co-exist without injuring each other; and we sincerely desire that Eton may continue to be, what it has always been, the leading public school of England. But we are of opinion that the Eton authorities may learn a good deal that may be creditable and useful to them, and advantageous to the time-honoured establishment over which they preside, if they will take into consideration some points connected with their new neighbours. They may ascertain by examining the lists of the Wellington College that the boys already at that school and those whose names are entered for admission when room can be made for them, are precisely of the same social class as those who are now being educated at Eton. They may ascertain by the same lists that the gentlemen entrusted with the tuition of the Wellington scholars are of precisely the same social and academical class as are the assistant masters now at Eton. They may ascertain what manner of education such enlightened noblemen and gentlemen as those who constitute the governors of Wellington College believe to be best adapted to the requirements of the present day; and, above all, they may learn that in the opinion of those distinguished men, many of whom have already sent their own sons and relations to the school, the exorbitant spirit of luxury and expense which now obtains at Eton is both unnecessary and undesirable. They will find that the charge for education at Wellington College -1107. a year, comprises every item which is charged for at Eton as an extra, and if they will analyse some of these charges-medical attendance, diet, and washing for instance they will find that the boys at Wellington College are dealt with as liberally and as considerately as the sons of the best noblemen and gentlemen of England ought to be. But before any material improvements can possibly be effected at Eton, it is absolutely necessary that the financial position of the foundation should be inquired into. The visitors of the college the present Archbishop of Canterbury and the present Bishop of Lincoln-are the parties whose duty it would be to undertake this disagreeable office, were the action of visitors in the present age either probable or possible. The Eton statutes provide carefully and completely for such visitatorial supervision. The Archbishop of Canterbury is enjoined, in order that 'omnia et singula ordinationes et statuta 'dicti nostri Regalis Collegii per nos edita et edenda plene et efficaciter imperpetuum observentur, bonaque omnia hu'jusmodi fideliter conserventur discretiusque regantur,' to visit Eton College whenever he himself or his commissioners visit the diocese of Lincoln; whilst the Bishop of Lincoln is directed to visit the college as often as he is called upon to do so, by the provost, the vice-provost, and the two bursars; or by the whole body of the fellows; or by a majority of that body; and, at all events, to make a visitation once in every three years, and ascertain that the statutes are carried out to the letter. The visitors are authorised to punish or even to expel any delinquent member of the foundation from the provost downwards; and for their expenses the statutes prescribe that the Archbishop of Canterbury shall receive on each visitation, out of the college treasury, either the sum of 6l. 13s. 4d. or else meat and drink for himself and forty men and horses; the Bishop of Lincoln 51. or provisionem in esculentis et pocu'lentis pro se et triginta personis et totidem equis.' At the time that Mr. Brougham was pressing for an inquiry into the charitable trusts of England connected with education, a great and a successful effort was made by his opponents to exempt from the jurisdiction of the Charity Commission the universities, the public schools, and generally all charities having especial visitors or overseers. The alleged ground of this exemption was, that such special visitors were the persons appointed by the founders as their perpetual representatives to protect the interests of their foundations, and to inquire into the due execution of their bequests, and that it was unnecessary to invest a commission with extraordinary power for that purpose, whilst the parties selected by the will of the donors were able to carry out their intentions. But this argument, however plausible in theory, has failed utterly in practice. The visitors, upon whose vigilance and energy such reliance has been placed, are generally men of high station and advanced years, fully engaged in, and often wearied with, and broken down by, the business of life; knowing nothing of, deriving no advantage from, and consequently taking little interest in, the establishments of which they unwillingly find themselves the ex-officio guardians, and seldom over-anxious to adventure upon expensive litigation and to create for themselves enemies amongst the powerful and the prosperous, by officiously interfering on behalf of the friendless and the weak. Indeed, Mr. Brougham's Committee reported that the worst abuses of trust that had been brought under their cognizance, had occurred in charities under the superintendence of special visitors. We fear, therefore, that it is not to the action of visitors that the public must look for redress in the present instance; for the visiting department of King Henry's machinery has become quite as rusty and as worthless as the rest of his well-meant arrangements for endowing his intentions with the force of unchangeable stability. That the statutes of such a foundation as Eton College should be carried out to the letter in the present day is, we admit, neither possible or desirable; but it is both possible and desirable that the enormous revenues, willed by an English king for the promotion of education amongst the upper and middle classes of this country, should not be illegally diverted from their original destination into the pockets of a small number of individuals who are not entitled to them; and that the secrecy in which, for decency's sake, they persist in veiling their operations, should no longer be permitted to obstruct and cramp the liberal education of those very classes for whose benefit the pious munificence of their founder assigned them. The principles acted upon, with great public advantage by the Commissions which have reformed most of the great academical endowments of Oxford and of Cambridge, are, that the statutes of founders are to be upheld and enforced wherever they conduce to the grand objects of the foundations, but that they are to be modified wherever they require a closer adaptation to the wants of modern society. It is impossible to dispute the application of the same doctrine of justice and good policy to our public schools. It is not even pretended that any obscure or doubtful passage in the Eton statutes justifies the application now made of the property of that foundation. No doubt such misapplication of these funds as was shown in 1818 to exist, and which probably still exists, might very properly claim the ex-officio interference of the attorney-general, and the details of income and expenditure might be thoroughly investigated under the authority of the Court of Chancery. But considering that Eton is a great national institution, and that the charges brought against the governing body of the college are not urged against them as wrong doers in their individual capacity, but as the representatives of a corrupt system, we should be sorry to narrow this question to the dimensions of a suit in equity. We have lately been reminded that about onesixth of the present House of Commons, and certainly no inconsiderable portion of the British peerage, owe their education to Eton; and it is of incalculable importance to the upper classes of the nation, and through them to the whole community, that the education of Eton should be the best that can be supplied. We well know that Eton boys are early imbued with those qualities of spirit, honour, and endurance which mould and mark the character of English gentlemen. God forbid it should be otherwise. But nothing save the grossest prejudice can contend that the spirit of the school will necessarily be lowered or impaired, if its studies and its internal arrangements are extended and improved. Eton has hitherto flourished in spite of abuses which would probably have crushed a less powerful foundation. Will any one in these days assert that she has flourished by these abuses, or that she will flourish less when they are rooted out? The only remedy adequate to the case is a Royal Commission, armed-by Parliament if necessary-with full visitatorial powers, which ought to comprehend within its range the other great public schools of Westminster, Winchester, Harrow, and Rugby. These are no longer monastic establishments or private corporations; they are the great seminaries of learning in this land, and their welfare and progress concerns in the highest degree the Empire itself. A mere disclosure of the true history and conditions of each of these foundations would go far to remedy the evil; for we venture to affirm that when the whole truth is before the country, public opinion will demand with irresistible force the reform of a system of abuses so injurious to the public interests. For the advantage of Eton and her sister colleges, we cordially rejoice that this inquiry has begun; and we doubt not that it will end by giving new life and increased power to the most venerable and popular seat of English education. ART. V.-1. Euvres et Correspondance inédites d'Alexis de Tocqueville, publiées et précédées d'une Notice. Par GUSTAVE DE BEAUMONT, Membre de l'Institut. 2 tomes. 1860. Paris: 2. Discours de réception à l'Académie Française. Par le R. P. H. D. LACORDAIRE, des Frères Prêcheurs, le 24 Janvier, 1861. Paris. 3. Discours de M. Guizot, Directeur de l'Académie Française, en réponse au Discours prononcé par M. Lacordaire pour sa réception à l'Académie Française. Paris: 1861. -- A DOMINICAN monk, whose eloquence has for the first time raised a Brother of his Order to a seat in the Academy of France, an historian and statesman to whom in politics Alexis de Tocqueville had been habitually opposed,— a friend who had shared for thirty years his affections, his thoughts, and almost every incident of his life, have within the last few weeks pronounced and recorded their homage to this illustrious and virtuous man, whose premature death is an irreparable loss to letters, to his country, to those who loved him, and to the age. Nothing is more diverse than the points from which these eminent persons approached their common subject, nothing more unlike than the distinctive features most attractive to each of them in M. de Tocqueville's character; yet such was the simplicity, the truth, the native beauty of his mind, that voices of different tones blend in perfect harmony over his tomb, and the monument which adorns it, though raised by many hands, is of one conception and design. Perhaps of the three writers whose names we have cited, Father Lacordaire has best succeeded in tracing and expressing, by the light of his own genius, the extraordinary elevation and moral dignity of M. de Tocqueville's life. The part M. Guizot had to perform in his official capacity as the Director of the French Academy, was of a more modest kind, and with his usual good taste he confined himself to it, dwelling less on the circumstances which had separated him from M. de Tocqueville in public life than on the principles which united them in a common love of literature, philosophy, and freedom. But M. de Beaumont's biographical notice of his friend, accompanied as it is by a selection from his private letters and by some unpublished fragments of his works, is by far the most valuable memorial we as yet possess of him. M. de Beaumont has executed this task with a conscientious desire to present to the world a fair and accurate portrait of the man he loved. He has abstained from needless and intrusive |