The Journal affords, however, but an imperfect record of this active little commonwealth. It is in “Public Education” that the constitution and its working are described at length. Their chief aims are thus briefly summed-up in the following passage:—
“The great features of the object we have in view will have been already appreciated, we hope, by the intelligent reader. We shall be disappointed if he have not already discovered that by the establishment of a system of legislation and jurisprudence, wherein the power of the master is bounded by general rules, and the duties of the scholar accurately defined, and where the boys themselves are called upon to examine and decide upon the conduct of their fellows, we have provided a course of instruction in the great code of morality which is likely to produce far more powerful and lasting effects than any quantity of mere precept.”
Undoubtedly the part of the system that would at first sight most strike an outsider was the power that was placed in the hands of the boys. Arnold and his government through the sixth form were, as I have said, still unknown. His sixth-form boys, moreover, were not elected by their schoolfellows, as they would have been on Rowland Hill’s plan. He was, indeed, to no small extent, bound down by the traditions—the lex non scripta—of Rugby. But it was by an unwritten law—a law that was nowhere strictly defined—that his power was limited. The boys of Hill Top and Hazelwood had a constitution that had not grown, but had been deliberately made. A few years after it had been promulgated, a Code of Laws was published, which filled more than a hundred pages of a closely-printed volume. It opens thus:—
“ORIGIN OF THE CONSTITUTION.
“Convinced that numerous and important advantages would be derived from engaging their pupils in the consideration and in the practice of rules for their own government, from placing restrictions to the powers of the teachers, and from giving to the regulations of the school a permanent form, the proprietors, early in the year 1817, proposed to the school a certain division of powers, together with regulations for their exercise, which, having received the joint assent of teachers and pupils, became the constitutional laws of the school; and, in the confident expectation that the powers placed in the hands of the pupils would never be employed but for the welfare of the school, the proprietors pledged themselves not to alter these laws without the consent of a majority of the proprietors and regular teachers, meeting in conference, on one hand, and of a majority of the pupils on the other. With such joint consent, occasional alterations have been made in the constitutional laws, tending chiefly, if not entirely, to throw more and more power into the hands of the pupils.”
Fanciful as this may seem, yet for many years the school was carried on strictly in accordance with the provisions of this Code, and carried on with great vigour and spirit. The boys, for the most part, entered with eagerness into the system, and went through their part in it with zeal. In an old letter I read that one day the Committee met before breakfast for the despatch of some important business. A motion was made, and carried almost unanimously, that they should proceed with the business without regard to school-time, play-hours, or meals. It was not till eleven that the work was finished and the Committee adjourned. A jury, trying a charge of theft, deliberated over its verdict from before noon till after eight at night. The “School Magazine” records: “The jury during this time suffered considerably, both from cold and hunger, having had nothing to eat from breakfast, at nine, till after the verdict was given.” In nine years nearly six hundred cases came before the Court; out of these there were but nine appeals to the Committee, which formed the Higher Court.
The part of the system which in my judgment is most worthy of study is that to which its founder gave the name of “Voluntary Labour.” So highly did he himself think of it that he always reckoned it among the three inventions on which he might chiefly pride himself. The other two were his Printing Press and his Penny Postage. In an extract that I have given from his Journal,[52] this device is partly explained. In “Public Education” it is described at length: there we read:—
“The favourite subjects seem to be working the printing-press; penmanship of various kinds; drawing, etching, and painting; constructing maps, making surveys, and delineating mathematical diagrams; reading books on which they prepare themselves for answering questions; studying music; modelling animals and constructing machines; filling offices bearing salaries; learning orations, extracts from the poets, parts in plays, and dialogues; taking reports of lectures, trials, and debates; and composition, in prose and verse, in various languages. This department, which is now become so important a feature in our system, took its rise from the necessity of furnishing to boys who had no chance of obtaining marks by excelling their schoolfellows, opportunities of gaining them by working harder than those to whom nature had been more propitious. It appeared to us that, as in the common course of events this must be their lot in after-life, it would be well to accustom them to it in their early years; nor were we without hopes that their superior industry would enable them to press on the heels of their competitors, and to show them that talent alone would not be sufficient, at all times, to secure superiority. It seemed also of consequence to make imprisonment as rare as possible, both because it is attended with unavoidable disgrace—to which no mind can with safety be frequently exposed—and because, unlike labour, it is pain without any utility, except that of example, which appertains to all judicious penalty of whatever kind....
... “One of the most valuable habits of life is that of completing every undertaking. The mental dissipation in which persons of talent often indulge, and to which they are, perhaps, more prone than others, is destructive beyond what can readily be imagined.... The habit of finishing ought to be formed in early youth. We take care to reward no boy for fragments, whatever may be their excellence. We know nothing of his exertions until they come before us in a state of completion.”
A few years ago Sir Rowland Hill made the following record as regards this scheme of Voluntary Work:—