The Governing Body of Eton College have come to the
deci- sion that, on the whole, the Boarding-house charges are now somewhat under the rate which will make the boarding-house as profitable as it ought to be, and they have sanctioned an addi- tion of 2,6 per annum to the maintenance charges in all the boarding-houses. They suggest further that the rule which ,diminishes by one-half the salary of 2300 a year payable out of the School Fund to an assistant-master, directly he gets the headship of a boarding-house, is a bad one, tend. ing to lower relatively the position of the senior masters ; -and they have suggested a mode in which it may be possible to give the full payment out of the School Fund to the heads of boarding-houses, as well as to the Assistant-Masters who have not got boarding-houses. The letter of the Governing Body is a very remarkable one, for while it deprecates anything like such charges for Eton boys as would prevent all but very rich parents from sending their sons there, it acknowledges in the broadest manner that an Eton assistant-master's professional position ought to be one of the acknowledged successes of English society, holding out inducements for men of real ability to look to it -as a good career, as one which opens to them the means of exercising that liberal hospitality which is an important element of the Eton system. This formal recognition by the Eton Governing Body of the standing of our assistant-masters coin- -cides fortunately with the declaration of some of the most in- fluential in the Rugby Governing Body on their behalf, and tends to raise materially not only their income, but the consideration and influence they are likely to enjoy in the England of the future.
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