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

PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

There is an old, and we believe a very rue story,
about the great Duke of Wellington, which we
would use as our text for the fallowing remarks.
Let not our readers take it amiss, if in the midst of
rumours affecting Vie permanence of our Indian
empire, we find time to say a word about English
schoolboys and their English sports. Tbe two sub-
jects are intimately connected, for, if .we would
maintain that dominion ai a realty, we must use
the same kind of instruments to preserve it as were
employed f r its acquisition. Now, pedants and
bookworms never won for us, and never will keep,
the empire of British India. The story about the
Duke of Wellington is this :—lt is said that in his
old age the great chief revisited the playing fields
of Eton. Before his eyes ran the same stream into
which as a boy he bad plunged, and tried to swim
further than his fellows. There was a spot on which.
ho 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 seeoe, and for the time the old
warrior was an Eton boy again. He had not, in-
deed, forptten 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 Vedras, nor the daring maoce•
uvre of Salamanca, nor the crowning glory of Mont
St. Jean. We may well suppose—such was the
simplicity of his character—that the thought
may have crossed his mind, that it was
strange that he, who had 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
c :11,cl "The Life of Arthur Wellesley." He
watched for a time in silence the sports in which
be 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 bad a
great part in making England what it is ? Far
be it from us to disparage the literary and schol-
astic element in th.s 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 th 3 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.
Wheu 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 ont-of-door
sports, in which so many generations of English
schoolboys have t :ken delight. The value .of these
conists 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 mas-
tero 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 derive I from these manly
sports. If argument' were wanting to convince
them of Cr; or u e should be perfectly willing to rest
our ewe upon that strongest, of all argomen s—the
iuxt ipolition of a French or German schoolboy and
of his English cmapeer. Mark the habits of self-
reliance,
the vigour of body and mind, which have
been engendered in the one lay the out-of-door life
which he his led, and the seeming anomaly that
the has been left a good deal to biros-lf ;" while
the undeveloped frame and undecided character of
the other tell a very plain tale of injudicious con-
finement, overstrained mind, aod of a systematic
subs itution of the principal of authority for the
spirit of independence.- Leave, then, we say,
English boys t ) their sport4,—experience has shown
that sound learning does not suffer from the hours
spent iu the playing fields. There has however,
arisen some difference of opinion upon this
subject. The masters of our principal public
schools have, we regret to say, expresse I their de-
termination to put an end to those public trials of
skill between the various schcols which are the key•
stone of the system. Tne b-ays will be left, as
bitore, to play with each other in their playing
grounds ; bet school is no more to Le matched
against si hool in friendly fight. The contest be-
tweeen Eton and Westminster on the river, between
E,on and Ha-row at Lord's Cricket-ground, are t
those little worlds the great evens of the year.
It is on account of these—it is in no small d-gree
that he may win an honoured place among "the
eight" or " the eleven," that the English schoolboy,
struggles on in competition with his Ultimo 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 tow-fangled
no•ions are carried out, as would follow to English-
men if the Be icon 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-car 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 News to 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 timo he, there is something monstrous in the
mstlood by which the authorities attempt to enforce
their views. Let us 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 ma'cliss
in the holidays. The la is 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 consideration 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 m absolute. 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 father's
home until he is recommitted at the expiration of
the vacation to the master's charge the master's
authority is at an end, or, rather, it never had
existence at all. It is as monstrous on the part of
the Masters of Eton, of Winchester, of Westmin-
ster, or of Harrow to say that the pupils of these
schools shall not during the vacation play against
the pupils of any other school as it would be to
order the parents to take their sons to Ramsgate
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 province to point
out the evil, not to suggest the remedy, but cer-
tainly in this case we cannot see what harm wo_ulin
follow from allowing the champions of the b
schools to come up to Lord's, at London?t
close of the half, or at any time during patticothne-
tinuance which might be most
deal of
decide the contest and to return. A
osgirti„a the lads
nonsense has been talked abortittoewxno
and it is said
conveeantliesnt, to
to the temptations of a
Now, we know
if sent up under surveillance.ut
die schoolboys, and we
they never could be kept grudaer due restraint, even
some-
thing about the nature con
e a s
their captain, or put them
under the charge of
would stake any sum up
under resu.lt. P tth I d
meerreelnyout
honour, that such and such things
w
and there would not be one pto on
be tbdeolln.e)
in-
stance in a thousand of violated faith. No need of
masters, or ushers, or dames—trust to an English
public schoolboy's word, and he will die before he
breaks it. We trust the grave masters of these
great establishments will reconsider their determi-
nation, and, at the least, leave things as they are.
The subject, as we have already said, is not below
the dignity of the present time. It •ns important to
secure a race of young Englishmen who in days to
come, when our bones have mouldered away, shall
retain the grasp of
England upon the world.
Times.

THE JERROLD CoMMEMORATION.—Last night the per •
formances at the Adelphi Theatre, as per announce-
ment, were given in aid of the Jerrold Fund, and con-
sisted of " The Rent Day" and " Black-eyed Susan"—
two of the oldest and most popular pieces of Douglas
Jerrold. The theatre was filled in every part, and both
dramas were received from first to last with the greates
enthusiasm.