In the summer of 1822 “Public Education” was published. Every effort had been made to work up the school to a high degree of excellence. “I am perfectly aware,” Rowland Hill wrote, “that much must be done before our school is fully prepared to stand the minute, and, perhaps, in many cases, invidious inspection which will take place in consequence of our inviting attention. I am also convinced of the necessity of making very vigorous improvements in my own mind. I hope I have already done much, and I am determined to accomplish more.” The Exhibition, or Speech-day, of June, 1822, had been a great success. “It was,” old Mr. Hill wrote to his eldest son, “a night of triumphant excellence.” Under the date of August 4th, 1822, Rowland Hill records in his Journal:— “We have every reason at present to be pleased with the reception the book has met with. It has not yet received much attention from reviewers. An article has, it is true, appeared in the ‘Monthly Magazine,’ speaking of it in terms of the highest praise, and it has been noticed in terms of general commendation in several of the newspapers; but I allude chiefly to the private expression of the opinions of people of the highest literary rank The book appears to interest its readers in a very unusual manner. It seems to be spreading a kind of education mania in the world.... Jeremy Bentham is a man who will not be forgotten in the world; though neglected by a great part of his countrymen, he is held in the highest esteem by the enlightened and honest.... To him, as the author of a work on education, and as a man of the greatest influence, Matthew presented a copy of our book. A short time after he received an invitation to dine with Mr. Bentham. He was received in the most flattering manner. Mr. Bentham informed him that, when he first saw the book, disgusted as he had often been by the vague generalities of treatises on education, he threw it aside without looking into it. Shortly after, however, he opened the book, with very slight hopes of discovering anything worth reading. His attention was very soon fixed; he gave it to his reader, a young man of seventeen, who, to use Mr. Bentham’s own phrase, went ‘chuckling all the way through it.’ Mr. Bentham was so delighted with the work that he kept it on a little shelf constantly within reach, and opened it many times during dinner.” Bentham sent a friend to inspect the school. “He certainly did not neglect his duty, for he would take nothing on credit. Such inspections as these, however, far from displeasing us, are exactly what we want.” So favourable was the inspector’s report, that Bentham placed two Greeks at Hazelwood at his own expense. He circulated the Magazine that the boys published among his friends, and even sent a contribution to its pages in a letter franked by Joseph Hume:—