If Eton boys have little respect for rank, we fear that they have a most precocious sense of the advantages of wealth. Mr. Gladstone, of whom all Eton men, without distinction of politics, are proud, lately called attention, in an impressive speech, to the growth of this ignoble sentiment among those who ought from their youth and inexperience to be especially free from it. Contempt of poverty is perhaps general among boys. It is related of one of the present Bench of Bishops that his schoolfellows, finding to their horror that he had only one suit of clothes, indulged their righteous indignation by throwing them into a neighbouring pond; and we can ourselves remember the bitterness excited by the fact that a master, against whom much graver charges might have been brought, had worn the same coat for several years. But the converse feeling is quite modern, and is perhaps more prevalent at Eton than anywhere else. It is a subject of no common importance, and it is one on which a really strong head master might exert the greatest influence. We have no inclination to engage in declamatory abuse of luxury or to advocate any Spartan or monastic rigour. There is no reason why the sons of affluent parents should not be

reasonably comfortable at school. But idle ostentation and vulgar display are not qualities to be encouraged in a place of education. No hard-andfast line can be laid down separating innocent expenditure from reckless extravagance, or suitable indulgence from unjustifiable excess; but that schoolmaster is unworthy of the name who cannot impress upon the unspoiled minds of the young and thoughtful the meanness of merely material aims, the benefit of manliness and simplicity of life.

One word in conclusion. We have dealt throughout these remarks almost entirely in hostile animadversion. We cannot profess to regard the present system of education and discipline in public schools as perfect or final, nor to look upon Eton as even a perfect specimen of an imperfect class. It is not her best friends who would teach her so to regard herself. The law of ceaseless change and development which pervades human society cannot be suspended in favour of any establishment, however great; of any traditions, however venerable. But we are well aware that the memories which cling round an ancient and splendid institution, and the associations which every event in her history embodies, are not to be weighed in the

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balance of utilitarian criticism, nor tested by the standard of inflexible logic. The very buildings may be held in not unreasonable reverence where successive generations of unsullied minds and undaunted hearts have been more or less adequately prepared for that 'infinite jumble, and mess, and dislocation,' which men callthe battle of life.

The least sensitive nature must feel a certain awe in contemplating the infinite possibilities of good and evil which the very name of a great public school suggests. But the name of no other school recalls such a thronging crowd of great achievements, illustrious men, noble traditions, as does the name of Eton. Nor can any party, or any sect, claim a monopoly of interest in this great school. Whigs and Tories, Liberals and Conservatives, Protestants and Catholics, sceptics and devotees, have been formed within the walls of Eton. No Englishman can think lightly of such a place, nor contemplate its future without grave anxiety. The inheritance of ages is indeed a precious possession, if it be understood rightly and used wisely. No modern seminary, however perfect in construction, can hope to contend with the accumulated strength of an ancient reputation wielded by trained intelligence, and

directed to worthy aims. Impressions made in boyhood are seldom really effaced. Old opinions take new names, old beliefs are professedly abandoned. But the work which is done at school, whether for good or for evil, is done once for all, for it is wrought upon material which is 'wax to receive, and marble to retain.' It is not a small thing to form the characters of men who may one day guide the action of England, or influence the thought of the world. The greatest of Eton's sons has no reason to be ashamed of what she has done in the past, and the humblest may be permitted to hope that she will prove not unequal to her high destiny in the future.

HARROW.

IT is a fact which has afforded abundant material for Harrovian poets and rhetoricians that Harrow School rose to its presence eminence from the humblest possible beginnings.

Other and older schools were elaborately organised, largely endowed, fostered by the generous care of kings and bishops, reared under the august shadow of the medieval Church.

None of these advantages fell to the lot of Harrow. Of the founder himself—John Lyonvery little is known. Beyond a few genealogical particulars all that we can be certain of is that, like his father before him, he was a yeoman, living on a farm at Preston, a hamlet of the Parish of Harrow.

In the year 1571 John Lyon obtained from Queen Elizabeth letters patent and a royal charter for the foundation at Harrow of a Free Grammar