SIR.—Why is your correspondent Mr. Kerby apparently so upset by
the fact that the sons of the newly rich receive a good education at Eton? Would he rather that they went somewhere else and received a bad one? Is not the bringing of them into contact with the remnants of our older aristocracy the very best thing that could happen to them? And, anyway, how does Mr. Kerby suppose our older aristocracy began?
The fact is that Eton's outstanding merits make it the object of all soils of envious gibes, and since Etonians are usually too modest to defend themselves and their school, I should like to take up the cudgels for them. Anyone who has examined Eton in an humane subject, as I have often done, knows per- fectly well that their general standard is higher than that of any school in the country. They may not produce more outstandingly brilliant boys than cer- tain other schools, but the fact remains that out of the dozen or so examination candidates to whom in my life I have awarded a really high mark for an essay, at least half have been from Eton.
Eton has a unique tradition which enables it to turn out men who are not only cultivated, but possess humour, an easy assurance and a fine detachment. The country should be grateful that a proportion of them enters politics. It is not in the least surprising that many of them achieve ministerial rank and not the least necessary to suppose that this happens through influence. Their merits entitle them to their positions, and, as far as I'm concerned, the more of them the better.—Yours faithfully, J. G. BLILI OCK E Royal Naval College, Greenwich, SEIO
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