THE CHRISTMAS.
VICTORIAN. 29.
1914.
The Christmas Number of the Victonan is produced under circumstanc!ls that are unique in the history of the magazine. In the quiet of the classroom, the merry bustle of the corridor, and the activity of the field it is difficult to realise that our country is engaged in a titanic struggle with one of the great nations of the world. We, who are living in the year 1914, have been destined to see the greatest war of all ages. Terrible as the effects of the war ha.ve alread'y been, however more terrible they may be, who sha,11 say we have fought in vain, if from this contest we emerge purified nationally and individually. Although few are willin g to agree with those extremists who look to Rome of the late Empire period for a parallel to the England of to-day.. still there are evidences on all sides that we as a nation have deteriorated. The worship of sport. the neglect of reli gion, and the things that count in life, in the case of men, the trend of feminine fashion away from the lines of the beautiful and the artistic to the unseemly and grotesque, the' waiving of their responsibilities by parents, the irreverence of children for parents and elders are all evidences of a corrupt influence at work on our national life. Let us be thankful our warning has not come too late. When this war i's ended in the way we all hope it will be, and we are at peace once more with the German people, then may England arise from the ashes of its dead self to be a greater Engl.l,lld in the future. The change has already begun. On the younger generation a great responsibility lies.
SCHOOL
NOTES.
The principal feature of this number of the magazine is the list of Old Boys who are servillg their King ani! Country. The Roll of Honour wOl;l1c1 be considerably longer but for the fact that the services of many of our former pupils are required by Messrs. Vickers, Barrow. The extract ?f a letter from Lieutenant Pendlebury, who is at the front, is of special mterest.