in proportion as knowledge is spread among them, they will become, not only better men, but better subjects, and less likely to be made the tools of the ambitious and designing. The more intelligence exists among a people, provided the government is administered with a proper regard to their true interests, the less desire will there be for change; and in particular, while they are increasing the sum of their knowledge, they will be pleased with themselves and contented with their situation.

For the information we have been able to communicate, we have been principally indebted to the report made by the select committee of the House of Commons on the affairs of the East India Company, dated 16th August, 1832, and to the numerous and very voluminous papers by which it was accompanied.

ENGLISH BOARDING-SCHOOLS.

In the present state of education in this country, boardingschools form a prominent feature. By far the greater part of the children of the middle and upper classes receive their early education at boarding-schools. Two circumstances have materially contributed to this state of things: first, the individual wealth of so large a portion of the nation, by which parents are enabled to procure for their children boarding-school education, which, if good, is always expensive; and secondly, the absence of a general system of national instruction, and consequently a want of public schools, in every parish or village, which might be considered respectable.

Education, such as it is practicable to give at a good boarding-school, may be made, in our opinion, superior to any other, even to that received in the house of a parent.

In

a civilized state of society, education becomes an art, and must be studied and practised as such, by persons who make it their profession. Not many parents have the time and means for doing this; and although, with the assistance of daily teachers, they can instruct their children in the necessary branches of knowledge, the moral treatment at home will probably, in most cases, be defective. The present state of society leaves young people more exposed to external temptations at home, than at a well-managed private school. And how few parents are able constantly to maintain that composed and rational state of mind, in which they have

only the welfare of their children before their view, unshaken by personal feelings, either of sudden anger or of extravagant affection. Most parents are conscious of their weakness in the moral treatment of their children; and they often send them to school with a conviction, that at home they would only be spoiled. A schoolmaster, or rather, the educator of other persons' children, on the other hand, can have sufficient love for his pupils to feel always deeply interested in their welfare. Such a love is not beyond the powers of human nature it is true Christian love; which in common life we expect to see particularly exemplified by those who fill the station of clergymen, and certainly ought to be considered one of the chief qualifications of a schoolmaster. And though a master may have the greatest affection for his pupils, the nature of his situation will, in a great measure, guard him from falling into errors from too great fondness; nor will considerations of pecuniary advantage and responsibility allow him to forget himself so far as a provoked parent may sometimes do.

The true relation of a master of a boarding-school to his pupils, is that of a father; and as he is the moral guide and teacher of youth, he is evidently for a time placed above the parent, who intrusts his children to his care, because he cannot discharge this duty himself. A private tutor in a family has a claim to the same high appellation, but his moral influence over his pupils is often checked and interrupted. Nor can it be expected that as much knowledge should in general be imparted, and the mind be equally well informed by one individual, as by the master and the several well-selected assistants of a good boarding-school. Teachers who come to the house for every lesson, can seldom have more interest than as regards their pay and reputation as teachers. In a private school the assistants share a part of the same relation to the pupils with the master; they are, or ought to be, their real friends, their companions, their advisers of more experience, and their examples in conduct.

In domestic life it frequently happens that the admonitions of an elder brother are received with decided opposition; severity on his part either produces a quarrel, or degenerates into perfect tyranny. If there is no brother, no elder friend at home to take occasionally the parent's care upon him, young people naturally bestow their friendship and confidence on servants, from whom they may receive assistance in their various amusements. It is well that children should learn not to attach undue importance to the distinctions of rank, and a proper sympathy with those who serve them should be inculcated and encouraged; but com

panionship, for obvious reasons, should not be allowed. Yet it must often happen in many families, especially those in fashionable life, that a degree of familiarity exists between children and servants, which considering the general character of servants in very wealthy families, cannot be otherwise than highly prejudicial. A good boarding-school operates as a check; the master undertakes a duty which nature has imposed on the parent, and which, if he cannot fulfil himself, he ought to take care to intrust to a proper person. But in schools a great part of the care which a boy requires necessarily devolves on assistants, who are less removed from the boys than the head-master. Assistants being so situated, are in fact one of the most important elements in a school, as far as the moral improvement of the boys is concerned; and in a well-conducted school, assistants may be considered as the real friends and companions of the boys.

Having assigned their proper station and duty to masters of boarding-schools, we will make a few remarks on the actual state of these establishments. As we speak from personal experience, we hope we shall not lay ourselves open to the imputation of presumption in treating of so large and weighty a matter; and we trust that the tone in which our opinions are conveyed will prove that we have no object in view but the improvement of boarding-school education. Whoever is acquainted at all with the present general condition of schools must confess, that most of them fall far short of what they ought to be. It may also be observed that neither schoolmasters nor assistants seem to enjoy, even among the parents and friends of their charge, that high esteem and confidence which their station demands. Few of their pupils, indeed, would consider them, and behave towards them, as their real friends and their best advisers, even if they had any notion that these are the true relations in which they ought to be regarded. The masters and assistants, on the other hand, have often deserved the neglect with which they are treated; yet it appears, we think, rather inconsistent for parents to intrust their children, and with them their dearest interests, to persons for whom they feel so little respect. There are undoubtedly numerous exceptions to the character just given of schoolmasters; but both among principals and assistants, there are many, as everybody from his own experience must know, who are more fit for anything else than the education of youth.

Education being almost entirely left in the hands of private individuals, without any public responsibility, has with many become a mere trade. Persons who cannot get on in any

other way become schoolmasters; and hence their chief object is making money. Their former habits and want of previous training, render many of them absolutely incapable y of perceiving what kind of responsibility they take upon themselves, by engaging to provide for the education and future welfare of the children who are intrusted to their care. In making these remarks we are not maintaining so absurd a doctrine as that a gentleman who has a school should not derive from it a fair profit: we believe that a very wellconducted school will always be profitable, and it ought to be so. But we are sure we shall not be misunderstood by those who are at all acquainted with schools when we say, that many are conducted solely and exclusively with an eye to profit, and that the proprietors are not always influenced by moral considerations of the high nature of their office.

This statement is by no means weakened by an examination into the general treatment of the pupils, and their behaviour towards the master. Where is the school in which confidence and friendship prevail between master and pupils? How many schools are there in which the treatment is solely based on love and kindness? In most, it will be admitted, severity and fear are the means of management; and when expedient, instead of experiencing proper kindness, the youth is pampered by blameable indulgence. We could mention facts of this kind, which we only omit from motives of prudence, and from the strict obligation to avoid personalities in this Journal; we are of opinion, however, that such facts ought to be made public, when there shall appear to be no other remedy for the evils which prevail in many schools. If the pupils could but once feel that their treatment at school proceeded from a desire on the part of the teacher to do everything for their present and future happiness, they would hardly leave it with that noisy and riotous exultation, which marks the commencement of the vacations all over the country. In many schools a distinction of classes is made: a few are parlour boarders, the rest belong to the commonalty. At such schools boys know, and often express it too, that they are valued by the master in proportion to the sum paid for them by their parents. We think that no system can be more mischievous than that of such a separation of the boys into different classes: in addition to the

* If there was a single bond of sympathy between master and pupil, it would tend to diminish the pain of after recollections, when the man reflects with a sigh on the horrors which he endured at school as a boy.-Southey.

A parlour boarder is more valued than one who is thrown among the common herd: he pays more.

bad feelings excited between masters and boys, we have the feeling of jealousy among the boys themselves. Allied to the principle of governing through fear, is that regular system of deceiving masters, in order to avoid punishment, and that first moral lesson of all school-boys, well inculcated into new comers by the experienced, You must not tell;' no, you must not tell if the most flagitious acts are perpetrated, and the most offensive to decency and good morals. As further connected with the principle of government through fear, we observe that boys often not only hate but despise their masters. This feeling of contempt, we know, is sometimes brought from home, where children hear many and probably just censures passed on the conduct of masters, and on the way in which they manage the business of their schools. All this would not be the case, unless schooling was frequently carried on exclusively for the sake of gaining money.

Our main object at present is to direct the attention of parents to one constituent part of boarding-schools, which we consider to be the most powerful element of all, either for good or for evil: we mean the teachers employed by the principal, under the general denomination of assistants or ushers; and we mean only those who reside in the house. The moral influence of other assistants is necessarily very limited. Parents seem to us to be very indifferent as to the character of these constant companions of their children at school; and masters are certainly sometimes not very scrupulous as to the character of the persons whom they employ, nor is their treatment of them such as to raise the assistant either in the eyes of the parent or pupil. The parents can know nothing of the faults of the assistants, except through the probably incorrect accounts of their children, nor are they in general anxious to inquire about their good qualities. Both parents and heads of schools are liable to forget how much good any kind attention on their part might produce in the character and conduct of the ushers, who are, for the most part, young men, who will change much according to the treatment they receive; but this unfortunately is in general not calculated to improve their character.

In no respect, then, are the defects of the present state of education more visible, than in the choice, character, and treatment of the domesticated assistants in boarding-schools. Any one who can command a decent suit of clothes, a guinea or two for the school-agent, and a sufficient degree of boldness and impudence to answer a few paltry questions, may get a situation somewhere as a school-assistant. The less his demands are, the more likely is he to succeed. We know of