for anything else would be as vain as to expect the ocean, vexed to its profoundest depths, to subside into instant tranquillity when the roar of the tempest is hushed. The difficulties necessarily incident to the condition of the country were aggravated by the unnatural policy which sought to place the emancipated race, in political rule, over the white race. Harmony could not at once follow. Indeed, it is hardly possible, so long as the colored men, in large masses, assume a position of distrust and hostility toward the white voters. The antagonism of race will disappear from our political contests when the colored people shall declare their freedom from the partisan ownership that is asserted over them, throw off the influence of the selfish adventurers who claim to control them, and assert their rights as free and independent voters.

Now, that thirteen years have passed since the close of the war, and the two races, during much of that period, have been living together as citizens equal before the law, while every year their political relations are becoming more harmonious, can the statesman find no better argument to show that the colored man holds his political rights by precarious tenure, than that founded upon social disturbances?

If I may accuse Mr. Blaine, in any instance, of employing an argument not quite up to the highest plane of statesmanship, and of leading this discussion into the arena of mere party politics, yet I must thank him for the closing paragraph of his last article. For patriotic sentiment, beauty of language, and grandeur of eloquence, it merits a high place among the noblest productions of the English language.

THOMAS A. HENDRICKS.

II.

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF ENGLAND.

"WELL, but will you tell me, after all, what is a public school?" The propounder of this was an American gentleman, of high culture himself and deeply interested in the subject of education. He was not satisfied with the state of things in his own country, and was persuaded that the time had come when an effort must be made to meet the demand for some other stepping-stone for their boys than the common school or the private boarding-school, between the home of the American gentry and the universities. He had read such documents as he could lay hands on as to the English publicschools system, and had convinced himself that there might be something in it which would be of use to him in his search. At any rate, he would run over and study it for himself. Accordingly, having obtained such letters as he thought might be of use to him, he sailed for England, and, after consultation with and under the advice of some of those to whom they were addressed, made a tour of inspection which comprised most of the English public schools. He had been much pleased with his adventures: had seen a number of fine buildings, some of them of rare historical interest; had got much information as to the methods of study and discipline; had looked on at any number of cricket matches and other games, and been much impressed by the skill and activity of the boys, and the beauty of their raiment; had talked with masters, and prefects, and other boys, big and little, and had come back full of all manner of facts and figures. But in one thing he had failed, and in a matter, too, which he not unreasonably held to lie at the very root of his inquiry; and so, after his six weeks' wanderings, returned to his original mentor in London, before starting on his return voyage, with the above question, "What is a public school?" Many replies, indeed, he had heard, but none which had at all satisfied him. Thus he had been told by a sixth-form boy in the Eton eleven, that the

only public schools in England were those which played against each other in a yearly match at Lord's cricket-ground; according to the captain of Westminster, a royal foundation was the true test; other authorities of equal weight had limited public schools to those entitled to contend for the Elcho shield and Spencer cup at the Wimbledon gatherings of the National Rifle Association. A Liberal under-master at Rugby had defined public schools as those which possessed a foundation controlled by persons in no way interested in the profits of the institution; while at Shrewsbury he had been assured that a charter of some Plantagenet or Tudor sovereign was of the essence of a true public school. From his own observations and inquiries, however, he remained quite dissatisfied with all and each of these definitions, and came back with steady persistence to his starting-point, "What is a public school-in your country?"

The question is one of considerable difficulty. To some extent, however, the answer has been furnished by the Royal Commission appointed in 1861 to inquire into the nature and application of the endowments and revenues, and into the administration and management of certain specified colleges and schools commonly known as the Public Schools Commission. Nine are named in the Queen's letter of appointment, viz., Eton, Winchester, Westminster, the Charterhouse, St. Paul's, Merchant Taylors', Harrow, Rugby, and Shrewsbury. The reasons probably which suggested this selection were, that the nine named foundations had in the course of centuries emerged from the mass of endowed grammar-schools, and had made for themselves a position which justified their being placed in a distinct category, and classed as "public schools." It will be seen as we proceed that all these nine have certain features in common, distinguishing them from the ordinary grammar-schools which exist in almost every country town in England. Many of these latter are now waking up to the requirements of the new time and following the example of their more illustrious sisters. The most notable examples of this revival are such schools as those at Sherborne, Giggleswick, and Tunbridge Wells, which, while remodeling themselves on the lines laid down by the Public Schools Commissioners, are to some extent providing a training more adapted to the means and requirements of our middle classes in the nineteenth century than can be found at any of the nine public schools. But twenty years ago the movement which has since made such astonishing progress was scarcely felt in quiet country places like these, and the old enVOL. CXXVIII.-NO. 269.

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dowments were allowed to run to waste in a fashion which is now scarcely credible.

The same impulse which has put new life into the endowed grammar-schools throughout England has worked even more remarkably in another direction. The Victorian age bids fair to rival the Elizabethan in the number and importance of the new schools which it has founded and will hand on to the coming generation. Marlborough, Haileybury, Uppingham, Rossall, Clifton, Cheltenham, Radley, Malvern, and Wellington College, are nine schools which have taken their place in the first rank, and, while following reverently the best traditions of the older foundations, are in some respects setting them an example of what the public-school system may become at its best, and how it may be adapted to meet new conditions of national life.

In order, then, to get clear ideas on the general question, we must keep these three classes of school in mind—the nine old foundations recognized in the first instance by the Royal Commission of 1861; the old foundations which have remained local grammar-schools until within the last few years, but are now enlarging their bounds, conforming more or less to the public-school system, and becoming national institutions; and, lastly, the modern foundations which started from the first as public schools, professing to adapt themselves to the new circumstances and requirements of modern English life. The public schools of England fall under one or other of these categories. No one who understands the subject would question the claim of the modern foundations named above to the title of public schools, in the same sense in which it is applied to the nine. Of the schools in the second category only a certain number can be classed as public, as distinguished from local grammar-schools, and perhaps the best rough method for ascertaining which these are is furnished by the conferences of head masters, now held yearly, at the end of the summer term. Where the governing bodies of grammar-schools desire to conform to the public-school system, it may be assumed that they will be represented by their head masters on these occasions. Tried by this test there are in all some forty foundations, which may fairly be called the public schools of England, and which would have to be studied by any American educational reformer, desirous of satisfying himself what, if any, portion of the system can be carried across the Atlantic to any useful purpose.

We may now turn to the historic side of the question, dealing

first, as is due to their importance, with the nine schools of our first category. The oldest, and in some respects most famous of these, is Winchester School, or, as it was named by its founder, William of Wykeham, the College of St. Mary of Winchester, founded in 1382. Its constitution still retains much of the impress left on it by the great Bishop of the greatest Plantagenet King, five centuries ago. Toward the end of the fourteenth century Oxford was already the center of English education, but from the want of grammarschools boys went up by hundreds untaught in the simplest rudiments of learning, and when there lived in private hostels or lodging-houses, in a vast throng, under no discipline, and exposed to many hardships and temptations. In view of this state of things, William of Wykeham founded his grammar-school at Winchester and his college at Oxford, binding the two together, so that the school might send up properly trained scholars to the university, where they would be received at New College, in a suitable academical home, which should in its turn furnish governors and masters for the school. As might have been expected, the school itself took a collegiate shape, and under the original statutes consisted of a warden, ten fellows, seventy scholars, a head and second master, three chaplains, three clerks, and sixteen choristers. All these were amply provided for by the original endowments, but in addition the statutes provided for the admission of ten "filii nobilium ac valentium personarum dicti collegii specialium amicorum," who were to be educated in college at their own charges. How gently England deals with old institutions may be seen by comparing the Winchester of to-day with that of William of Wykeham. As time went on the college property increased enormously in value, and long periods occurred in which a very different estimate from that of the Bishop came to be put on the higher education. And so, while the school never altogether failed in its work, great abuses crept in. College and school were kept as a close borough; the fellowships, pleasant sinecures of some five hundred pounds a year, and a good house, were monopolized by founders' kin and old Wykehamists of quiet tastes and popular manners; the splendid scholarships, which carried their fortunate possessors to New College, franked them through the university, and often provided for them for life, were given without competition of any kind. All this is changed. The old connection between school and college has been preserved, but both have been thrown open, with the result that England does not contain two more satisfactory places