need not ask the governors whether the appointments made by themselves or by their predecessors, have been in accordance with the tenor of such a bequest. The least inquiry elsewhere will tell us that a baronet's sons have been placed on this charitable foundation, as poor boys" at the school; and that "poor, disabled day-labourers," or, to use Sir John Port's own words, "the poorest of Etwall parish," have not been, nor are, the class from which the inmates of the hospital were, or are, chosen. We repeat that we have nowhere insinuated, nor even thought, that there is any fraudulent appropriation of the corporate funds; but we have said that the number of “poor scholars" has been far greater than at present, and that an Act of Parliament was obtained which restricted the number to four or eight, according to the future state of the funds. And this we have deplored, and still deplore; and we wonder why the number was reduced, unless the revenues of the charity were also lessened. If the revenues have been lessened, let the public fully know how and when, and through WHOSE immediate acts or counsel, or by what course of events, such loss or losses became a part of the history of the Foundation. have Thus have we offered a candid opinion on the causes of the decline of Repton School. Her present sons, though few in number, will, we doubt not, amply illustrate her ancient dignity by their academic triumphs. And let us confidently trust that, ere many years become "parcel of the past," the spell of her former greatness may revive-the prestige of her early successes be recovered. Soon may we behold her no more the phantom of her pristine celebrity. Soon may the splendour of her wide-spread renown, as the seat of scholastic learning, be restored, with beams of additional brightness, till she even eclipse her former "high estate"-her palmy days of brilliant but evanescent fortune; and, in the meantime, let us boldly lift our hopes from the gloom that has menaced them, and seek to banish the darkness which has too long enshrouded the hearts of her truest and most revering sons, as they have pictured, with solemn regret, the unreturning glories of the "days of the years which are no more!" We are now "at issue." Sub judice lis est, aut erit." The "verdict" must be pronounced by the public voice. "Magna est veritas, et PRÆVALEBIT.” An echo, as from the tomb of Sir John Port, seems to answer, in sweetly-solemn accents PRÆVALEBIT!" |