350 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



to learn his lessons. I may with justice extend this 

 last analogy still further, for the government of a 

 state represents in many particulars the headmaster 

 of one of our large public schools. The headmaster 

 regulates the work, takes an interest in the school 

 sports, but leaves the regulation of the sports in 

 the hands of the boys. Such should be the 

 relationship of the State and sport. I judge of 

 a school as much, if not more, by its prowess in 

 games as by its success in scholarship. Thousands 

 more people know which side won the last Eton v. 

 Harrow cricket match than know the scholars which 

 either school sent up to the universities. The 

 English have the reputation of being a nation of 

 sportsmen, a reputation which carries prestige in the 

 commonwealth of a nation as much as any stroke 

 of masterly diplomacy. Therefore it is the duty 

 of the State not to hamper sport with frivolous 

 interference by imposing restrictions which the 

 leaders of sport consider objectionable, but rather 

 to sweep aside any restrictions which the law un- 

 wittingly has imposed. If, moreover, the State 

 could reform the present system of Board School 

 education, as I have ventured to suggest, I feel 

 certain that the result would be a diminution of 

 crime, since it is the proud boast of sport that it 

 creates brave soldiers and useful citizens. 



Let me now make a few remarks anent " The 

 Agricultural Wage." The report of Mr. Wilson 



