PUBLIC- SCHOOL FEES .
[To the Editor of the Sem-Tame.] • Sin,—I am glad to be assured by your correspondent, Vous " in your issue of January 0th, that he does not really think what in his first letter he seemed to think when he. wrote " most of the leading Public Schools were founded by charitably-minded men for the education of poor boys." That being so, it is pleasant to find that we are in agreement upon the math point, namely, that our Public Schools were meant for the education of English boys without regard to either wealth or class. There could be no greater disaster to English education than that the Public Schools should, owing to their cost, degenerate into a preserve of a plutocracy and educate only (or mainly) the new rich. But it would be hardly less dis- astrous if, in sonic reaction of democratic enthusiasm, they came to he swamped by a flood of boys who, by no fault of their own, could not bring with them the tradition of refinement, honour, and loyalty which is the life-blood of these schools.
That is why I am anxious--desperately anxious—to see the Public Schools themselres make the first more, and do of grace what otherwise they will inevitably do under compulsion— open their doors wide to the best type of English boy, irre- spective of class, creed, and cash (as in earlier days they indisputably did). They can do it now on their own terms, without the slightest risk to their splendid traditions. After the next General Election it may be too late.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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