The other Wednesday Rutherford had J. E. Phillimore, Probyn, Thornton & Clay into the Upper VIth room & then informed us that in future the old monitorial council was to be done away with & a new one established consisting of all the Upper VIth & any other T.B.B. monitors whom Rutherford might choose to put in. After school a meeting was held but as I was not told I missed being there; at this meeting it was proposed to send a protest but nothing was determined on. The next day another meeting of all the old council was held & it was determined to send a protest to Rutherford. The protest was drawn up & was signed by all the old council & sent in to Rutherford on the Wedn Saturday. On the Monday morning Rutherford came up school & informed James that neither he nor any of the monitors had any right to send in any protest against anything that he chose to do & tore up the protest without reading it. James told him that the old council naturally wished to know if there was any complaint against them. Rutherford told him there were plenty of complaints but did not specify any of them. He then went on to abuse James calling him “an unlovely mixture of self conceit & ignorance.” The result of this is we have added to the old council some six or seven more chaps, all of no influence in the school & one only a second election. Besides this there is always the risk of the Q.S.S. being able to outvote the T.B.B. for though at present the numbers are almost equal still there is always the chance that there may be only the four T.B.B. monitors in the Upper VIth. On the whole I don’t think the new council an improvement & certainly I can’t see what remedy there is to any faults the old council may have had, in adding a lot of chaps all of them small, who are almost certain to follow the lead of the old monitors in voting. I further wish to add that I think Rutherford’s abuse of James was most unjust & uncalled for. In the first place the protest was a perfectly respectful one & not meant as a piece of impertinence in any way, though Rutherford chose to take it as one; & in the second place if reading it was such a dire offence the blame lay with all the old monitors quite as much as with James. I wish to add to that the new institution does not command at respect at present.
J. I. Stirling. Prin.Opp