in this instance, makes the absurdity appear more glaring; but, in principle, the thing is the same, whether three hundred or three thousand a year are received, either for doing nothing, or for doing far less than the founder intended. The case of all those endowments is simply this. At a time when Latin was necessary for persons of a rank inferior to those who now learn it, pious persons endowed schools for teaching it; thus directing the revenues to be given in consideration of that work being performed. Now, the revenues exist, and are in every instance greatly increased; but the work is not required, because parents who wish to have their children taught Latin, do not desire to have it taught for nothing. There is, therefore, in many cases a total, and in the others a partial, failure of the consideration for which the fund was given. But the enemies of all reformation, the fast friends of abuse, contend that no change whatever can be made in those endowments, because the founders expressly directed Latin to be taught gratuitously, and nothing else. The argument therefore is, that we must adhere to the letter, in order to counteract the spirit; for whatever the intention of the founders may have been, it is very clear what it was not; it certainly was not to create sinecures; to give the revenues for nothing at all. Had those pious per sons been now living, with the power of changing the original destination of the funds, there may be some doubt what new objects their bounty would have selected, when the first objects no longer existed; but there can be no doubt whatever that they would have selected any objects in preference to the present claimants, the schoolmasters themselves.

To comply with the request of the Tonbridge Master and Usher, would simply have been (our author says) to pamper the indolence of a couple of fat sinecurists, as in the noted case of the Pocklington School in Yorkshire.' The same observation is applicable, in different degrees, to all the grammar schools which are founded in parts of the country where a demand for classical learning no longer exists; and where the masters, to comply with the letter of the foundation, offer (as they may very safely) to teach Greek, Latin, and sometimes Hebrew, for nothing, but charge soundly for reading, writing, and accounts, as to which alone there is any demand for their instruction; receiving considerable salaries for giving little or nothing of what the funds were originally intended to purchase, and occupying premises which they devote to the accommodation of boarders. Many of those seminaries are excellent establishments of classical education; and the complete departure from the founders' intentions, is more than redeemed by th ntages resulting from the change; but in many there is

nothing remarkable beside the abuse-nothing to compensate any more than to sanction the deviation ;—while, in all of them, care should be taken to secure some useful gratuitous instruction for the classes which were the objects of the endowment, according to the spirit of the foundation; and in none of them is it possible to maintain the present practice, upon the ground so injudiciously taken, of strict adherence to the letter of the foundation. Nothing, indeed, can be more preposterous than the line of argument adopted. The revenues are received for doing nothing (we put a very ordinary case); and if you com plain that this is the greatest possible deviation from the founder's intention, the answer is, that no children come to be taught Latin; and consequently the change of circumstances renders that greatest possible deviation necessary. But then, if you suggest that reading and cyphering might be taught with some part at least of the revenue, the reply immediately is- Not for the world-because the founder only speaks of grammar, and there must be no departure from his declared will.'

The short question which arises in the case of the Tonbridge school is, How the surplus revenue shall be applied? After paying every expense hitherto incurred by defraying the taxes and repairs of the school premises, and providing for the salaries of the masters, and for the exhibitions at the University, a revenue of more than four thousand a year, and an accumulation of twenty thousand pounds of arrears remains to be disposed of. Mr Prinsep looks to the will of the founder; and finding a grammar school to be the object of his bounty, he is for appropriating the augmented funds to support a large school, with fellowships and exhibitions on an extended scale at the Universities. But is there, let us calmly ask, any reason for this deference to the supposed will of the founder? He intended to establish a school upon a certain scale, and endowed it accordingly. When we speak of four thousand a year as the revenue unappropriated, we assume that above five hundred a year is left to the school in its present state, an income far more than sufficient to defray now every expense that the founder intended to provide for. He meant to teach gratuitously all the children in Tonbridge. and the neighbourhood; and, supposing the demand for grammar learning to be as great now as it was then, this revenue of five or six hundred a year would amply suffice to afford such: instruction, and maintain the exhibitions annexed to the school. What the founder's intentions would have been, had he been. called upon to dispose of a revenue nine or ten times as great, no man can pretend to conjecture. The surplus is, in the strictest sense of the word, unappropriated; and we have no

more right to presume that the founder would have destined it to fellowships, than that he would have endowed an almshouse, or founded some other school in some other county. Indeed it seems more reasonable to imagine, that he would have established other schools of exactly the same kind in other counties, than that he would have established a seminary on a different scale, with an appendage of university dignitaries, in the same county. Besides, when the intention of the founder is so much relied upon, those who treat with extreme contempt, but not greater than it deserves, the claims of the masters to the whole surplus, should bear in mind that the original letterspatent obtained by him from Edward VI. directed, that all the issues, rents and revenues, of all the lands, tenements and possessions, to be given and assigned towards the support of the said school from time to time, should be converted to the support of the master and usher of the said school for the time being, and to the reparation of the said lands and tenements, • and not otherwise, nor to any other uses and intents.' It seems plain, therefore, that the Legislature is left to such a disposal of the surplus as seems most beneficial to the general promotion of education, and is in nowise to be fettered by any regard to the presumed intentions of the founder. Mr Prinsep, indeed, very candidly admits, that his plan is a complete innovation' upon the founder's will; and that part of it is in ⚫ direct contradiction to his declared intention.

He proposes that the school should be enlarged, so as to receive one hundred free scholars, who should be taught all the branches of education most essential to the training of youth; not merely in languages, but in science. These are to be on the foundation, and to be provided with education and lodging only, paying for their board and clothing; and messing together as in the Universities. Supernumeraries are also to be allowed, who must pay for their instruction, and lodge out of the school. From the establishment are to be sent sixteen exhibitioners to the two Universities, with stipends of fifty pounds a year; and there are out of these to be chosen, from time to time, as vacancies occur, eight fellows, with one hundred a year each. A revenue of four thousand a year being thus disposed of, two hundred a year are to be allowed for maintaining free schools for teaching reading, writing, and accounts. Into the minuter details of the plan, we need not enter. Admitting our author's principles, these are unobjectionable. Indeed they

seem to be contrived with great skill and consistency; nor do we perceive how they could be materially improved. Those who are for setting up a new great school, on the plan of Eton and Westminster, in the county of Kent, will do well to

abide by Mr Prinsep's plan, with one or two obvious amendments, which we need not stop to specify.

We are by no means inclined to deny, that there are powerful inducements to make this disposition of the funds. It seems hardly possible to give too ample encouragement to liberal education; and perhaps the advantages which result from an overabundant supply of classical scholars, especially when scientific acquirements are combined with erudition, more than counterbalance the admitted evils of enticing by extraordinary rewards, a larger portion of the community than would naturally resort to the clerical and literary life. Much may also be urged in favour of extending our great seminaries of refined education, when the population of the country has increased so prodigiously; indeed, an enlargement of the publick schools seems essentially necessary, either by adding to their number, or augmenting those already established. It will not, therefore, be any misapplication of the Tonbridge revenue, in our estimation, if the whole shall be applied in founding a great publick school there, with suitable University privileges. But as so important a measure should not be adopted without a full consideration of the other side of the question, we are desirous to suggest the propriety of regarding the claims of the poor to a share at least out of this ample fund.

It appears, from the late population returns and the Education Digest, that the county of Kent has, for educating 426,000 inhabitants, endowed schools which teach about 7,500, and unendowed day-schools which teach about 21,600 children. So that, upon the most moderate computation, the means are wanting for above 130,000 inhabitants, or about one third of that populous and important county. The surplus revenue of Tonbridge School, with the accumulated fund, would plant and endow one hundred schools, capable of conveying instruction to five or six thousand children, or at once supplying one half of the present deficiency of education for that whole county. But suppose a middle course were taken, and an ample portion of the revenue devoted to the establishment of a great school, two thousand a year well applied, and ten thousand pounds for building and purchasing school-rooms, would be a most important advantage to the poorer clases, and leave enough to endow a most useful seminary, with a due portion of University emoluments. It appears to us wholly impossible, in the present day, to appropriate this fund without some provision for the humbler and more essential branches of education; and we trust that no attempt will be made to carry such a measure, without allowing the fullest opportunities for discussing all the claims upon the fund.

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