The School itself was valued at £20,857.10s.0d., and the Governors held also in stocks and mortgages £32,886.8s.0d., as well as the endowments of prizes and exhibitions amounting to £2145.18s.1d. The total assets were set down at £111,959.16s.1d.

The income for 1895 was stated to be

The expenditure was

The School expenses included

There were at this time 9 assistant masters and 2 visiting masters. The number of boys was 161, most of whom came at the age of 12 or 13, and c.70 per cent. were under 15. c.37 per cent. were sons of professional men, and c.16 per cent. came from elementary schools, mainly with scholarships. There were 35 scholars. Other boys paid £10.10s. per annum, and the only extra was 15s. for carpentry. There were no boarders. Foreigners are not mentioned (nor do foreigners' fees appear in the Calendar after 1891).

THE CAUSES OF the decline in numbers form the main subject of the report, published in 1895, of the Assistant Commissioner who investigated the state of secondary education in the West Riding. They may be summarized thus:

1. The constitution of the Governing Body.

“The Governors do not contain among their number men who sit there as representatives of any of the public bodies of the town; and though they are men of standing and good position yet this fact alone tends to prevent the School keeping in close touch with the inhabitants of the town. There must always also be a tendency in a body of Governors, who have the power to fill vacancies in their number by co-option, to become too much representatives of one or two narrow interests, and it is consequently a common complaint that the Governors of this institution represent merely Church and conservative interests, and though this impression may be quite unfounded yet it is almost inevitable in the case of a body of this kind . . . While it is true there is now no religious difficulty (the sons of Nonconformist ministers attending the School) there was a time when it was exclusively a Church of England School, and there seems to be still an impression in the town that it is a place meant for, as they crudely put it, 'parsons' sons.”

In laying stress on this the Commissioner, I believe, was right—the School was undoubtedly being treated as a pawn in the party game and had thus become the target for unkindly criticism and often undeserved censure—but if he had fully understood the state of feeling in Leeds I think he would have attached less value to mere “impressions” and “complaints,” and might have emphasized much more strongly the points telling in favour of the School. For more than 250 years the Committee had been its Governors, and throughout the whole of its history I have not found a single case in which it was even alleged that they had managed it otherwise than with honour and honesty, and that they were now using their high position for personal or party ends there is not a scrap of evidence to show. Within the School it made not the slightest difference whether a boy attended Church or Chapel, whether his parents were Liberals or Conservatives. The masters themselves were not all of the same way of thinking, and of persecution or proselytism there was not a trace.

2. The buildings.

“The buildings are of a somewhat ornate character but not well designed or particularly suited for school purposes. We find here one of those long rooms meant for holding two or three classes at once which still linger in Grammar Schools, though rapidly dying out from the modern elementary schools. This is so very inconvenient a plan that it is remarkable it should ever have been adopted.”

The laboratory is specially criticized as small and inconveniently planned.

This point is much more emphasized in the Charities Report. The site is described as excellent, but the buildings are said to “fall very far short of the modern standard of requirements,” and are criticized severely as to lighting, heating, acoustic properties, etc. As a matter of fact with the “hopper” windows—so beloved by church architects—it was impossible to ventilate the rooms properly. In summer they were stifling, in winter draughty, and the heating apparatus was so inadequate that it was often necessary to light all the gas burners to raise the temperature of the Upper Schoolroom to even 50°. The interior was dingy and unattractive, and it is little wonder that parents preferred to send their sons to schools where healthier and more comfortable conditions prevailed.

3. The curriculum.

“There can be no doubt that as a mere matter of business the devotion of a good deal of the school time to science pays at present in Yorkshire, and that if the modern side of the School devoted more time to science and less to languages, while the classical side was left as it is, the School would be more popular with Yorkshire parents.”

The Commissioner was himself a “science man,” but I am inclined to think he was right.

4. The lack of co-ordination among the educational institutions in Leeds.

“There is no recognized method for passing on to the Grammar School from the other secondary schools those boys who show any special aptitude for classics, nor is there any recognized system for drawing from the elementary schools and passing into the school best suited to them those boys who wish to continue their education. Each school is competing with the others with its own system of scholarships to obtain the pick of the elementary schools. ... It is I think distinctly unfortunate that boys who show a special bent for higher scholarship and would be likely to distinguish themselves at Oxford or Cambridge should not pass on to the Grammar School.”

He stated too that a great deal of the work done at the Yorkshire College was in direct competition with the fifth and sixth forms of a good Grammar School.

In this, too, I think the Commissioner was right, though his words might seem to imply that he would limit the School to boys learning classics in order to go to Oxford and Cambridge; but this, however, would be inconsistent with other passages in his report.

5. The teaching.

“I was not much impressed by the discipline of the School. The boys struck me as being inattentive and the masters sleepy, while there was a general want of smartness and briskness about the way in which the classes were conducted. I find this impression confirmed on inquiry outside, the impression being that the teaching is wanting in vigour.”

How far these strictures were deserved it is not easy for one who was implicated in them to discuss; but as they were openly published and still remain on record, it is only just that the opposite side of the case also should, in some degree be presented.

The Commissioner was of course entitled to his own opinion, and to perform his duty properly he was bound to state what he thought as to the teaching in the School, but that opinion ought to have been based on thorough inspection and trustworthy information. Of inspection, as we now understand the word, there was nothing. The Commissioner was in the School for little more than an hour, and most of that time was spent in the Headmaster's study and in the laboratory. He did not, I believe, hear a single lesson in classics or mathematics or modern languages or English subjects. Some of the masters he never saw at all, and with only two or three did he exchange a passing word. Many of the boys never set eyes upon him. Trustworthy information, on the other hand, as to the merits of a teacher is very hard to get, and outside opinion is apt to be biassed by personal considerations.

Moreover there is positive evidence that the teaching was better than his remarks would lead one to infer. The reports of the examiners appointed by the Oxford and Cambridge Board, were distinctly favourable, and in some cases brilliant. The list of scholarships won, especially considering the diminished number of the boys, was (to quote the words of the Charities Report) “very creditable,” and the honours gained were not only in classics. The list of 1885-1886 still stands as the “record” of the School. Between 1889 and 1894 Leeds boys won at the older universities 16 scholarships and exhibitions and 5 first-classes, 2 scholarships at the Yorkshire College, and 49 certificates (with 29 “distinctions”) of the Oxford and Cambridge Board. The Commissioner himself said—“in mathematics and classics the School seems to do well”—and in science he stated that the master was hampered by the conditions under which he worked. Under the circumstances the masters, who without any possibility of defence or redress found themselves charged with professional incompetence, not unnaturally thought that they had been unfairly treated.

The general conclusion of the report was that the Grammar School had been “allowed to drift into a backwater apart from the main current of educational progress,” but that if the reforms suggested were carried out “it might yet have within its doors 300 or even 500 boys . . . and must remain through its traditions and through its scholarships the institution in Leeds into which all boys should be drawn whose ultimate career would take them to Oxford or Cambridge.”

WITH THIS REPORT added to the already serious decline in numbers it was obviously necessary for the Committee to take decided action, and so during the next 10 years we get a series of changes comparable only in importance with those which began in 1815 and 1854.

Their first measure was to come to terms with the Charity Commissioners, and on 19 May 1898 a scheme for the management of the School was at last passed. The main points in it were as follows:

(a) The Governors were constituted as proposed in 1885. The representative ones were to hold office for 5 years, the co-opted ultimately for 8. There were to be at least 2 meetings every year, and a Governor vacated his seat who omitted to attend for 2 successive years. The quorum for a meeting was to be 5.

(b) Religious opinions were to have nothing to do with the qualifications of either Governors or masters.

(c) The lands were vested in the Official Trustee of Charity Lands, and the stock in the Official Trustees of Charitable Funds, but the management of the property was left to the Governors. The accounts were to be open to public inspection. £7000 in 3 per cent. stock was set aside for repairs or improvements of the School.

(d) The Headmaster was to be a graduate of some university in the United Kingdom, but need no longer be in Holy Orders. He was to be appointed after advertisement, and might be dismissed without cause assigned on 6 months' notice—or for urgent cause at once. He was to receive £200 per annum, and a capitation fee of £3-£5, and to live in an assigned residence in which no one except his own family might dwell unless with the Governors' leave. He was not to hold any benefice having the cure of souls, or undertake any employment interfering with his duties. A pension fund might be established for him.

(e) As to the management of the School, the Governors were to prescribe the subjects of instruction and their relative prominence, and to make arrangements as to sanitary matters, terms, vacations, holidays, fees, and the number of boarders and of assistant masters, and to fix the amount for maintaining the latter, and for “plant and apparatus,” but on all these points they were to consult the Headmaster. The Headmaster was to have control over the internal organization and discipline of the School, including the power of expelling or suspending boys (though in such cases, he was to report the matter at once to the Governors). He was to have also the power of appointing the assistant masters and dismissing them at pleasure, and (subject to the approval of the Governors) of determining how the sums allotted for the staff and plant should be used.

(f) The School was to be open to all boys of good character and sufficient health, residing with parents, guardians, or near relatives, or in a hostel, or a master's house. Boys born or residing in Leeds were to have the preference if there should not be room for all. No boy under 8 was to be admitted, and no boy might remain beyond the end of the August or December after he was 19. No one was to be admitted who could not pass an examination in at least reading, writing from dictation, the first 4 rules of arithmetic, and the multiplication table.

(g) The fees for all boys alike were to be—for tuition £10-£20: for boarding not more than £50 in a hostel, or £60 in a master's house.

(h) The curriculum was to include religious instruction “in accordance with the principles of the Christian Faith” (but exemption might be claimed from attendance at prayers, worship, or religious instruction), Latin, Greek, at least one modern European language, history, geography, English grammar, composition and literature, arithmetic, mathematics, science (including the teaching of chemistry and physics by experiment), reading, writing, drawing, drill, vocal music.

(i) The School was to be examined annually by external examiners approved of by the Governors. The Headmaster also was to make a yearly report on the condition and progress of the School, and on any special occurrence in the year, and might also mention the names of any boys who in his opinion were worthy of reward or distinction having regard both to proficiency and conduct.

(j) Scholarships—called “Leeds Scholarships”—were to be awarded according to the scheme of 1878, but half the junior scholarships were to be given to boys under 11, and with regard to the close scholarships, “reading, writing and arithmetic in the highest standard” was substituted for “the examination in the sixth standard.”

(k) The 4 School exhibitions—now called “Foundation exhibitions”—were to be tenable at Oxford, Cambridge, Durham or Victoria Universities by boys who had been in the School for not less than 4 years. The Poor's Estate exhibition—now called the “Leeds exhibition”—might be split into two of £25 each and was to be held by a boy who had been 3 years at the Grammar School and not less than 3 consecutive years at some Public Elementary School or Schools in Leeds.

(l) The scholarships and exhibitions were to be awarded after examination by external examiners, and might be withheld for unsatisfactory conduct, or for pecuniary reasons, or if there was no fit candidate, and might be forfeited for misconduct or idleness. The Governors might vary the number, value and tenure of the Leeds scholarships and exhibitions, throw them open in default of qualified candidates, and use any surplus money in maintaining supernumerary scholarships or exhibitions. No boy might hold more than one scholarship or exhibition at the same time.

(m) £12,000 was—with the interest on it—to be set aside for the education of girls.

On all the main points then the Commissioners got what they wanted—a body of Governors composed as they wished, the School declared undenominational, the Headmaster made mainly dependent on the capitation fees, a substantial sum allotted to girls, and the removal of practically all privileges for special classes of boys.

THE SCHEME MARKS a definite epoch in the history of the School. It brought the Governors into touch with the other educational authorities in the town, and henceforth there could be no justification even for the “impression” that the School was being run in the interests of any party, religious or political. Inside the School, however, the passing of it was unnoticed by either masters or boys, and the religious teaching—of “political” teaching there was of course none-—went on exactly as before. What was more important for the fortunes of the School was that in the town too it excited little notice, and obviously time would be needed before its effect was felt.

Meanwhile the new Governors set to work on a second and equally necessary measure of reform — the rebuilding of the School. In 1899 a temporary structure to serve as an art room and an additional laboratory was opened, and great alterations were planned, but the plans had hardly got beyond a preliminary stage when Mr. Matthews accepted the rectory of Purley, near Reading, and left Leeds at Easter, 1902, receiving a pension of £400. He retained, however a lively interest in the welfare of the School, and from 1906 to his death (20 Dec. 1914), presented annually a prize for an English poem.