The Sun.
London, England, 1847-08-24 00:00:00

FAGGING AT PUBLIC SCHOOLS•

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SU.N.
admire the ability and freedom with which
you commented on who, lately occurred at Winchester
School and on fagging in general. The week before last
I wrote a letter to the editor of the Times on the sub-
ject, which hitherto he has not- chosen to insert in his
paper. I have not a copy of it, hut the purport was the
follovvintre—A boy returned from a. public school (I did
not specify Winchester, but it. was so,) extremely id,
about eight years sco, i'rom the effect of the subtraction
of his proeer quantum of food by the upper tyrants,
the in dies! man that attended him declaring that
it he
returned te school he would not answer for his life.
His motler, the widow of, a clergyman, with eight
children, had the resolution and humanity to take him
eniirely away, though to her great pseuniary detriment.
Ishis could be verified on oath. Whether the miscreants
were ever punished. as they richly desei yeti. I am
ignorant. I was at a public echoed in Loedon many
years ago, where the under boys on the foundation were
subjected to similar, or rather worse, treatment. We,
though most of us were the sons of clergymen and
gentlemen, had the most degrading work to pertOrni—had
to make beds, sweep rooms, clean shoes, knives, and
forks, mend clothes. toast bread at a raging fire, wash
plates, even, with cold water, till our hands had chaps in
them into which a goos, quill might be inserted; nor in
the depth of winter were we allowed to approach a fire,
except to be roa'ted. Even at night our rest eas dis-
•urbed some trues by having the bed clothes taken awa.; ,
- we left on the bare sucking. If cricket
were to be played, the fOundationeboys were to
stop the ball, whether they liked the game or
not. Why so? If there must be stoppers, let them
be hired out of the town and paid for. If any more dis-
gusting work than another were to be performed, it fell
to the jot of the foundation-boys. I am thoroughly eon
vinced that the poor children in the workhouses ate
treated with greater kindness, have more abundant food,
and enjoy more real happiness than we, lads trams ten to
fourteen years of age, of good parentage, and destined,
most of us, for the liberal professions, were permitted to
have. Now all these evils, to which we were exposed,
might have been easily removed by the masters appoint-
ing a proper person, with a good salary (and the trustees
or governors would have indemnified them), constantly
to be present, and supervising all the boys by day, and,
if possible, by night also. This I say, beceuse the
oppidans, or boarders, have such an inspector in the
same room with them, with servants to attend upon
them; whereas in three public schools in London that I
myself know the apartments for the foundation-boys
were at a distance, or separated frond the residence of
the masters, who delegated, to save themselves trouble
and expense, a great part of their authority to the. boys
of the higher class, who were pretty sure to abusa it;
for few men are to be entrusted with power, much less
lads of from fifteen to eighteen, generally the greatest
bullies imaginable, unless they be meliore luto. Dr.
Arnold übserved that he could not have conducted
Husby School but for the aid of the sixth form
—whether he me ant in a literary or moral point
of view I know not ; sure I am, however, if
he confided to the sixth the superintendence of the
lower boys' moral conduct, one might say—" Sed quis
custodies ipsos custodes?" They needed a much stricter
surveillance. Dr. Arnold (to his immortal credit) was
the first muster that ever tried to make boys religious,
the first that constantly preached before them, and the
first that ever published sermons peculiarly addressed to
them; and now I trust he has his reward. Dr. Moberley
speaks of some good qualities (I forget bow he expresses
himself) being elicited by the fagging system ; but
Southey, who is as good authority, says, in hi*" Life of
Wesley' —"John suffered at the Charterhouse under
the tyranny which the elder boys were permitted to
exercise. This evil at one time existed very generally
in English schools, through the culpable negligence of
the masters, and perhaps may still continue to exist,
though if a system were designed for cultivating the
worst dispositions of human nature, it could not more
effectually answer the purpose. The boys of the higher
forms of the Charterhouse were then in the practice of
taking their portion of meat from the younger ones by
the law of the s:rengest, and during a great part of the
time Wesley remained there a small daily portion of
breed was his only food. As to our religious education,
we attended church twice on a Sunday and on saints-days,
neither the oppidane nor masters (though they were all
clergymen) ever doing the same on the latter. The
prayers night and morning on week-days were read by
one of the seniors, and made a joke of. For instance:
instead of 'great marvels,' he read great bosses,' a large
marble being so termed."
Dr. Jortin observes that Lucian says, if Jupiter had a
spite against a man he Made a schoolmaster of him;
but adds the Doctor, "Lucian would have thought
otherwise now, when our masters frequently make more
money in one week than many a learned clergyman
makes in a whole year." The fact is the masters of the
great schools are above their work: they are mostly
good scholars, and are ambitious of making others also
the same, as it reflects honour on themselves ; but the
religious and moral conduct of those submitted to their
care (I speak of some of the masters, not of all) they
make a secondary consideration, or none at. all.
To revert to fagging, Dr. Collyer,a f hysician in London,
four or five years ago, I think, brought an action against
some of the W, stmiester authorities for the maltreat-
ment of his son: though tried before that upright Judge.
Tindal, he lost it through some legal technicality. The
public must take the correction of this great evil into
their own hands; and I am persuaded that if they knew
the existence and enormity of it, they would to a man
rise tip against it. Many years ago a boy (still
was compelled at a certain public school in the metropolis,
with others, to drag a sledge with its lower parts for-
tified with iron, whence a nail prejecteig tore a deep
hole in his leg; atter having fellen down, he was whipped
up by the brute in the sledge and made to run titter that;
for a quarter of a year he was at the hospital of the
institution ; and I never heard that the tyrant was
punished for this act of cruelty.
Dr. Russell, to his honour, totally abolished fagging
at the Charterhouse, but the present -Master has allowed
it to revive I have unih-rstood,
I am your humble servant,
• A CONSTANT READER,.
August 18,1847.

CA PE OF GOOD HOPE.
From the Cape of Good Hope Shipping and Mer-
cantile Gazette of the 11th of June, we learn that
the artificers to be employed in the construction of
the lighthouse at Cape Agulhas has left Cape Town,
in her Majesty's steamer Rosamond, for Struis Bay,
where their debarcation will take place.
The parties who had been engaged by the South
Afiiaan Mining Company to work the lodes of mineral
ore which have been discovered in Namaqualand were
on board ship, awaiting a favourable wind to carry
them to their destination.
There is no news from the Kafir frontier.