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Article THE BOYS' SCHOOL AND ITS CRITIC. ← Page 2 of 3 Article THE BOYS' SCHOOL AND ITS CRITIC. Page 2 of 3 →
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The Boys' School And Its Critic.
But Captain Nicols when he writes with something like a becoming sense of his responsibility is quite another person . He tells us the sole object of his letter was " an honest endeavour to prevent a repetition of the unseemly treatment which visitors to the Institution may be
subjected to , and to ameliorate the social regime with regard to the lads themselves , " while in the very next paragraph , the desire to " ameliorate the social regime" disappears altogether , and we learn that the " whole gravamen " of his complaint is this , " that owing to the brusqueness of
our reception , by Dr . Morris , " and the cynical curtness of his remarks , wo were obliged to abridge our visit and had to wait three-quarters of an hour at the railway station . " Here the " unseemly treatment" resolves itself into a certain " brusqueness" of manner , and a " cynical
curtness in the remarks of the head master , while , as to the abridged visit , and the very serious consequences it entailed , in the shape of a three-quarters of an hour's detention at the railway station , we cordially sympathise with Captain Nicols on the latter score , but we fail to see how ,
under any circumstances , a visit of even twenty minutes or half an hour can be sufficiently long to enable him or any one else , to form an opinion , favourable or unfavourable , of the system pursued at a large school and its " social regime , " that is to say , of course
an opinion that is worth listening to . We should like to hear what Captain Nicols would say if Dr . Morris , after spending half an hour in a barrack , should take upon himself to publicly condemn the interior economy of the regiment quartered there , and the social regime
under which the men belonging to it were placed , as well as the bearing of the officer in command , because , in his opinion , the latter having been interrupted in the performance of his military duties was , —we will even go so far as to suggest , —a little brusque in his manner and curt in his
remarks . A man who is suddenly called away from his work to attend on visitors may receive them with courtesy , yet not endue it with any excess of cordiality , and he is necessarily curt in his remarks because he still has his work to complete . But a lack of cordiality in receiving visitors and
curtness in answering their inquiries do not constitute " unseemly treatment . " And , after all , the brusqueness of manner and the cynical curtness of speech come before us
not aa matters of fact , but as matters of opinion , and may be regarded as having about the same value as the wholesale condemnation of a school system and its " social regime " after a ten minutes' experience of their character .
Of course , it is not surprising that Captain Nicols should reiterate the statement he made as " S . X ., " and proclaim every word of it to be true ; but we must remind our readers that his statements are only matters of opinion . It appeared to him and his friend that " a want of system "
prevailed , and that more " surveillance " was required over the domestic arrangements , and even this opinion he is kind enough to qualify by suggesting that they might haye been annoyed at their reception . He did not raise his voice against " the unsatisfactory state of things " at Wood
Green , but against what appearedho be such , while " the awestruck manner" of the little boys can only have been a fancy . Thus the reiteration of the original statement carries with it no greater weight than the original statement itself , and how utterly valueless is the latter may be
judged from Captain Nicols ' s first letter—the " S . X . " one—in which he says , "Thus , practically we saw nothing of the School . " He may well disclaim for himself the province of judge , when he publicly condemns what practicall y he knows nothing about . We can also well
understand why Captain Nicols preferred writing originally nnder the initials he adopted . He assigns as his first reason for this preference that he did not wish to make what he and his friend " considered a public matter too much of a private grievance . " Next he tells us " the whole
gravamen of their complaint was " the brusqueness " of their reception by the head master and "the cynical curtness of his remarks . " But be this a matter of fact , or only a matter of opinion , what else is it than a " private grievance ? " No one will venture to say that Dr . Morris ' s
manner , whatever it may havo been , when receiving two visitors on a particular day , is a matter of the slightest interest to the world at large . We have already remarked tnat a lack of cordiality in receiving people is not the same thing as meting out to them " unseemly treatment , " and we will go further , and say , that even the greatest possible discourtesy on Dr . Morris ' s part would not justify tne wholesale condemnation of the School of which he is
The Boys' School And Its Critic.
the head master , and its system and " social regime . " However , Dr . Morris , who has been some eight years at Wood Green , and against whose manner of receiving visitors we have never yet heard one word of complaint , will no donbt answer this attack at the proper time and in the proper place .
That " the Committee of Management and Bro . Binckes as Secretary would trouble themselves far more about facts affecting the Institution than the names of individual visitors " is more than probable , and , if we mistake not , it will bo for this very reason that they will resent more
deeply than even the Masonic public generally the letter of Captain Nicols . Any vice in the system of administration at Wood Green directly concerns them , because it affects their character as the executive body . But Captain Nicols , as we have shewn , has established no facts at all
much less facts which call for any interference on the part of the Committee and Bro . Binckes with the magisterial functions of Dr . Morris , and the manner in which he discharges them . If , however , they think it consonant with their dignity to express any opinion on Captain Nicols ' s
letter , it will probably be to suggest to him the propriety of in future submitting to them any private or personal grievance he may have , or imagine he has , against the School authorities at Wood Green , instead of promoting it to the rank of a public grievance , and airing it publicly in the columns of one of our Masonic journals .
The last paragraph of his second letter declares that " if the publication of this correspondence will eventually benefit the School , our object will have been attained . " We fail to see how his publicly condemning the head master , the system , and the social regime o £ the School ,
and comparing it disadvantageously with other schools , can benefit the School any more than it can be said that a man is benefited when some one knocks him down in order to set him on his feet again . Were it an established fact that the system pursued at Wood Green was a vicious one ,
there would be good reason—indeed there would be an absolute necessity—for proclaiming and recognising it with a view to its being set aside in favour of one to which no exception could be taken . But there is ample testimony
that it works admirably ; and though in all human institutions there is always room for improvement , we have yet to learn that a system which turns out well-behaved and well-trained boys will be improved by wholesale condemnation in a public newspaper .
There is only one remark we are desirous of adding . We necessarily hear a good many things said about persons and things , and they do not always happen to be complimentary . For instance , we have heard it said , and we are not to be blamed for having heard it , any more than we are
prepared to advance it as an established fact ; we say , we have heard it remarked that Bro . Capt . Nicols is a haw-haw-ish kind of being , who carries himself rather [[ majestically , speaks slightingly of Militia Officers , and boasts that his Lodge consists only of " gentlemen . " Of course we have
not lived all the years of onr life without being perfectly well aware that in every grade of society there are people who have a very high opinion of themselves , and a very poor opinion of others . They are the salt of the earth , and none else will compare with them . Heaven forbid we
shonld be understood as including Bro . Nicols amongst these worthy , albeit self-sufficient and self-opinionated , personages , but as ho has expressed himself in public with greater freedom than good taste and gentlemanly feeling are usually held to warrant of Dr . Morris ' s bearing
and manner of communicating information , there can be no harm in our suggesting that , if , by the remotest chance in the world , it should happen that Capt . Nicola even in the slightest degree answers to the desscription we have heard of him , and to which ;
we repeat , we attach no importance even as a matter of opinion , it is just possible Dr . Morris may have been less cordial in his reception of him in consequence , and more curt in his remarks than is his custom . Head masters being , as a rule , scholars and gentlemen , and what is more to the
purpose , kings in their own several domains , do not care to be addressed with anything approaching to a supercilious haughtiness , and still less do they care about being patronised , as it were , by those who go to them seeking
information . If they experience any " unseemly treatment " of this kind , they wisely ignore it , but it does not conduce towards making their manner more cordial than good breeding prescribes , or their discourse more effusive than is absolutely necessary in order to satisfy inquiries . This ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Boys' School And Its Critic.
But Captain Nicols when he writes with something like a becoming sense of his responsibility is quite another person . He tells us the sole object of his letter was " an honest endeavour to prevent a repetition of the unseemly treatment which visitors to the Institution may be
subjected to , and to ameliorate the social regime with regard to the lads themselves , " while in the very next paragraph , the desire to " ameliorate the social regime" disappears altogether , and we learn that the " whole gravamen " of his complaint is this , " that owing to the brusqueness of
our reception , by Dr . Morris , " and the cynical curtness of his remarks , wo were obliged to abridge our visit and had to wait three-quarters of an hour at the railway station . " Here the " unseemly treatment" resolves itself into a certain " brusqueness" of manner , and a " cynical
curtness in the remarks of the head master , while , as to the abridged visit , and the very serious consequences it entailed , in the shape of a three-quarters of an hour's detention at the railway station , we cordially sympathise with Captain Nicols on the latter score , but we fail to see how ,
under any circumstances , a visit of even twenty minutes or half an hour can be sufficiently long to enable him or any one else , to form an opinion , favourable or unfavourable , of the system pursued at a large school and its " social regime , " that is to say , of course
an opinion that is worth listening to . We should like to hear what Captain Nicols would say if Dr . Morris , after spending half an hour in a barrack , should take upon himself to publicly condemn the interior economy of the regiment quartered there , and the social regime
under which the men belonging to it were placed , as well as the bearing of the officer in command , because , in his opinion , the latter having been interrupted in the performance of his military duties was , —we will even go so far as to suggest , —a little brusque in his manner and curt in his
remarks . A man who is suddenly called away from his work to attend on visitors may receive them with courtesy , yet not endue it with any excess of cordiality , and he is necessarily curt in his remarks because he still has his work to complete . But a lack of cordiality in receiving visitors and
curtness in answering their inquiries do not constitute " unseemly treatment . " And , after all , the brusqueness of manner and the cynical curtness of speech come before us
not aa matters of fact , but as matters of opinion , and may be regarded as having about the same value as the wholesale condemnation of a school system and its " social regime " after a ten minutes' experience of their character .
Of course , it is not surprising that Captain Nicols should reiterate the statement he made as " S . X ., " and proclaim every word of it to be true ; but we must remind our readers that his statements are only matters of opinion . It appeared to him and his friend that " a want of system "
prevailed , and that more " surveillance " was required over the domestic arrangements , and even this opinion he is kind enough to qualify by suggesting that they might haye been annoyed at their reception . He did not raise his voice against " the unsatisfactory state of things " at Wood
Green , but against what appearedho be such , while " the awestruck manner" of the little boys can only have been a fancy . Thus the reiteration of the original statement carries with it no greater weight than the original statement itself , and how utterly valueless is the latter may be
judged from Captain Nicols ' s first letter—the " S . X . " one—in which he says , "Thus , practically we saw nothing of the School . " He may well disclaim for himself the province of judge , when he publicly condemns what practicall y he knows nothing about . We can also well
understand why Captain Nicols preferred writing originally nnder the initials he adopted . He assigns as his first reason for this preference that he did not wish to make what he and his friend " considered a public matter too much of a private grievance . " Next he tells us " the whole
gravamen of their complaint was " the brusqueness " of their reception by the head master and "the cynical curtness of his remarks . " But be this a matter of fact , or only a matter of opinion , what else is it than a " private grievance ? " No one will venture to say that Dr . Morris ' s
manner , whatever it may havo been , when receiving two visitors on a particular day , is a matter of the slightest interest to the world at large . We have already remarked tnat a lack of cordiality in receiving people is not the same thing as meting out to them " unseemly treatment , " and we will go further , and say , that even the greatest possible discourtesy on Dr . Morris ' s part would not justify tne wholesale condemnation of the School of which he is
The Boys' School And Its Critic.
the head master , and its system and " social regime . " However , Dr . Morris , who has been some eight years at Wood Green , and against whose manner of receiving visitors we have never yet heard one word of complaint , will no donbt answer this attack at the proper time and in the proper place .
That " the Committee of Management and Bro . Binckes as Secretary would trouble themselves far more about facts affecting the Institution than the names of individual visitors " is more than probable , and , if we mistake not , it will bo for this very reason that they will resent more
deeply than even the Masonic public generally the letter of Captain Nicols . Any vice in the system of administration at Wood Green directly concerns them , because it affects their character as the executive body . But Captain Nicols , as we have shewn , has established no facts at all
much less facts which call for any interference on the part of the Committee and Bro . Binckes with the magisterial functions of Dr . Morris , and the manner in which he discharges them . If , however , they think it consonant with their dignity to express any opinion on Captain Nicols ' s
letter , it will probably be to suggest to him the propriety of in future submitting to them any private or personal grievance he may have , or imagine he has , against the School authorities at Wood Green , instead of promoting it to the rank of a public grievance , and airing it publicly in the columns of one of our Masonic journals .
The last paragraph of his second letter declares that " if the publication of this correspondence will eventually benefit the School , our object will have been attained . " We fail to see how his publicly condemning the head master , the system , and the social regime o £ the School ,
and comparing it disadvantageously with other schools , can benefit the School any more than it can be said that a man is benefited when some one knocks him down in order to set him on his feet again . Were it an established fact that the system pursued at Wood Green was a vicious one ,
there would be good reason—indeed there would be an absolute necessity—for proclaiming and recognising it with a view to its being set aside in favour of one to which no exception could be taken . But there is ample testimony
that it works admirably ; and though in all human institutions there is always room for improvement , we have yet to learn that a system which turns out well-behaved and well-trained boys will be improved by wholesale condemnation in a public newspaper .
There is only one remark we are desirous of adding . We necessarily hear a good many things said about persons and things , and they do not always happen to be complimentary . For instance , we have heard it said , and we are not to be blamed for having heard it , any more than we are
prepared to advance it as an established fact ; we say , we have heard it remarked that Bro . Capt . Nicols is a haw-haw-ish kind of being , who carries himself rather [[ majestically , speaks slightingly of Militia Officers , and boasts that his Lodge consists only of " gentlemen . " Of course we have
not lived all the years of onr life without being perfectly well aware that in every grade of society there are people who have a very high opinion of themselves , and a very poor opinion of others . They are the salt of the earth , and none else will compare with them . Heaven forbid we
shonld be understood as including Bro . Nicols amongst these worthy , albeit self-sufficient and self-opinionated , personages , but as ho has expressed himself in public with greater freedom than good taste and gentlemanly feeling are usually held to warrant of Dr . Morris ' s bearing
and manner of communicating information , there can be no harm in our suggesting that , if , by the remotest chance in the world , it should happen that Capt . Nicola even in the slightest degree answers to the desscription we have heard of him , and to which ;
we repeat , we attach no importance even as a matter of opinion , it is just possible Dr . Morris may have been less cordial in his reception of him in consequence , and more curt in his remarks than is his custom . Head masters being , as a rule , scholars and gentlemen , and what is more to the
purpose , kings in their own several domains , do not care to be addressed with anything approaching to a supercilious haughtiness , and still less do they care about being patronised , as it were , by those who go to them seeking
information . If they experience any " unseemly treatment " of this kind , they wisely ignore it , but it does not conduce towards making their manner more cordial than good breeding prescribes , or their discourse more effusive than is absolutely necessary in order to satisfy inquiries . This ,