isorder,
taking into view the testimony of the witnesses and also her defense. It
is considered here that each young lady is responsible not only for the
appearance of the carpet _under her desk_, but also for _the aisle
opposite to it_, so that her first ground of defense must be abandoned.
So, also, with the second, that she did not put them there. She ought
not to _have_ them there. Each scholar must keep her own place in a
proper condition; so that if disorder is found there, no matter who made
it, she is responsible if she only had time to remove it. As to the
third, you must judge whether enough has been proved by the witnesses to
make out real disorder." The jury write _guilty_ or _not guilty_ upon
the paper, and it is returned to me. If sentence is pronounced, it is
usually confinement to the seat during a recess, or part of a recess, or
something that requires a slight effort or sacrifice for the public
good. The sentence is always something _real_, though always _slight_,
and the court has a great deal of influence in a double way--making
amusement and preserving order.

The cases tried are very various, but none of the serious business of
the school is intrusted to it. Its sessions are always held out of
school hours, and, in fact, it is hardly considered by the scholars as a
constituent part of the arrangements of the school; so much so, that I
hesitated much about inserting an account of it in this description.

VI. RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.

In giving you this account, brief as it is, I ought not to omit to speak
of one feature of our plan, which we have always intended should be one
of the most prominent and distinctive characteristics of the school. The
gentlemen who originally interested themselves in its establishment had
mainly in view the exertion, by the principal, of a decided moral and
religious influence over the hearts of the pupils. Knowing, as they did,
how much more dutiful and affectionate at home you would be, how much
more successful in your studies at school, how much happier in your
intercourse with each other, and in your prospects for the future both
here and hereafter, if your hearts could be brought under the influence
of Christian principle, they were strongly desirous that the school
should be so conducted that its religious influence, though gentle and
alluring in its character, should be frank, and open, and decided. I
need not say that I myself entered very cordially into t