This, happily, is a case of rare, most rare, occurrence. The general testimony, alike of Boys and of their Parents, will rather be this—that, while the School has enjoyed, on the whole, under the Monitorial system, a very real exemption from the miseries of that tyranny of brute force which it is designed more especially to preclude, it is perfectly easy, on the other hand, for any Boy to pass through his Harrow life without once incurring the risk of Monitorial punishment, while the salutary dread of it has done much to keep him orderly and tractable, and to save him in no slight degree from the sight and hearing of evil. {21} And, while this is so, however unpopular may be the avowal, I know that my duty is clear: to watch the operation of the system, to guard it from abuse, to influence and animate (so far as I may be able) those who are to take part in it—if necessary, to coerce and to punish its abuse; but, none the less, to adhere to it manfully, and to take my full share of its obloquy. It may be found impossible long to withstand such impressions as those to which your Lordship has adverted. To persons unacquainted with its practical operation the Monitorial system must always appear objectionable; a cumbrous and uncertain substitute for zeal and vigilance on the part of the Master. The time may come when public opinion will imperatively require the introduction of an opposite principle; of which it shall be the object to confine and preclude the expression of evil by the unceasing espionage of an increased staff of subordinate Masters. The experiment may be tried; I hope not at Harrow—certainly not by me. I see many difficulties, some evils, in the present system; some advantages, many plausibilities, in its opposite: and yet I believe the one to be practically ennobling and elevating—the other essentially narrowing, enfeebling, and enervating. I well foresee the results of the change, come when it may. I know how pleasing, yet how brief, will be the lull consequent upon the establishment of a rule of equality and fraternity; how warm perhaps, for the moment, the congratulations of some who have trembled for their sons’ safety under the present (so called) reign of terror; on the other hand, how gradual, yet how sure, the growth of those meaner and more cowardly vices which a Monitorial system has coerced where it could not eradicate; and how impossible the return to that principle of graduated ranks and organized internal subordination, which, amidst some real and many imaginary defects, has been found by experience to be inferior to no other system in the formation of the character of an English Christian Gentleman. I have the honour to be, my Lord, Your most obedient and faithful Servant, CHAS. J. VAUGHAN. HARROW, _December_ 14, 1853. * * * * *