English essay was a favourite exercise with him; and, although doomed to read an immense proportion of sad trash in examining the compositions in that branch, he had always the satisfaction of having among his scholars a few to whom it was evidently a very improving study; and for whose encouragement, as well as to excite a spirit of emulation in others, he introduced the practice of occasionally reading over in public the best of those compositions. Sometimes, also, he applied the same mode of encouragement to the authors of the most successful efforts in English verse; but here he found that a very moderate stimulus was sufficient, for that the supply of no very superior article would soon be likely to exceed the demand. In the corrective discipline of the school he introduced a very considerable change. Had this been done now, when all take upon themselves to pass judgment on matters in which they have no experience, and, usually, with confidence rising in proportion to their want of acquaintance with the subject, his system would have been esteemed less the result of his own reflections, than of concession to external fashion and opinión. Such was not the case, when, forty years ago or more, he exempted the upper classes, to a depth in the school before unprecedented, from corporal chastisement. He then acted exclusively on the conclusions of his own experience in thé government of boys, although he might have adduced the authority of Quintilian in support of his views of the subject:"Fere negligentiâ pædagogorum" (says that writer) "sic emendari (pueros) videtur, ut pueri non facere quæ recta sunt, cogantur, sed cur non fecerint, puniantur." And, if we bear in mind that the "negligentiâ" thus spoken of is, with' us, usually the fault of system, not the neglect by individuals, and limiting, also, the application of the axiom to the business of study, it must be admitted that, where classes are allowed to become so inconveniently large that it seldom comes to the turn of each individual boy to be examined, the strongest temptation to idleness and ignorance is held out to him; and, in

such case, it will be rather for the accidental discovery of negligence that he is corrected, than for want of any exertion which his teacher had a just right to expect. The power of marking each boy's individual progress, according to his abilities, is lost in such a system. But a degree of proficiency which, in one boy, is a sign of industry, is, in another, equally symptomatic of indolence. If the general discipline of great schools in England is not objectionable in its nature, (and it would be hard to say that it was so, while the objections almost invariably proceed from those who neither are, nor ever have been, the subjects of it, and know very little about it,) still, where schools become overburdened in respect of numbers, there is often a great want of discrimination in the application of such discipline, which renders the remark of Quintilian only too fit for adaptation to ourselves. Other modes of exacting penalties from youth, for their faults or omissions, are, by requiring long translations or transcripts from school-books, or the committing to memory of certain portions of classical authors; and, after these, still remains that of recurring to the mere sense of shame by persuasion or censure, or by the skilful and economical distribution of praise. The mischief of setting boys to transcribe, or even to get by rote, in the way of punishment, is, that it breeds a great distaste for the authors; and superinduces the vile habit of running over the words as rapidly as the pen-can move, or the tongue give utterance, without applying any meaning to them whatsoever. This habit, once acquired, unfortunately spreads over the whole course of study; and a hasty inattention to the real sense of writers, to which youth, from so many causes, is liable, is apt to be engendered, even where it never might have arisen spontaneously. It is very rare for a boy to relish a fine image in a poet, to be warmed by a noble sentiment in a moralist, or have his apprehension sharpened by a nice distinction in a grammarian, after having been doomed to the drudgery of transcribing; which is generally performed in the spirit, though without the care, of a clerk copying an indenture. Dr. Drury seems to have entertained similar views of the

subject, since he but rarely imposed this kind of penalty on the boys more immediately under his own eye. His system of governing the upper classes, and, in some measure, the whole school, may be said to have been almost exclusively by the tongue. In this he was, indeed, eminently successful. But, while we bestow its just meed of praise on that success, it is fair to admit, that the fortunate result produced by one master, very remarkably qualified by nature and attainment to pursue such a system, does not mark it out for general adoption by all. The subject of our memoir was gifted with great acuteness of insight into the minds of youth: he knew well what chords to touch, what sensibilities to arouse, in different individuals. His general harangues, at times when there existed any spirit of turbulence, or when he was apprehensive of any prevalence of bad habits, or run of folly, temporary, but pernicious, were admirably suited to their purpose; and so dead and still was the silence on such occasions, as to prove the strong interest which the boys took in hearing every word, however inculpatory of themselves, which fell from him. His skill in keeping up the respectful attention of his juvenile audience was very conspicuous. The argu.ment was short and conclusive; it was followed by some illustrative anecdote, in their admission of the application of which the youths seemed to feel they were exercising their own reason. If the case admitted it, the culprits were shamed out of their folly by an indirect ridicule, which showed them the absurdity of their own conduct, in the general consent of all around. The more hortatory parts invariably fell back on the strongest moral and religious principles, as the rules of action in life. Again, in his more private admonitions to individual boys, there was something truly parental; much kindness, but great seriousness, mixed with appeals to those feelings which are best excited when no publicity causes distress for the open expression of them. It is in allusion to such private admonitions, that one who unfortunately did not turn them to the best account-Lord Byron-thus speaks, in his Notes to Childe Harold: - "I believe no one could or can be

reason.

more attached to Harrow than I always have been, with A part of the time passed there was the happiest of my life; and my preceptor, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Drury, was the best and worthiest friend I ever possessed; whose warnings I have remembered but too well, though too late, when I have erred; and whose counsels I have but followed when I have done well or wisely."

We have been somewhat diffuse on this head, since the distinctive character of Dr. Drury, as a teacher, is very closely connected with it; and, as a result, it may be safely asserted that, without at present adverting to literary distinctions, no place of education in England ever sent into the world, in proportion, a greater number of right-minded, honourable English gentlemen than Harrow, under such discipline. It is obvious that the faculty of persuasion has a less certain issue, in the mere act of teaching, than in the regulation of conduct, and formation of moral habits: few can employ it in both cases systematically, without confounding, in the minds of the young, the degrees of culpability which should attach to omissions or errors of different kinds, having little apparent relation one to another. It is impossible so to graduate praise and censure as to have them always duly apportioned to the several degrees of merit and delinquency. To speak to a boy, occasionally, of negligence in study, as destructive of future prospects, and even as dishonourable to his parents, while it is derogatory to his own character, is very proper, and has its season and use: but, if the many acts of omission, necessarily arising at that age, are to be usually treated as matters for expostulation, in lieu of all other penalty, words will soon lose their effect; and offences of very unequal magnitude will seem to be visited with the same indiscriminate reprehension.

The substitution, by Dr. Heath, of public speaking, at Harrow, before large assembled audiences, in place of the ancient custom of shooting for the silver arrow, has been before adverted to. During the mastership of Dr. Drury considerable emulation was excited, among the elder youths,

subject, since he but rarely imposed this kind of penalty on the boys more immediately under his own eye. His system of governing the upper classes, and, in some measure, the whole school, may be said to have been almost exclusively by the tongue. In this he was, indeed, eminently successful. But, while we bestow its just meed of praise on that success, it is fair to admit, that the fortunate result produced by one master, very remarkably qualified by nature and attainment to pursue such a system, does not mark it out for general adoption by all. The subject of our memoir was gifted with great acuteness of insight into the minds of youth: he knew well what chords to touch, what sensibilities to arouse, in different individuals. His general harangues, at times when there existed any spirit of turbulence, or when he was apprehensive of any prevalence of bad habits, or run of folly, temporary, but pernicious, were admirably suited to their purpose; and so dead and still was the silence on such occasions, as to prove the strong interest which the boys took in hearing every word, however inculpatory of themselves, which fell from him. His skill in keeping up the respectful attention of his juvenile audience was very conspicuous. The argu.ment was short and conclusive; it was followed by some illustrative anecdote, in their admission of the application of which the youths seemed to feel they were exercising their own reason. If the case admitted it, the culprits were shamed out of their folly by an indirect ridicule, which showed them the absurdity of their own conduct, in the general consent of all around. The more hortatory parts invariably fell back on the strongest moral and religious principles, as the rules of action in life. Again, in his more private admonitions to individual boys, there was something truly parental; much kindness, but great seriousness, mixed with appeals to those feelings which are best excited when no publicity causes distress for the open expression of them. It is in allusion to such private admonitions, that one who unfortunately did not turn them to the best account-Lord Byron-thus speaks, in his Notes to Childe Harold: :"I believe no one could or can be

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