A list of these and all other information will be gladly supplied by the Hon. Sec., S. T. Fisher, Esq., 4, Park Prospect, Little Queen-Street, Westminster, S.W." Correspondence. To the Editor of the Marlburian. SIR, I have been instructed by the Committee of the Marlborough Nomads Football Club to request you to be good enough to publish the following resolution passed at their last Meeting (held on the 23rd instant) : "That the Committee having heard of the sudden death on the 1st instant of their old friend and schoolfellow, Henry Stanhope Illingworth (since its foundation a member, and for many years the active and energetic Honorary Secretary of the Club), desire to place on record their sincere sorrow at his early death and their keen appreciation of the benefit which the Club derived from his exertions." It may not be generally known that Stanhope Illingworth was one of the originators and the first Hon. Sec. of the now no longer existing Marlborough Nomads Cricket Club, which, during his Secretaryship, was the most successful effort which O.M's. have made at cricket. He was a true lover of Marlborough, and the regret of the Committee will I am sure be shared by all the Members of the Club past and present and by other Old Marlburians to whom my dear old friend was known. To the Editor of the Marlburian. DEAR SIR,-Will you allow me to enter a protest in your columns against the recent action with regard to the debating society. Hitherto this society has been a School institution and open freely to all members of the School who cared to join. Many who have not wished to become members have yet found much pleasure in attending the debates as visitors. Now forsooth we are told that henceforth the Society will be known as the Sixth Form Debating Society, that all who wish to become members must be proposed and seconded by members of the Sixth and elected solely by the Sixth Form, and that visitors will only be admitted on producing a member's ticket of admission. Pray Sir, who is responsible for these alterations? I am not aware that the Debating Society was consulted at all on so vital a subject. Apparently the change has been effected entirely to please a few members of the Sixth Form. Surely, Sir, you will not decline to insert this protest against the high handed injustice of a narrow clique? Yours, etc., SCHOOL MEMBER. [We insert our correspondent's letter, bnt decline to hold ourselves responsible either for the sentiments or the language in which they are conveyed.-Ed. M.] To the Editor of the Marlburian. DEAR SIP,-A reference to Spartan History will show that those hardy warriors in their youth lived on black broth. Sir, the New Zealander of the future, who will some day take his stand on the ruins of London Bridge, will read with amazement that the School called Marlborough prospered for many years despite a most pernicious habit called in old days 'Brewing.' He will see beyond a doubt that this degrading practice was the cause of the ultimate ruin, which befell this once prosperous institu tion. But seriously is there not enough good sense in Marlborough to see that this custom tends to violate the 'manly simplicity' of our School life. It is luxurious and unnecessary. Surely now the food in hall has been so much improved and will, as we hope, be some day even better in tea, it is ungrate ful to leave College fare untouched that in our private circles we may enjoy a more luxurious repast. It seems to me that both work and games would fare much better if this pernicious habit were suffered gradually to die out. Rome was not built in a day, nor do I suppose it possible to abolish such a popular institution at one blow. But suffice it for the present to call attention to the lengths it has run and try by exhortation to coerce it within the range of our sumptuary laws. " Sic Etruria fortis crevit-Sic Marlburia." Ex-Officio-President, H. Richardson, Esq. Elected-Rev. T. N. H. Smith. E. F. Benson. R. G. Durrant, Esq. E. Robertson. This Society held its usual preliminary meeting on Thursday, January 29th. The President stated that various donations had been presented to the Society, consisting of books, coins, beetles, skulls, etc. Among these were some skulls from G. T. K. Maurice, O.M., a work on the Geology of Shropshire, and a valuable book on British coins. After criticising the work of the Society during the last year, he stated that a book had been provided to contain a collection of autographs. He also stated that an otter was captured on the Kennet the other day. It had somehow or other got caught in a mill wheel and was slain by the miller. A short discussion followed on various subjects of interest. The Rev. T. N. H. Smith announced that the Entomological Section would not meet for the present. He further urged members of the Section to collect beetles. E. Robertson announced that the Astronomical Section would continue its meetings during Saturday preparation, and invited new members to join. The Rev. T. A. Preston then gave some account of the various additions to the Museum collections. These were in part due to the liberality of the British Museum. Among them were a drawing of the Archæopteryx, or flying lizard, a Toucan presented by Hamerton, some humming-birds from America, a bird of Paradise, some poisoned arrows from the Solomon Isles, and a holothuria, or sea-cucumber. This is one of those curious animals which when irritated throws away its head, stomach and other unnecessary luxuries; these are however presently replaced by a new growth. We further gather that in London the holothuria is used in the manufacture of soup. Mr. Preston also read a letter from an old member of the Society, E. F. Im Thurm. This gentleman is exploring in the wilds of British Guiana, and wrote an account of some of his experiences to the Demerara Argosy. He is now on the slopes of Mount Roraima, and is being remarkably successful in his researches for flowers, insects, birds, et hoc genus omne. He remarks that his chief obstacle is an ecclesiastical mania which has spread over the neighbouring tribes. They are by no means Christians, but influenced by the love of imitation, common to men and monkeys, they have erected numerous churches, copied from a mission church at Potaro. In these they spend 6 hours a day during the week, and 8 on Sundays, "repeating the creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the ten Commendmants in the, to them, vulgar tongue, though it is quite evident that what they are saying is not understanded of the people." They do not aim at harmony, but each man doeth "that which is right in his own eyes." Some pray, others sing hymns or psalms, others deliver sermons with appropriate gestures. They appear to incline to ritualism. At any rate they universally indulge in altar pieces. An enlightened community had a portrait of our respected Premier, another was content with a page torn out of Mr. Payn's By Proxy.' Let us hope they live up to it. The report this year will be unusually interesting. In an appendix will be published an analysis, carefully compiled by Mr. Preston, of the notices taken during the last twenty years. This will show the average date of first appearance of insects, of laying of birds, of first flowering of plants, etc., etc. The lectures this term will be as follows:-February 5th, W. W. Fowler, Esq., on "The birds of the Alps." February 21st, Dr. Hudson. March 12th, E. Robertson, on Astronomy. March 26th, T. Corbett, Esq., O.M., on Rome. Mr. Preston will be glad to receive 'notices' of any kind in the Museum. Ornithological notices may also be taken to Rev. J. P. Way, and Entomological notices to the Rev. T. N. H. Smith, or E. K. Chambers. SIXTH FORM DEBATING SOCIETY. By this significant change of name our readers will understand that the Society has ceased to exist on its old footing. At a Sixth Form meeting, on the motion of H. M. Lewis, Speaker of the old society, the new society was chosen to supersede the old one, which had practically died out. To prevent misapprehensions let us state-1. That the members of the old society will be entitled to be considered as members of the new.-2. That it is not an exclusive society, confined to the Sixth. Any member of the Modern or Upper School is eligible; he must be proposed and seconded by Sixth Form Members, and the election it is hoped will be gently exclusive. No really energetic candidates are likely to be rejected; and as speakers not members make a debating society, we hope there will be many such. The rule of admitting visitors by ticket will be enforced. School members will be turned out for inefficiency and in most other ways the society will be as of old. It is however a Sixth Form Society and the Sixth Form members alone will determine its constitution. The Senior Prefect will be President, and the Sub-librarian of the Sixth Form vice-President. We desire the co-operation of the School in the matter, that this coup d'état may have some permanently good effect in reviving oratorical talent and energy, which have been allowed to decline lately. A. B. POYNTON (Hon. President). A. F. B. WILLIAMS (Vice-President). CHARLES DICKENS. FEBRUARY 18TH, 1885. THERE is hardly any other English author who has won such world-wide reputation, and has at the same time met with so much unfavourable criticism as Charles Dickens. Englishmen and Englishwomen are never tired of revelling in the mingled humour and pathos of his writings; critics are never tired of pointing out the innumerable defects and faults that disfigure them as works of art. It is our purpose in this short paper to attempt to point out what are the qualities which have won him this universal love and admiration, and at the same time what are the deficiencies which cause his books to fall so far below the ideal standard of novel writing. It will be necessary to give a very brief sketch of Dickens' early life, because this bears in a peculiar manner upon the development of his genius. He was born in 1812, and from 1816 to 1821, lived with his family in the military town of Chatham. Here he acquired a lasting affection for his home and the neighbouring sleepy old town of Rochester, and the lanes and woods, and wide lonely marshes, which form such a conspicuous part of the scenery of that part of Kent. Again and again he recurs in his novels to the home of his childhood, especially in Pickwick, and in Great Expectations. At the age of PRICE 3d. ten his troubles began. His father, who appears to have resembled the immortal Micawber, moved to London. He was unsuccessful, was compelled to become an inmate of the Marshalsea, while the unfortunate Charles was put into Messrs. Warren's blacking factory. The story of this part of his life has been told in David He Copperfield. loathed his work and the company into which it threw him with a bitter loathing which he never forgot. But it was during this terrible time that he became acquainted with the miseries of low life in London, which he afterwards depicted so faithfully. Mr. Dickens' affairs amended after a time, and Charles was sent to school for two or three years. Then, after an interval, during which he was engaged as a reporter for the daily press, he began his brilliant as an author with the Sketches by Boz, published in the Evening Chronicle during 1834. He first showed what he was really made of in The Pickwick Papers, which has always been one of his most popular works. This was followed by Oliver Twist, his first attempt at a regularly constructed novel, and by many others in quick career succession. Dickens is essentially a novelist of the middle and lower classes; in this fact lies the source both of |