The Sun.
London, England, 1857-07-30 00:00:00

PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

There is an old, and we believe a very truestory,
about the great Duke of Wellington, which we
would use as our text for the fellowing remarkft.
Let not our readers take it amiss, if in the midst of
rumours affecting the permanence of our Indian
empire, we find time to say a word about English
schoolboys and their English sports. The two sub-
jects are intimately connected, for, if we. would
maintain that dominion as a really, we must we
the same kind of instruments to preserve it as were
employed fir its acquisition. Now, pedants and
bookworms never won for us, and never will keep,
the empire of British India. The story al out the
Duke of Wellington is this :—lt is said that in his
old ago the great chief reyi,ited the p:aying fields
of Eton. Before his eyes ran the same stream into
which as a boy he had plunged, and tried to swim
further than his fellows. There was a spot on which
he had won his first battle against a lad who in his
manhood struggled as a man should with the world,
and who in his declining years was one of the
brightest ornaments of London society. Half a cen-
tury had passed away. The Duke gazed upon the
well-remembered scene, and for the time the old
warrior was an Eton boy again. He had not, in-
deed, forgotten the brilliant onset of Assaye, that
" simple matter of common sense," as he used him-
self to call it ; nor the long-premeditated heroism
of the lines of Torres Yedras, nor the daring manoe-
uvre of Salamanca, nor the crowning glory of Mont
St. Jean. We may well r uppose—such was' the
simplicity of his characte:•—that the thought_.
may have crossed his mind, that ,it was
strange that he, who hid once been just
like one of those eager school-boys who
were shouting and careering about before his eyes,
could have acted that great biography which is
call d " The Life of. Arthur Wellesley." He
watched for a time in silence the sports in which
he had formerly played his part—the glowing
health, the generous emulation of the boys—and
at last exclaimed, as under the influence of a strong
conviction, "Ay ! it was at Eton that Waterloo
was won."

Was ever such a testimony borne to the excel-
lence of that public-school system which has had a
great part in making England what it is i Far
be it from us to disparage the Merely and schol-
astic element in the conduct of these institutions,
and, above all, the discipline and the alternate
habits of obedience and command which in them
are enforced. But who will deny that half,
possibly the greater half, of this work is done by
the boys themselves outside the school doors?
During the hours which are devoted to study, the
great merit of the master is shown in the method
of his teaching and in the strictness with which
he requires the execution of the appointed tasks.
When the form are dismissed his discretion and
judgment are mainly proved by the encouragement
which he give to all influences which may tend
to the formation of a manly character among the
boys. High among these are the out-of-door
sports, in which so many generations of English
schoolboys have taken delight. The value of these
consists not only in their tendency to improve the
health and fortify the constitution of the boys.
The generous emulation they inspire, the spirit of
self-control and patience which they necessitate,
have as much to do with the formation of character
as the habits of intellectual discipline which are
gained by the more regular instruction of the maa-
tere We should not insist so strongly upon the
point but that there is just now a tendency—and
we think a most unfortunate one—among the
learned and excellent persons who are charged with
the direction of our public schools somewhat to
depreciate the advantages derived from these manly
sports. If argument were wanting to convince
them of error we should be perfectly willing to rest
our case upon that strongest of all argumen s—the
juxtaposition of a French or German schoolboy and
of his English compeer. Mark the habits of self-
reliance, the vigour of body and mind, which have
been engendered in the one hy the out-of-door life
which he has led, and the seeming anomaly that
" lie has been left a good deal to himself ;" while
the undeveloped frame and undecided character of
the other tell a very plain tale of injudicious con-
finement, overstrained mind, acid. of a systematic
sups itution of the principal of authority for the
spirit of independence. Leave, then, we say,
English boys to their sports,—experience has shown
that sound learning does not suffer from the hours
spoilt in the playing fields. There has however,
arisen some difference of opinion upon sthis
subject. The masters of our principal public
schools have, we regret to say, expressed their de-
termination to put an end to those public trials of
skill between the various schools which are the key-
stone of the system. Tne boys will be left, as
before, to play with each other in their playing
grounds ; but school is no more to Le matched
against school in friendly fight. The contest be-
tweeen Eton and Westminster on the river, between
Eton and Harrow at Lord's Cricket-ground, are to
those little worlds the great events of the year.
It is on accouut of these—it is in no small degree
drat he may win an honoured place among " the
eight" or " the eleven," that the English schoolboy
struggles on in competition with his fellows. Ex-
tinguish the rivalry between the schools and you do
away with the great motive to exertion. The same
result will follow to the character of the next gene-
ration of English schoolboys, if these new-fangled.
notions are carried out, as would follow to English-
men if the Beacon • course at Newmarket were
ploughed up—if Epsom Downs were converted into
a site for a reformatory school—if Lord's cricket-
ground were devoted for the future exclusively to
Cochin China fowls—if every eight-oar at Searle's
were broken up for firewood, and the Yacht Club-
house at Cowes were used henceforward exclusively
as lodgings for respectable families during their so-
journ in the Isle of Wight. Abolish our Olympic,
our Isthmian, our Nemanan games, and of the sports
which in those exhibitions attain their culminating
point there is an end.
Injudicious as any attempt of this kind would at
any time be, there i 3 something monstrous in the
method by which the authorities attempt to enforce
their views. Let ue confine attention to a single
point for the moment—that is, to the cricket
matches between the great schools. The practice
for a long time past has been to play these matcheS
in the holidays. The lads came up to London from
the houses of their respective parents, most gene-
rally stayed with friends in town, and when the
match was played out returned home. The
masters now say that these matches must take place
no more. One considerstion strikes one very
forcibly at the outset, which is, that here is a
most unnecessary attempt to supersede the parental
by the magisterial authority. During the school
terms the master is absolut.i. A parent who com-
mits his son to his charge makes for a time abne-
gation of his authority. From the moment,
.how-
ever, that the boy has returned to his fathers
home ers
home until he is recommitted at the expiration )
the vacation to the master's charge the master's
authority is at an end, or, rather, it nevear had
rt
existence at all.. It is as monstrous on
the
part of
the Masters of Eton, of Winchester, of
Westrheinse-
ster, or of Harrow to say that the pupils of
schools shall not during the vacation play against
the pupils of any other school as it would be to
to Ramsgate
in the parents to take their sons
in ' place of Brighton for change of air. As matters
stand at present, any parent who may so choose it
is perfectly free to refuse permission to his son to
form "one of the eleven" during the vacation ;
what more is required ? It is our provinc 3to point
out the evil, not to suggest the remedy, but cer-
tainly in this case we cannot see what harm would
follow from allowing the champions of the public
schools to come up to Lord's, at London, at the
close of the half, or at any time during its con-
tinuance which might Le most convenient, to
decide the contest and to return. A great deal of
nonsense has been talked about exposing the lads
to the temptations of a great town, and it is said
they never could he kept under due restraint,
if sent up under surveillance. Now, we knotr_s°,
thing about the nature of public schoolboys)t_nen"
b lads
would stake any sum upon this result. evsen.
under the charge of their captain,
P such things
and
merely upon theirhonour, that such _
d ot be one
were not not to be done, and there well! n No need Of
stance in a thousand of violatedtrfutt
Ito an English
oPrut ut them
•
masters, or ushers, or dames—trust
will die before he
masters of these
breaks it. We trust the grave.
public schoolboy's word, and
great establishments will
eve things as they are.
and, at the least, e
reconsider their determi-
nation,we have al r.eady said, is not below
resent trme. It is important to
is
of young Englishmen who in days to
secure a
Ttlitlee dsiubniietcyt te' fa tsh P
come,
when our brines h 'eve mouldered away, shall
retain the grasp 'of „England upon the world.

The Jsr
_.ROLD CoMMEMORATION.—Last night the per •
forma*
.ces at the Adelphi Theatre, as per annonnos•
''sent, were given in aid of the Jerrold Fund, and con-
sisted of " The Rent Day" and "Blaolc-eyed Susan"—
two of the oldest and most popular pieoerof Douglas
Jerrold. The theatre was fitted in every part, aid both
dramas were.received from first to lot rith the &testes
=thulium. .