[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
gather from your editorial note to my letter on the subject of Mr. Grignon's dismissal that in striving to be brief, I became obscure. I will endeavour to make my meaning more clear. The imputations alluded to in the letter of the Clerk to the Trustees are not those described—and wrongly, I assert, de- scribed—in Mr. Grignon's pamphlet (p. 6).
I endeavoured to show this by stating that, of the two charges set prominently forth by Mr. Grignon, the one was disproved, the other existed only in his imagination, or at any rate, was not brought to the notice of the Trustees. I did not add, as perhaps I should have done, that there were other charges, besides that of drunkenness, brought by Mr. Jones against Mr. Grignon ; and it is to these charges or imputations that I believe the Clerk to the Trustees refers.
What these charges were, I do not think it necessary to state ; suffice it to say, that the evidence in support of them fully justified the mild censure which so excited the indignation of Mr. Grignon. My object will be gained, if I succeed in making it plain that it was not the wish or intention of the Trustees to keep suspended so long over Mr. Grignon's head, and to revive now, charges of so grave a nature as those mentioned in his pamphlet.
You, Sir, have strongly condemned the course pursued by the Trustees, and have more than questioned the motives by which they were actuated, and have spoken in very severe terms of the injustice as well as the unfitness for their office which, in your opinion, has been displayed by them. I ask you, in common justice, to consider the very exceptional nature of the difficulties which beset them. Reduced, as they were, to a mere quorum by no fault of their own, but in spite of their applications to the Charity Commissioners to add to their number, the administra- tion of the affairs of the school would more than sufficiently have taxed their energies, even with the cordial co-operation of the Head Master ; precluded, as they were, from all friendly inter- course with him, is it to be wondered at if they found their task almost impracticable? Nor is this all. Within the school- buildings a complete anarchy prevailed. The Head Master was not on speaking terms with the only Assistant-Master of any standing in the school. He was on equally bad terms with the House-Steward, as well as the Clerk to the Trustees. Naturally this state of affairs led to perpetual squabbles and constant com- plaints, all of which were submitted to the Trustees, with a demand for their immediate settlement. Is it to be wondered at if their patience was somewhat exhausted ? Am I not right in saying that their position was a difficult one?
But I have encroached already too much on your space. I will now only add that my experience as trustee of an endowed school has taught me that the duties of the post I occupy are such that they ought not to be lightly undertaken. In the present disturbed state of the relations between governing bodies, head masters, and assistant-masters, trustees are called upon to exercise more tact, energy, firmness, and endurance than it usually falls to the lot of ordinary mortals to possess.—I am, Sir, &c., THE CHAIRMAN OF THE TRUSTEES.
["The Chairman of the Trustees " makes no excuse at all for the one circumstance which we have most strongly denounced,—the dismissal of a Head Master without ever giving him notice that his dismissal was under consideration. Moreover, if the reference to the further investigation of Mr. Jones's charges had relation only to the lighter charges already visited by the "mild censure" of the Trustees, it was unworthy of them to propose bringing them up again a year and a half after date; and it was most inconsiderate not to state expressly that they referred only to matters not involving grave moral accusations. Were not all the i anything the Victoria Institute may do tends to aid in dis- Assistant-Masters but one with Mr. Grignon ? and were not the covering it, the Institute will not have worked in vain.—I am, House-Steward and the Clerk to the Trustees, with whom he was Sir, &c., F. PETRIE, Hon. Sec. at issue, one and the same person ?—En. Spectator.]
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