15 AUGUST 1868, Page 2

The Times has made an effort to revive the discussion

about the proper length for holidays, by publishing a letter from Mr. Samuel Tolfrey, who complains that, owing to the " dishonest " example of Eton and Harrow, fathers now have their sons "returned upon their hands" for fourteen weeks out of the fifty-two. This sucker, however, has not drawn. People without sons do not care, and people with sons have a trick of liking to see a little of them in the course of the year. Did it ever strike Mr. Samuel Tolfrey, we wonder, that a little freedom from discipline benefits a lad, assists to form his character, and, moreover, helps the usual kind of father to establish a relation to his children better for them and him than that of "relieving officer ?" A man's duty to his boys is not absolutely ended when he has surrendered them even to Dr. Temple.