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ORGANIZATION OF EDUCATION 155
lotte l!lason saw the point more clearly, though perhaps
more narrowly, than either.
At any rate, no one at H&l1eybury or in the Headmasters'
Conference had any glimpse of a new era in the
nineties ; and if we had had any such pereeption, we were
bound by University and Professional Examinations as
well as by tradition, I soon discovered that the freedom
to try new expel'iments was not to be had in a school
so lsrge as Haileybury. Organization of education was
taking the form of tying one school to another, so that
as to-day our foreign policy is bound up with that of other
nations under the influence of Internationalism and the
longing for co-operation, and has consequently lost free·
dom, so the Secondary Schools in their yearning for order
instead of chaos tied thetnselves up in fetters, nobody
having any idea what was going on.
But the desire for order was not confined to the Public
Schools. In 1898 Acland set up a Royal Commission,
with James Bryce as Chairman, to deal with Secondary,
Education as a whole. To take part in the discussions
was, for an ignoramus like myself, a most instructive and
exacting experience. I learnt to appreciate the unspeakable
complexity of modern life ; the innumerable obstacles
in the way of aU reform ; and the suddenness with which
they were liable at any moment to disappear. A. further
lesson has been learnt since. Many of our suggestions
took shape in statutory enactments, but after watching
the development of events from 1894 onwards I can
safely say the outcome of each separate reform has been
different from what anyone expected ; and that the only
changes to which good results can reasonably be ascribed
are those which were based on principle, not on expediency :
but even those of the former e1ass are liable to be conducted
by men who do not understand their aim. No one
can calculate for certain what living men will do next,
especially in matters so wrapped in mystery as the fundamental
facts of Psychology, on which education must be
based.
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