The dispute between Dr. Hornby and Mr. Browning BA to
the -causes of his dismissal from Eton, did not end with the corre- spondence on wh4h we commented some weeks ago. A friend of Mr. Browning's, Mr. Ainger, trying to extract from Dr. Hornby something which would vindicate Mr. Browning's character from the accusations with which Mr. Browning himself had never been confronted, got from Dr. Hornby a reply which certainly made the matter far worse than before. Dr. Hornby replied that he had not charged. ISIr. Browning "with immorality in the ordinary sense of _that word," but that Mr. Browning's admissions " have proved evi- dence enough. against him as regards want of truthfulness," and he further declared that "the more I say, lam. afraid, the worse his case would be." This letter appears to us greatly to aggravate the gross injustice of Dr. Hornby's course. If Mr. Browning has deserved such language, he ought to be confronted with the grounds on which it is applied to him, whereas Dr. llornby
peremptorily declined even to see him and his friends on the subject, or to substantiate one word of his accusations and insinuations. We pass no opinion whatever on the truth of the statements made, but we do say, that if Assistant-Masters are to be liable to this kind of moral depreciation, without being allowed to challenge and obtain the fullest statement of its grounds, we shall soon have very few Assistant-Masters of any high culture or manliness left.
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