And now, like a stone rolling down-hill, which, although not quite a new simile, is the best that I can call to mind at the moment, our pace seemed to grow quicker as we approached our term. We rode through the town of Windsor, and my father desired me to remark the magnificent site of the castle, which I endeavoured to do, but I cannot say that I was particularly penetrated by its appearance at that time; we clattered over the stones down the steep street, which some presentiment told me led direct to Eton, crossed the bridge over the Thames, the theatre of my future exploits, before I expected it, and stood within the precincts of the college.

"Now, my boy," said my father, "you are in Eton."

I called up as good a smile as I could, but I fancy it was a very poor one; and I must confess I heartily wished I was at home. I do believe that if I had been on my own legs I should have stood stock-still; but being borne like an involuntary agent by my pony, I was carried on irresistibly to my fate. I looked around me, however, to see what sort of a place I was in, and I saw nothing to alarm me; but still it was "going to school;" and the sensations engendered by that occurrence, are, I have reason to believe, never of an agreeable nature. But on we went.

Passing Christopher's, celebrated for its "bishop," on our left, we skirted the sausage-shop on the same side, and rode by the domiciles of Yonge and Bethell, flanked by Knapp's and the long wall on our right; thence pursuing our course, amidst a silence and solitude which struck me as mysterious and awful-but as it was during school-hours, all the boys were otherwise engaged-we passed Waight's, turned Mother Trot's at the corner, and passing by Sumner's on our right hand, and leaving Drury's on our left, we pushed our way to the very outskirt of the inhabited portion of the Etonian domains, and drew up in the court-yard of a square brick mansion, which was tenanted by a lady of the name of Angelo; and albeit she was a "Miss," one of the privileged "dames" of the college.

A man-servant appeared; we dismounted from our horses; my father introduced me to the lady who was to stand in loco parentis on the female side, and after the usual compliments he took his leave, taking me with him to "Christopher's" to have a glass of wine before parting. We were shown into rather a gloomy-looking room fronting the street, and a bottle and glasses were provided with a promptitude which showed that the waiter was used to the order.

My father sat down and pulled up his top-boots, which he regarded meditatively for a brief space, and then addressed me gravely in the following terms:

"Leander, you are but young as yet, but you are old enough to understand me. This is the first time that you have been from home, and your mother is very anxious about you. Always be a good boy, and attend to what your tutor says to you; and take care that you don't cut your fingers with your hack-knife; I remember your mamma was very particular about that. And remember that you are now at the first school in the kingdom; it was founded by Henry VI.; the very first, and the most expensive, I understand; Harrow and Westminster are good, Harrow especially; I know that, because I was brought up there myself, and there was one of the best packs of hounds-however, that is not to the question now; you must attend to your studies. Greek and Latin are

the main points here. Every gentleman must understand Greek and Latin; that is, he must have studied them in his youth so as not to appear ignorant when things are talked about in Greek and Latin, such as Homer and Virgil. People don't talk Greek and Latin now, at least I never heard them, and that is why they are called the dead languages. But they are very useful, nevertheless, in a variety of ways, not necessary for me to mention at present, because your tutor will explain all that to you. And one thing that I have to impress upon you, is always to speak the truth, and always to act like a gentleman. Don't quarrel, and don't fight, if you can help it; I know that your mother has cautioned you about that. But, at the same time, I don't wish you to be a poltroon; so that, as I say, don't get into a fight if you can help it, but if you can't help it, why then you must act according to circumstances. Don't borrow money of your schoolfellows; that's a very mean thing to do; bnt always lend to any one that wants it; we ought always to be free and generous to one another, and people always have a contempt for a miserly disposition. But you must not spend your money extravagantly, that would be wrong again. In short, you must spend your money like a gentleman. And of course you will not get into debt; in fact, you are too young for the trades people to allow you to do it. People in a certain station of life are obliged to get into debt; but little boys have no business to do it. And that's all I have to say to you. Oh! your mother wished me to say something about your reading. I understand that the common parts of education, such as reading, and writing, and that-and arithmetic-I must not forget arithmetic-are not much attended to here. These things are expected to come of themselves; it is the classics that distinguish gentlemen from the common people. You will learn fencing, and dancing, of course, and French; but you must not allow them to interfere with your Greek and Latin. And remember to wind up your watch regularly, always in the morning at breakfast, that's the proper time; at night--after dinner-one is apt to neglect it; but you are too young to understand those things. And you will find it very useful for keeping school hours; and remember that punctuality in engagements is one of the distinctions of a gentleman; besides, if you don't keep to your time in being at school you will be punished-flogged, perhaps, which is a very disgraceful circumstance, besides being painful-sometimes it is very painful. However, I hope that will not happen to you. Indeed, it is a practice which I do not approve of, and never didapprove of. I remember all the boys at Harrow were against it; but I suppose no other mode of correction can be found that is so handy and gives so little trouble. One of the masters at Harrow used to call it a short cut to the knowledge of the Greek and Latin classics;' but it would be improper for me to treat such a subject with levity; but your mother was very fretty about it before we came away, and so you will take care to keep out of that scrape, I am sure, for her sake. And now, my dear boy, I shall wish you good-bye."

With these words my father rose, and placing in my hands a one-pound note, which seemed to me at that time an inexhaustible supply of wealth, he took leave of me, not without emotion, although he thought to disguise it by a careless and cheerful manner, which, however, my young eyes saw through, and which made my heart feel very heavy. My father walked back with me to my dame's, followed by the coachman with the

horses, and, after an affectionate parting, the coachman shaking hands with me as with his own son, I was left in my new abode, the last thing that I saw being my pony's tail as it whisked round the corner.

I was now alone; I felt a strange choking at the throat, which indisposed me to the conversation into which my good-natured dame, with kindly intentions, endeavoured to beguile me. But I would have burst rather than have allowed a tear to escape me, and I endeavoured to find consolation in the anticipation of the sports in which I should now have the opportunity of engaging, with numerous companions, and with the feeling of the unwonted supply of money which I fondly cherished in my breeches-pocket, and which already seemed to be endowed with a sort of restless power of locomotion, as if stimulated by the air of the place with a spontaneous desire of circulation. But of this I shall have to speak in due course. I must first describe my reception by my schoolfellows, and the greeting which awaited me in the ceremonies of induction incidental to a "new boy."

These details will not appear trivial to those who are desirous of becoming acquainted with the progress of a boy's life at a public school; and when it is considered how indelibly the character of the man is affected by such early impressions, it may be useful to record the results of my own experience, as it may assist the judgment of those whose attention is directed to the subject, in forming a comparison between the benefits of public and private education. Indeed, my own opinion is, that many of the errors which are prevalent among the higher classes of this country, and especially the vice of expenditure, which is transmitted by imitation from the higher to the lower, may be traced to the early defects of omission and commission induced by the system prevalent at our public schools; and this remark applies as well to the moral as the scholastic portion of the system.-I will take the opportunity of explaining how the process of teaching is conducted, and say a word or two on the domestic economy of the school.

The public school of Eton is not, as many suppose, a single building, in which all the boys are collected under one roof, and watched over in a body; the school, properly so called, consists of two large school-rooms, with one or two smaller places of assemblage, at which the boys of the upper and lower school, respectively, attend at stated times "to say their lessons:" the lessons are learnt, or supposed to be learnt elsewhere. The boys reside at different houses kept either by "dames" for the most part, or by the tutors. Every boy on his entrance is placed as a pupil of one of the tutors, all of whom must have passed through the college on the foundation, and who are, without exception, well-bred gentlemen of superior attainments. These tutors form also the body of "masters,' who attend at the school-rooms to hear the lessons; and they are presumed to take care that their pupils are properly prepared at their own houses in their various tasks. This duty, however, was in my time frequently neglected.

Besides these tutors, there were other masters, licensed by the college, but extraneous to it, who taught the vulgar accomplishments of reading, writing, and arithmetic, such matters being considered beneath the attention of the classic "tutors," who confined themselves to Latin and Greek, including, above all, the highly-prized accomplishment of making Greek and Latin verses, which was the criterion of college merit, and considered

superior to all other attainments. In addition to the instructors already mentioned, there was a French master appointed by the college, and one or two other permitted French masters and private tutors, of whom the authorities took no other account than to be satisfied with the general correctness of their character and demeanour.

Thus, the boy resided, that is, slept and took his meals, at the house of his dame, or, as I have already said, in some instances, at the house of his tutor; and journeyed backwards and forwards from his dame's or his tutor's house to the school-room, in all weathers, rain or sunshine, which, while it tended, as it was considered, to make him more hardy and manly, was a fruitful source of the illnesses which such exposure could not fail to occasion. And the mode of living at the dame's or tutor's house was this; sometimes, but rarely, a boy had a room to himself; in the majority of cases, and almost always when there were brothers, two or three, and even four, boys inhabited the same room, which was of rather small dimensions. In this room they sat during the day, when they sat at all, and invariably passed their evenings. How the evenings were often passed I shall have to describe by-and-by. In this room they also slept; turn-up bedsteads standing in it, which were closed during the day. This was a bad arrangement, obviously; but so it was; and such was the apartment in which many of the sons of the highest nobility in the kingdom have passed the best part of their juvenile days.

As to the moral superintendence of the boys thus placed, there was little or none. In their own rooms they did as they pleased; and, indeed, in my time, any manifest spying into their doings on the part of their dame would have been considered an intrusion, and would have been resented in some way, accordingly. So that, in fact, the boys were left almost entirely to themselves; and were exposed to the caprices, or the tyranny, and to the bad examples of one another, almost without check or control; and so long as they made no disturbance by fireworks or other gunpowder amusements threatening the blowing up of the premises, they were allowed to pass their time in quarrelling, fighting, cards, and drinking, pretty much as they pleased, and left to settle their disputes as they best could among themselves; the strongest, as is usual in such communities, establishing his dominion over the rest, as is the custom in systems of autocrasy in all times all over the world. It must be admitted that this was not the best way to conduct a moral education; but at a public school it is not a moral, but a classical, education that is aimed at ; and doubtless that object, at the expense of all the rest, is sometimes successfully accomplished.

Now I must protest against being wilfully misunderstood on the point of what is called "classical education," meaning thereby, as the term is popularly interpreted, a Greek and Latin education; I have too much respect for those noble languages, and am too strongly impressed with their utility to wish to depreciate the merit of their acquisition, or the honours of their professors; but from my own experience I must be permitted to say that their study at public schools, and at Eton especially, was too exclusive; I do not find fault with boys being taught Greek and Latin, but I object to their being taught nothing but Greek and Latin, and to its being supposed that the stuffing them with the dead languages is a sufficient preparation for the active duties of real life, whether legislatorial or otherwise. It is not the use, but the abuse, that I complain of.

However, as it is not my intention to write a treatise on academical education, I shall say no more on this point, for the present at least, but allow the subject to develope itself as I go on. My object is to illustrate the evil of that habit of mind which the customs of a public school are apt to engender on that most important part of the personal economy of a man's life, his private exchequer; for, after all, in public, as in private life, with nations, as with individuals, money is the primum mobile of all enterprise; and whether in the pursuits of the occupation of peace, or in aggressive or defensive war, is the foundation on which all operations must necessarily be based, and, under all circumstances, is a subject which will force itself on every man's attention.

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The great evil of the present day, as all must have daily occasion to observe, is the undue prevalence of "Tick." This nation went to war on tick," and now is feeling the baneful and seemingly insurmountable inconvenience of being laden with a heavy debt. That which has been so recklessly done by the nation collectively is imitated by the inhabitants of these realms individually. All is one universal system of "Tick;" landlords are to be helped to cultivate their lands on tick; the colonies are to be supported by "Tick;" our princely merchants, following a most princely fashion, are to be saved from bankruptcy by a most complicated system of tick. One part of the empire borrows from the government, and the government borrows of the money-lenders, and the money-lenders borrow of the Bank of England, and the bank pursues a sublime system of tick by issuing notes which the government, and the bank, and every body besides knows, it has no possible means of paying if asked for; and so, every thing goes on merrily enough in a continual circle of tick, till all of a sudden pay-day comes, and then the nation and individuals ascertain to their extreme astonishment that they have been living beyond their income, and they all find themselves in a pretty mess. And then, while some political economists declare that all the mischief is owing to the erroneous system of tick, other political economists aver that the difficulty has been created by a restriction or a suspension of the glorious principle of tick; and contend that as that career has once been entered on, there is no help for it, but to go on in everlasting tick, and leave our descendants to pay off the debts which we leave to them as their inheritance, as well as they can.

But I am forestalling my subject a little; I shall have to say enough about this same tick in the course of my confessions in its relation to myself, and to describe how tick in war (and this reminds me of an anecdote concerning my being taken prisoner in the Peninsula), and tick in love (by-the-bye, that purchase of the rope-ladder on tick was one of the most memorable of my adventures), and tick on various occasions, operated on my fortunes through life.

I must return now to my schoolboy adventures, on which, perhaps, I love too much to dwell, but which recalls to me the freshness of my early life, and always makes me feel young again in their relation. Besides, it is necessary for the object of this work, that I should describe with the necessary minuteness my experience at a public school, as the evil effect of a bad habit engendered there forms the purport and the moral of my tale; for I date my own continual embarrassment in life, and the embarrassments of many others, from the vicious practice prevalent in my time of that most expressive word to Etonian ears- "TICK."