FAGGING' is the name given to a usage peculiar to the great public schools of Eng land, the nature of which will be presently described. The origin of the practice cannot be traced. No school statutes refer to it, no school traditions speak of a time when it was not. The statutes of Eton college rather indicate precaution against it, for they ordain that there be thirteen poor youths in the establishment to work for the college; but in Edward 1V.'s time the college was much impoverished by royal depredations—the fellowships were cut down from ten to seven, and these pauperes juniores abolished. However, be the origin what it may, the institution, as we have said, exists, and in very nearly the same form, in all the public schools—that is to say, Eton, Harrow, West minster, Winchester, and Rugby. Its main features are in every case much as follows: In each school there are two limits: the upper limit extending to the bottom of the first one or two forms (the public school designation of classes), below which a boy may not fag; and the lower limit, comprising the last four or five of the lowest forms, above which a boy may not be fagged. The boys between these limits, as also those who. although comprised within the lower limit, have been more than a certain time in the school. are devoid alike of rights and duties in connection with this practice. The services of a fag are of two kind,—the one comprising his duties to a special master,•to whom lie has been assigned; the other consisting of those due to the whole of the upper boys. The former comprise such tasks as preparing his master's breakfast, stoking his master's fire, carrying his master's messages, and smuggling into the house little forbidden delicacies for his master's consumption, and in this instance, if detected, bearing his master's punishment. Those services which a lower boy owes to the whole of the upper boys, consist of attendance at the games. In the cricket season, the fates perform the functions of a net, and stand behind the wickets to stop the balls while their seniors are practicing; and at all seasons they are liable to the drearier task of waiting attend ance on the racket-players, and retrieving the balls which have been " skyed" out of the court. All cases of difficulty arising out of fagging are within the jurisdiction of the head-boy in the house, or the head of the school, and are settled by reference to him. Such are the main features of F. at the present day—the idea pervading the institution being, that no boy should be liable to the performance of any duties really menial, but only such as, in the absence of the practice, would naturally be performed by each boy for himself. Many of the abuses of this practice, which have from time to time been discovered and suppressed, afford whimsical illustrations of the peccant ingenuity of boy nature. In one school, a senior boy once had a study, but was not studious; he might have let it out to a younger boy in want of a crib to read in at a rent of some five or ten shillings a term, but his mind soared beyond such paltry dealings; he conceived vaster and grander ideas of the management of his property: he set up a tap. He smuggled into his room a nine-gallon cask, called a "governo." There was a rapid succession of governors, and a brisk demand for beer; so he appointed his fag, a fine stout lad, as deputy-tapster to receive the coppers. The deputy grew attached to both his governors, and flourished long and happily in the faithful discharge of his duties. Another instance consisted of an equally whimsical and widely different exercise of power. A sixth-form boy, of high-church principles, made his fags, two very nice well-conditioned young scholars, get up early and come to his room every morning before school for prayers.
So prominent a feature in the constitution of English public schools as the institu tion of F., has, of course, received much criticism from educational reformers. The well-known author of the letters from Paterfamilias to the Cornhill Magazine, him self an Etonian, and one of those rare instances of a public-school man dissatisfied with the recollections of his school-life, speaks of the practice with the greatest bitterness. " Fagging," says he, " now happily almost obsolete, was also based upon the breeches pocket question. I used often to doubt, when called off from my studies, whilst a lower boy at Harchester, to mend my master's fire, to prepare his meals, or to brush his clothes, whether a system which permitted and upheld such practices could really be beneficial to him or to me; but I never had any doubt that it was very beneficial to our tutor, inasmuch as it spared him the wages of some two or three servants, whose menial work was performed by the lower boys. Of course, the ingenuity of our masters dis
covered plenty of excellent arguments in support of practices so convenient to them selves; our parents used to lie told that carrying coals for the upper boys, and toasting their muffins, made us helpful and docile, and took the of bumptious lads; but such arguments would have applied just as aptly towards establishing the propriety of setting young noblemen and gentlemen to assist the scullion, or to sort out the dirty linen for the wash." These are certainly sharp words, but doubtless many persons may be found to sympathize with a great deal of the censure contained in them. They will tell us that much vigilance is necessary to prevent the abuse of the power of exacting casual service on the part of the senior boys, and that the rules of F., such as they are give no adequate security against serious vexation and waste of a small boy's time. They say that the favorite apology, ou the ground of its taking the conceit out of those who have been spoiled at home, is fallacious; that football and parsing are sufficient curatives of this evil tone of mind; and that if the necessity to render service to a senior takes the conceit out, the subsequent privilege of the early exercise of power only too rapidly pours it in again. They deny, also, the validity of one very favorite assertion of the upholders of the system, that the relation between master and fag often, and indeed generally, gives rise to very pleasant intimacies between the upper and lower boys, and intimacies very beneficial to the latter. On the contrary, they maintain that no case of attachment between master and fag can be pointed to which would not have existed under any circumstances, and that this relation may often be found to have marred what would otherwise have been a very friendly recollection. The advocates of the system tells us, on the other hand, that the attendant evils are greatly exaggerated, and in some cases purely fictitious, while it is in many respects of very great, if not essential, service to the existence of a public school. .They deny that it has been orig inated and upheld by the tutors from purely commercial considerations, as asserted by Paterfamilias; for, as has been already said, no really menial services are exacted of any boy, but only such as each boy might reasonably be expected to for him self, inasmuch as, in point of fact, many men at the university—not choosing or not being able to afford a gyp—do really prepare their own breakfast, stoke their own fires, and go on their own errands. That while abuses do occasionally occur, everything is against the probability of their frequency or extent, as the utmost facility exists on the part of the juniors for bringing their grievances before the proper authorities, and obtaining speedy redress. They say that, as a fact, the services of a fag are so light that he does not care or think about them, and they appeal in support of this statement to the tone in which the boys themselves are in the habit of referring to the subject. See the Etonian, a periodical published by some Eton boys 30 or 40 years ago; and the Triumvirate, a similar and more modern periodical from Harrow school. But the prin cipal argument in the defense of the system must always rest, its supporters tell us, upon the security afforded by it against bullying. In public schools, where the ages of the boys vary from 10 to 20, a much greater liberty is given to the boys, and much greater confidence is reposed in them than in private schools—the idea being, that their characters can only be truly formed by as unrestricted intercourse as possible among themselves, not hampered by the constant presence of a superior. This constant presence of a master is, therefore, replaced by the traditions and con stitution of the school, in which each boy has his assigned position, and his definite rights and duties; a constitution, therefore, which each boy feels a personal interest in upholding. Such a society necessarily requires a provision for the relation between older and younger boys, between the weaker and the stronger; for, in the absence of this, t he ordinary aspects of barbarism would be presented, and brute force be alone predominant. Such a provision, acceptable and intelligible to the boys, and reasonable in itself, is believed to be found in the F. system. By this system, it is affirmed, provision is made alike for the claims of age and intellect, inasmuch as it is scarcely possible that any very stupid Loy should fag, while no very old boy ever can be fagged.
These are the chief features of the F. system at public schools, and the principal arguments for it and against it. See PENNALISM.