t their just weight; the sword of authority was not thrown into
the scale."

Miss Edgeworth's tales deeply impressed the boy, and he made up his mind
in childhood to follow the path which she recommended, and do something
which should greatly benefit mankind.

At the age of eleven he began to assist in teaching his father's pupils.
At twelve he was a pupil no more, and gave himself wholly up to
teaching. Long before he was of age he had taken upon himself all the
mere business of the school, and managed it so well as to pay off debts
which had weighed heavily upon the family ever since he was born. At the
same time he invented new methods of governing the school. He was one of
the first to abolish corporal punishment. He converted his school into a
republic governed by a constitution and code of laws, which filled a
printed volume of more than a hundred pages, which is still in the
possession of his family. His school, we are told, was governed by it
for many years. If a boy was accused of a fault, he had the right of
being tried by a jury of his school-fellows. Monitors were elected by
the boys, and these monitors met to deliberate upon school matters as a
little parliament.

Upon looking back in old age upon this wonderful school, he doubted very
much whether the plan was altogether good. The democratic idea, he
thought, was carried too far; it made the boys too positive and
argumentative.

"I greatly doubt," said he once, "if I should send my own son to a
school conducted on such a complicated system."

It had, nevertheless, admirable features, which he originated, and which
are now generally adopted. Toward middle life he became tired of this
laborious business, though he had the largest private school in that
part of England. His health failed, and he felt the need of change and
rest. Having now some leisure upon his hands he began to invent and
project.

His attention was first called to the postal system merely by the high
price of postage. It struck him as absurd that it should cost thirteen
pence to convey half an ounce of paper from London to Birmingham, while
several pounds of merchandise could be carried for sixpence. Upon
studying the subject, he found that the mere carriage of a letter
between two post-offices cost scarcely anything, the chief expense being
incurred at the post-offices in starting and receiving it. He found that
the actual cost of conveying a letter from London to Edinburgh, four
h