f To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."
SIR,—Though I entirely agree with the main argument of your article headed as above, I cannot help thinking that you over- rate the social advantages open to boys attending large Day- Schools. From personal experience I can assure you that if a boy "play cards or backgammon," "play a musical instrument or sing," or "listen to some one else playing or singing" after his return from school, it can only be by neglecting some part of the home-work set him. A boy who does conscientiously his evening's task will probably consider himself lucky if he have time to glance through a newspaper before the necessity of early rising compels him to seek his bed. Of course, there are the half-holidays, but after the close confinement in the school- room it is almost indispensable to good health that he should spend these afternoons out-of-doors. The hours of work, including "preparation," for boys of fourteen to seven- teen years of age, at the great London Day-Schools, average, I believe, from eight to ten daily. Add to this two hours spent in going to the City and back by train, omnibus, &c., and the time consumed in eating and sleeping, there will not remain many minutes during which ease in the presence of woman, or any other accomplishments, can be cultivated.
The faculty of keeping one's head above water in the company of the other sex seems to me to come rather by nature than education. I have recently come across a boy, twelve years of age (though be looked considerably older), as timid in some ways as a hare, and as ignorant as a National School child of the lowest grade, who was, nevertheless, one of the most accom- plished and successful "ladies' men" I ever met. And all the book-learning which had been crammed into this little dunce was acquired at a Boarding-School.
A serious drawback to the Day-School system in London is that three-fourths of the boys are obliged to make the daily journey to and fro by train. Of the prejudicial effects of this you had something to say on August 30th, in a review of "The Book of Health," and I need not dwell upon it. Though, how- ever, the system has its faults, these are less numerous than the defects of the Boarding School, chief among which seems to be the pouring of all material into the same mould, the clip- ping all boys to the same moral, physical, and mental standards. I have had some experience of Boarding-School and Day-School boys, and I have nearly always found a lack of individuality in the former which is at least not so noticeably present in the latter.—I am, Sir, &c., ONE INTERESTED IN THE SUBJECT.
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