LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
DR. HAYMAN AND RUGBY SCHOOL. rro TRH EDITOR Or TIIII "EPROTATOZ.1 there not a danger that in the din of the personal contro- versy arising out of this affair the true lesson involved in it may be overlooked ? Whether Dr. Hayman is (as the Standard and Saturday Review maintain) the victim of a conspiracy between the Assistant-Masters and the Governing Body, or whether he is only the victim of his own incompetence and the obtuseness of his own moral perceptions, is a question interesting to the public only so far as its true solution affects the well-being of, what it is not too much to call, a great national institution. The real point for notice seems to me to be the origin of the whole difficulty, in a violent attempt to interrupt the traditions and alter the general tone of the school. Curiously enough, a school which has been nominally under the guidance of a body of Trustees consist- ing mainly of Tory county magnates has been raised to eminence by the prevailing liberal tone of its ideas in education and religion, if not in politics. It can be no matter of surprise if this result of circumstances was viewed with disfavour by the old Trustees, but their Conservative instincts should have taught them the extreme danger of any attempt at a violent revolution. It is possible, indeed, that had their chosen instrument been a discreet and strong man, their purpose might have eventually been carried out ; but even then not without a period of depres- sion to the school, and the peril of shipwreck, in the transition from one state of circumstances to another. The experiment had been tried before, on.the appointment of Dr. Goulburn (a man of high character in his way), and had failed. Even he had not strength to tide over the depression caused by the alteration in the tone of the school ; and he left it in a languishing state. The fact is, when the traditionary tone of a great school is altered, it gradually ceases to be fed from the same classes that have hitherto supplied its pupils ; and to attract boo from new quarters requires extraordinary qualifications on the part of its head, and the manifestation of rare powers of administration. The late effort to revolutionise Rugby probably collapsed sooner than it might have done, had the instrument been better chosen ; but in any case it would probably have been a failure, and the damage that it has caused to the institution which it was intended, no doubt, to benefit, ought to be a warn- ing to all governing bodies that it is no light matter to attempt to alter the healthy traditions of a school, be they of what character
they may.—I am, Sir, yours, &c., T. J. M.
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