this classification is seldom made in England but for one purpose, for which it is obviously necessary, that of teaching, or that which has reference to the hours of instruction. Boys of pretty nearly the same age, and of acquirements not varying very greatly, form the respective classes. If education were organized in this country by reflecting heads, a classification of pupils would be made also with respect to the hours of exercise or recreation and sleep. On this proper classification depends the whole good government of a school of large numbers without it, there may be government of some description, such government as we see in many schools, but differing as much from the good government of a school as a country in a state of anarchy differs from a well-ordered political community.

The difference in age which is found in the pupils of a large school is then the main principle of the classification. For the purposes of school instruction, the younger boys are formed into separate classes, are engaged on more elementary parts of their studies, and require more help and more superintendence than the elder boys. The school instruction of the younger classes is the most important part of the whole school instruction; for if this is sound and rational, it renders what follows comparatively easy and pleasant; and while a hoy is approaching the upper classes, and attaining to the strength and understanding of manhood, he is at the same time forming habits of application, and beginning to perceive that he must now depend on his own industry for his acquirements. Thus with regard to school learning, as the boy advances in the school, he is more and more left to himself, which is not only necessary where there is a great number of boys, but

also a proper thing when he has gone through such a training as qualifies him for this state of comparative liberty.

But are there not more weighty reasons for exercising a vigilant control over the younger boys, out of the hours of school instruction, than during them? During the school hours their attention is occupied by their business out of school hours, their attention is no longer thus engaged, and for this reason they require more looking after. It is a fortunate thing, that in many of our large schools, a great variety of games and athletic exercises have been long established by custom : they are the great means of government out of school hours, in the absence of other government. A master should encourage all exercises of the kind, for the double purpose of strengthening the body, and giving occupation to a portion of the twenty-four hours, which, if not spent in this way, may probably be very ill disposed of. But the exercises in a school, and especially those of all the younger boys, should be regulated by a master who has some knowledge of the best kind of exercises, who could show a greater variety than are known in our ordinary schools, and who could control and regulate them when either of an injurious character, or when carried to excess. Such a master we conceive to be an essential part of the establishment of a large school, in which the training of the body by suitable, and, we will add, systematic exercises, is as essential as the school learning, and, in our opinion, in which we may be singular, it is worth more. A variety of wholesome and proper exercises, taken within due limits, is absolutely necessary to strengthen the body and make it healthy; these exercises are of different kinds, suited to different

ages and different constitutions, and in the case of all the younger boys, they cannot safely be carried on without some superintendence. Even the older boys will in some cases find it advantageous to take the advice of one who has made gymnastic his study. If boys of the same age, or nearly the same age, are united in their games, there will be no great risk of the few, who may be larger and stronger than the rest, tyrannising over the weaker: the presence of the master, who would always be somewhere near during the play hours, would be a sufficient check to any tendency of this kind, and his own example would be an example to all the rest. For we assume that the master of gymnastic would never use any kind of force to those who are either unable or unwilling to join in the games of their fellows; and that, in giving them any instruction in any new kind of exercise, he would not find it necessary to use either harsh words or blows. The whole time out of school hours should be as strictly regulated as the hours of school instruction; all games and exercises should be carried on freely, and without restraint -but within the limits and rules laid down by the exercise-master, whose authority, out of school hours, should be as large and complete as that of the head master in the school hours.

We must insist still more on the proper conduct of the games and exercises of a school, because they may be made, and ought to be made, the basis of the whole moral discipline. Though much neglected in most private schools in England, the importance of this part of education is beginning to be felt; and we hope that some of our medical writers who have paid attention to the subject, may soon give it that complete examination which none but a physician can do. An able writer has already

pointed out the numerous and complicated evils which result from the want of exercise in female schools. Boys, fortunately, get a much larger amount of exercise; but it is often carried to excess, and for some constitutions is of too violent a nature and also of a wrong description.* Boys require different kinds of exercise for the purpose of developing the different parts of the body: and such exercises, if well directed, will correct many little defects and weaknesses to which boys are subject. We are persuaded that boys at school often suffer permanently from the injudicious nature or excess of some of their amusements. Still the taste for these exercises exists in this country, and they are, even without direction, productive of great good, but might, we think, be conducted better by the whole school being placed, as to its exercises and games, under the superintendence of a master or officer; and indeed, as we have already remarked, it is more necessary, in our opinion, for this superintendence to be exercised out of the hours of instruction than during them. As the elder boys, with respect to school instruction, are gradually withdrawn from the more particular superintendence of the masters, so we would allow the older boys more freedom during the hours of relaxation, but not a total freedom from superintendence. If they have been well trained, they will have no wish to save themselves a little trouble by requiring the services of younger boys during the play hours, as is the case where fagging is in fashion; nor will the idea ever enter their heads that they may turn the young boys into ministers to their own amusement. If the younger boys are carefully brought up without submit

* See some judicious remarks on over-exercise in the work of Dr. Combe, reviewed in this Journal, No. XVI.

ting to the commands of their elders, they will have no inclination, when they grow older, to call for the services of their juniors.

The fault of most large schools of which we know anything, is not the severity of the discipline, but the want of discipline and order. It is not strict discipline in an army to allow drunkenness, or any other irregularity, to go unpunished, if not carried beyond a certain point, but when it goes beyond this point to visit it with a cruel punishment. Strict discipline does not allow the opportunity of committing the fault; and with this object its ordinary regulations are stricter than in an army, where faults are only punished when they attain a certain magnitude. In addition to a completely organized system of discipline out of schoolhours, we would wish it to be well considered how far the services of servants should be allowed to boys. We would allow them no further than is absolutely necessary for attendance on their meals, and keeping the beds and the bed-rooms in order. Every boy should be taught to do many little offices for himself, not to expect them from a servant, much less from another boy, certainly not from a boy younger than himself, who rather requires assistance than is in a capacty to give it. Our correspondent (Letter, p. 290) says, "that many a man who went from Winchester to serve in the Peninsula during the last war, must have found his school experience and habits no bad preparation, not only as to power of endurance, but in the helpfulness and independence gained during his training as a junior." But many officers who never had the advantage of being fagged in youth behaved as well as any Winchester boys, of whom it is here said, that the school-fagging must have been to them a useful preparation for a campaign.