But it is quite as easy and quite as fair to say, that the fagging must have been a bad preparation. A regular systematic discipline, as strict as that of a good military academy, would have been a much better preparation for the campaigns of these Winchester boys. But how many delicate youths have suffered severely from fagging at public schools, have had their health injured, and their spirits broken? We should have a list of them, as well as of the heroes of the Peninsula.

If school discipline is intended to accomplish any good purpose, it must be framed by a competent head. It must proceed from the sovereign authority in the school, that is, the head master, or those who delegate their trust to the head master. But as the sovereign power in a state cannot be entirely exercised by the sovereign, but must be delegated to various subordinate authorities, so, in a school, authority must be delegated by the head master to those who are under him, and sufficient authority for all the purposes contemplated in the scheme of division of labour. The simple question, then, is, can any portion of this power be delegated * beneficially to the older boys, or to the higher classes in a school? for it is on this view of the nature of the power exercised by the higher over the lower boys, that what is called fagging is defended by “ A Wykhamist," and maintained to be good. It is not true that this is the state of the case; but let us see what must be the consequences if a certain power, it matters not how

*See Letter, Journal, No. XVIII., p. 286. The "power of fagging" is there defined to be "a power given by the supreme authorities of a school to the boys of the highest class or classes in it, to be exercised by them over the lower boys, for the sake of securing the advantages of regular government amongst the boys themselves, and avoiding the evils of anarchy-in other words, of the lawless tyranny of physical strength."

much, be delegated to the older boys, or more advanced boys in the school, over those who are younger or less advanced in their studies.

The power thus delegated may be either expressly delegated, or it may be tacitly delegated, in accordance with certain positive rules existing in the school, which have grown up entirely among the boys, and have been transmitted from one generation to another. On the former supposition the master makes the law, and the older boys are merely the administrators of it, and, as such, ought to be, and perhaps may be, made responsible to the lawgiver; they become, in this case, for certain purposes, a kind of assistants to the master. On the latter supposition, a master, on being appointed to a school, adopts the custom which he finds existing, and thus gives it the force of a law. If a new master, on entering a school, tacitly allows any custom among the boys, be it good or bad, to exist without his express sanction, he admits the principle of allowing boys to make rules for their own conduct and government. And this is the general practice as to fagging. Of the remote origin of the custom we say nothing: it may have originally proceeded from a master, or it may have grown up among the boys; the latter is probably the true account of the matter. Now, the object of a school is, that boys should receive all those regulations which are to be imperative rules of conduct from the master, who is supposed to be wiser and better than they are, and it cannot be safely left to boys to make any one rule of any kind that shall be in force without receiving the express sanction of their master. The rules which boys would make among themselves, if they had full liberty to make rules, would be such as would be

subversive of all order and decorum. It may be said that no rule established among the boys would be tacitly sanctioned by a judicious master, if it were a rule that had a decidedly bad tendency. But here we are on the question at issue; the master does tacitly assent to the authority of older over younger boys; he says the rule is a good one, and we say it is bad. But why allow a rule or custom to exist by tacit permission about which there can be two contrary opinions? Let it be known generally that you say the rule is good and wholesome, and you will have established at least one good rule in doing so, that of allowing no customs to be in force in the school without your declared sanction. Customs, if such there be, that cannot receive your declared sanction, will thus want the authority that alone can give them weight, and will probably die away, as being clearly against what you declare to be proper. A master who is in favour of fagging, and expressly by words, or acts equivalent to words, gives it his full sanction, may be doing a very bad thing, but still he does it in a proper way. All that we can say of him is, that he has organized a bad scheme of discipline. A master who may be said to tolerate fagging, to wink at it, deserves severe censure.

But suppose the power to be expressly delegated, you cannot then well escape defining it. To expressly delegate to older boys a power over younger boys, and not say exactly what it is to be, and not to see that it is never exceeded, would be to delegate a power greater than that which you give to your masters. And yet you do not suppose that the older boys are so competent to govern younger boys, in any respect, as those who are expressly chosen to educate and instruct the younger boys.

And if you define the authority of the older over the younger boys, what shall it be? how much, and to what end? If it were to help, to instruct, to advise, to keep out of harm's way, the end would be good, and one could only complain that the means were not the best chosen. To do all these things is the business of teachers, who are, or ought to be, better qualified for it than boys. If not for these ends, for what ends will you delegate power to older over younger boys? to save the older boys some little trouble which they ought to have been taught not to regard, to make the younger supply the place of a servant, or to do any one act of any kind at the bidding of the older boys? But your older boy, if his native goodness of disposition is not already half spoiled by previous servitude, wants not the services of the younger: he can do all he wants for himself. What full-grown man, who deserves the name of gentleman, is always summoning a servant for every little office that he wants? The only relationship which should exist between the older and younger boys of a school should be exactly of the opposite kind to that which is inherent in a system of fagging. In the good example of the older boys, in their obedience to the rules of the school, in the friendly and confidential communications between these boys and their immediate instructors, in their willingness to assist a younger boy when occasion offers, the younger should see an example for their imitation, and an object of noble ambition. If the relationship is of a different kind, if it consists in a power given expressly or tacitly to the older to claim certain services from the younger, the result will be altogether different. It will satisfy nobody, whether he knows the actual state of a public school or

not, to be told that this authorized and legalized power is the best security to the young against oppression, to be told that the power is not often abused, and that the young boy suffers less under the legalized system of fagging than if there were no legalized system. The facts are not so in all schools where there is fagging: they are not so at the present moment, and hundreds know this to be the case, and will assert it as strong as ever, whatever may be said on the other side. And who that knows what all boys must be, and what many masters are, places any confidence in this as a correct picture of the case? When power is exercised with no more responsibility than that which is stated by "A Wykhamist," it is certain that frequent and gross abuse of it must occur, just as it is certain that when a man is in the habit of inflicting blows on another, they will often be dealt out for imaginary faults, and be only the indication that the blow-giver is under the influence of passion, and not that the blow-receiver deserves punishment, or will be the better for it. We are told on good authority, and we believe it, that in one of our public schools at present (for our direct evidence goes no further than to one school as to this one point), not only is the junior subject to the commands of some one of the head boys, but that when not actually employed by his master, any senior boy who chooses may call upon him for a bit of extra work; and in that capacity the junior does pretty nearly as much work for others as for his own particular master: nor will his master save him from any thrashing or ill-usage from a senior boy, when he (the junior) is not employed in his particular master's service. In addition to this, there are certain hours in the day when certain fags are a kind of servants