Page:A Few Words on the Future of Westminster School.djvu/18

 radius as would admit of their being day-boys. Moreover, the plan of residence as boarders seems to combine with the reward offered to merit the advantage of giving valuable assistance to a class of parents who, living at a distance from good Public School instruction, show by their eagerness for success that some such help in the education of their sons is a real boon to themselves.

As regards (2), it has been objected that the present limit of residence in 'college' to four years involves the admission of boys averaging from fourteen to fifteen years of age, and that at such an age, as compared with the usual age of candidates at Eton and Winchester, there is less chance of the masters securing any good influence over a boy of unruly disposition then first entering the School. To remedy this, one suggestion made has been to limit the number of annual vacancies to eight, which would allow of five years' residence, and limit the maximum of age at entrance to fourteen, where under the present system ten annual vacancies only allow a residence of four years, there being room for forty boys in all in 'college.' Or again, a combination of the existing system with that of Eton and Winchester might meet the difficulties of the case: half the annual vacancies might be opened to public competition with the restriction of previous residence, the other half being limited to boys who had already been members of the School for one year. For both the same examination would suffice, which should be thoroughly simple in its details, and for which parents living in the country, or private schoolmasters, might be able to prepare boys without need of any special initiation into the technicalities of a peculiar system of examination, such as the present system of 'the challenges' undoubtedly is.