ADVANTAGES AND DEFECTS 65

ployed: the British officer does look after his men, and
gains in very many instances their love and their respect,
On his side, however, he gets to know those serving under
him and can appreciate their views. Mutual misunderstandings
 are consequently lessened, and it is to be hoped
that this rapprochement between classes on the field of battle
may persist in the industrial life of the nation in the future

At a public school there is little opportunity of introducing
 economics into the curriculum: there is, however,
an institution in most of our large schools, namely, the
school mission, which is employed to this end, and the
value of which it is hard to overestimate. Boys are encouraged
 to see for themselves what life on the ‘margin
of starvation” really means, self-sacrifice to many of them
becomes a practice rather than a theory, and the mutual
understanding between the classes thus engendered can
be productive of nothing but good. The possibilities of
a school mission are beyond estimation. The actual giving
of money, although necessary, is of little real use : the
value lies in active investigation which invariably engenders
 sympathy with those less fortunately placed,
and they, on the other hand, have their exaggerated
ideas as to the “idle rich” very much modified. By this
means the ill-feeling between classes may be effectually
countered.
Perhaps, however, the most important tendency for
good which is existent at a public school is the influence
which the tutor and house master exerts over his pupils
in a hundred and one different ways during out-of-school
hours. Of course there are bad house masters as well
as good, this is true of every sphere of life, but to a preponderating
 extent tutors at public schools live practically
 solely for their boys. The general public, and those
who have no real insight into public school life, have no
conception of the extent of this self-sacrifice. but their