It is no new thing for attacks to be made upon the Public Schools, and although many of the arguments are, I believe, specious, there is a sufficient body of solid and well-considered criticism which should and must be fairly met, if schools of the older tradition are to survive; and I would like to try, in the short space available, briefly to take stock of the position and attempt to justify a system which many students of education believe to be obsolete. The angle of attack has, I think, shifted in recent times; the argument which was once very prevalent was the complaint that schools turn out all their boys to one pattern, individuality and originality being sacrificed in the process. Few people denied that the pattern was a good one, but it was felt by critics that any deviation from the set model was regarded with undue suspicion and dislike. This argument has lost some of its force to-day, because conditions have changed and public opinion in a school is far more lenient towards diversity of outlook and difference of taste; certainly it is not true now, and I much doubt if it ever was, that a boy interested in the fine arts, music or poetry is regarded as a curious or undesirable person. Possibly the very friendly relations which exist in most modem schools between master and boy may have helped in this change, if it is not presumptuous for masters to hope that they do have a humane and civilizing influence.