" AS OTHERS SEE US."
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR.") Ste,,—It was towards the end of morning school, and the Shake- speare lesson was dragging, at any rate, in one quarter. Our young friend, a Belgian boy of fifteen, now in his second term at an English school, was openly and frankly bored, and wel- comed the suggestion that he should write his impressions of the ,'British schoolboy—without prejudice. In twenty-five minutes he produced the enclosed essay, which you may think worthy of reproduction. - It is sent exactly as it was written ; the happy blend of English words and French idiom lend point as well as humour to a criticism which appears to me as shrewd
as it is ingenuous.—I am, Sir, &c., W. G. W.
" THE BRITISH SCHOOLBOY. •
I like the British schoolboys for some things and for other things I dont like them very much. By example, certain boys who have any power on the others, use it too largely and have a pleasure to punish'them. At the other hand, they are very kind to you, when you ask them something. But one thing that failed them, is the work : they dont work very much ; their principal doings at college are to work and the games : the most of them like more the games than the work. In preparation I've had the proof, very often (I dont say that all the boys are doing that—but many of them) : they speak amongst them, read sometimes, and turn the head for a small noise ; I dont blame them, for I 110 that myself, being accustomed to the English fashion. I dont like very much that custom that there are pmepositors &o. study chaps : for myself I think that everybody ought to bo equal : for some of them use too much of their power. I like that matter of O.T.C. that I have never seen in Belgian schools ; that's a good thing : the boys_ become strong and are trained, if ever they are going to be soldiers,;, later on. But a thing that I praise is, that the boys, being left alone will never do anything wrong for in Belgium, they are net trusted and will never be out of the view of the master. But in general till now, I have a good opinion of the English schoolboys."-
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