expense and dissipation at a more ad-cuous person is supposed to have been vanced period of life.

:

educated at public schools; and there One of the supposed advantages of are scarcely any means (as it is imaa public school, is the greater know- gined) of making an actual comparison; ledge of the world which a boy is con- and yet, great as the rage is, and long sidered to derive from those situations; has been, for public schools, it is very but if, by a knowledge of the world, is remarkable, that the most eminent men meant a knowledge of the forms and in every art and science have not been manners which are found to be the educated in public schools; and this is most pleasing and useful in the world, true, even if we include, in the term of a boy from a public school is almost public schools, not only Eton, Winalways extremely deficient in these chester, and Westminster, but the particulars; and his sister, who has Charterhouse, St. Paul's School, Merremained at home at the apron-strings chant Taylors', Rugby, and every school of her mother, is very much his superior in England, at all conducted upon the in the science of manners. It is pro- plan of the three first. The great bably true, that a boy at a public school schools of Scotland we do not call pubhas made more observations on human lic schools; because, in these, the mix. character, because he has had more ture of domestic life gives to them a opportunities of observing, than have widely different character. Spenser, been enjoyed by young persons edu-Pope, Shakspeare, Butler, Rochester, cated either at home or at private Spratt, Parnell, Garth, Congreve, Gay, schools but this little advance gained Swift, Thomson, Shenstone, Akenside, at a public school, is so soon overtaken Goldsmith, Samuel Johnson, Beaumont at college or in the world, that, to have and Fletcher, Ben Jonson, Sir Philip made it, is of the least possible conse- Sidney, Savage, Arbuthnot and Burns, quence, and utterly undeserving of any among the poets, were not educated in risk incurred in the acquisition. Is it the system of English schools. Sir Isaac any injury to a man of thirty or thirty-Newton, Maclaurin, Wallis, Flamsteed, five years of age-to a learned serjeant Saunderson, Simpson, and Napier, or venerable dean-that at eighteen they did not know so much of the world as some other boys of the same standing? They have probably escaped the arrogant character so often attendant upon this trifling superiority; nor is there much chance that they have ever fallen into the common and youthful error of mistaking a premature initiation into vice, for a knowledge of the ways of mankind: and, in addition to these salutary exemptions, a winter in London brings it all to a level; and offers to every novice the advantages which are supposed to be derived from this precocity of confidence and polish. According to the general prejudice in favour of public schools, it would be thought quite as absurd and superfluous to enumerate the illustrious characters who have been bred at our three great seminaries of this description, as it would be to descant upon the illustrious characters who have passed in and out of London over our three great bridges. Almost every conspi

among men of science, were not educated in public schools. The three best historians that the English language has produced, Clarendon, Hume and Robertson, were not educated at public schools. Public schools have done little in England for the fine arts-as in the examples of Inigo Jones, Vanbrugh, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Garrick, &c. The great medical writers and discoverers in Great Britain, Har. vey, Cheselden, Hunter, Jenner, Meade, Brown, and Cullen, were not educated at public schools. Of the great writers on morals and metaphysics, it was not the system of public schools which produced Bacon, Shaftesbury, Hobbes," Berkeley, Butler, Hume, Hartley, or Dugald Stewart. The greatest discoverers in chemistry have not been brought up at public schools :-we mean Dr. Priestley, Dr. Black, and Mr. Davy. The only Englishmen who have evinced a remarkable genius, in modern times, for the art of war,-the Duke of Marlborough, Lord Peter

man,

Upon this system, a boy is left almost entirely to himself, to impress upon his own mind, as well as he can, the distant advantages of knowledge, and to with. stand, from his own innate resolution, the examples and the seductions of idleness. A firm character survives

borough, General Wolfe, and Lord | ment is favourable either to literature
Clive, were all trained in private or morals.
schools. So were Lord Coke, Sir
Matthew Hale, and Lord Chancellor
Hardwicke, and Chief Justice Holt,
among the lawyers. So also, among
statesmen, were Lord Burleigh, Wal-
singham, the Earl of Strafford, Thurloe,
Cromwell, Hampden, Lord Clarendon,
Sir Walter Raleigh, Sydney, Russell, this brave neglect; and very exalted
Sir W. Temple, Lord Somers, Burke, talents may sometimes remedy it by
Sheridan, Pitt. In addition to this list, subsequent diligence: but schools are
we must not forget the names of such not made for a few youths of pre-
eminent scholars and men of letters, as eminent talents and strong characters:
Cadworth, Chillingworth, Tillotson, such prizes can, of course, be drawn
Archbishop King, Selden, Conyers but by a very few parents. The best
Middleton, Bentley, Sir Thomas More, school is that which is best accommo-
Cardinal Wolsey, Bishops Sherlock and dated to the greatest variety of charac-
Wilkins, Jeremy Taylor, Isaac Hooker, ters, and which embraces the greatest
Bishops Usher, Stillingfleet and Spel- number of cases. It cannot be the main
Dr. Samuel Clarke, Bishop Hoad-object of education to render the splen-
ley, and Dr. Lardner. Nor must it be
forgotten, in this examination, that
none of the conspicuous writers upon
political economy which this country
has as yet produced, have been brought
up in public schools. If it be urged
that public schools have only assumed
their present character within this last
century, or half century, and that what
are now called public schools partook,
before this period, of the nature of pri-
vate schools, there must then be added
to our lists the names of Milton, Dry-
den, Addison, &c. &c.: and it will fol-
low, that the English have done almost
all that they have done in the arts and
sciences, without the aid of that system
of education to which they are now so
much attached. Ample as this catalogue
of celebrated names already is, it would
be easy to double it; yet, as it stands,
it is obviously sufficient to show that
great eminence may be attained in any
line of fame, without the aid of public
schools. Some more striking inferences
might perhaps be drawn from it; but
We content ourselves with the simple
fact.

did more splendid, and to lavish care upon those who would almost thrive without any care at all. A public school does this effectually; but it commonly leaves the idle almost as idle, and the dull almost as dull, as it found them. It disdains the tedious cultivation of those middling talents of which only the great mass of human beings are possessed. When a strong desire of improvement exists, it is encouraged; but no pains are taken to inspire it. A boy is cast in among five or six hundred other boys, and is left to form his own character-if his love of knowledge survive this severe trial, it, in general, carries him very far: and, upon the same principle, a savage who grows up to manhood is, in general, well made, and free from all bodily defects; not because the severities of such a state are favourable to animal life, but because they are so much the reverse that none but the strongest can survive them. A few boys are incorrigibly idle, and a few incorrigibly eager for knowledge; but the great mass are in a state of doubt and flucThe most important peculiarity in tuation; and they come to school for the constitution of a public school is the express purpose, not of being left to its numbers, which are so great, that a themselves-for that could be done close inspection of the master into the anywhere-but that their wavering studies and conduct of each individual tastes and propensities should be deis quite impossible. We must be al-cided by the intervention of a master. lowed to doubt whether such an arrange- In a forest, or public school for oaks

1

sion, we rather wish to avoid offering any opinion. The manners of great schools vary considerably from time to time; and what may have been true many years ago is very possibly not true at the present period. In this instance, every parent must be governed by his own observations and means of information. If the licence which prevails at public schools is only a fair increase of liberty, proportionate to advancing age, and calculated to prevent the bad effects of a sudden transition from tutelary thraldom to perfect self-government, it is certainly a good, rather than an evil. If, on the contrary, there exists in these places of education a system of premature debauchery, and if they only prevent men from being corrupted by the world, by corrupting them before their entry into the world, they can then only be looked upon as evils of the greatest magnitude, however they may be sanctioned by opinion, or rendered familiar to us by

and elms, the trees are left to themselves;
the strong plants live, and the weak ones
die; the towering oak that remains
is admired; the saplings that perish
around it are cast into the flames, and
forgotten. But it is not, surely, to the
vegetable struggle of a forest, or the
hasty glance of a forester, that a botanist
would commit a favourite plant; he
would naturally seek for it a situation
of less hazard, and a cultivator whose
limited occupations would enable him to
give to it a reasonable share of his time
and attention. The very meaning of
education seems to us to be, that the
old should teach the young, and the
wise direct the weak; that a man who
professes to instruct, should get among
his pupils, study their characters, gain
their affections, and form their inclina-
tions and aversions. In a public school,
the numbers render this impossible; it
is impossible that sufficient time should
be found for this useful and affectionate
interference. Boys, therefore, are left
to their own crude conceptions and ill-habit.
formed propensities; and this neglect is
called a spirited and manly education.
In by far the greatest number of
cases, we cannot think public schools
favourable to the cultivation of know-
ledge; and we have equally strong
doubts if they be so to the cultivation
of morals,-though we admit, that upon
this point the most striking arguments
have been produced in their favour.

It

The vital and essential part of a school is the master; but, at a public school, no boy, or, at the best, only a very few, can see enough of him to derive any considerable benefit from his character, manners, and information. is certainly of eminent use, particularly to a young man of rank, that he should have lived among boys; but it is only so when they are all moderately watched It is contended by the friends to by some superior understanding. The public schools, that every person before morality of boys is generally very imhe comes to man's estate, must run perfect; their notions of honour exthrough a certain career of dissipation; tremely mistaken; and their objects and that if that career is, by the means of ambition frequently very absurd. of a private education, deferred to a The probability then is, that the kind more advanced period of life, it will of discipline they exercise over each only be begun with greater eagerness other will produce (when left to itself) and pursued into more blameable a great deal of mischief; and yet this excess. The time must, of course, is the discipline to which every child come, when every man must be his at a public school is not only necesown master; when his conduct can sarily exposed, but principally confined. be no longer regulated by the watchful Our objection (we again repeat) is not superintendence of another, but must to the interference of boys in the forbe guided by his own discretion.mation of the character of boys; their Emancipation must come at last; and character, we are persuaded, will be we admit, that the object to be aimed very imperfectly formed without their at is, that such emancipation should be assistance; but our objection is to that gradual, and not premature. Upon almost exclusive agency which they this very invidious point of the discus-exercise in public schools.

After having said so much in oppo- of a parent who is blest with a child of sition to the general prejudice in favour strong character and pre-eminent abiliof public schools, we may be expected ties: to be the first scholar of an obto state what species of school we think scure master, at an obscure place, is no preferable to them; for if public very splendid distinction; nor does it schools, with all their disadvantages, afford that opportunity, of which so are the best that can actually be found, many parents are desirous, of forming or easily attained, the objections to great connections for their children : them are certainly made to very little but if the object be to induce the young to love knowledge and virtue, we are inclined to suspect, that, for the average of human talents and charac

purpose.

DISTURBANCES AT MADRAS.

(E. REVIEW, 1810.)

Narrative of the Origin and Progress of the Dissensions at the Presidency of Madras, founded on Original Papers and Correspondence. Lloyd, London, 1810.

Account of the Origin and Progress of the late Discontents of the Army on the Madras Establishment. Cadell and Davies, London, 1810.

We have no hesitation, however, in saying, that that education seems to us to be the best which mingles a domes-ters, these are the situations in which tie with a school life, and which gives such tastes will be the most effectually to a youth the advantage which is to formed. be derived from the learning of a master, and the emulation which resalts from the society of other boys, together with the affectionate vigilance which he must experience in the house of his parents. But where this species of education, from peculiarity of circumstances or situation, is not attainable, we are disposed to think a society of twenty or thirty boys, under the guidance of a learned man, and, above all, of a man of good sense, to be a seminary the best adapted for the education of youth. The numbers are sufficient to excite a considerable degree of emulation, to give to a boy some insight into the diversities of the human character, and to subject him to the observation and control of his supenors. It by no means follows, that a judicious man should always interfere with his authority and advice, because he has always the means; he may connive at many things which he cannot approve, and suffer some little failures to proceed to a certain extent, which, indulged in wider limits, would be attended with irretrievable mischief: he will be aware that his object is to fit his papil for the world; that constant control is a very bad preparation for complete emancipation from all controi; that it is not bad policy to expose a young man, under the eye of superior wisdom, to some of those dangers which will assail him hereafter in greater number, and in greater strength-when be has only his own resources to depend upon. A private education, condacted upon these principles, is not calculated to gratify quickly the vanity

Statement of Facts delivered to the Right Honourable Lord Minto. By William Petrie, Esq. Stockdale, London, 1810. THE disturbances which have lately taken place in our East Indian possessions would, at any period, have excited a considerable degree of alarm; and those feelings are, of course, not a little increased by the ruinous aspect of our European affairs. The revolt of an army of eighty thousand men is an event which seems to threaten so nearly the ruin of the country in which it happens, that no common curiosity is excited as to the causes which could have led to it, and the means by which its danger was averted. On these points, we shall endeavour to exhibit to our readers the information afforded to us by the pamphlets whose titles we have cited. The first of these is understood to be written by an agent of Sir George Barlow, sent over for the express purpose of defending his measures; the second is most probably the production of some one of the dismissed officers, or, at least, founded upon their representations; the third statement is by Mr. Petrie,-and we most cordially

recommend it to the perusal of our readers. It is characterised, throughout, by moderation, good sense, and a feeling of duty. We have seldom read a narrative, which, on the first face of it, looked so much like truth. It has, of course, produced the ruin and dismissal of this gentleman, though we have not the shadow of doubt, that if his advice had been followed, every unpleasant occurrence which has happened in India might have been effectually prevented.

field-the report proceeds to state the following observation, made on the authority of six years' experience and attentive examination.

"Thirdly. By granting the same allowances in peace and war for the equipment of native corps, while the expenses incidental to that charge are unavoidably much greater in war than in peace, it places the native corps in direct opposition to one interest and duty of officers commanding another. It makes it their interest that their corps should not be in a state of efficiency fit for field service, and therefore furnishes strong inducements to neglect their most important duties.”—Accurate and Authentic Narrative, pp. 117, 118.

In the year 1802, a certain monthly allowance, proportioned to their respective ranks, was given to each officer of the Coast army, to enable him Here, then, is not only a proposal for to provide himself with camp equi- reducing the emoluments of the prinpage; and a mouthly allowance was cipal officers of the Madras army, but also made to the commanding officers a charge of the most flagrant nature. of the native corps for the provision The first they might possibly have had of the camp equipage of these corps. some right to consider as a hardship; This arrangement was commonly called but, when severe and unjust invective the tent contract. Its intention (as the was superadded to strict retrenchment pamphlet of Sir George Barlow's agent -when their pay and their reputation very properly states) was to combine were diminished at the same time—it facility of movement in military opera- cannot be considered as surprising. tions with views of economy. In the that such treatment, on the part of the general revision of its establishments, Government, should lay the foundation set on foot for the purposes of economy for a spirit of discontent in those troops by the Madras Government, this con- who had recently made such splendid tract was considered as entailing upon additions to the Indian empire, and them a very unnecessary expense; and established, in the progress of these the then commander-in-chief, General acquisitions, so high a character for Craddock, directed Colonel Munro, the discipline and courage. It must be quarter-master-general, to make a re- remembered, that an officer on Europort to him upon the subject. The re-pean and on Indian service, are in very port, which was published almost as different situations, and propose to soon as it was made up, recommends themselves very different objects. The the abolition of this contract; and, among other passages for the support of this opinion, has the following one:

"Six years' experience of the practical effects of the existing system of the camp equipage equipment of the native army, has afforded means of forming a judgment relative to its advantages and efficiency, which were not possessed by the persons who proposed its introduction; and an attentive examination of its operations during that period of time has suggested the following observations regarding it":After stating that the contract is needlessly expensive-that it subjects the Company to the same charges for troops in garrison as for those in the

one never thinks of making a fortune by his profession, while the hope of ultimately gaining an independence is Indian officer banishes himself from his the principal motive for which the country. To diminish the emoluments of his profession is to retard the period of his return, and to frustrate the purpose for which he exposes his life and health in a burning climate. on the other side of the world. We make these observations, certainly, without any idea of denying the right of the East India Company to make any retrenchments they may think proper, but to show that it is a right which ought to be exercised with great