should go on with French. The time given to modern languages in every Form but the lowest is two lesson-hours a week; in the lowest, an hour and a half; and each lesson-hour is considered to demand an hour's preparation. In classifying the boys for modern languages the same plan is followed as in arranging them for mathematics. There are 21 French and 5 German divisions, the maximum number in a division being 24. A small number (16 or 17 in 1861 and 1862) have private tuition, which gives them two additional hours a week. The proportion in which modern languages are allowed to contribute to promotion in the School has been stated above.

Two prizes, of the value of £10 and £5 respectively, are given annually, each of them for French and German in alternate years. For the French prize there are generally about 20 candidates, for the German not so many. Each of the two Modern Language Masters has a small boarding-house, into which boys are temporarily received whilst waiting for vacancies in other houses. They divide the fees paid for modern languages by an the boys in the school, and their emoluments from this source, from their salaries (£200 and £100 respectively), from private pupils, and from boarding, are amply sufficient to secure the services of able and distinguished men. The Senior Master, though a Frenchman, was himself educated at Harrow. Mr. Butler, whilst he admits that a foreigner must always have greater difficulties than an Englishman in maintaining discipline, is satisfied that he may overcome the difficulty by influence and tact. M. Ruault has never experienced any difficulty whatever in this respect. He has the same authority out of School as the other Assistant Masters. As to the results attainable, Mr. Butler does not think that the power to converse in French or German can be either acquired or kept up at Harrow. "But, I think, that what we can do is to make them fairly conversant with the grammar of those languages, and able to read books in them, so that if they have afterwards anything like energy, and address themselves to those subjects, they will have got a very useful basis for further study." "Our difficulty is that as a rule - of course, with exceptions - boys come with a very small knowledge of French, and with almost a total ignorance of German." Like mathematics, the study has risen very much within his experience, and "unquestionably occupies a much higher place in the estimation of the boys" than when he was himself at school. The prejudice which always attends a new study, and the negative tradition which tells against it, are gradually overcome by time. M, Ruault speaks to the same effect. "I think the result is very satisfactory. French and German are taught grammatically, and boys leaving in the upper Forms obtain a very fair knowledge of those languages, sufficient to enable them to acquire afterwards in a short time what cannot be taught in a public school, that is, the power of speaking them fluently." The amount of attainment is less if a boy comes to school, as some do, quite ignorant of French.

11. History

In the Upper Sixth Form the boys give one hour a week in school to some portion of History, ancient or modern, which they have read during the week. This practice was introduced by Mr. Butler. He mentions Guizot's History of the English Revolution, and Hallam's Constitutional History of England, as books of which parts had been thus read with him. In the other Forms, there are separate lessons in ancient history, and up to the Upper Fifth in geography, which take two or three hours in the week. The boys are examined in portions of books of history, the substance of which they have committed to memory. For the "holiday-tasks" it has been usual to divide English History into three periods, extending from the Saxon times to the Battle of Waterloo. A cycle of reading is thus arranged, which carries a boy over the whole of the ground in three years. This cycle is applied to the whole School. All the Forms, therefore, are reading at the same time the same period of history, but in different books suited to their respective ages and capacities. The holiday-tasks of 1860-1861, comprised the period from the Wars of the Roses downwards. The examination is conducted on paper on the first day after the boys have returned to school, each Master examining the boys of his own

*M. Ruault says 1855. Evidence, 1444.


[page 217]

Form. "Copies", or prize books of small value paid for by the parents of the receivers, are given to those who do best, and those who fail to satisfy the Examiners are not allowed to have an "exeat" during the quarter. (An exeat is a short holiday from Friday or Saturday till Monday, which each boy is allowed to have once a quarter, if it is sanctioned by the Masters who have charge of him in classics, mathematics, and modern languages, and if he has a home or other suitable place within a reasonable distance to go to.)

Mr. Ridley thinks it desirable that more regular attention should be paid to modern history.

12. Natural Science

"No direct instruction is given, private or otherwise, in Natural Science." There is, however, in each of the School quarters, a voluntary examination, open to the whole School, in some one branch of this study. "Those who do well are rewarded, and to the boys who come first and second in the aggregate of the three quarterly examinations are awarded two prizes of books given by the Head Master, of the value of five guineas and three guineas respectively." This examination is conducted by some two of the Assistant Masters. "We have a considerable number of Masters who are interested in Physical Science." "At the end of each School quarter a subject is announced for examination in the course of the next quarter; a certain number of pages out of some elementary treatise is fixed, and in that elementary treatise the boys are examined on paper." The subjects during Mr. Butler's Head Mastership have been Geology, Botany, Chemistry, and Electricity. The number of boys who go in has fluctuated. He has been told that at first it was as high as 90; of late it has been about 20 or less. Mr. Ridley never knew it more than 90 or less than 30. These examinations were introduced a few years after the incorporation of mathematics and modern languages into the work of the School. As to the time devoted to the subject, Mr. Ridley says: "I have known some boys get first in an examination after a couple of nights' hard reading. In a general way, about three or four weeks would be devoted to it, at about one hour or an hour and a half a day."

Mr. Butler is not prepared to say that he thinks Natural Science could not be introduced with advantage into the regular studies of the School; he "distinctly guards himself against an assertion of that kind", but he is of opinion that the number of collateral studies which can be profitably pursued must always be confined within somewhat narrow limits.

13. Music and Drawing

Music and Drawing are taught as extras, and out of School hours, by resident teachers. The number of boys learning music was 18 in 1860; the number learning drawing was from 60 to 70. The Drawing Master reckons the average number of his pupils at about 50. The drawing taught is chiefly landscape drawing, with the principles of perspective. Geometrical drawing was formerly taught by a Military Drawing-Master, but the number of his pupils appears to have been too small to make it worth his while to attend.

14. Classical Study, how affected by the Introduction of other Studies

The time given to mathematics and modern languages has been subtracted at Harrow from the time previously given to classics; not added to it, as appears to have been done in the case of mathematics at Eton. "We have now", says Mr. Harris, "five hours a week less devoted to classics than when I first went to Harrow." Including preparation, the time now given, or supposed to be given, to both these subjects at Harrow is about ten hours a week. We have seen that they practically contribute to promotion, in no unsubstantial degree. Mr. Westcott says on this subject -

A boy may rise most rapidly into the Upper Sixth Form without being at any time distinguished for scholarship, by the help of modern languages and mathematics. I have known a case where a boy has risen from the bottom of the Form almost to the top by great success in mathematics, and vice versâ, so that it happens continually that a boy reaches the Upper Sixth who is a very bad scholar.

(Lord Clarendon) Those cases are rare? Surely it is mainly by classics that a boy advances to the higher positions in the School? - Excellent scholars, who are necessarily few, rise rapidly; but commonly a boy rises by fair proficiency in a variety of subjects, which is compatible with bad scholarship; for lessons in divinity, history, geography, and repetitions are included in classics, and pure scholarship has comparatively little weight in the examinations.


[page 218]

The following question and answer bear upon this point:

(Mr. Vaughan) Did the Head Master look with favourable eyes upon boys who took the physical science prizes, or did he consider those prizes inferior? - Yes, decidedly; Mr. Butler especially: I have heard him publicly notify before the Form that he was pleased to see that those who had done well in classics had done well also in languages and physical science.
It does not clearly appear that classical study has suffered in any degree from these changes. Mr. Harris thinks that to some extent it has - that the School has not such brilliant composers as it had - but he does not attribute this wholly to the rivalry of the new studies. Mr. Westcott does not believe that the preparation of these subjects for school takes up time so as to interfere with composition. He thinks, however, that the time now given to classics is not more than is absolutely necessary, "at least for the best boys"; and he makes the following suggestion with respect to the Scholarship examinations of the Sixth Form:
It would be desirable, I believe, to separate the classical and mathematical parts of the examination, and to assign some Scholarships to classics only, and some to mathematics only. The present system of adjudging our highest rewards to aggregate excellence in classics, mathematics, and modern languages, is obviously open to great objections, and I believe that the best scholars and the best mathematicians would gain considerably by the distinct recognition and reward of their respective studies. Up to the Sixth Form the combination of marks works well, but in the highest Form it seems reasonable to offer some scope for the special pursuit of either of the two great branches of University education.
Mr. Ridley is asked -
(Lord Lyttelton) In your opinion does the study devoted in the School to modern subjects diminish the attention given to classics? - Not in the least.

In no way do they interfere with them? - In no way.

Was there plenty of time for them? - Plenty.

15. Deviations from the regular Course of Study, how far allowed

On this subject Mr. Butler answers as follows:

If a boy shows a special aptitude for any branch of natural science, for English literature, for modern languages, or for knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, he would be urged and encouraged by his Tutor to prepare for the periodical competitions for the prizes given for those subjects.

If a boy showed a special aptitude for mathematics, rather than for classical studies, he would probably be advised to read mathematics privately with one of the Mathematical Masters; and in some few instances, with the approval of the Head Master, a boy would be excused the whole or part of his verse composition in order to devote more time to mathematics. This exemption would generally, though not exclusively, be granted in favour of boys preparing for the Woolwich examinations.

Such cases of exemption, however, are very rare, and are by no means recommended. It is found in practice that boys lose far more than they gain by being treated exceptionally. At a large school, where tradition and emulation act so powerfully, boys are not likely to work vigorously at any subject in which the majority of their companions are not keenly interested. It is too early to expect from them a strong and decided love of knowledge for its own sake, nor again are they in general much influenced by the consideration that what they are learning or neglecting to learn will affect their prospects in examinations for the army or the civil service.

They will throw themselves with fair energy into the regular work of the School, even where they have no special aptitude for it. If exempted from this regular work, or from any part of it, they are likely to become listless and idle.

An exemption from all verse composition would give a boy about three additional hours in the week.

"We should never", Mr. Butler says in his oral evidence, "admit a boy to the School if any condition was attempted to be made that he should read mathematics or any other subject specially, to the exclusion of composition or to the diminution of the time given to it, and we also, as a rule, discourage any such exemption in the case of a boy who is below the Fifth Form, thinking it more likely that the boy would avail himself of it to escape his full amount of work." The actual cases of exemption he computes, conjecturally, at twenty or thirty, the great majority of them being in the Sixth Form and the two Upper Divisions of the Fifth. "I have always felt", he adds, "that if I was a private tutor in the country having a few pupils, supposing I was equally competent to teach all those different branches, I should be guided mainly by the peculiar character of the boys' intellect, and should not at all think myself bound to adhere to any one particular system; but, when you have to administer instruction to a very large number of boys, you must keep very strictly to the routine of some one particular system, though you know all the while that you are to a certain extent sacrificing the intellectual advance of some one or more particular boys." ... "I do not conceive I have at present sufficient experience to


[page 219]

enable me to decide whether you might ever have two distinct departments, one providing what is called somewhat loosely 'modern education', and the other retaining the classical system, including composition."

16. Scholarships, Prizes, &c.

A part of the income of the foundation was by the Founder's directions to be employed in maintaining two Scholars at Oxford, and two at Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge. Each was to have £5 a year. Two "John Lyon's" Scholarships are now generally given in each year, of £30 each, tenable for four years at any College in either University. Under the Statutes a preference is given in elections to these Scholarships to the "poor kinsfolk" of the Founder, and to boys born in the parish, "being apt to learn, poor, and meet to go to the University"; but it does not appear that either of these preferences has ever been claimed or enjoyed. Beside these Scholarships the School has others, one of which (the Isabella Gregory's) is worth £100 a year, is tenable at either University, and becomes vacant every fourth year. The Scholarships are given to the boys who do best in the ordinary terminal examinations. The number of smaller prizes given, in the shape of medals or books, for performances in special subjects, is very considerable. Among the voluntary examinations there is one for the Beaumont prizes, five of which are given for knowledge of the Bible. There is another lately established, which is confined to boys below the Fifth Form, and the subject of which is some specified branch of English literature. The candidates are examined in two or three standard English books, of which notice is previously given. "A friend", Mr. Butler says, "has for the present kindly given prize books to the best candidates; I do not know whether they will ever come to be a foundation."

"In general", says Mr. Butler, "the competition for the annual prizes is one of the most thorough and satisfactory parts of our school-work. The excitement among the boys in toe upper part of the School in connexion with them is very intense; and it is felt to be an honour to any one in the house that a prize should be gained by a member of the house."

This is confirmed by Mr. Ridley.

17. Religious Teaching - Chapel Services - Preaching

The boys read through a certain part of the Bible, according to a fixed rotation, during the quarter; They are examined orally on the subject in School on Sunday, and at first School on Monday morning. "The Sunday lesson lasts for an hour in the afternoon; the whole of that subject, or part of it, is set at the end of the quarter for the examination." The cycle of reading includes the whole of the Old Testament except the Psalms and some of the Prophets. The Gospels also are read in all the Forms below the Sixth; in the Sixth the Epistles almost exclusively; as in the case of Profane History, all the Forms except the Sixth are engaged upon the same part of the cycle at the same time, the quantity which the younger boys are expected to get through being diminished by giving them selected chapters, or by some similar arrangement. "I believe", says Mr. Harris,

I recommended the system of the division of the Scriptures of the Old Testament, partly in consequence of the representations of a pupil of mine many years ago in Dr. Wordsworth's time. He told me that he never read the Bible when he was at Harrow as a matter of instruction, and then it was that the arrangement was made of dividing the Scriptures into portions, so that there should be a cycle of Scripture reading as well as historical reading, and it was then intended that the whole School should do the same part at the same time, but that it should be gone through in a different way.
There are three services every Sunday in the School chapel, the first (at 8.30 a.m.) being the Communion Service, the second (at 11) the rest of the Morning Service. A choir, of about 15 boys, who meet to practise twice a week, perform the musical part of the service, and chant the psalms in the afternoon. A sermon is preached in the morning by one of the clerical Assistant Masters, who, "without exception", take this duty in turn; in the afternoon another sermon, almost invariably by the Head Master.

Mr. Butler is "clear as to the vast advantage derived from having a sermon preached every Sunday morning by an Assistant Master." "For the boys it is very desirable in enabling them to see the characters of the Masters come out in a somewhat different aspect from that which is ordinarily the only one presented to them, namely, in connexion with their school-work; it enables them to understand the Master far more when he has to speak to them on matters connected with their religious state. To the Masters themselves I am satisfied it is of the very greatest importance to


[page 220]

have an opportunity periodically of appealing to the consciences of the boys." He has never observed, either as a boy or as Head Master, that the slightest inconvenience has arisen from the great variety of preachers.

18. Punishments

Mr. Butler has described very fully his system of punishments. The liability to be flogged ceases on entrance into the Sixth Form, but "it very rarely happens that I decide to flog any boy in the Fifth Form; in other words, any boy from the first 200 boys in the School." Since Mr. Butler has been at Harrow the number of floggings bas been, he thinks, about 20 in each school term. "Speaking generally", he says, "punishments are a given number of written Latin lines, varying from 50 to 500." A punishment of more than 500 lines is rare. Boys in the Sixth Form, when punished for minor offences, have commonly lines set them to learn by heart. "Extra school", which is peculiar to Harrow and of recent establishment, consists in sending a boy into a schoolroom on the afternoon of a half-holiday, to sit there for an hour and a quarter writing out grammar in the presence of a Master.

The Head Master never punishes without previous communication with the tutor, unless the tutor has himself sent up the boy's name for punishment, or counter-signed the "send-up paper".

The difficulty of selecting a good form of punishment for minor offences is much felt.

The subject, says Mr. Westcott, has been constantly discussed, and it is admitted that the practice of setting impositions to be written out is not free from evils. But it is thought to be the best on the whole.

(Mr. Butler) Do what you will, you never can frame a punishment which is not attended with some great inconvenience or evil. What, we have to do, I conceive, is to hit upon some form of punishment which is at once so unpalatable to the boy as to be a tolerable guarantee that he will not offend again in the same manner, and at the same time (a very important condition) such that the Master who sets it shall not be unduly burdened. If the punishment of learning lines by heart be adopted in the lower parts of the School, it is attended with these evils: that, in the first place, you have no guarantee that the punishment learnt by heart is really learnt thoroughly well, because you are most unwilling to turn hack a boy if he can just scrape through; and secondly, the amount of time which is consumed in hearing the lines said is something which it is very undesirable, I think, to impose on the masters.
The convenience of the Masters, he adds, means the time of the Masters, and the time of the Masters is the advantage of the boys. A further objection to the punishment of learning by heart is that it is a very unequal one. "To one boy it is torture, to another it is nothing."

It appears that some of the Masters are, and some are not, particular about the handwriting of impositions. With some "a boy might write anything he liked, so long as it was black and white". The temptation to be careless on this point must always exist, and we cannot but think that the large quantity of lines which appear to be often set at Harrow must tend to make it in many cases an irresistible temptation, and to produce very slovenly writing.

19. Moral Training and Discipline - Tutors' Monthly Reports - Monitorial System

At Harrow, as at Eton, it is considered a most important part of the tutor's duty to watch the conduct and progress of his pupils, and to use every means of guiding and influencing them for good.

"Monthly reports are forwarded regularly to the parents of every boy in the School. They are drawn up in a tabulated form, so as to record the impression conveyed of the boy's conduct during the past month in form work (Classical, Mathematical, and in Modern Languages) in his house, and in his tutor's pupil-room. The details of this periodical report are collected, signed, and forwarded, with his own comments, by the tutor. If he thinks that a fuller comment is called for, he will of course write at greater length, independently of the formal report." If the boy does not board in the house of his tutor, the report is signed by both the tutor and the house-master.

The monitorial system, which at Eton has almost ceased to exist, appears on the contrary to have gained ground at Harrow, for, though it has long been established there, it has only of late years been recognized, and, to some extent, controlled by the Masters. It is thus described by Mr. Butler:

Every member of the Sixth Form is invested with a certain degree of responsibility, more particularly, though the distinction is not definitely marked, the members of the Upper Sixth Form, who are heard in School by the Head Master, and come into close relation to him.

[page 221]

If any well-known rule of the School were violated in the presence of a Sixth Form boy, still more if he were himself personally concerned in tho violation, he would be held, both by the Masters and by the School, to be culpable in a much higher degree than if he had been, say, in the Upper Fifth Form.

It is, however, to the monitors, that is, the first 15 boys of the School, that authority, and consequent responsibility, are most formally assigned. Their authority extends over the whole School, though they are not permitted to inflict personal chastisement in support of it on boys above the second division of the Fifth Form. No one below the monitors may inflict personal chastisement for any cause whatever, except the head boy of a large house, who is invested with monitorial authority over the members of that house. Without attempting to define accurately the duties of a monitor, I may say that he would be bound to keep reasonable order among the boys of his house, especially during the evening; to assist the master who calls the "bill" in school in maintaining quiet; to investigate and to punish any serious moral offence, as bullying, drinking, gross language or acts, &c.; or any violation of a well-known school rule, as smoking, being in a public-house, throwing stones in the street, &c.

If a very gross offence were discovered by a monitor, especially if committed by a boy high in the School, it would be his duty to report it to the Head Master. Practically, however, an instance of an offence being thus reported scarcely ever occurs, and I should earnestly discourage its becoming otherwise than most exceptional. It is far better for the School that the monitors should themselves deal with offences which they discover. A punishment inflicted by them, as the recognized representatives of the School, is in the great majority of cases of incomparably more value than a punishment inflicted by any Master. So strongly am I convinced of this, that if a monitor came to report a case to me I should request him, in the first instance, to state the facts without giving names, and should then offer him my advice as to whether it were better that he or I should deal with the offence.

If, again, an offence was brought to my notice of which, in my judgment, any particular monitor ought to have taken cognizance, I should, after myself dealing with it, point out to him privately the opportunity he had neglected.

The punishments which monitors are by custom allowed to inflict are impositions (which, however, are hardly ever set); extra fagging, if the offender be a boy liable to be fagged; a reprimand; and caning; the heaviest of all, which would be inflicted for gross bullying, being a "public whopping"* - i.e., a caning by the head boy in presence of the whole School. Any boy who thinks a punishment with which he is threatened unjust, may appeal either to the whole body of the monitors, or to the Head Master; and the appeal suspends the punishment. If the Head Master thinks the monitor right, the appellant must either submit or leave the School. Appeals of either kind, though the Head Master does not at all discourage them when made to himself, occur (as we might expect) but rarely. Mr. Lang, who was at Harrow nearly seven years, remembers only one appeal to the Head Master (which was unsuccessful), and one to the monitors; and Mr. Ridley only thinks he has heard of one of the former class - the same, probably, as that mentioned by Mr. Lang.

The number of monitors was 10 when the School was not so large as it is now. "If you have four or five who really exercise authority out of the whole number, it will be found quite sufficient." The monitors, it will have been observed, are boys who have risen by seniority since their entrance into the Upper Sixth; they are not necessarily the cleverest boys in the School, but they are always boys who have made steady progress, and got their removes regularly, and they practically represent both the scholarship and the moral discretion of the School. The head of the School is considered the head of the monitors, and responsible to a certain extent for the proper administration of the system; and the position he holds in the School, and the powers lodged in his hands, form an important feature of that system. For instance, all the money spent on games passes through his hands; he has the whole management of the compulsory football, and is ex officio the captain commandant of the rifle corps. It should be added that all the monitors are ex officio members of the Debating Society and the "Philathletic Club".

To maintain a paramount influence in the hands of the highest boys is a main object of the system, and it appears to be attained. Boys distinguished in games, but not high in the School, have influence, of course, but not such as to counteract that of the monitors. "I should never have dreamt", says Mr. Ridley, "of any such class of boys exercising a paramount influence when I was at Harrow."

Mr. Butler is not insensible to the evils which may possibly arise from any system by which authority is delegated formally, though tacitly, to boys over boys - to the possibility that individual boys may be rendered by it stiff and priggish, or imperious, or may be oppressed by a responsibility for which they are unfitted by character and disposition; or that power may be abused and excessive chastisements inflicted from

*At Winchester, a "public tunding".


[page 222]

passion or defect of judgment. But he is of opinion that these tendencies are effectually kept In check by public opinion and by the traditions of the School, and he believes that cases of tyranny are extremely rare, and that any instance of real cruelty would be sure to come to the knowledge of a Master. He holds that the value of such a system as an instrument of government, as an instrument for the education of character, and as a safeguard against bullying, can hardly be estimated too highly; and he does not hesitate to declare, "in the most emphatic terms, his conviction that no great school could long live in a healthy state without it". Mr. Harris is of the same opinion. He does not see how a large house, or a large public School, could possibly be managed without a very efficient monitorial system, and he thinks the working of the system which is established at Harrow "extremely satisfactory".

"A case of bullying", he says, "is of very rare occurrence indeed at Harrow." "We do not", says Mr. Butler, "regard bullying as one of the great dangers which we have practically to apprehend." This is confirmed by Mr. Ridley and Mr. Lang.

20. Fagging
(Mr. Butler) All the boys in the two divisions of the Sixth Form, that is, the first 60 boys in the School, have the privilege of fagging.

All boys below the Fifth Form, excepting the three or four composing the Third Form, are liable to be fagged; though any boy who may have been a fag for three years becomes, ipso facto, exempted. Besides being liable to be sent on messages by any member of the Sixth Form, the younger boys act as breakfast and tea fags (in the house), as cricket fags, and as racquet fags.

The breakfast and tea fags bring up the breakfast and tea things for the Sixth Form boy to whom they are appointed fags, and take them away again; the washing, &c. being done by servants. In some of the houses the whole of the above duty is done by the servants.

Every evening of the summer quarter a certain number of the boys in regular rotation are sent down to stop and run after the balls used by the Sixth Form, while practising cricket. This practising lasts from about 6.30 to 6.45 to 8, or 8.15.

In the same way, when a Sixth Form boy plays racquets, two fags are generally appointed to run after balls.

At football there is no regular fagging; but this game, which takes place on three afternoons of the week, lasting for about an hour and a half at a time, during the greater part of two School quarters, is compulsory on all the School below the upper Fifth Form, except on boys who have been three years at the School.

Boys who bring a medical certificate that football would be injurious to their health are exempted from attendance. Each of the monitors also has the right to exempt four boys on each football day, if he go down to the game on that day himself, and the head of the School can exempt as many as he thinks fit.

The medical certificates of which I have spoken are no doubt a sufficient security for health. The fact that the cricket fags and racquet fags are appointed, not arbitrarily or casually, but by fixed rotation, is a security against the little boys losing an evening unexpectedly, while the large number of the fags, some 250, prevents the compulsion from falling frequently on any particular fag.

I should say without hesitation that, making all allowance for the demands of fagging and compulsory attendance at football, the younger boys have ample time for as much study as can fairly be expected from them.

"No boy", says Mr. Lang, who was captain of the eleven, "need fag (at cricket) more than once a week. If he is sent down a second time, he may simply come to the captain of the eleven". As to cricket, Mr. Butler adds that, on the afternoons of holidays there are three or four games, for which lists are made out by the heads of the games respectively, and every boy put down in the list is obliged to play or to pay a fine. This is quite distinct from "cricket fagging".
As to the general question of the effects of fagging, or compulsory attendance, at games, I have no doubt myself that they tend to give spirit and vigour to the School. There is always a considerable number of boys who, on first coming to the School are, from reserve or diffidence, shy of taking part in the School games. There are other indolent boys who are disposed to lounge about during the afternoons of holidays doing nothing. I think that both these classes of boys gain by being subjected to a certain degree of compulsion. So far as I am aware, instances of boy acquiring a distaste for a game in consequence of having been originally compelled to take part in it are very rare.
21. Time given to Work, Games, &c.

The time given to work varies, of course, in the different Forms. Speaking generally, about four hours and a half are spent in school on a whole school day, and about two hours on a half-holiday, of which there are three in every week, and an extra holiday occurs once in every three weeks, or oftener. Including the time devoted to preparation, we are told that about six hours, or rather more; are given to work on a whole school day, "if the work is honestly done". A witness, who distinguished himself highly,


[page 223]

worked, "in an ordinary way", not more than six hours a day during his last term at School. The average time given to cricket is estimated at about fifteen hours in the week; "a boy who took every opportunity" would make it twenty. That the importance assigned to games in the estimation of the boys is somewhat greater than it should be, is admitted by a witness who was for two years captain of the eleven. But it is frequently the case, at Harrow as elsewhere, that diligent and distinguished cricketers are also diligent and distinguished in school work.

The cricket ground possessed by the School is of very insufficient extent, and an additional piece of ground is rented by the boys themselves, for which they pay £20 a year. They formerly paid £40 a year for the football field, but this is now taken by Mr. Butler.

The formation of the rifle corps was suggested at first by the Masters, "but the zeal of the boys soon made the movement their own". It has continued to exist with varying popularity, yielding generally, as might be expected, to cricket during the summer term, and numbering ordinarily from 100 to 200 members. "Speaking generally, it is found that the boys have somewhat of an aversion to drill, but they seem to like the shooting." "The great advantage", Mr. Butler says, "which it seems to me to hold out is, that it enables boys who have no natural talent either for cricket, football, or racquets, which are our established games) to find some athletic amusement which may at once give them manly exercise and add to their influence in the School."

Prizes are given for swimming, but it is not compulsory, and is not systematically taught.

22. Harrow Education as preparation for the Universities - for the Army

In Michaelmas Term 1861, there were at Oxford 122 Undergraduates who had been at Harrow; at Cambridge, 89. Out of 105 boys who left the School in the year ending at the summer holidays 1862, 20 went to Oxford, and 18 to Cambridge. From the list of University distinctions appended to Mr. Butler's answers it appears that within twenty-two years, from 1831 to 1862 inclusive, Harrow has gained at Oxford in the Final Schools 11 Classical "Firsts", three Mathematical, two in Natural Science, and three in Law and History; in the Moderation Schools 10 Classical "Firsts" and one Mathematical; the Hertford, Johnson, and Senior Mathematical Scholarships once; the Latin verse and English essay prizes twice; the English verse and Greek prose prizes once, besides nine Balliol Scholarships and one at Trinity and other College Scholarships and Fellowships. At Cambridge it has had one Senior Classic, ten in the First Class of the Classical Tripos, one Second Wrangler; it has gained the Pitt and Craven Scholarships once, the Bell twice, the First Chancellor's medal once, the Chancellor's medal for English poem three times, the Camden medal six times, the Porson prize and Latin essay prize twice, the Greek ode medal four times, the Second Smith's prize once, several medals for Greek and Latin epigrams, 16 Scholarships and seven Fellowships at Trinity, besides other open Scholarships and Fellowships.

. The number of Harrow boys who enter the army is shown by the subjoined Table, in which the letter A indicates those who have not, and the letter B those who have, had intermediate tuition. HARROW CANDIDATES FOR DIRECT COMMISSIONS, SANDHURST AND WOOLWICH, IN THREE YEARS

It appears from this table that the total number who entered the army, including those who qualified for Woolwich, was 42; that of 32 candidates for direct commissions only 11 came straight from the school; of 8 candidates for Sandhurst, 1; of 22 candidates for Woolwich, none. Of those who passed for Woolwich, however, a larger number came from Harrow than from any other school.

*This does not include such candidates as may have passed on a second examination.


[page 224]

Among the candidates for direct commissions 3 failed to pass in mathematics, 5 in history, 3 in Latin, 10 in Greek (out of 17 who took it up); 1 (who had had intermediate tuition) in French.

It is evident that the large proportion of boys intended for the army, who now quit the School in order to "cram" at a private tutor's, might, with very moderate pains, finish their education at Harrow.

"As a rule", says Mr. Butler, "a boy intended for Woolwich would be recommended by the School authorities, as well as by his friends, to leave Harrow about a year before the ordinary time, that is, by about 17." Afterwards (February 1863), he wrote to us: "I should be disposed now to modify this opinion. Last July, a boy who had been only two quarters in the Upper Sixth Form, came fourth in the competitive examination for Woolwich, though he went up direct from Harrow. He had for some time been taking extra lessons in mathematics, and was excused one verse exercise a week."

23. Boarding-houses, &c.

The boarding-houses at Harrow are now kept as a rule by Masters only.* It rests with the Head Master to give leave to keep a boarding-house, and it is for him to fix the maximum number of inmates. There are two classes of boarding-houses, the "large" and the "small" houses. Of the former the Head Master's holds 63, and the others, generally speaking, 36 or 37 (one had 41 and another 50 in 1861); the small houses contain six or seven boys apiece. There are six "large" houses besides the Head Master's, and 10 "small". Another, which belongs to neither class, holds 16.

The difference between a large and a small house, as regards the cost to the parent, is about £50 a year. The higher charge is considered to be necessary in order to give a reasonable profit to the keeper of the small house. In return for this, the boy is supposed to enjoy, and probably does receive, more of the personal supervision of the Master than at a large house; and Mr. Butler thinks these houses useful for boys whose health and temperament are such as to render them unfit for the rougher discipline and more bracing atmosphere of the large ones. They meet cases in which parents, with or without sufficient reasons, desire for their sons this special protection and care. A boy at a small house has in fact, to a limited extent, the advantages, and the disadvantages also, of being at a private tutor's; and, whilst he partakes equally in some of the benefits of a great public school, there are others which he shares imperfectly.

"The system of sanctioning small houses", says Mr. Butler, "has, if I mistake not, lasted for not more than 10 or 12 years." The number of them has increased steadily. "The small boarding-house is a means for making it possible for a junior Assistant Master to live at Harrow."

It is evident that were the number of these houses permitted to increase beyond what is required for the particular class for whom they are supposed to be adapted, it would become a serious evil by increasing the expensiveness and diminishing the usefulness of the School. It would be an evil, if any parent, who wished to send his son to a large house, found himself obliged to send him to a small one.

The rooms in the Harrow boarding-houses are not, as at Eton, single-bedded, but commonly hold from two to five. Mr. Butler's opinion of the working of this system, which he approves, will be found in his evidence. Some of the senior boys, however, have single rooms. The upper boys sit and prepare their work in their bedrooms, the Fourth Form boys, as we have already seen, theirs in pupil-room under the tutor's eye.

There is no sanatorium at Harrow, and Mr. Butler thinks it very desirable to have such a building for the reception of boys ill with infectious complaints. He states, however, that every boarding-house has sick-rooms, distinct from those commonly occupied by the boys, and that in three cases the sick-rooms are in a separate building.

We must add that some of the school-rooms, indeed almost all of them except those which have been recently built by subscription and were planned by a committee of the Masters, are very unsatisfactory, and obviously deficient in ventilation.

The rule which proscribes at Harrow any coat but an evening dress-coat, has been defended on the grounds that it makes the boys easily recognizable, and prevents their thoughts from running on the fashion of their dress; but we see no sufficient reason for obliging them to wear at school a coat which they are sure never to wear at home.

*"The Assistants, who were previously only ushers, as is now the case at Winchester and Westminster, were first allowed to take boys into their houses in Dr. Heath's early days (1771). Since that time, with the exception of the Head Master's house, they domesticate the greater part of the boys." "There are also boarding Dames, who board boys." - Carlisle, ii, pp. 150, 153. The charge at a Master's house is stated to have been then 125 guineas per annum. - Ib. 150.


[page 225]

24. Charges and Expenses of a Boy at Harrow

The yearly charges and expenses of a boy at Harrow are stated below.

[click on the image for a larger version]

OBSERVATIONS

Harrow is a School very scantily endowed, and supported almost entirely by the payments made for the education of boys not entitled to the privileges of the foundation. The Charter and other instruments of foundation invest the Governors with no definite powers of superintendence over the conduct of the School; and those who have filled that office seem to have considered that they were not called upon to exercise any such superintendence. The School has fluctuated greatly in numbers and prosperity, but it seems for the most part to have been ably and judiciously managed by the Masters under whom it has gradually reached its present magnitude, and it is due especially to its late distinguished Head Master, Dr. Vaughan, and to Mr. Butler himself, to say that great pains have evidently been taken to extend the course and improve the methods of study, and to supply those incentives to industry which are peculiarly needed at a School largely resorted to by the sons of wealthy parents. The system of instruction and promotion is, on the whole, a good one, and the selection of Assistant Masters has been such as to secure the services of a body of able and highly distinguished men.

We are of opinion, however, that it is expedient for the interests of the School that the Governors should possess and exert over the management of it, in some respects, a control which they do not exercise at present, and that the general principles which we have laid down in the First Part with reference to this subject, should be applied to Harrow. We shall recommend with this view that the number of Governors should be increased from six to twelve.* Of the six new Governors who will be required to complete this number three should, we think, be chosen with especial reference to attainments in literature or science; we recommend that in future one-fourth of the Governors should always he selected on the same principle.

We have adverted in a previous section to the large proportion which the Head Master's gross receipts bear to the total income of the School, and have referred also to the charges and outgoings, partly settled by custom, partly discretionary and undefined, by which his net emoluments have hitherto been reduced to a much more moderate amount. As applied to a School which is almost unendowed, which has multiplied prodigiously within a few years, has been kept up on an expensive scale, and has had occasion for much of what may be called extraordinary expenditure, this system has some advantages, and it is probably true that under both the late and the present Head Masters the outlay on account of the School has not been less in amount, and has been more free and unrestricted as to its objects, than it would have been had any other been adopted. We cannot, however, satisfy ourselves that it is right to maintain permanently

*See some observations bearing in this point on the Report on the Charterhouse, (Chap. IV) section 13.


[page 226]

a system which, while it raises from the parents of the boys more than is necessary for the support of the staff, places the surplus absolutely in the hands of the Head Master; and under which, whilst his ostensible income is very large, his real emoluments are unascertained, and indeed unascertainable. The claims which the School undoubtedly has upon that surplus should not, we think, be left to depend upon his liberality, his sense of what is due from him, or his pecuniary circumstances. The amount of these claims, and the nature of them, are points upon which one Head Master may not take the same view as another, and as to which the Assistants may differ from their chief; and we may add that an expenditure which is regarded as voluntary is not always directed to the most useful objects. We are of opinion, therefore, that the principles of the General Recommendations XXVI-XXVIII should be applied to Harrow, with an equitable and liberal regard to such claims and interests as the Governors may deem to have been acquired under the present system.*

The office of Lower Master appears to have become a sinecure, and it has not been suggested to us that it is desirable for the interests of the School that any specific duties should be assigned to it. By custom the Lower Master receives a capitation payment of £3 for each non-foundationer out of the school-charges, and he pays a stipend to one of the Assistant Masters who has charge of one of the lower forms. There appears to be no advantage in this arrangement, nor do we indeed perceive any reason for retaining the office of Lower Master. We think that the £3 should sink into the Instruction Fund, and that the Governors should be at liberty out of that fund to assign a stipend to the Lower Master, if they should see sufficient cause for the retention of the office. If, however, the office is to remain a sinecure, any stipend which may be attached to it should be small, and the position should be valuable rather as a distinction than as conferring emolument.

The payments and allowances now made by the Governors to the Head and Lower Masters, and to the Senior Mathematical Master as Writing Master, should be discontinued, subject to existing interests.

*The number of boys at Harrow in 1862 was 481, of whom 32 were foundationers, and 10 others home-boarders. Assuming the total number to be in round numbers 450, and 400 of these to be boarders and 10 home-boarders; assuming the payment for instruction and school charges to be in round numbers £41 (it is now £41 5s), and the profit on each boarder to be £20 in the Head Master's house, and £15 out of it (the lowest estimate for a large house), the entrance fees to be, as at present, £16, and the average yearly number of new boys to be 120 (it is now nearly 150), the aggregate receipts would be as under:

£    
Tuition and school charges16,810
Profits on boarding6,315
Entrance fees1,920
Tuition &c. of foundations (say)500
25,545

It is evident that this sum is enough, if properly distributed, to support, in a very ample manner, a larger staff than now exists at Harrow, and to leave besides a considerable surplus for a Reserve Fund. We leave the mode of distribution to the discretion of the Governing Body; but, by way of illustration, we subjoin a scale.

£    
Head Master4,000
14 Classical Assistant Masters with emoluments ranging from £500 to £1,40013,500
3 Mathematical Masters2,800
2 Modern Language Masters1,400
Natural Science1,200
Music and Drawing800
23,700

In this scale the Head Master's emoluments have been taken at £4,000 clear of all charges. This is undoubtedly an ample income. It is the same amount, in fact, as we have suggested for the Head Master of Eton, a school of 800 boys. The actual emolument of the Head Master of Rugby, a school of about the same size as Harrow, exclusive of his house and garden, are about £3,000.

The number of Assistant Classical Masters has been taken at 14. With the addition of the Head Master this would give one Classical Master for every 30 boys. With the present number of boys another Assistant would be required to maintain this proportion, and there would be ample means for his support.

A balance of more than £1,800 would, on the foregoing scale, remain for the miscellaneous charges, other than Assistants' stipends, now borne by the Head Master, the surplus going to the Reserve Fund.

In the above estimate of receipts nothing is added for payments in respect of private tuition in mathematics and modern languages (which appear at present to be not less than £500), nor for the payment now made for music and drawing (upwards of £700), nor for the extra boarding profits derived from small boarding houses as compared with large ones. The receipts from these sources, therefore, are not necessary for the support of the staff, Such additional sums as might arise from any of them would pro tanto relieve the [footnote continues on next page]


[page 227]

The condition which requires that persons elected to be Governors shall be resident within the parish is clearly unsuited to the present character and magnitude of the School; and it appears to have been by no means uniformly observed in practice. We shall recommend that it should be abolished altogether. The Governors should of course be persons qualified by position or attainments to fill that situation with advantage to the School, and should be, as we believe they have always been, members of the Established Church.

We have made some observations in the First Part of this Report on the privilege of gratuitous education enjoyed at Harrow by the boys on the foundation, and have stated our conclusion that neither public convenience nor respect for the Founder's intentions (which it does not now substantially fulfil) demand that it should be kept alive. We shall recommend the extinction of this privilege, due provision being made to prevent any hardship to persons who may have settled at Harrow for the purpose of availing themselves of it. We shall recommend also the extinction of the local preference in elections to the Scholarships of John Lyon, and of such privileges and rights of preference as are given by Statutes or otherwise to boys of the kindred of the Founder. These preferences and privileges do not appear to have been actually enjoyed within the memory of any of the witnesses examined, and it is not desirable that they should continue to subsist.

The English Form offers the benefit of a cheap, though not a wholly gratuitous, education to boys who would probably have resorted to Harrow School itself had it remained small and unimportant, and had not its course of instruction been, as the Founder directed that it should be, classical. They do not, however, appear to take advantage of it quite as freely as might be expected. We are of opinion that this institution, which has hitherto been supported voluntarily by two successive Head Masters, should engage the attention of the Governors of the School.

While we consider that it would be unreasonable to sacrifice the interests of the Classical School to the claims of the middle class parishioners of Harrow, who do not require a classical education, we think that some provision should be made out of the revenues of the School for the especial benefit of the class contemplated by the Founder. We think that it would be reasonable that the Governors should provide for the erection of a suitable building, with a view to the accommodation of the English Form, and for engaging a staff of teachers who may give instruction in the common branches of a modern education without imposing upon the Head Master of the Classical School the task of superintending their studies, by which his attention must in some degree be withdrawn from his immediate duties. The expense of these improvements should be borne in the first instance by the foundation funds; but, should these prove insufficient, we think that the Reserve Fund, mentioned below, may fairly be called in aid of them, since the School is undoubtedly much indebted to John Lyon's foundation for the prosperity which it has attained. Considering the length of time for which the parishioners have been practically excluded from the special benefits of the foundation, we have no hesitation in recommending that the expense of the buildings, at all events, should be borne by the general funds of the School.

We shall recommend that the number of the School should never exceed 500, a maximum on which it now borders closely, but which it has never yet actually reached. The reasons which lead us to believe a limitation of this kind advisable are fully stated in our Report on Eton.

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

All the General Recommendations (Part I. pp. 52-55), are in our opinion applicable to Harrow. Many of them only embody what is now, to a greater or less extent, the subsisting practice of the School. This is the case, for example, with General Recom-

[footnote continued from previous page] Instruction Fund and swell the Reserve Fund. The boarding profit on a large house has been taken on an estimate which is certainly by no means too high.

On the other hand no specific emolument has been assigned to the Lower Master as such. The funds would amply bear, however, such small additional charge (if any) as the Governors may think it expedient to create on this account.

The payments from Foundationers have been estimated at £500. We have recommended that the privileges of the foundation should cease after such a period of time as may appear reasonable; but we do not apprehend that this would diminish the funds of the School.

The scale would of course require revision, should the numbers of the School diminish to any considerable extent.

On the other hand, the School continuing to prosper, tho Reserve Fund would, we trust, at no great distance of time furnish means for providing the additional school accommodation which is required, as well as for establishing such additional exhibitions or other rewards as may be demanded by the extension of the course of study, or as the Governors may deem expedient for the general interests of the School.


[page 228]

mendation XIII. The present periodical meetings of the Assistant Masters are, in effect, meetings of a School Council. It is right that we should add, with reference to the General Recommendation XXX, that the fagging at Harrow appears, at present, to be slight and well-regulated, and to involve no hardship to the younger boys, and no troublesome calls upon their time.

We add the following Special Recommendations.

1. That the Governors of Harrow School should hereafter be 12 in number.

2. That the Governors should be persons qualified by position, or by attainments in literature or science, to fill that situation with advantage to the School, and should be members of the Established Church; but that no one should be deemed disqualified by reason of his not being resident or possessed of property within the parish of Harrow.

3. That of the six new Governors who will be required to raise the number to 12, three at least should be elected with especial reference to attainments in literature or science; and that in future one fourth at least of the 12 Governors should always be chosen on the same principle.

4. That, whenever the whole body of Governors is complete, or is not less than 10, five should be a quorum; and that, whenever it is below 10, a proportion not less than half the actual number of Governors should constitute a quorum.

5. That the privilege of free education given to children of inhabitants within the parish of Harrow should be abolished, due provision being made, by fixing a term of convenient length for the final extinction of it or otherwise, to prevent hardship to persons who may have come to reside at Harrow with the intention of availing themselves of the privilege.

6. That the right of preference in elections to John Lyon's Scholarships in favour of boys born within the parish of Harrow, and all privileges and rights of preference given to boys of the kindred of the Founder, should likewise be abolished.

7. That the number of boys in the School, including foundationers and home boarders should never exceed 500.

8. That the maximum age for admission into the Fourth Form should be 14; for the Shell, 15; and for the Fifth Form, 16; and that no boy should be allowed to remain at the School after he has passed either of those ages without obtaining promotion into the Form for which it is the maximum, unless he shall fall within the exceptions mentioned in General Recommendation XXV.

9. That the study of Natural Science and that of Music or Drawing shall respectively form parts of the regular school-work of each boy, from his admission to the School until he reaches the second division of the Fifth Form.

10. That the permission to discontinue some part of the school-work, in order to devote more time to some other part of it (General Recommendation XIII), should not be given to any boy till he has reached the second division of the Fifth Form.

11. That some part of the original composition should be exchanged for translations from Latin and Greek into English, both oral translation (as distinct from construing) and written, and that, in estimating the merit of such translations, due regard should be paid to the correctness and purity of the English.

12. That a prize or prizes should be given for essays in English all some subject taken from modern history, and that English composition should be cultivated in the lower division of the Sixth Form.

13. That the careful recitation of English prose and poetry, and of Latin and Greek prose, should be practised occasionally during the school-terms, and that prizes should be given for recitation.

14. That the capitation payment to the Lower Master of £3 out of the School charges should be abolished; that the Governors should be empowered either to abolish the office of Lower Master or to assign to it such a stipend, if any, as they may think fit, but that such stipend should be small, unless substantial duties are assigned to the Lower Master.

15. That the attention of the Governors should he directed to the following subjects: (1) the size and ventilation of the school-rooms, and the general sanitary regulations of the School; (2) the insufficiency of the cricket-ground, and the desirableness of acquiring more space for cricket.

16. That the Governors should provide for the erection of a suitable building, with a view to the accommodation of the English Form, and for maintaining a suitable staff of Masters to instruct the boys attending it; that the outlay necessary for these purposes should be borne in the first instance by the funds of the Foundation, and, should these prove insufficient, by the Reserve Fund mentioned above.


[page 229]

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


[page 230]

£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.


[page 231]

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


[page 232]

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.


[page 233]

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


[page 234]

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.


[page 235]

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,


[page 236]

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.


[page 237]

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.


[page 238]

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


[page 239]

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.


[page 240]

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


[page 241]

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.


[page 242]

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


[page 243]

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.


[page 244]

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.


[page 245]

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.


[page 246]

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.


[page 247]

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.


[page 248]

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.


[page 249]

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.


[page 250]

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


[page 251]

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.


[page 252]

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.


[page 253]

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


[page 254]

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


[page 255]

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.


[page 256]

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


[page 257]

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


[page 258]

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.


[page 259]

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


[page 260]

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


[page 261]

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.


[page 262]

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.


[page 263]

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.


[page 264]

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


[page 265]

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


[page 266]

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


[page 267]

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-


[page 268]

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


[page 269]

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


[page 270]

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


[page 271]

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


[page 272]

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


[page 273]

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


[page 274]

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


[page 275]

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.


[page 276]

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


[page 277]

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


[page 278]

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


[page 279]

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


[page 280]

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


[page 281]

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


[page 282]

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


[page 283]

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


[page 284]

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.


[page 285]

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.


[page 286]

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


[page 287]

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


[page 288]

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


[page 289]

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


[page 290]

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,


[page 291]

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.


[page 292]

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.


[page 293]

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


[page 294]

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.


[page 295]

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.


[page 296]

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


[page 297]

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.


[page 298]

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


[page 299]

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


[page 300]

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.


[page 301]

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


[page 302]

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.


[page 303]

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."


[page 304]

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.


[page 305]

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."


[page 306]

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.


[page 307]

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.


[page 308]

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


[page 309]

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


[page 310]

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 Form22 or 16.8 per cent.
Fifth Form35 or 26.7 per cent.
Fourth Form34 or 26.7 per cent.
Third Form31 or 26.7 per cent.
Second and First9 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.


[page 311]

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


[page 312]

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


[page 313]

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


[page 314]

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".


[page 315]

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


[page 316]

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 College70
3. Clergy and Schools795
4 and 5. Rates and Taxes420
6. Repairs250
7. Sundries85
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.


[page 317]

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 stock270
    Remains£2,830
Deduct the charges enumerated at p. 316 under 7 heads1,725
    Remains£1,105


[page 318]

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 each2,100
40 free scholars840
£2,940

Expenditure

Salaries at their present amount2,450
Natural Science Master250
Prize Fund25
Four Exhibitions of £50 each200
£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.


[page 319]

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


[page 320]

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


[page 321]

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


[page 322]

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


[page 323]

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
Mathematics6
Modern Languages6
Natural Science4
Modern History and Geography2
Music or Drawing2
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.


[page 324]

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


[page 325]

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
Mathematics6
Modern Languages6
Natural Science4
Modern History and Geography2
Music or Drawing2
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:


[page 326]

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.

(Signed) CLARENDON.
DEVON.
LYTTELTON.
EDWARD TWISLETON.
STAFFORD H. NORTHCOTE.
W. H. THOMPSON.
H. H. VAUGHAN.

MOUNTAGUE BERNARD,
Secretary.





[page 327]

Mr. VAUGHAN'S Dissent from General Recommendation XXIII, concerning the Examinations for Admission into all the Schools

THERE is one point as to which my general adherence to the Recommendations contained in our Report does not withhold me from expressing my difference of opinion by a formal Dissent. The General Recommendation which recommends that "every boy be required before admission to the school to pass an entrance examination, and to show himself well grounded for his age in classics and arithmetic, and in the elements of either French or German", is applicable to all schools. I object to that provision in this Recommendation which requires proficiency corresponding with age in French or German, as the one indispensable qualification to be required in addition to proficiency in classics and arithmetic. I dissent from this Recommendation on two grounds:

First, because it appears to me inconsistent in principle and hardly to be reconciled in practice with the general body of Recommendations affecting the subjects to be taught, and the method and importance to be assigned to the teaching of each in the schools which are the object of inquiry.

Secondly, because it appears likely to have an undesirable influence on the early education of those who resort to the Public Schools for their instruction.

I. In reference to the first ground of my objection I would observe, first, that this Recommendation places the subjects of instruction in the school at the entrance examination in a position relatively to each other different from that in which they are placed on all other occasions, and by all other Recommendations. By all the other suggestions and Recommendations contained in the Report the first place is given to Classics: but an equal, though secondary importance, is assigned on all occasions to the several subjects of Modern Languages and Natural Science. It is suggested, for instance, that they should be prosecuted for the same number of hours in the week by those who learn them respectively. It is recommended that the learning of them should be compulsory upon all boys for the same length of time during their stay at school, and be optional in the same manner and degree; that they should contribute in the same manner and degree to promotion through the school; that they should be encouraged by the same kinds of reward and distinction, and be taught by the same organization of classes. Wherever the claims of both cannot be admitted together, they are adjusted to an equality by the allowance to parents or Governors of schools of a free choice between the two as alternatives. Thus, either one or the other subject may be studied during the whole stay at school; either one or the other may be restricted to a part of the time only spent at school; either may be made superior, and either may he made subordinate to the other; and either one or the other may give claims for promotion throughout the school*. From such circumstances I apprehend that it would follow naturally that both should be omitted or both recognized as subjects of examination for admission. The Recommendation, therefore, which requires the one as a necessary subject of examination from all boys on their admission to school, and excludes the other, appears to me in itself anomalous.

While however a departure in any one Recommendation from a principle which is maintained in all others requires special justification, the peculiar nature of the subject to which this Recommendation applies, that is, the entrance examination, makes the ground of justification less obvious. The natural or acknowledged object of entrance examinations is that of ascertaining the aptitude of the candidates to receive instruction in the subject of the school studies. Our Report, too, itself states the ground on which an entrance examination is recommended in these words: "It is of the highest importance that no boy should be admitted into any school who is unfit from want of preparation to enter upon its course of teaching among boys not much younger than himself", to which is added, "and that no boy should remain at any school who does not make reasonable progress in it."† As it is clear therefore from this point of view, that the nature of the "course of teaching" should determine the nature of the entrance examination, any selection of one out of two studies which the school system regards as equal in importance, accompanied by rejection of the other, would appear primâ facie at least inconsistent with the object of the institution. Now the "course of teaching" thus appealed to in the Report, includes Natural Science and Modern Languages as equal in every respect to each other, and whatever impropriety or inconvenience may attach to the admission of an old boy amongst boys much younger than himself must of course apply to a "class" in Natural Science, no less than to one in French. The entrance examination, however, peremptorily

*See Report, Observations, pages 34, 35. Recommendations XII, XVI, XIX, pages 53, 54.

†Report, page 22.


[page 328]

selects the one and rejects the other. This Recommendation, then, diverges from the principle laid down as the foundation of it. Again, the manner in which the two requirements of proficiency on entrance and progress after entrance in proportion to age are introduced and justified together in this and other passages, seems to intimate that both the proficiency required on the admission, and the progress required after it, should be in the same subjects as studies of the same school. In fact, however, while the Recommendation which requires progress in school studies, requires progress in Modern Languages or Natural Science, the Recommendation which requires proficiency, insists on proficiency in Modern Languages, and excludes Natural Science. Thus the examination prescribed by the Recommendation as it stands, appears to me to depart from the general principle itself which our Report expressly lays down as its foundation; it varies too from that practical maintenance of it, which another Recommendation based on a regard to similar considerations has carried into effect. Our Report indicates no reason for these distinctions.

These apparent inconsistencies between the principle on which the necessity for an entrance examination is founded by our Report, and that on which the subjects of the examination are actually selected, would not be I fear a mere theoretical anomaly in the body of Recommendations. They are likely to lead to some practical failure. In some instances indeed such an entrance examination would actually ascertain fitness in the very subject of teaching which candidates will prosecute at school, and thus would answer its professed end of insuring "fitness to enter upon the school course of teaching". In others, however, it would exact a test of fitness in a subject which the candidate for admission is neither required nor inclined to make part of his course of teaching, while it fails to apply any test of fitness at all as to the subject, which is equally a part of the school course, and which the candidate for admission is both desirous and allowed to have taught to him.* In other instances the incongruity of this Recommendation would seem likely to be still more glaring. It is professedly contemplated in our Report† that in some Public Schools the teaching of Modern Languages shall be carried on in some Forms only, and the teaching of Natural Science in all Forms. Since therefore the same entrance examination is prescribed by this Recommendation for all in Modern Languages, it would follow that some schools must in some instances impose an entrance examination which will secure that the candidates should be always fully qualified for receiving instruction from the school, which the school could not always offer in return to impart to them, and will entirely neglect to ascertain qualifications for that instruction which the school exclusively bestows, and the candidates must exclusively study. Thus may cases be easily foreseen in which the entrance examination recommended will overstep its purpose inconveniently to individuals by exacting qualifications which are beyond its legitimate aim, and at the same time will fall short of its purpose by falling to secure qualifications which lie within the very scope and object of its institution.

Nor are the discrepancies between the spirit of this Recommendation and others contained in the Report likely to affect in practice the efficacy of the entrance examination alone. It will produce conflict between the principles on which different boys in the same school are educated, applying coercion to some, and allowing freedom to others, in the subjects of their education. It is necessary always to bear in mind that boys present themselves as candidates for admission into Public Schools at all ages between 8 and 16. In some London schools many enter before 10, the majority before 12; scarcely any after 13. In schools such as Harrow, Eton, and Rugby, the majority present themselves between 13 and 15. If we omit exceptional cases it may be affirmed generally that boys enter into Public Schools at all ages from 8 to 16.‡ Now by the joint effect of Recommendations XII and XVI, any boy after admission may be studying Natural Science, and owing his promotion from Form to Form to his proficiency in it during the whole of his stay at school. It will be the effect, therefore, of these Recommendations that any boy actually at a Public School between the age of 8 and 16 may he studying Natural Science (in preference to Modern Languages), and may be winning his way to a high Form in the school without the study of French or German, and by virtue of his progress in Natural Science alone. On the other hand, by this Recommendation every boy between the age of 8 and 16 who happens to be still studying at a preparatory

*Recommendation XII provides or assumes that an option will be given to study Natural Science during the whole time at school, and, therefore, immediately after admission, in preference to Modern Languages, or vice versâ.

†See General Report, p. 30.

‡In the highest division alone of four Public Schools are to be found boys who entered school before 9 years of age. In that of three schools are to be found boys who entered after 15 years of age. See Table B.


[page 329]

school with the view of being admitted into a Public School at a more advanced ace when fit for a higher Form, must be studying Modern Languages in order to reach a proficiency in them which shall be suitable to his age at the time of his admission, and will be excluded from any advantages for the purpose of admission derivable from proficiency in Natural Science. A single Form, therefore, as it appears to me, in the upper part of any great Public School, will consist of boys to whom opposite principles in this respect and different rules have been applied. Those who have received the main part of their education out of the school will have been compelled to study Modern Languages, in order to gain their position in the school, while those educated mainly within its walls will have had an option between Modern Languages and Natural Science, and may have won their way to the same actual position by means either of one or of the other indifferently. It appears to me that such a difference rests on no sound principle, would in practice be invidious, and might be easily and advantageously avoided by allowing precisely the same weight to the two subjects at the entrance examination as is given to them at the ordinary examinations in school and on all other occasions. In point of fact, an entrance examination at a Public School has always in part the character of an examination for promotion into some Form as well as of admission into a school; and if it be not as far as possible assimilated in its nature and subjects to such examination for promotion, it is likely to produce anomaly and confusion.

Nor do these instances, exemplifying a certain degree of anomaly, inefficacy, and inconsistency respectively represent the only inconveniences which I apprehend from the incoherence between this Recommendation and the general group of Recommendations to which it belongs. This Recommendation tends in some measure to weaken or even defeat the effect of some salutary General Recommendations concerning the studies of the schools, with the spirit and tenor of which it is at variance. The illustration of this statement will naturally fall into the explanation of my second ground of objection.

II. While these considerations have presented the Recommendation in question under the aspect of one so far incoherent with the general scheme of Recommendations on the subjects of study contained in our Report, that approving the one I find it difficult to assent to the other, I cannot but add that I regard its tendencies, in its wider bearings upon the interests of education, as other than beneficial.

Rules concerning the entrance examinations of Public Schools, so long as they are variable and limited to particular schools, do not exercise much effect beyond the circle of persons whom they directly admit or exclude. But one universal, peremptory, and well known rule applicable to all Public Schools acts in some degree as a power to direct the education of the country. First, such a regulation prescribing the attainments by which all boys of all admissible ages, educated at all homes, and in all preparatory schools, and in many schools not confining themselves to preparation, must qualify themselves for the Public Schools, will determine the character of that upper class education which precedes the teaching or is concurrent with the teaching of Public Schools in all their lower and middle Forms. From this point of view I think that the Recommendation will act less beneficially than is to be desired upon the education to be given generally throughout the country to boys under the age of 16, and belonging to those classes in society which are educated at the Public Schools.

I conceive that the description of the qualification in Modern Languages contained in this Recommendation cannot in consistency be interpreted strictly according to the letter. If boys of 9 years of age are required to be well grounded at all in the elements of a Modern Language, it would not be reasonable that boys of 14 and 15 should be required only to be well grounded in "the elements" of the same language. It seems impossible that if an elementary knowledge is required of the youngest, an elementary knowledge only should be exacted from the oldest amongst those admitted to school. if it is reasonable in consideration of age to require any good grounding at all in elements from the one it must be reasonable in consideration of age to ask considerably more than elements from the other. I apprehend, therefore, that the Recommendation must be interpreted as simply requiring a proficiency, according to age, in Classics and either the French or the German language.

Again, it is desirable to bear in mind that at the present time under the title of Classics are included in all Public Schools both the Latin and Greek languages, which are in fact studied concurrently by all boys in the lower as well as the higher Forms of the school. The grammars of both languages are learned concurrently in the very lowest Forms in all the schools subject to our investigation but two. By proficiency therefore suitable to age in Classics and one Modern Language must be intended such proficiency in Latin and Greek and one Modern Language, in addition to religious knowledge and arithmetic;


[page 330]

and it will be the necessary effect of such a requirement for admission into Public Schools, that in the regular instruction preparatory for such admission these three languages must always be included.

The question therefore here presents itself, first, what is gained by the concurrent and cumulative study of three languages, which this entrance examination will compel all young boys to follow.

Let it be for this purpose admitted that the study of language is in a high degree beneficial to boys of such an age. Let it even be rated as highly as the general estimate of linguistic scholars places it: still I apprehend that at that early period of life one language well selected and well taught will give a discipline almost as various and comprehensive in kind as will three. Whatever modification of this statement may be necessary in regard to three languages belonging to and therefore exemplifying different families of language will not much affect its truth even where it is applicable, and will not be applicable to French, Italian, German, Latin and Greek. The variety of discipline bestowed by the study of language is effected through the various efforts of mind which are naturally made in the prosecution of such a study, and not through the various languages which are learned. For example, the learning of inflexions by heart, the comprehension and acquisition of rules for the formation of inflexions; the exemplifications and principles of the transmutation of letters; the comprehension and recollection of the laws determining gender; the appreciation of the precise meaning of moods and tenses; the comprehension and recollection of the rules of syntax - the application of these analytically to the deciphering of complicated sentences in construing, and synthetically to the construction of sentences in composing; the acquisition of the laws of quantity and metre by the intellect; the practical appreciation of them by the ear; the constructive use of them in making verses; and other acts involved in the study of one exemplary and master language, will leave little work for a second and a third language to perform for the benefit of the memory, understanding, and ingenuity of the boy-student who applies himself to it. The study, therefore, of two additional languages concurrently appears to me to bring home but little additional discipline to the mind of boyhood, not yet equal to the exercise of its powers in comparative philology. Indeed, I can escape with difficulty from the conclusion that if boyhood be considered to consist, as it does, of a limited number of years, the concurrent study of three languages will rather diminish the amount and variety of mental discipline which study of language might give, within the same time, if confined to a single language. It will follow, from what has been just stated, that in proportion as the knowledge of a single language approaches to perfection will the variety of discipline conferred by the study of it have increased. Each new stage in the course of instruction in a language introduces some new exercise of the mind, and so imparts some new kind of discipline. In proportion as such knowledge falls short of completeness will the variety of discipline have diminished. It also seems to me to follow, from the same statement, that the imperfect knowledge of a second and a third language will never have supplied the defect in discipline occasioned by the imperfect knowledge of the first. Languages, speaking generally, are formed by the same general laws; have been analysed by grammarians in the same manner; are learned on the same system; and are acquired by the exercise of the same faculties applied in the same order. Speaking generally, therefore, the concurrent acquisition of three languages will have repeated the same disciplinary process three times over; it will have given the same discipline and will have left the same discipline ungiven; the discipline conferred by the one will not have been in kind supplementary to that given by the others, because where the pursuit of all is concurrent there will probably be the same kind and degree of imperfection in the knowledge of all. But although the study of two languages will not have doubled the discipline bestowed by one, it will have required nearly twice as much time. Three years spent in this manner over three languages will not have carried the student much further in either than one year devoted to a single language. It is true that the actual possession of one gives facilities for the acquisition of another, because the actual mastery of a difficulty in one form gives knowledge by which to master it in another form. But by learning three languages at once we lose much of this advantage. And this consideration perhaps suggests another reasonable objection against the concurrent study of three languages in the same early period of education, as compelling every boy to encounter his three Curiatii [triplet brothers in an ancient Roman legend] abreast, who, if met separately, and thus attacked one after the other, would be mastered with greater ease and in a shorter time. But it also has a bearing upon the point immediately before us. The time requisite for the mastery of each, if they are learned together, is not much shorter than that which is necessary for any of them taken alone. It will follow, therefore, that by the pursuit of several languages concurrently instead of one alone we diminish


[page 331]

the amount of mental discipline for which one would have given us opportunities in the same lapse of time. The mental discipline which might be given in three years if bestowed by means of one well selected language, will not be carried home to the mind in fewer than seven if imparted through the study of three languages at once. The season of early boyhood therefore, regarded as a period to be devoted to the exercise and improvement of the faculties, will not gain, will rather lose, by this accumulation of linguistic studies, unless the hours in each day, or the days in each year, which are set apart for the study of language, are also increased nearly threefold. So far therefore as Recommendation XXIII requires proficiency in a third language in addition to proficiency in Classics as a qualification for entrance, it adds that which probably does not much increase the disciplinary force of instruction in language during boyhood under any circumstances, and even seriously diminishes the disciplinary power of the linguistic knowledge conveyed, unless much more time is devoted to it.

But the provisions of this Recommendation are in effect not inclusive only. They are in effect also exclusive. They exclude the elements of Natural Science from the examinations, while they include Modern Languages.

If the Modern Languages were not comprised in the examination, and were not therefore necessary elements in boyish education, the elements of Natural Science might be still perhaps acquired by a few in such leisure hours as the requirements of Latin and Greek might leave free, even although the Public Schools should omit all notice of Natural Science in their examination for entrance. But I apprehend that the compulsory previous study of French, Latin, Greek, Arithmetic, and the elements of religious knowledge will furnish as much occupation for the intellect of young boys as will be consistent with health of mind and body. If, therefore, Public Schools, while they establish an entrance examination requiring this knowledge from all boys, give no similar effect to proficiency in the elements of Natural Science, it must result, I think, that all teaching and all learning in the latter subject will be omitted generally during the first fourteen years or fifteen years of life both at home and in all places of preparatory education. In the general pressure for instruction in the Classical and Modern Languages affecting all the Teachers and all the Students, there will be neither care nor time for the study of any branch of Natural Science. There will he no care for it, because it will avail nothing in an examination to which all will be looking forward with interest, and by which all will be shaping the course of their studies. There will he no time for it, because the peremptory demand for proficiency in so ample a list of other pursuits will preoccupy all the hours available for intellectual labour.

The Recommendation therefore may be taken practically to exclude Natural Science not only from the school entrance examination, but from amongst the studies of very early youth, and indirectly therefore also to entail the loss of such mental discipline, whatever that may be, which peculiarly belongs to its pursuit. All, however, who have long cultivated that branch of knowledge are unanimous in their opinion that some exercise peculiar and distinctive is given by all the great branches of it: and those who bear testimony to its effects, are, it may be added, eminently distinct and precise in their indication of the exact nature of this discipline. That sound progress, too, may be made even in very early life by a judicious course and method of teaching, and that such teaching is commonly received with that curiosity and satisfaction which gives ease to acquisition and life as well as permanence to the knowledge gained, appears to be the universal opinion of such as have had long practical experience in giving instruction to the young upon such subjects. There is also good reason and authority in support of the opinion that these subjects are the only appropriate stimulants to the faculties of observation and reasoning between the years of 8 and 12. At that time the mental powers are considered to have attained a stage in their development which calls for some excitement and exercise, such as material and sensible, in contradistinction to abstract, objects of thought, are capable and are alone capable of giving.* We may therefore, it seems to me, confidently accept

*"At 10 years old", says Dr. Carpenter, "a boy is quite curable of understanding a very large proportion of what is set down for matriculation at the London University under the head of Natural Philosophy." (Evid., vol, iv., p. 364.)

"I never yet found", says Mr. Faraday, "a boy so young as not to be able to understand by simple explanation, and to enjoy the point of an experiment." (Evid., vol. iv., p. 380.)

"I would teach a little boy of 11 years old, of ordinary intelligence", says Mr. Faraday, "all those things that come before classics in this programme of the London University, i.e., Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Hydraulics, Optics, &c". (Evid., vol, iv., p. 378.)

"I should prefer", says Dr. Carpenter, "to see the faculties which are concerned in the cultivation of Physical Science trained at the earlier period" (i.e., before 12), "because I believe that is the natural period at which the observing faculties and the elementary processes of reasoning may be best cultivated; and the period at which the mind is not prepared for the more advanced culture of language." (Evid., vol. iv., p. 368.)


[page 332]

the statements that the Natural Sciences confer a valuable discipline on the senses and understanding, and a peculiar power in the conduct of both, different from that which the study of either languages or mathematics can give, and that they are appropriate to the earliest years of education in the very points in which their educational function is peculiar to themselves. While, therefore, by the accumulation of language upon language in the studies of very early life no very perceptible amount of intellectual discipline is added, and no new kind of discipline is gained, the exclusion of Natural Science forfeits and loses to the whole scheme of a boy's earliest study such a discipline as is distinct and real, not a reiterative of that which the classical studies themselves would bestow, but supplementary and corrective, and eminently adapted to that period of life.

It is surely through the want of this kind of discipline, and the knowledge connected with it, that all modern education has been chiefly deficient. Language has been already in our earliest years mainly the object, and almost exclusively the instrument of instruction. Languages have been studied in and for themselves; ideas have been formed and conveyed mainly through language, as well as by language compared, reasoned on, and connected. Facts have been represented, opinions and judgments have been communicated and determined through words. Objects so far as realized at all have been realized chiefly through words. There has been no want of intellectual activity, nor of intellectual discipline of one kind. But in minds so trained as well negatively as positively, this verbal and ideal education has had its effect, not in all respects advantageous. Of the objects, properties, and laws of the material world among educated men, there has prevailed too general an ignorance. Of the senses as direct instruments for the perception of truth and acquisition of knowledge, there has been a too prevalent disuse, ending in loss of activity and power. Even the purely intellectual powers, the memory, the imagination, and the judgment, having been stimulated, directed, and confined by words, have been affected by the verbal instruments and objects with which they have been so largely and exclusively occupied. If we add to the verbal element in the education of the youngest boys, and when the real element would be most kindly; if we enforce on all a wider and therefore a more absorbing study of words during the first 14 or 15 years of life, excluding at the same time the study of natural objects and laws, and the exercise of the senses, understanding, memory, and imagination, through these; we shall, I fear, to some extent aggravate a tendency which our other Recommendations concerning education at school, would, if allowed free scope, I trust very beneficially counteract. Such a Recommendation, therefore, I consider likely to act detrimentally on the education of all boys in the upper classes of society of all ages between 7 and 15 not yet actually admitted into any Public School.

Weight may perhaps often be due to the consideration that as utility is one element in educational value, so the overwhelming superiority of one subject on this point may be admitted to balance the high or distinct claims of another subject on the score of mental discipline. But this does not seem to bear on the present question. Even if it be desirable to acquire conversational command of a language almost universal at the cost of some mental discipline; and even if it be further necessary to apply the earliest years of life to this purpose, such a necessity does not appear to warrant either the inclusive or the exclusive part of this Recommendation. It allows an alternative between the French language which is of European currency, and the German language which is merely national; while it disallows the alternative between German and Natural Science. It is thus left, as it seems to me, somewhat open to the objection of sacrificing the claims of a superior degree of discipline to those of an inferior degree of convenience; of failing to secure the higher, by a sacrifice of the lower utility, and yet of securing the lower utility by sacrificing the higher discipline. On the great utility too, of an early knowledge of Natural Science much might be said.

But the influence of this Recommendation would not cease with the examination itself. It may be hardly necessary to show that a proficiency more or less advanced according to age in one subject and an entire ignorance of another subject on the part of every boy entering a Public School must in various ways secure a vantage ground for the first throughout the school course of study. But the effect of this in special reference to the general body of Recommendations formed with the view to the equal encouragement of both may be illustrated by an instance.

It is recommended (by Recommendation XII) that boys be permitted to study Natural Science or Modern Languages during their whole stay at school, and that they be required to study each during part of their stay. In support of this even-handed Recommendation stands another,* which gives to each, if studied, the same privilege, and the same degree of privilege in contributing to promotion through the school. These provisions taken together or apart are intended to give equal encouragement to either

*Recommendation XVI.


[page 333]

study, by allowing a free option between both and the same privileges to the same degrees of proficiency in either. And as is the intention, so is the effect while they stand alone in the body of Recommendations. But it appears likely to be otherwise so soon as this Recommendation for an entrance examination occupies the same ground with them in the same school. It will be its necessary effect that all boys admitted will have learned a Modern Language, and have made proficiency in it according to their age. It will be also its effect, that all will be comparatively or totally ignorant of Natural Science. Under such circumstances, the Recommendations giving a free option between both subjects, and giving the same degree of privileges to the same degree of proficiency in either, seems likely often to throw the choice upon Modern Languages. The knowledge already gained in the subject of Modern Languages for the purpose of passing the entrance examination, will be available also for the purpose of gaining promotion through the school, if the study of Modern Languages is continued after admission. On the other hand, if Natural Science be adopted after admission, the proficiency acquired in Modern Languages will be thrown away, and there will be no proficiency in Natural Science available for promotion at all. A choice, therefore, of Natural Science as a subject of instruction after admission to school, involving, as appears likely, this sacrifice, will not always be made by industrious boys even in those cases in which predilection, or a deliberate estimate of value, might under other circumstances lead to it. The two several studies, too, if regarded from a higher point of view, will fall into the same relative position as objects of choice. To relinquish a study seriously pursued, is, in great measure, to forget it, and therefore, also, to lose the time which has been spent upon it. Under such circumstances, and the influence of this recommendation, if either study is followed during the whole time spent at school, it will more naturally be that of Modern Languages. It is true, indeed, that under the scheme of education framed by the Recommendations of our Report, the concurrent study of both these subjects after admission to school, is a course which may possibly be adopted, and that, if so, Natural Science will be thus independent of the influences of the entrance examination. This is, indeed, a possible effect of the Recommendations, but their general spirit, which provides at every point means of contracting the studies of each individual boy considerably within the limits of the whole curriculum offered by the school, is favourable to the opposite course of proceeding; and if the Governing Bodies of the schools therefore take up the clue which this series of Recommendations supplies, such a system probably will not be encouraged by them. Nor do the results, either of experiences hitherto gained, or of reasonings which should guide us in their absence, warrant this concurrent and constant pursuit of both studies as compatible with the prevailing method of teaching Classics. The modern English Schools, brought into existence in great measure by the desire to bestow a more comprehensive education than do the older institutions, which are the subject of this Report, have not attempted to combine all the subjects here proposed for Public School study in the instruction of every boy. The Foreign Schools of which we have received an account, although very comprehensive in their scheme of subjects to be taught to each, have so arranged their plan that the earlier years of Public School life are not oppressed and distracted by such a multiplicity of studies.* They defer many branches of knowledge to a later period, when years of study must have rendered the earlier subjects of knowledge so familiar that their prosecution exacts comparatively light labour. Even at the latest period of school life the curriculum is not so comprehensive as that suggested and recommended in our Report. The study of Modern Languages, for instance, is limited to a single language, which at that time must have been learned for several years when the later subjects are commenced. Still the charge of dissipating the powers and bewildering the mind is occasionally made against the system. Again, the fruits borne by our own narrower range of subjects at the present time are not such as to countenance a large and sudden addition to the number which each boy must learn. It need not therefore, I apprehend, be anticipated that the possibility admitted by our Recommendations of studying at one time all the subjects of instruction, will, in the case of many schools, or of many boys in any school, be taken advantage of.

Believing, then, the peremptory requirement of French or German, together with the exclusion of Natural Science from the entrance examination for Public Schools, to be a provision both discordant with our other Recommendations as to the organization of the school instruction, and detrimental to the education of those classes which resort to Public Schools, I think that this inequality should be removed.

The practical methods of effecting this are more than one. First, the whole Recommendation might without serious loss, as it seems to me, be cancelled as unnecessary.

*See Appendix to Report.


[page 334]

The real object of it is that of providing that there be no boy in the school who is not reasonably proficient for his age in the course of school teaching: and this purpose practically is answered by another General Recommendation,* and by the particular Recommendations which carry it into effect at each school. It is possible, again, to withdraw the subject of Modern Languages altogether from the Recommendation as to the entrance examination. But I am of opinion that the least modification which the Recommendation requires is such as would suggest to the Governors of schools, or offer to the candidates for admission, a choice "of either French, German, or Natural Science" as the second subject of examination in addition to Classics. This option would remove all the practical difficulties occasioned by the discord of incoherent, inefficacious, or exceptional Recommendations. It would restore on this occasion that equality between the two subjects as matters of school instruction which all other Recommendations in our Report aim at establishing, and through the same method as that by which they frequently, if not invariably, preserve it. It would provide a test-examination on entrance accordant with the principle on which it professes to be founded, and adapted to the studies of every boy in every school in which it is to be applied. It would provide a placing examination at entrance accordant with the examinations for promotion throughout the school. It would permit to boys undergoing education out of the school in preparation for the higher Forms within it the same freedom as to subjects of instruction which is allowed to boys of the same age and proficiency in the lower classes of the same school who are also preparing for its higher Forms. By giving an opportunity of escape from the concurrent study of three languages in the earliest years of life, it would limit at least the extent of those educational evils to which under the second head of objection attention has been drawn. Offering, indeed, as it does, an alternative, it forbears from enforcing such a system for all as in itself and in its principle would seem the best. Many practical considerations commend such forbearance. Established systems have taken root on the one hand - on the other, public opinion, when allowed opportunities of observation and of choice, with sufficient time and space for change, can modify itself. But it avoids the error which in my humble opinion the Recommendation as it stands in our Report involves of prescribing peremptorily to all a system of instruction in very early life which is not under any point of view good for all, and is not in itself good for any. This modification of its provisions again does not appear to exclude any educational advantage which the present Recommendation secures, while it offers advantages which the present Recommendation fails even to permit. If it be thought desirable by any that a faultless, as distinct from an intelligible, pronunciation either of German or French should be acquired, and that it can be acquired only within the first twelve years of life, when the muscles are in their first and highest flexibility, such an arrangement as is here proposed will give opportunity for the realization of this desire on the part of those who think either of these accomplishments necessary, and believe this to be the sole method of gaining it. The change proposed will give no less, the Recommendation as it stands in our Report will give no more, than such an opportunity because it does not absolutely secure cultivation either of French or German. To those, on the other hand, who think that the knowledge of natural objects is of high service and value, and that instruction in it cannot be imparted too soon, either as a general discipline to the mind or as a peculiar discipline to all the senses and special faculties which are exercised, is allowed the same freedom of action; while by the Recommendation of our Report it is refused save on condition of an entire sacrifice of all the benefit of education at a Public School. If, however, many evils and disadvantages appear to be removed and no advantages sacrificed, no evils or inconveniences seem to be created, by the change which I propose. This is certainly the case if it be not considered an evil effect that the learning of a third language in earliest life is no longer compulsory on all, and that the learning of some branch of natural knowledge in the same years is no longer forbidden to all.

In instituting and conducting an entrance examination in Natural Science there can be no practical difficulty. As all the schools will be organized for the instruction of boys in all degrees of proficiency in Natural Science, so all schools must be furnished

*By virtue of these Recommendations it will be impossible for any boy to remain in any part of any school after he has passed the maximum age which is suitable to such position, and by Recommendation XVI it is provided that his position in the school shall always be accordant with his proficiency in school studies. If any boy, therefore, whose state of proficiency was unsuitable to his age should be admitted into the school, these Regulations would again immediately or soon exclude him. It might, I think, under such circumstances be safely left to the Governors and Head Masters of schools to exercise their own discretion as to admission, if they do but carry out the Recommendation which applies to those who have been admitted. This Recommendation, therefore, might without great loss be spared. - Recommendation XXV.


[page 335]

with the means of giving judicious and thorough examinations suitable to the proper proficiency of any candidate seeking admission at the school; and the same firmness which is necessary, in order to give effect to an examination in Classics or French, cannot fail in giving effect also to an examination in the element of Natural Science. Nor need its imposing name seem to disqualify it for a subject of examination in the middle or even lower Forms of a Public School. "Greek", which was once the synonym of "abstruse" and "unintelligible", is now a subject in which boys of the lower Forms of Public Schools are daily examined. Natural Science, however, like a classical language, has not only its elements but its grammar, its accidence, so to speak, and even its alphabet, in each of which judicious and considerate examiners will be able to test the soundness of the knowledge of the least proficient. Nor must it be assumed that all opportunities for the early cultivation of Modern Languages will be always within command before actual admission into a Public School, while those for the acquisition of the elements of any branch of Natural Science will never, or in exceptional cases alone, be within reach. The compulsory system, which requires all to learn either French or German in their tenderest years, will not in every case secure the attainment of the desired end. All homes, and even all schools, cannot always command faultless instructors both in French and German, and it might sometimes happen that a boy compelled to learn during the course of several years from childhood to the day of admission into Public School, would bring with him an accent or an articulation fully developed and securely established, but not such as the accomplished Language Master of a great Public School could either wish to have been taught, or could hope easily to unteach. On the other hand, the two great branches of Natural Science which we have proposed to make parts of Public School teaching, have also some advantages in this respect. Their natural homes, as it were, are in town or country. Experimental Sciences naturally belong to the towns, where instruments, lectures, theatres, and laboratories and institutions of various kinds are at hand. Those on the other hand connected with Natural History, find their materials and illustrations in the country, where a living and organized world abounds with specimens and illustrations. Schools and homes must be in one or the other, and may be both in one and near the other. Indeed, instances have already occurred in which the site of a school in a large town has given opportunities for obtaining scientific information such as has laid the foundations of a career and a reputation. The permission, therefore, to vary the school subjects of examination in Languages by the elements of Natural Science would not, I believe, fall into desuetude for want of means and opportunities to obtain such knowledge as should satisfy its requirements. It would probably call existing opportunities into use; it would also probably develop half formed and defective opportunities into complete means of carrying on such preliminary studies, by giving a practical and immediate demand for them. Persons capable of giving some instruction or of superintending it, more and more abound; and the further demand for such teaching might soon act to divert to the vocation of teaching such subjects many whose education has involved the acquisition of this knowledge for other purposes. If, on the other hand, either want of opportunity, or want of persons and materials necessary to carry on the instruction, or any other causes, should very greatly limit the use of this alternative, such an effect so brought about would be more satisfactory than entire exclusion of the subject by a peremptory regulation.

Such is the modification of Recommendation XXIII in our Report which consistent adherence to the whole scheme of Recommendations concerning the subjects taught in Public Schools, no less than a due regard to sound educational principles, compels me to propose.

In order to explain the scope of the remarks made in the course of this statement. which deprecate the compulsory addition of a Modern Language to Classics amongst the studies of quite early life, and advocate the permission of an alternative, I deem it right to add an observation. The objection here urged against the compulsory union of these studies is founded on fixed educational principles as applied to that method of classical instruction which now exists in Public Schools, and which is left by our Report as a condition and basis of this and other Recommendations. If, however, the organization of all the studies in Public Schools were submitted to re-construction, it will appear from that which here follows that the very same principles might work out an opposite, and as it seems to me unobjectionable result on this point.

It is desirable to secure to all boys the discipline afforded by the study of Language, Arithmetic, and Natural Science, because something is lost by the loss of any of these. The study, however, of Latin, Greek, French, and German, Divinity, Ancient History, and Geography, Arithmetic, or Mathematics and Natural Science by the same boy at


[page 336]

the same time is an arrangement which would, it may be feared, not only lower the rate of progress in the several subjects to such a degree as would be inexpedient, but be prejudicial in its effect upon the intellectual interests and faculties, and even the moral energy of mind submitted to the influence of such a system. In such case a determination must be made deliberately to omit from this list of concurrent studies that subject or those subjects the loss of which would involve the least sacrifice. Every subject, as we have seen, embodies two distinct kinds of educational value. The first is, its disciplinary power as an intellectual exercise; the second, its utility and applicability as an acquisition. That which embodies these two in the least degree, or only one of these, is to be abandoned in preference to any which in the same respects will involve a greater loss if dropped. For these reasons it would appear clearly, after the foregoing remarks, that the choice of the subject to be omitted should fall upon language. Any language, it might almost be said, beyond one language of a fine type of structure, involves in its cultivation little other advantage than that of practical or instrumental utility in some form, whether social, literary, or scientific. The advantage of a beneficial discipline is insured in one; it is not very greatly increased, as we have seen, by a second; still less by a third or fourth. Such additional languages have then only one educational value. The acquisition is valuable, not the act of acquiring. Each of the other subjects, on the other hand, Mathematics and Natural Science, has a double value at least. It is valuable as an instrument for use and application; it is specifically and peculiarly valuable, also, as a power reacting on the mind which is engaged in its acquisition, to enlarge it and strengthen its faculties. That the study of arithmetic or the elements of mathematics should, under ordinary circumstances, be abandoned in early boyhood; none, probably, would suggest; that any wise hesitation could exist as to the abandonment of Natural Science appears also out of the question. The only matter for real doubt under such circumstances presents itself in the choice of languages which should be retained for cultivation in the early years of life. The Latin language, the first representative of the science and art of grammar, if it does not maintain at the present moment in full force all its ancient claims for priority of cultivation before all other tongues, holds still a clear title to pre-eminence. In the relation of this language to the tongues, the history, the institutions, the laws, and the sciences of Europe, together with the regular and systematic form in which the rules of its grammar and the whole plan of its teaching have been elaborated, is to be found sufficient reason for adherence to it as worthy of the first place in the order of languages which should be taught to all those who desire the education of scholars.

The choice of the second language is more embarrassing. In order, however, to facilitate the selection, it is advisable at this point to ascertain the various degrees and kinds of abandonment which the requirements of sound teaching impose upon us as to the third and fourth languages. The period of school education, including both the Public School instruction and the preparation for it, extends, and should extend, from the age of 8 to that of 18 or 19. Now, it might not be necessary that instruction in every subject should be completed when Public School education ceases. On the contrary, it is one acknowledged incident of a Public School education, that it is itself preparatory to a higher teaching, such as the University should give. It follows, therefore, that it would not be necessary to devote the whole of the period of 11 years passed at school work to every subject of instruction in the scheme of school education. In reference to this question, such a consideration is important. One of the languages might be deferred for five or even six years, without fear that the temporary omission need involve any sacrifice of it eventually. If begun comparatively late, it would be commenced with all the advantages of an intellect matured by age, developed by kindred studies, freed from the demands of many other concurrent and distracting studies in subjects quite unknown, and in the case of able and industrious youths stimulated by the novelty and the interests of a more intelligent curiosity. Such conditions would in themselves go far to compensate for the later start and the apparent loss of time which it involves. Four years of concentrated study begun at such a period, and extending through the very prime of a student's life (so far as the powers of acquisition are concerned), if well bestowed, ought to give a fair degree of scholarship in any language commonly studied at school. The study of French or German could be begun and carried far in such time. The study of Greek might be pushed within the same limits of time to an advanced stage. So far it would seem almost a matter of indifference which of them should be selected for the first years of school instruction. Other considerations, then, might be admitted to determine the choice.

The convenience attending the acquisition of French in the present condition of social life in Europe, its natural affinity to Latin, and its aptitude for teaching as an accessory


[page 337]

study to that of Latin at any time, would justify the propriety of giving to this one Modern Language a place in the studies of boyhood immediately after the acquisition of the Latin grammar. So soon as the study of grammar, illustrated by Latin, should have mapped out to the learner the general province and the subordinate departments of language sufficiently to give facility for his apprehension and arrangements of its forms and grammatical rules, French might be grammatically and constantly taught with practical advantage, and without detriment probably to the memory and understanding of the learner. But under such circumstances it would be most desirable that Greek should be rigorously postponed till a sound and complete familiarity with Latin were established, and many difficulties of French mastered. The fourth language, as a necessary part of the curriculum, could be altogether abandoned.

Under such conditions there might be ground for hope that all the other subjects recommended for cultivation in Public Schools might at all periods of life be pursued concurrently without oppression, distraction, or dissipation of the intellectual powers. A boy of 12 years old might with advantage to himself be required to carry on together his pursuit of Latin and French, Arithmetic and Natural Science. A boy of 14 years who had well mastered Latin and was advanced in French might profitably commence the vigorous prosecution of Greek, concurrently with the bestowal of a constant but remitted attention to his pursuit of Latin and of French, and with the same amount of Arithmetical and Mathematical and Scientific knowledge as before. This scheme of study might be persisted in until there should arise the occasion or the period for a more complete concentration of mind on some topics than is reconcilable with so comprehensive a system of instruction.

The practical bearings which such a scheme, unless adopted by the universal consent of Public Schools, might have on the competitions of the various schools at the University need not be dwelt upon. It is not a scheme here recommended. It is adduced here to illustrate the manner in which the compulsory study of one modern language at least might be combined with classics, during the earlier years of education in perfect accordance with the same principles which under the different arrangement of school studies now established, and assumed here as the basis of the Recommendation under question, it has been in the foregoing observations considered to violate.

March 8, 1864.

(Signed) H. H. VAUGHAN.




[page 338]

SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS

The Commission was issued on the 18th July 1861.

The First Meeting of the Commissioners was held on the 20th July 1861.

Printed Questions addressed to the Authorities of the several Schools, with a series of Tabular Forms which they were requested to fill up, were sent to them on the 9th October 1861.

Answers to these Questions were received at various times within a period extending from the 24th December 1861 to the 31st March 1862. In the case of one of the Schools some of the Tabular Returns asked were not completed until the month of July 1862.

The Commissioners visited the several Schools at the following times in the year 1862:

Rugby, 11th, 12th, and 13th May;
Shrewsbury, 22nd and 23rd May;
Winchester, 29th and 30th May;
Harrow, 2nd and 3rd June;
Charterhouse, 16th June;
Westminster, 21st June;
Merchant Taylors', 28th June;
St. Paul's, 2nd July;
Eton, 3rd July.
Witnesses were examined at various times within a period extending from 12th May 1862 to 15th May 1863. The total number examined was 130. This number includes persons who, as Trustees, members of Governing Bodies, or in any other character, sought interviews with the Commissioners or attended of their own accord. A list of the witnesses examined in connexion with each School is prefixed to the Minutes of Evidence relating to such School, and a list of witnesses examined on topics bearing generally on Public School Education is prefixed to the General Evidence.

The total number of Meetings held by the Commissioners is 127.