set of beings called Ushers. In the necessity of employing this horrible race of human beings, consists, in a great measure, the curse of what is called, private education. Those, who, in all the fulness of parental love, guard their offspring from the imagined horrors of a public school, forget that, in having recourse to "an Academy for Young Gentlemen," they are necessarily placing their children under the influence of blackguards; it is of no use to mince the phrase—such is the case. And is not the contagion of these fellows' low habits and loose principles much more to be feared and shunned, than a system, in which, certainly, greater temptations are offered to an imprudent lad; but under whose influence boys usually become gentlemanly in their habits and generous in their sentiments?
The usherian rule had, however, always been comparatively light at Burnsley Vicarage, for the good Dallas never, for a moment, entrust-
