far too gross and revolting to be even hinted at here; but which do exist, and which will exist, and which no power but that of the elder boys can put down; and no punishment but that of the birch and cane can adequately punish, when the moral influence is ineffectual.

I may speak too strongly, but I cannot be mistaken in my feeling that the one fault to be put down in schools is coarseness in all its varied forms, and the one thing to be inculcated is gentlemanly feeling; which in its full meaning, comprehends all virtues. Open tyranny may be checked by the masters, and small and insignificant teasing may be discountenanced, and punished when detected; but for the larger evils prevalent in boys' schools-and which are the greater perhaps because they cannot even be named-evils whose traces are visible in after life, and whose baneful effects are perhaps never got rid ofthere can be but one remedy; and this should be found in the manly feeling and indignation of the elder boys, and the infliction of that one punishment which consists in the free exercise of their physical strength on the offender.

D

When I hear an act of bullying spoken of as unendurable, or some monitorial punishment as degrading, I wonder whether those who thus speak and write take the trouble to remember how small a portion of their trials were physical, or their shame caused by "lickings;" and I am inclined to fancy that my experience must be exceptional, and that Weston was peculiarly low and coarse in its tone. I have tried to find out if such were the case; my table is sprinkled with letters which would bear out a much darker view than the one I endeavour to present, and many conversations I have had lately would warrant my expressing myself even yet more strongly.

I cannot affirm that these evils do not exist under the public school system; still less would I venture to assert that they were universal in private schools; but the opener atmosphere of the former is not favourable to their growth, and we know that weeds flourish most luxuriantly in confined and secluded spots, and that free ventilation will cure most abuses. Let people pause, then, ere they condemn the smaller offences, and ignore the greater sins.

We had plenty of small annoyances at Weston; but how my tea used to be overset, and my bread and butter soaked, how sharp pins used to be fixed up edgeways on my seat, and how my legs were generally curled up under the bench for fear of encountering vagrant boots under the table, I need not recount. Tea over, we had an hour of liberty: one of the only pleasant moments of the day, for then we could roam about and even go beyond the walls; and the summer evening would find the hunted spirit hiding under some old boat, watching the sea rolling up the pebbles on the beach, till the very waves seemed to become living faces and the sea-roar a friendly voice. What companions did those deep-toned billows seem to me, as they rushed onwards, each leaping some feet beyond the last, or retiring sucking in the sand and shingle with a deep-drawn sigh. How hard it was to part from the silver-crested wave that had so long been endeavouring to land, when the school-bell rang and summoned me back to lessons and noise.

Prayers, supper, and bed-time, closed the long day; and happy he whose bedroom was a quiet

one, or whose lock inside was of a solid construction. I was at once inaugurated into my room with rites worthy of a Vehmgericht in their solemnity, and of freemasonry in the secresy which was preserved about them. The only fragment of the ceremonial which I feel I can divulge, is that all my washing utensils, brushes, soap and combs, were put into the basin I had used, and that etiquette forbade my getting out of bed to rescue them until the morning.

Such was Weston as it appeared to me on a nearer investigation; and as I lay down in my little bed, after having been fagged up and down to open and shut windows and to perform every variety of menial office-which aggravated me because it was arbitrary and tyrannical, as well as being contrary to the regulations-I was ready to exclaim in the words of my motto

"Nehmt euch meiner an!"

And nobody, except our friend Mephistopheles, could have had the impudence to reply to my piteous tale that I had come to exactly the best place for me.

CHAPTER IV.

PERSECUTION: AND WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE

FOR IT.

"I blame not those who with what care they can
O'erwatch the numerous and unruly clan;

Or if I blame, 'tis only that they dare
Promise a work, of which they must despair.
Have ye, ye sage intendants of the whole,
An ubiquarian presence and control;

Elisha's eye, that when Gehazi strayed,

Went with him, and saw all the game he played?"

COWPER.

WHAT a title for a chapter on school life! It takes one back to the days of the early Protestants, and to the time when the Inquisition reigned supreme over a large portion of the civilized world. The Papists, at all events, persecuted their antagonists, who would have done the same by them had they had the power; they