One does not quite see why the Admiral should "naturally" avoid reference to corporal punishment, etc. Probably his sons were well conducted, and did not need severe measures which, indeed, were not often resorted to; but in expressing his satisfaction with the ship as a school for his boys he must in common reason be held to approve the whole scheme, including the punishments alluded to when they are needed. The last sentence of "Old Etonian's" letter, as quoted above, can only be classified as impertinent ignorance--or ignorant impertinence, whichever may be deemed most suitable. His ideas are based on a conviction that no one except a public school master knows anything about the management of boys; which is a great error. There are plenty of men--and a large proportion among the officers of the Navy--who have a natural capacity in this respect, which becomes apparent directly they get their opportunity; and there are others--in public schools as well as elsewhere--who have been managing boys all their lives, and have never done it decently. These are truisms; but in reply to a man who will venture to hold up to ridicule, as a sort of bugbear with a big stick, such men as Captain Digby and other captains of the _Britannia_, truisms appear to be necessary. Admiral Richards replies, October 26th, that officers of education, ability, and life-long experience of discipline are the best men to train young officers in their own service, and asks what Wykehamists and Etonians would say if he and others of his service were to dictate as to the management of public schools. [Illustration: A GROUP OF CAPTAINS (CHRISTMAS, 1890). _Photo: Smale & Son, Dartmouth._] The editor of the _Western Morning News_ writes again on October 27th, reiterating his former statements, which he apparently discounts, however, by a quotation from a letter written by the father of one of the cadets who was expelled by Captain Digby. He says that his son and his contemporaries went through it when first they joined, and had their turn at fagging afterwards; and then, seeing that he has, by implication, convicted his son of bullying, proceeds to describe how "one penny was exacted, in a thoroughly good-humoured way, from boys passing a certain bridge; but there was no thrashing or bullying used to extort it." Captain Digby, for his part, says frankly:--"It had, no doubt, been going on for a long time, and, owing to the reticence of youth, it took me a year to get to the bottom of it; but I finally succeeded in getting rid of the principal culprits." No doubt the "reticence of youth" is a very important factor in all such cases, and it would be safe to assume also that the captain had not been too well served by some of his subordinates, who were either lax in supervision or failed to realise the importance of a growing evil.