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V. The Head Masters 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 method of study, (subject to all the regulations made by the Governing Body as to the introduction, suppres sion, 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 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 insure that the boys acquire a good general knowledge of 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, whenever 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 and 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, should satisfy himself of the propriety of either granting or refusing

the application, and in the latter case should, either 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, (page 230.)

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 their 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, should settle a scale of marks for this purpose; and the scale should be so framed as to give a substantial weight and encouragement to the non-classical studies. (See suggested scale, page 230.)

XVIII. Ancient history and geography should be taught in connection 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 from laying 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 distributions 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

• This last point is formally dissented from by Mr. Vaughan.

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 heve counterbalanced that deficiency had the system of promotion permitted it.

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 charges 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 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.

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 wronged by any abuse of it should be able at all times to appeal to the Head Master. The power of punishment, when intrusted 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, endeavor to make the holiday times of their respective schools coincide as far as possible, so as to enable school-boys 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.

Concluding Remarks.—We have considered, in the preceding remarks, the external government of these schools; their internal government; their course of study, which appears sound and valuable in its main elements, but wanting in breadth and flexibility-defects which 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; their organization and teaching, regarded not as to its range, but as to its force and efficiency-and 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 conse quently send out a large proportion of men of idle habits and empty and uncultivated minds; and their discipline and moral training, of which we have been able to speak in terms of high praise.

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 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.

It is evident that important progress has been made even in those particulars in which the schools are most deficient. 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 vigor 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 molded 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 molding the character of an English

gentleman. The system, like other systems, has 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 it has not encouraged, some roughness, tyranny, and license; but these defects 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.

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