7. The School Exhibition, of £63 a year, to St. John's College, Oxford, founded by contributions from old Scholars of Merchant Taylors'. This is tenable for four years; but it cannot be held with No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, or No. 4. 8. Two Tercentenary Scholarships, founded in 1861, by old Scholars of Merchant Taylors', aided by the boys then in School. The yearly value of each is about £30; they are tenable for two years, and the successful competitor for a Scholarship is on each occasion considered the Tercentenary Scholar for the year in which he is elected. 9. The Company's Tercentenary Scholarships, each of £40 in value, tenable for four years. These are awarded to the second best Mathematician leaving the School each year. 10. Two of £30 a year each, founded by the Pitt Club in 1845, tenable for four years at any College of either University, and in conjunction with any other School preferment. 11-14. Five Exhibitions of £48 a year each, founded by Mr. Fish, for Divinity Students at St. John's College, Oxford, to which another of £40 per annum, called "Mr. Fish's New Exhibition," has recently been added; four founded by Mr. Vernon, and one by Mr. Wooller, of £10 each, at St. John's College, Oxford; and a gift by Mr. Juxon of £12 to a Scholar at Oxford and Cambridge alternately, for the purchase of books. We have here a string of more than fifty Scholarships, producing annually above £3,000, or about £60 a year each on an average. What noble incentives to emulation in a school not exceeding 250 pupils!-one prize, in fact, to every fifth boy on the Foundation. And these by no means exhaust the benefactions. There are three Medical Exhibitions to St. Thomas's Hospital, worth £30 a year each, founded by the Court of the Company and the authorities of the hospital conjointly, each Exhibition being tenable for three years, and one awarded every year. The Court of the Company occasionally also award special Exhibitions to deserving students at the University. Gifts of books also are frequently bestowed on Scholars who have acquitted themselves meritoriously in their University career. Besides these inducements to exertion, the benefit of which is felt after the recipients leave School, prizes on a corresponding scale of liberality are every year bestowed during the time of continuance in it. Among these are 50 guineas given by the Company to the various departments of the School; the Montefiore Hebrew Medal; a prize of 3 guineas given by the Head Master for Hebrew; one of £3 48. by Mr. W. Gilpin for good conduct; one of £6 founded by Sir James Tyler, for knowledge of English history; and one of the same value, instituted by Mr. A. S. Pigeon and Mr. T. B. Pugh, Wardens of the Company, for proficiency in studies relating to mercantile pursuits. The Scholarships for boys actually in the School have been noticed above. The Monitorial System; and Fagging.-At Merchant Taylors' School, the Monitorial System bears somewhat mitigated sway. By a very ancient custom, which the Head Master approves, each of the Monitors looks over the exercises, and hears the repetitions of a boy of the third rank in the Head Form. Being in the main a Day School, fagging, fortunately, has no opportunity of being exercised at Merchant Taylors'. Punishments. Of the temper in which Scholastic punishment was formerly administered, something has been said in the Account of St. Paul's School, and a passage is there cited from Erasmus to show how universal was the practice of flogging among the pedagogues of his age; but the severity denounced by Erasmus is nothing compared to the barbarities described by one Ravisius Textor, who, in the early part of the sixteenth century, was Rector of the University of Paris. He is said to have been a person of considerable erudition, but though a right-minded, goodnatured man, by no means inclined to err on the side of indulgence. This is proved, indeed, by a passage in one of his epistles, where he speaks as follows concerning the treatment of boys:-" If they offend, if they are detected in falsehood, if they slip from the yoke, if they murmur against it, or complain in ever so little a degree, let them be most severely whipt, and spare neither the scourge nor mitigate the punishment, till the proud heart shall be subdued, and they shall have become smoother than oil and softer than a pumpkin." The testimony of a man who thus strongly recommends the infliction of punishment is entitled to the more weight when he inveighs against the inhumanities practised upon schoolboys. In a dialogue between a father and son, Ravisius describes these atrocities as being carried to such a length as to kill the sufferer; and in one of his poems two schoolmasters are summoned before Rhadamanthus for judgment;-the Judge of the Dead asks :— "Quid prior hic sceleris fecit ? LACHESIS. Deforme relatu: Afflixit rigidis corpora verberibus. Hic juvenum scapulas mutilavit et ossa flagellis, Elicuit rivos sanguinis ex humeris, Nec timuit pedibus pueros calcare tenellos, Nec croceam manibus vellere cæsariem." The pedagogue implores mercy; but Rhadamanthus an swers: "Sceleste, Audebis veniam quærere? perge miser! Foda veneniferi membra trahent colubri. Persephone hunc rapias tortorem, ac igne peruras; The other preceptor is sent to Elysium, Rhadamanthus telling him "tua te in pueros clementia salvum Reddit." So far, in fact, was this servile discipline extended, so impracticable was it deemed to carry on the course of education without corporal punishment, that Royal pupils were commonly provided with "whipping-boys," in whom, for any offence or default of diligence, they were flogged by proxy. Since the death of Ravisius Textor in 1524, there has been an immense improvement in regard to punishment, but there is still room for amelioration. The punishments at Merchant Taylors' School have little in them of the old brutal element. Flogging, which the Head Master has alone the right to inflict, is exceedingly rare; the Under Masters employ the cane for inattention and neglect of lessons, but grave offences are referred to the Head Master. Occasionally an offender is rebuked by the Head Master before the whole School. This is found to have a most salutary effect. Similar punishments it would no doubt be easy to multiply. Sports, &c.-The only play-ground is a paved space, called the Cloister, in the rear of the School, quite inadequate to the recreation of so many boys. When the School is removed, there will be room not only for enlarged School buildings, but for a spacious play-ground also. In the meantime the Company pay twenty guineas a year for the hire of a suitable ground for cricket, which is a good deal pursued in summer. In the winter the boys have foot-ball and skating clubs; and an Athletic Sports' Club has been established lately, to which the Company contribute £10 annually. Holydays, &c.-The hours of School attendance are from 9.15 in the morning till 1.0, and from 2.0 to 3.45 in the afternoon; and, altogether, the boys are in School thirtynine weeks in a year. Their holydays consist of a fortnight at Easter, about six weeks in August and September, and four weeks at Christmas. There is also a week of recess after the election day, June 11. In addition to these vacations the Head Master is privileged to grant a day's holyday four times in the year; and on the following days there is no school :-Anniversary of the death of Charles I., AshWednesday, Ascension Day, the Queen's birthday, the Anniversary of the Sons of the Clergy, the Anniversary of the Charity Children at St. Paul's, Lord Mayor's day, and Sir Thomas White's birthday. Saturday is the only halfholyday during the week. Religious Instruction.-Especial regard has always been paid to religious training at Merchant Taylors', although the Masters are only with the boys officially in School hours. Every Monday morning is devoted to sacred subjects, including Hebrew, the Greek and Latin New Testament, Christian Doctrine, and Scripture History. Prayersselected from the Prayer-book-are said in the Large School-room at the beginning and at the close of the morning studies; and at the commencement and termination of the afternoon studies in the several Class-rooms. Boarding Houses.-The greater part of the boys reside with their parents in the suburbs of town, but about sixty live in boarding houses, of which there are five in the neighbourhood. The charges for boarding in the first Under Master's house are sixty guineas per annum. At the other houses the charges are somewhat lower, and in some of them vary according to the age of the boys. Parents select a boarding house at their own discretion, but they frequently consult the Head Master on the subject, and he is guided in his advice by the means of the parents and the age and reported disposition of the boy. Boarders, of course, take their mid-day meal at the houses where they live, and various boys who come from a distance now dine at those houses also as day boarders. Several, who are sons of city merchants, lunch at their fathers' offices. There is also a lunch room on the premises. School Charges and Annual Expenses of a Boy at Merchant Taylors'.-By the original Statutes 100 boys were admitted without any payment whatever; 50 were admitted on payment of 28. 2d. to the Head Master every quarter, and the remaining 100 were admitted on paying 58. per quarter. In the present day the School payments of every boy are £3 on entrance, and £10 annually in quarterly sums of £2 10s. Each also pays 58. on being advanced to a higher form. For this sum he receives his education, without any additional charge for tuition of any kind. CHAPTER III. BIOGRAPHICAL. Head Masters of Merchant Taylors' School. in 1. Richard Mulcaster.1 Master huenry Wilkinson. 1599. William Hayne. 1625. Nicholas Gray. 1632. John Edwards. or and preceptor, who for the long period of twenty-five *rchant Taylors', and for twelve years of St. Paul's |