Different explanations will
suggest themselves to others, but among observers on the spot there was
but one opinion--that the prosperous result was due to the system of self-
government, "monitorial system," or whatever we name the institution,
which rests on the assumption that English boys are capable of
responsibility and authority, and will prove trustworthy if their masters
are willing to trust them. We do not forget that other factors entered
into the cause; one which cannot be ignored was the consciousness of the
boys that the school was on its trial, and that a public one. But people
cannot acquire self-control merely by the removal of restraints, or
behave well, for a long time together and in spite of tedium, simply
because they would like to do so. The truth is, that in a time which
might have been anarchical, we lived on the fruits of a long-established
order; and it is fair to add that at the end of thirteen months there
were no visible symptoms that discipline was wearing threadbare.
Shall we, for writing this, be taxed with the vain-glory for which public
schools are at times reproached? We must brave the charge, then; for the
facts seem to furnish evidence of a kind so rarely obtainable, that to
omit them from this chapter in school life would be hardly excusable.
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