as yet fully solved this problem. I am convinced, however, that, in the peculiar relation of the highest form to the rest of the boys, such as it exists in our great public schools, there is to be found the best means of answering it. This relation requires in many respects to be improved in its character; some of its features should be softened, others elevated; but here, and here only, is the engine which can effect the end desired." (Journ. Ed. p. 292.)

In other words, he determined to use, and to improve to the utmost, the existing machinery of the Sixth Form, and of fagging; understanding, by the Sixth Form, the thirty boys who composed the highest class-"those who having risen to the highest form in the school, will probably be at once the oldest and the strongest, and the cleverest; and if the school be well ordered, the most respectable in application and general character:" and by fagging, "the power given by the supreme authorities of the school to the Sixth Form, to be exercised by them over the lower boys, for the sake of securing a regular government amongst the boys themselves, and avoiding the evils of anarchy, in other words, of the lawless tyranny of physical strength." (Journ. Ed. p. 287, 286.) "

a

In many points he took the institution as he found it, and as he remembered it at Winchester. The responsibility of checking bad practices without the intervention of the masters, the occasional settlement of difficult cases of school-government, the subjection of brute force to some kind of order, involved in the maintenance of such an authority, had been more or less produced under the old system both at Rugby and elsewhere. But his zeal in its defence, and his confident reliance upon it as the keystone of his whole government, were eminently characteristic of himself. It was a point moreover on which the spirit of the age set strongly and increasingly against him, on which there was a general tendency to yield to the popular outcry, and on which the clamour, that at one time assailed him,

a It has not been thought necessary here to enter at length into his defence of the general system of fagging, especially as it may be seen by those who are interested in the subject in the article in the ninth volume of the Quarterly Journal of Education, from which the above extracts have been taken, and which is now inserted at length in the volume of his Miscellaneous Works.

was ready to fasten as a subject where all parties could concur in their condemnation Fube was immoveable: and, though en bis árst coming, be had del imself called upon rather to rescrsiz the sathunty of the Strà Form from abuses, than to gurà la from emraÈDER, YA D: that the whole system was denommeed as vrai soi dhe be delighted to stand forth ss is dampion. The pove, which was most strongly conkommed, of persend thatsmen: vested in the Præpostors peye these vie resisted that subcity, he firmly maintained as esser 28, 20 de general, sizporn of the good order of the place; Že v De chłoggy, which be wald not undergo in the prosicion of a der, who had by dae exercise of this discipline ya Lust docxions to the school, the parents, or the པི དྷསྶ ནི

But the importance, which he attached to it, arose from his redding it not only as an efficient engine of discipline, but as she chief means of creating a respect for moral and intellectual excellence, and of diffusing his own influence through the mass of the school. Whilst he made the Præpostors rely upon his support in all just use of their authority, as well as on his severe judgment of all abuse of it, he endeavoured also to make them feel that they were actually fellow-workers with him for the highest good of the school, upon the highest principles and motives-that they had, with him, a moral responsibility and a deep interest in the real welfare of the place. Occasionally during his whole stay, and regularly at the beginning or end of every half-year during his later years, he used to make short addresses to them on their duties, or on the general state of the school, one of which, as an illustration of his general mode of speaking and acting with them, it has been thought worth while to give, as nearly as his pupils could remember it, in the very words he used. After making a few remarks to them on their work in the lessons: "I will now," he proceeded, "say a few words to you as I promised. Speaking to you, as to young men who can enter into what I say, I wish you to feel that have another duty to perform, holding the situation that you do in the school; of the importance of this I wish you all to food sensible, and of the enormous influence you possess, in

you

ways in which we cannot, for good or for evil, on all below you; and I wish you to see fully how many and great are the opportunities offered to you here of doing good-good, too, of lasting benefit to yourselves as well as to others; there is no place where you will find better opportunities for some time to come, and you will then have reason to look back to your life here with the greatest pleasure. You will soon find, when you change your life here for that at the Universities, how very few in comparison they are there, however willing you may then be, -at any rate during the first part of your life there. That there is good, working in the school, I most fully believe, and we cannot feel too thankful for it; in many individual instances, in different parts of the school, I have seen the change from evil to good-to mention instances would of course be wrong. The state of the school is a subject of congratulation to us all, but only so far as to encourage us to increased exertions; and I am sure we ought all to feel it a subject of most sincere thankfulness to God; but we must not stop here; we must exert ourselves with earnest prayer to God for its continuance. And what I have often said before I repeat now: 1 what we must look for here is, 1st, religious and moral principles; 2ndly, gentlemanly conduct; 3rdly, intellectual ability."

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Nothing, accordingly, so shook his hopes of doing good, as weakness or misconduct in the Sixth. You should feel," he said, “like officers in the army or navy, whose want of moral courage would, indeed, be thought cowardice." "When I have confidence in the Sixth," was the end of one of his farewell addresses, "there is no post in England which I would exchange for this; but if they do not support me, I must go."

It may well be imagined how important this was as an instrument of education, independently of the weight of his own personal qualities. Exactly at the age when boys begin to acquire some degree of self-respect, and some desire for the respect of others, they were treated with confidence by one, whose confidence they could not but regard as worth having; and found themselves in a station, where their own dignity could not be maintained, except by consistent good conduct.

And exactly at a time when manly aspirations begin to expand, they found themselves invested with functions of government, great beyond their age, yet naturally growing out of their position; whilst the ground of solemn responsibility, on which they were constantly taught that their authority rested, had a general, though of course not universal, tendency to counteract any notions of mere personal self-importance.

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I cannot deny that you have an anxious duty-a duty which some might suppose was too heavy for your years. But it seems to me, the nobler as well as the truer way of stating the case to say, that it is the great privilege of this and other such institutions, to anticipate the common time of manhood; that by their whole training they fit the character for manly duties at an age when, under another system, such duties would be impracticable; that there is not imposed upon you too heavy a burden; but that you are capable of bearing, without injury, what to others might be a burden, and therefore to diminish your duties and lessen your responsibility would be no kindness, but a degradation-an affront to you and to the school." (Serm. vol. v. p. 59.)

3. Whilst he looked to the Sixth Form, as the ordinary corrective for the ordinary evils of a public school, he still felt that these evils from time to time developed themselves in a shape which demanded peculiar methods to meet them, and which may best be explained by one of his letters.

My own school experience has taught me the monstrous evil of a state of low principle prevailing amongst those who set the tone to the rest. I can neither theoretically nor practically defend our public school system, where the boys are left so very much alone to form a distinct society of their own, unless you assume that the upper class shall be capable of being in a manner μoiraι between the masters and the mass of the boys, that is, shall be capable of receiving and transmitting to the rest, through their example and influence, right principles of conduct, instead of those extremely low ones which are natural to a society of boys left wholly to form their own standard of right and wrong. Now, when I get any in this part of the school who are not to be influenced-who have neither the will nor the power to influence others-not from being intentionally bad, but from very low wit, and extreme childishness or

coarseness of character-the evil is so great, not only negatively but positively, (for their low and false views are greedily caught up by those below them,) that I know not how to proceed, or how to hinder the school from becoming a place of education for evil rather than for good, except by getting rid of such persons. And then comes the difficulty, that the parents who see their sons only at home-that is just where the points of character, which are so injurious here, are not called into action-can scarcely be brought to understand why they should remove them; and having, as most people have, only the most vague ideas as to the real nature of a public school, they cannot understand what harm they are receiving or doing to others, if they do not get into some palpable scrape, which very likely they never would do. More puzzling still is it, when you have many boys of this description, so that the evil influence is really very great, and yet there is not one of the set whom you would set down as a really bad fellow if taken alone; but most of them would really do very well if they were not together and in a situation where, unluckily, their age and size leads them, unavoidably, to form the laws and guide the opinion of their society; whereas, they are wholly unfit to lead others, and are so slow at receiving good influences themselves, that they want to be almost exclusively with older persons, instead of being principally with younger ones."

The evil undoubtedly was great, and the difficulty, which he describes in the way of its removal, tended to aggravate the evil. When first he entered on his post at Rugby, there was a general feeling in the country, that so long as a boy kept himself from offences sufficiently enormous to justify expulsion, he had a kind of right to remain in a public school; that the worse and more troublesome to parents were their sons, the more did a public school seem the precise remedy for them; that the great end of a public school, in short, was to flog their vices out of bad boys. Hence much indignation was excited when boys were sent away for lesser offences; an unfailing supply of vicious sons was secured, and scrupulous parents were naturally reluctant to expose their boys to the influence of such associates.

His own determination had been fixed long before he came to Rugby, and it was only after ascertaining that his power in this respect would be absolute, that he consented to become a

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