kes a situation as assistant to a Yorkshire schoolmaster;
he sees an act of tyranny of which he strongly disapproves; he cries out
"Stop!" in a voice that makes the rafters ring; he thrashes the
schoolmaster within an inch of his life; he throws the schoolmaster away
like an old cigar, and he goes away. The modern intellect is positively
prostrated and flattened by this rapid and romantic way of righting
wrongs. If a modern philanthropist came to Dotheboys Hall I fear he
would not employ the simple, sacred, and truly Christian solution of
beating Mr. Squeers with a stick. I fancy he would petition the
Government to appoint a Royal Commission to inquire into Mr. Squeers. I
think he would every now and then write letters to newspapers reminding
people that, in spite of all appearances to the contrary, there was a
Royal Commission to inquire into Mr. Squeers. I agree that he might even
go the length of calling a crowded meeting in St. James's Hall on the
subject of the best policy with regard to Mr. Squeers. At this meeting
some very heated and daring speakers might even go the length of
alluding sternly to Mr. Squeers. Occasionally even hoarse voices from
the back of the hall might ask (in vain) what was going to be done with
Mr. Squeers. The Royal Commission would report about three years
afterwards and would say that many things had happened which were
certainly most regrettable; that Mr. Squeers was the victim of a bad
system; that Mrs. Squeers was also the victim of a bad system; but that
the man who sold Squeers his cane had really acted with great
indiscretion and ought to be spoken to kindly. Something like this would
be what, after four years, the Royal Commission would have said; but it
would not matter in the least what the Royal Commission had said, for by
that time the philanthropists would be off on a new tack and the world
would have forgotten all about Dotheboys Hall and everything connected
with it. By that time the philanthropists would be petitioning
Parliament for another Royal Commission; perhaps a Royal Commission to
inquire into whether Mr. Mantalini was extravagant with his wife's
money; perhaps a commission to inquire into whether Mr. Vincent Crummles
kept the Infant Phenomenon short by means of gin.

If we wish to understand the spirit and the period of _Nicholas
Nickleby_ we must endeavour to comprehend and to appreciate the old more
decisive remedies, or, if we prefer to put it so, the old more d