TOWAR ETON COLLEGE. OWARD the middle of the fifteenth century, I fore had founded those famous seminaries of learnat a time, as we have been told, when the Latin of the English clergy had grown hopelessly corrupt, and the very tradition of Greek scholarship had passed away from their land, the King of England took into consideration a plan of reviving classical learning among them. Having revolved in his mind how, or in what manner, or by what royal gift, he could best attain this purpose, and at the same time do fitting honor to the Church militant of which he was no unworthy supporter, Henry VI.- for this was the king who thus laudably desired to increase the love of learning among his subjects-resolved to create a nursery for boy-students, whose foster-mother was to be the University of Cambridge. This idea was not a new one. Henry was ing, New College at Oxford, and that college at Winchester which, to this day, is proud to call its sons Wykehamists, and which remains one of the noblest monuments of the charitable spirit of the fourteenth century. The king had examined personally into the working of this latter institution, and so pleased does he seem to have been with the advantages it secured to poor students, that he forthwith took in hand the founding of two colleges of his own, based upon the admirable constitution of Wykeham's foundations. Henry was the man of all others well qualified to engage in such a work.. "Fitter for a cowl than a crown," as Fuller quaintly says, he was heartily in sympathy with the work of the Church for whose service he intended his brood indebted for it to the wise and charitable example of William of Wykeham, who about fifty years be1 The illustrations to this article are derived from "Pictu of young scholars should be prepared; and he was, besides, himself a man of some learning, and knew and could appreciate its value. He took counsel resque Europe," D. Appleton & Co., New York, and Cassell, with the powerful Cardinal Beaufort, and finally gave all the influence of his kingly power, and London. to all time," and with religious fervor dedicated it | venerable buildings by the banks of the Thames "to the praise, glory, and honor of our crucified Lord, the exaltation of the most glorious Virgin Mary his mother, and the support of the Holy Church his bride." And by way of perpetuating this religious resolution, he gave immediate effect to his intentions by commanding the school to be built, and by naming it "The King's College of our Lady of Eton, beside Windsor." A year later, namely, in 1441, Henry founded King's College at Cambridge, which was affiliated to the younger institution, and so originated two noble foundations which were destined, after the lapse of three centuries, to become testify of both. Erected under the watchful supervision of the king himself, who from his castle of Windsor noted the daily progress made in the school's erection, the buildings remain noteworthy examples of the architecture most in vogue in England during the reign of the Tudors. Standing in the fine old quadrangle of the college, with the Fellows' lodgings facing him, the beautiful college chapel at right, the venerable range of school buildings at left, and the yet more venerable and famous "Long Chamber" over the cloister at back of him, the visitor may at a glance see the most that exists of Eton fulfilling the original purpose and aim of Eton's founder. If I had wished, I might grow sentimental over the historical reminiscences of this great school. Had I the leisure, I could unearth sermons from the stones of the college quadrangle, and write a paper touching its ancient glories. Were I in the mood, I would grow rapturous over Eton traditions, Eton scholars, Eton head-masters, and Eton benefactors. In this relation I could have dwelt upon the fleeting nature of greatness, the hollowness of even the most brilliant of earthly careers, and the lamentable brevity and unsatisfying character of worldly happiness; and for the purposes of my discourse I might have quoted the following translation of the Latin epitaph written for his Eton tomb by that noblest and worthiest of Eton's sons, the Marquis of Wellesley: "Long tossed on Fortune's wave I come to rest, Eton, once more on thy maternal breast, On loftiest deeds to fix the aspiring gaze, To seek the purer lights of ancient days, To love the simple paths of manly TruthThese were thy lessons to my opening youth. If on my later life some glory shine, Some honors grace my name, the meed is thine. My boyhood's nurse, my aged dust receive, And one last tear of kind remembrance give!" ! I might have dwelt upon these and kindred matters bearing upon Eton's history and her associations, but that I am reminded we are living in the present, and that in dwelling on the past I should be losing sight of the main object I had in view in writing this article. Were the question to be asked me, did I consider that Eton College, as it now is, fulfills any of the original intentions of King Henry in founding it, I should answer, "No." I should answer "No" as distinctly as I should were I to be asked if, in my opinion, Christ's Hospital at present fulfills the intentions of Edward VI. in founding it, or any of the other great foundation schools of England the original intentions of their founders in creating them. I should say of Eton that at present it is the most aristocratic school in England, probably in the whole world, and that, in its elements, it is utterly opposed to the school conceived by Henry, and by him de creed "to endure to all time." True, it retains one essential feature of the king's scheme, in that it continues to afford gratuitous board, lodging, and education, to scholars, but not to poor scholars; on the contrary, to scholars whose parents must expend considerable sums in having their sons "" crammed" to the proper "passing" point, far more considerable indeed than most parents of " poor scholars" could possibly afford. And when it is borne in view that in the now annual competitions for election to Eton some eighty or ninety youths usually present themselves to compete for about twelve vacancies, the value that is attached to success at the examination by parents may be very fairly estimated. In order that the reader may understand clearly the nature of the benefits based upon Henry's 1 Translated by the late Lord Derby. scheme, now remaining open to the English youth, it will be convenient that it should be here pointed out what these are. The last Monday in each July is what is known at Eton as "Election Monday," when any boy of British parentage, who has reached his twelfth year, and not passed his fifteenth birthday, and who can produce certificates of good moral character, and necessary evidence as to birth, may present himself for election to the "college." It is to be understood that it is open to all boys within certain limits, and whose parents can afford the expense to enter at Eton as 'oppidans," or boys not educated on the foundation; but for the benefits of the college of King Henry every youth is now elected in competitive examination, and, on election, will become one of the "King's scholars," so called, of whom there are some seventy in number. As vacancies in this number occur, these are again filled up at "election." The king's scholars live by themselves in a range of buildings within the college-a magnificent exchange for the dreariness and discomfort of "Long Chamber "-and are exempted from all payments for board, lodging, and education, during their stay at Eton, which continues generally until the "election" next after the scholar's nineteenth birthday. At King's College, Cambridge, appropriated, under Henry's scheme, to the scholars value of eighty pounds, with "commons," rooms, of Eton, are twenty-four scholarships of the annual and tuition free, tenable until the degree of A. M. is reached. scholars occur, they are filled up by king's scholars As vacancies upon the list of elected nation for the honor. So it will be seen that there from Eton, who have themselves qualified in examiis a relic of the charitable scheme propounded by Henry still belonging to his college of Eton. And tenance of the king's foundation, notwithstanding it seems worthy of record, as evidence of the mainthe silent efforts of the aristocratic spirit of English wealth to destroy it, that the king's scholars alone keep up the reputation of Eton for learning. I say alone, because it seems to be a very rare event hap-. pening in her history to find one of the "oppidans" (of whom we shall have something to say presently) occupying the place of "captain of the school," or, to be more explanatory, head-boy. Moreover, in examining the school-lists for the past year, it was with peculiar gratification I found that the king's scholars in nearly every instance appeared as leading the several school-classes. The peculiar gratification I found in noting this had arisen from a deeply-imcheer wherever I find its claims are recognized and bued desire to recognize everywhere—and to cry a acknowledged-the majesty, if I may use the ex-pression, of learning. And for this reason I'feel al-most tempted to ask pardon for the covert sneer im-. plied in the remark that the parents of Eton's "poor " cause, finding those scholars so ably recognizing and scholars are generally of the moneyed classes, beso properly defining the true position of learning, it stand to their honor that their parents are moneyed! can be no reflection upon them, but must rather people. From time immemorial it has been the "oppidans" who have supported the aristocratic prestige of Eton. It has been from this class, the bulk of the school, for they number some seven hundred odd to the collegers seventy, that has sprung that grand array of celebrated men who have made the name of Eton famous. This at first sight seems to mean a contradiction of the honor I have claimed for the collegers; and, in fact, it would be a contradiction if statecraft had been the goal for which all Etonians had strived. But, in considering this apparent anomaly, it is necessary to bear in mind that the social rank of an oppidan and the social rank of a colleger is in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred unequal. And it will be admitted, I think, that in England social rank confers great advantages-advantages, however, which I am happy to say are growing less and less distinct, and less frequently claimed by Englishmen who possess them. The Etonian who afterward made a place for himself on the rolls of eminent Englishmen generally entered the school with enormous advantages, both of birth and position. I do not mean to affirm that these saved him from the re ested in the article because it expressed an opinion of the education which an "oppidan" received at Eton half a century ago. It declared that when one of these young gentlemen came up to Oxford and Cambridge, and was questioned as to the extent of his classical studies, he could only answer that, besides Horace and part of Virgil, he had read nothing. He had not read a single book of the higher classics. He was utterly ignorant of mathematical or physical science, and even of arithmetic. The very names of logical, moral, and political science, were unknown to him. And as for modern history, and modern languages, of these he knew absolutely nothing. This was the state of an Eton " oppidan's" learning at the beginning of the century. It is fair to say that all this has been changed now, and that the Eton education is as good as the education given at most of the English public schools. But the oppidans do not avail themselves of it in any superior degree, and I believe that I am quite within the truth when I say that Eton oppidans' names in the honor-lists of Oxford and Cambridge are as few and far between now as they were at the beginning of the present century. Of course, the standard of learning throughout England has been much raised since then, and the learning of all Etonians in proportion; but I shrewdly suspect that the "oppidan's' motive in entering at Eton in 1876 is the same as his motive was for entering in 1800. He desires to have the prestige in after-life of having been edu " in this respect his parents pay the respectable average annual sum of one hundred and seventy-five pounds, or about eight hundred and seventy-five dollars gold, of which about one hundred and twenty pounds, or six hundred dollars, goes for board and tuition. sponsibilities of school discipline, or defended him from the rigorous rule of such masters as Foster and Keate; but, on leaving Eton, he at once entered upon a career which to most men is closed, and to all men outside of the ranks of an aristocracy it is the work of a lifetime to enter. It is not necessary to produce evidence to affirm that most celebrated Etonians have been the sons of Englishmen, them-cated at Eton. For the gratification of his wishes selves high either in the ranks of the court, the state, the church, the army, or the navy; and it seems equally unnecessary to adduce evidence in support of my assertion that these in later life have been the men who have reflected most fame on the name of Eton. As a rule, these gentlemen learned little at school and less at college, and it was solely their high social position at the outset in life which ultimately gained for them the distinction of being enrolled as celebrated Etonians. I am quite prepared to have this statement contradicted by opposing instances of celebrated Etonians who have risen from the ranks of the English middle classes; but these are so extremely rare, and so isolated, that I do not need to notice and discuss them in a paper of this kind. The son of an English peer was sent to Eton, and is sent to Eton now, as he afterward goes into Parliament, and gets appointed to office, by a certain natural fitness of things; but Eton under these circumstances has no more claim to all his virtues because he was educated at Eton than Harrow to be charged with all the vices of Lord Byron because his lordship happened to be educated at Harrow. I was reading, recently, an old number of the Edinburgh Review, belonging to the period of Jeffrey's editorship. A writer in it was reviewing some of the school-books then in use at Eton, and, as I can testify, which were read there quite within recent years. It does not much signify, probably, to say that those books are condemned wholesale, considering that Edinburgh reviewers in those days lived by condemnation. I was most immediately inter He boards with one of the college-masters, and lives, be it said, well; he has a small study and separate sleeping-apartment to his use; a tutor assists him in his work, and he has about as much schooling of the good, old-fashioned sort as an undergraduate at Harvard or Oxford. Indeed, the Etonian, as far as no schooling goes, fares luxuriously. Every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, with him is a half-holiday, and every saints'-day a whole holiday. He goes into "first school," so called, on the days which are not holidays, from 7 A. M. to about a quarter to 8 A. M.; a little more schooling comes off between II A. M. and 12 noon; a break here occurs until 3 P. M. to 3.45 P. M., when he is in school again; and, finally, he sees his master once more from 5.15 P. M. to 6. All the odd hours and minutes between these times he spends in learning: to become an English gentleman, of course he must snatch odd moments for school preparation and reading with his tutor; but in the main the education at Eton resolves itself into one of learning to become a gentleman. And to teach Etonians to possess this great quality, the forty-eight learned graduates of Oxford and Cambridge employed as college-masters do very little, and the boys themselves very much. It would be almost impossible to clearly define |