A great sensation has been caused by the rustication of twenty-nine Sandhurst cadets, in consequence of four incendiary fires which have occurred at the College. An ing "f failed to discover the author or authors of the first three fires, and all the cadets of the companies in whose quarters they occurred had their leave stopped. One night a large number of them nevertheless broke out, enjoyed thomselves at_a neighbouring fair, and returned. Later in the same night the fourth fire occurred, and then all the cadets of these companies who could not [ats an alibi were rasticated, The first ighly-placed_champion they found was Lord Hugh Cecil, the son of the Prime Minister; and last night the question was raised in both Houses of Parliament, among the cadets' supporters being Earl Carrington and Lord Rosebery in the Upper House, and Mr. Winston Churchill and Lord Hugh in the Lower, while Earl Roberts took upon himself the full responsibility for the punishment and defended it. Itis difficult on principles of abstract justice to defend these general punishments of guilty anid innocent alike, they are common enough in schools. There was recently a notorious case at Eton. They can only be justified on the ground of a general responsibility for the non-discovery of the guilty ones, and in this case it is difficult to believe that twenty-nine budding " officers and geutlemen" would screen those guilty of so shocking a crime as incendiarism. There is, however, evidently a lamentable Inck of discipline at Sandhurst, for which the authorities must be held responsible. The recent Commission of Inquiry into military education commented very severely on it, and one good result of this scandal will no doubt be to hasten the process of reorganisation.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.