the recollection of the pleasure of fagging others -by those who have endured all the servitude, and have never enjoyed the rule. During the five years I spent at Harby I was a fag for three years and a half, and remained one year and a half in an intermediate state-neither fag nor captain,-leaving school just as I was about to enter the monitorial class.

What constitutes the difference between a public and a private school? It is not the numbers, for many of our private schools contain two or three hundred boys. It is self-government. We admit and cherish the principle in every other relation of life, why refuse to admit it here? The British constitution is founded on the principle of local self-government, and the great value of a public school is its close resemblance to the outer world around it. At Harby we had our monitors-a local council of forty; our public meetings-the rest of the school, being often summoned to deliberate together; our laws, made by the majority and obeyed by all; our taxes-and very heavy we found them; our periodical press, and very amusing it was.

The Sixth form at Harby was composed of about forty of the most learned, and the oldest members of the school; many of them were almost men-none of them were younger than seventeen, and they were made fully to understand, when they entered into that class, the grave responsibility of the duties intrusted to them to perform. They were to be in the capacity of gentlemen-ushers, with power to punish certain offences with certain penalties; and, in the majority of cases, without referring to the masters at all. Of course, in a matter of any importance, it would be their duty to place the whole affair immediately before the head-master of the school. In many cases they had to break with friends who were too free and easy in their observance of school rules, and who were in the habit of disregarding those which prohibited a quiet cigar by the river side, or a bottle of champagne in the bedroom feast. In all cases they were in honour bound to eschew all such practices themselves, and to lead lives of such regularity in their studies and respectability in their conduct, as to set a good example to the school and to their

houses; that they should be able to punish all offences against school discipline, without rendering themselves liable to the "et tu quoque retort, "Why you do just the same yourself."

Their duties were numerous-they had to be constantly on the watch to prevent bullying and illegal fagging; to be in turn on duty in the schools and out of bounds; to read prayers, and keep order in their own houses; and-hardest task of all—to keep well with their school-fellows: to be neither too lax and undignified as masters, nor too severe and arrogant as friends. And, in most cases, they succeeded admirably: the greatest favourites of the school generally became monitors, and hardly a change was apparent in their deportment and manners. If they were treated with a little more respect by the little boys, they made up for it by increased protection and greater kindness than, as big boys only, they had been able to bestow.

To repay them for the hard duty they undertook, and to recompense them for these sacrifices they made, they were allowed to fag the younger boys: subject to certain fixed rules, and restrained

by many well-known customs. Their breakfasts were made and laid out ready for them in the morning; their studies were kept clean and neat: their fires were not allowed to go out for want of fuel in winter; their flowers and plants were not allowed to wither for want of water in summer; their books were carried to and from school in lesson time; their wickets were pitched and fielded for in play hours; their tea was made, and their bread toasted or buttered, in the evening; their suppers were taken to their studies at night; and their warm water, candles, lexicons, or novels, carried up to their rooms at bed time.

Such were the duties and such the privileges of monitors. In the next two chapters I will en

deavour to give a fag's amplification of the last paragraph.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE SCHOOL-FAGS.

"Honour and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part, there all the honour lies."

POPE.

"Well did I watch, much laboured, nor had power
To escape from many strange indignities."

WORDSWORTH.

THERE were, I think, about three hundred and twenty fags at Harby; and their duties were of two distinct kinds: "school-fagging" and “house-fagging."

School-fagging consisted in "fielding out," during practice hours, and scoring, or standing umpire at matches. The former was made much use of by amateurs in the monitorial class, in order to form good cricketers to replace any of the school "eleven" who might leave; in order