MARLBOROUGH COLLEGE. 133 



total absence of any entente cordiale between the masters and the 

 boys. 



It IS undoubtedly better when possible, to rule by love than fear; 

 but so far as I could see, no attempt of such a method was ever 

 made at Marlborough; and except in the case of a few good boys, 

 who took to learning as naturally as they took to their mothers' 

 milk, it was a constant reign of terror. The masters had gigantic 

 powers, and generally they used them as Fi-fo-fums and Blunder- 

 bores. There was no appeal of any kind, when a preceptor scamped 

 his work in neglecting to shed a kindly light over anything we were 

 supposed to learn, and then punished us for our lack of knowledge. 

 Exceptions there were of course, and judging from the manner in 

 which the few favourites among the masters were regarded by the 

 boys, I have little doubt that both our learning and manners would 

 have made far more progress, had all followed the example of the 

 favourite few. 



One of the most reasonable and bravest men I ever knew, when 

 he sent his step-son to school, did so on the condition that he should 

 not be beaten, for he said, " I have commanded a ship for many 

 years without ever having struck a man, and surely you ought to 

 manage a lot of lads without assaulting them." 



Flogging has been abolished in the army, and it ought to be 

 abolished at schools, for there is something degrading and cowardly 

 in a grown up man beating a wretched boy for mere want of 

 knowledge, particularly when the assailant himself is utterly unable 

 to distinguish a monocotyledon from a dicotyledon; hemipterous 

 insects from any others ; or when invited to discourse about Darwin 

 or Croll on cataclysms, thinking himself now quite in his element, 

 proceeds to explain the mysterious "N." or "M." in the Church 

 Catechism. 



" But suppose the boy is a thief or bully ! " some one will exclaim, 

 "How then? " Well certainly this is a difficult subject to approach, 

 and I am getting out of my depth I own. But I should propose 

 trying gentle measures first, and if it is found that certain convq- 



