The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-10-10 00:00:00

zg, at a Private and a
.orge Melly. London :

s with the preced-

grounds. It
is filled with

andid spirit

nd its

narrative is enriched, not encumbered, by reflections
which clearly illustrate the principle inculcated,
while they add force as well as cheerfulness to the
picture. The subject, Mr. Melly tells us, has been
suggested to him by a recent controversy in the
public journals, relative to the alleged merits or
demerits of_ the " monitorial" or " fagging "
g features of our "public
)posed to the private
his personal

m, which form the leadin

experiences 1
Mr. Melly n

Eipphca

of both

11 to the credit of

rnpetent witness

and if his testimoi

system, the man-
s obvious desire to

ne actvaaatages it

favourable testimony of an 15, ac_
'able witness. That his lean-
-•

probated sy;ten

11-drawn scenes

we who speak 0:

), however, he is nc

,or an nncom

treats school-boy life as the initiatory stage of that
Mar alandphysicalworld,in which as menits members
are ultimately to be called on to assume and to main-
tain, as they best may, their several positions. Im-
pressed with this practical idea on the subject, he
is rather inclined to make light of, than to magnify
the difficulties which beset the career of youth at
a public school. He regards its mysterious tradi-
tional usages, and unwritten codes of laws—its con-
ventional discipline, and rigid esprit de corps as
useful helps to self-government, and the develop-
ment of generous feeling ; and evidently considers
this result as more than compensating for the con-
comitant evils, from which, practically, it is seem-
ingly impossible to separate them. He does not wail
over the hard fate of " the miserable slave" who
groans under the tyranny of a youthful taskmaster,
more capricious and more exacting than a New
Orleans slave-owner, nor does he look with loathing
disgust and horror on those youthful days when, as a
tender boy, he was roughly handled by his seniors ;
he recalls to memory those days

and recounts their adventures with a spirit of
pleasurable remembrance akin to that evinced by
most men who, having undergone and triumphed
over the ordeal, speak with grateful emotion of
those scenes and circumstances in which they have
been participators, dwelling on them with a glee
and satisfaction unknown to those of the " outer
"No one," writes Mr. Melly, " who has
notexperienced such sensation can in any way appre-
ciate the feelings with which a man looks back on

world

the public school in which he was educated—feel-
ings of love and of devotion to its memory, of
affection to all who bear its name, of indignation

all who assail its re

intation and honour

Wherever two Harbeans (arrow-men) meet, in
any quarter of the world, their fellowship is a bond
of amity and a badge of brotherhood. Those, even,
who were most unhappy there, feel proud, in after-
life, each time they hear its name ; and rejoicing
that they shared in its honour and its reputation
when boys, feel every attack upon it to be a per-
'--°s when they become men."
- ;,, ;0

to then2se-

indeed eloquent, and carries with it ten times the
amount of conviction which is conveyed in theo-

retical diatriN

s, a priori a

.guments, or declama-

Itory condemnation. In illustrating the system of
government at Harby, understood to be Harrow,
Mr. Melly leads us to know that much of the
Unt 0151 flu PYPr,i.e of

internal r 4

h is delegated to the prmpostors,
called : these are the sixth-form boys.

men, many of them being nineteen
ears of age. The power vested in these