Eton has been the Alma Mater of many of the eminent men who have played a foremost part in the history of England. In my day there were many brilliant boys, some of whom distinguished themselves in after life. Of my own immediate contemporaries none could be held to come up to Sir Michael Hicks Beach, now Lord St. Aldwyn. There was no W. E. Gladstone; Lord Salisbury, then Lord Robert Cecil, and Lord Roberts had just left; Arthur Balfour, Lord Rosebery and Lord Randolph Churchill were not yet. Our fellows did well enough, though we did not produce a Phœnix. Alfred Thesiger died as a Lord Justice of Appeal at an age when many men are wondering whether they will ever get a brief. Montague Williams was famous as a police magistrate; in the Civil Service we could count as permanent heads of departments, Lord Welby at the Treasury, Lord Tenterden, Lord Currie and Lord Sanderson at the Foreign Office, Sir Robert Herbert at the Colonial Office, Sir Charles Rivers Wilson at the National Debt Office, Sir Algernon West at the Inland Revenue, Sir Stevenson Blackwood at the Post Office, followed by Sir Spencer Walpole, who also achieved fame as an historian, Sir Charles Fremantle at the Mint, myself at the Office of Works. I have heard it objected that Eton’s successes are due to the fact that its boys belong to “the governing classes.” They forget that for the last fifty years and more the entry into the Civil Service has been by public examination. I myself entered the Foreign Office by competition just fifty-seven years ago. Even in old days, it was only the first appointments that were given by patronage. The higher posts, what one might call the Staff appointments, were given by selection for merit. Ministers were far too dependent upon the ability and industry of the permanent heads of departments to hamper themselves with incompetent men. Judged at the bar of public opinion, the men whom I have mentioned will not be found wanting.