The Management Of The Boy's School.

THE MANAGEMENT OF THE BOY'S SCHOOL .

WE hinted last week at our intention , so far as we are concerned , to bring the painful controversy that is raging on this subject to a close this week . We gave the warning in order that none of those who have taken part in the contention might be deprived of an opportunity of saying a last word , if it so pleased them , in support of

their several views . Many reasons have influenced us in arriving at this determination . We need not enumerate them all , but one or two must be specified , in order that our readers may understand why we think the prolongation in our j columns of this contest undesirable . We are of

opinion that an inquiry , such as has been conceded , can alone determine the merits . Two pamphlets have been published , one by Bro . Tew , the other by Bros . Tew and Eev . 0 . Cr . D . Perrott jointly . In both these pamphlets the action of the governing body in its managerial capacity is called in

question ; in both , the expenditure for office purposes is described as in excess of what is necessary . Other points are touched upon , but the two we have specified are , in fact , the gravamina of the case against the school management , and in support thereof Brothers Tew and Perrott have

adduced what , in legal phraseology , may be described as prima facie evidence , that such an independent tribunal should inquire into and determine the points of issue . That we were not singular in this view is proved by one of our most considerable Provinces having , in Prov . Grand Lodge

assembled , formally passed a resolution demanding that a committee of inquiry be appointed , with a view to ascertaining if the School cannot be more economicall y administered . True we had the Secretary replying that the accusations are unjust , that everything objected to is

capable of explanation , and , in truth , that as regards the case of the Rev . Bro . Perrott , the School Committees have done what is needful in the way of inquiry , and are convinced of its injustice . But as the assertions and arguments of the pamphleteers were not proofs , so the denials of

the Secretary on behalf of the governing body were not disproofs . Thus inquiry was demanded in the interests of all parties . There may be , and we think there is , a tribunal already existing which is competent to settle the dispute , at all events , one has been erected for the occasion . Thus ,

something will be done , and that forthwith , to put an end to this bandying about of violent recriminations between the disputants . It was little good urging that the matter should be allowed to drop because the government of the School is going on smoothly now . The pamphlets

had been published , the resolution of West Yorkshire had been passed . These pamphlets and this resolution referred not to the present , but to the immediate past , and they were calculated to excite , if they have not already excited , a strong feeling of distrust as to

the future . A policy of inaction would not allay this feeling . On the contrary , it is in the experience of most people that it would have confirmed and even extended it . There was no denying the right of public complaint to aggrieved persons , or persons who thought themselves aggrieved .

The grievance of the Rev . Bro . Perrott was that he had been Ul-treated when Head Master of the Boys' School , and in being deprived of his office ; the grievance of Bro . Tew was that the funds of the Boys' School were not as

economicall y administered as they might and should be . These two brethren took upon themselves the very serious responsibility of submitting their joint and several grievances to the bar of public opinion , and it was no proof

The Management Of The Boy's School.

these grievances were unfounded to reply that the body they accused had inquired into the matter , and found its own conduct right . Somebody else must decide the issue , but not the disputant whose conduct had been thus publicly arraigned . We lean neither to the one side nor to the

other . What we want is , that the issue raised shall be decided , and at once . Till this is done , the interests of the School must suffer , and so serious a result cannot be regarded with indifference . For these reasons we counselled immediate action , and the case being now sub judice , we must

await the issue in silence . Having come to this conclusion , we have decided further that the correspondence on this subject must cease . It is painfully evident to us , as it is doubtless to our readers , that the controversy , as it proceeded , became more embittered . It had passed from the

region of calm argument to that of unseemly accusation and retort . Neither side was guarded—to say nothing of being Masonic—enough in the language it used , and we have no mind to allow a series of scolding letters to appear in our columns . New charges were being made , or perhaps we

should say , the same charges were being constantly repeated , but in a new form , and cv ' er each arose a fresh and , we must say , a very violent altercation . Thus the original issues stood a chance of being lost sight of . These are —( 1 ) Is the Rev . Bro . Perrott an ill-used man , or were the

Committee right in dispensing with his services ? ( 2 ) Are the funds of the School disbursed with a due regard to economy , or with a lavish hand ? Such are the points in the settlement of which the world of Masonry is interested . The personal part of the question is mere private contention , which concerns us not .

The series of letters and extracts from letters we have

received from Bro . Binckes , merely proves that , as regards that portion of the dispute to which they relate , the use of strong language was not conferred only by the Secretary .

Masonic Portraits. (No. 3.) The Man Of Energy.

MASONIC PORTRAITS . ( No . 3 . ) THE MAN OF ENERGY .

HABITS of business , when they are thoroughly acquired , leave a permanent mark upon a man ' s mind and person . We all readil y learn to distinguish the citizen from the man of leisure ; we never mistake a commercial traveller for a soldier , nor do we ever fail to

recognise an indescribable something in the man whose calling brings into play the highest powers of the intellect . The quick , brusque manners of the man of commerce strikingly contrast with the slow habits of the man of

leisure , or the pretentious bluster of the man of the sword . The graces and charms of deportment may not be acquired east of Temple Bar , but , notwithstanding the acknowledged evils which follow in the train of commercial

success , we question much if genuine charity flourishes half so vigourously anywhere as it does within the sound of Bow Bells . The hero in whose honour the following lines are written is no merchant prince , though he may

have the heart of one . He is no successful trader , though he possesses in the highest perfection all the qualities which go to make a man successful in life . He is one of those men who are a peculiar feature in our commercial

system , he is a prince amongst employes ; he stands high in the confidence of his chief , is conversant with the throbbing , panting world around him , and is fully alive to the sli ghtest rise or fall of that wonderful mercantile barometer which