1 JULY 1899, Page 12

A statue to Tom Hughes was unveiled at Rugby on

Satur- day last by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who commenced his speech by denying him any commanding intellect, and continued it by a eulogy on Dr. Arnold, of whom be described Hughes as merely the best interpreter. That is a little like honouring Irving by praise of Shakespeare, and though nearly true, does not suggest that Dr. Temple had any great love for Hughes. Mr. Goschen, however, was very warm, described Hughes as the most distinguished schoolboy who ever lived, "a hero without heroics,—modest and retiring, of a nature combining in an extraordinary degree the tender heart of a girl and the courage of a man." That is high praise, and it will be allowed by all who knew Hughes well to have been thoroughly deserved. We have endeavoured else- where to indicate of what use he was to the world, a point which in all eulogies on him is too much lost sight of. We are all proud of the English public-school boy because of his tone, and that tone he owes, in a great degree, to the teaching of Tom Hughes, who convinced him that goodness is not necessarily inconsistent with manly character, or even with love of masculine amusements. Hughes made "muscular Christianity," as it used to be called, the creed of the best schoolboys,—of those, that is, who set the model for the next generation.