Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XIII. A Ruined Family
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liberal ideas among students usually begins in the upper classes
of the schools. Fearing the outbreak of disorder, the Minister of
Instruction ordered all teachers to keep strict watch over their
senior pupils. The result was what might have been foreseen;
these stringent measures only provoked the outbreak they were
designed to prevent. The students, losing all patience under
the continual harassment of petty interference on the part of the
authorities, and supported as a rule in their liberal views by
their relations and acquaintances, broke out in many schools into
serious disturbances, in some instances proceeding even to
violence. Many were expelled as incorrigible, and others were
severely punished and threatened with the same fate if they
did not mend their ways.
Owing to Alexander’s prominent position in his school he
escaped expulsion, but the watch upon all his movements was
redoubled in stringency. His praepositor and others of his
fellow-pupils were engaged as spies upon his private life. These
had orders to report all visits paid or received by him, with the
hours of departure, &c., duly noted.
Under this constant interference of strangers with his
personal life his nervous system and health generally suffered
such a strain that he decided to leave the school and return
home for a rest. Just at this time, too, his father died, leaving a
large family behind, and on him, as eldest son, the management
of the estate and family affairs devolved.
While in the country he made an attempt at putting his
liberal ideas into practice. Laying aside all prejudices of rank,
he dressed in a simple national costume, worked with the
peasants at all kinds of agricultural labour, and altogether
eschewed those habits of the upper classes that are both
exceedingly costly and serve merely to erect a kind of moral Chinese
Wall between the privileged and the oppressed. His one aim
was to uplift the standard of the peasant’s life, both in material
and moral respects, and he knew with how much suspicion they
regarded all meddling with their personal affairs on the part of
members of the nobility. It was for this cause that he removed
all possible differences between them, and sought by unaffected
friendliness and goodwill to gain their confidence. It was not
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