has always appeared to the present writer one of the
most important speeches in the history of the Club. . . . The Junior
Debating Club had come through its moments of difficulty and was a
fact and an establishment."

Nor was the circulation of _The Debater_ long confined to members of
the Club and their own circle of friends and relatives. Some of the
boys had no doubt a regular allowance, but probably a small one.
Gilbert himself says in his diary that he had no income "except
errant sixpences." And printers' bills had to be paid. Moreover in
the first number the editor Lucian Oldershaw confessed frankly that
one reason for the paper's existence was "that the Society may not
degenerate into the position of a mutual admiration Society by
totally lacking the admiration of outsiders." The staff were able
immediately to note, "Any apprehensions we may have felt on the
morning of the publication of _The Debater_ were speedily dispelled,
when by nightfall we had disposed of all our copies." Of a later
issue the energetic editor sold sixty-five copies in the course of
the summer holidays. Masters, too, began to read it and at last a
copy was hid on the table of the High Master, Mr. Walker. Cecil
Chesterton describes the High Master as a gigantic man with a booming
voice. Some Paulines believed he had given Gilbert the first
inspiration for the personality of "Sunday" in _The Man Who Was
Thursday_. Another contemporary says that he was reputed to take no
interest in anything except examination successes, and that the boys
were amazed at the effect on him of reading _The Debater_. Reading in
the light of his future, one sees qualities in Gilbert's work not to
be found in that of the other contributors, but it is worth noting
that the J.D.C. members were in fact a quite unusually able group.
Almost every one of them took brilliant scholarships to Oxford or
Cambridge; the High Master had never boasted of so many scholarships
from one set of boys. And in reading _The Debater_ (an enjoyment I
wish others could share) one has to bear in mind the relative ages of
the contributors. It is, I think, striking that all these boys should
have recognised Gilbert's quality and accepted his leadership, for
they were all a year or so younger than he was and yet were in the
same form. They knew that this was only because G.K. would not bother
to do his school work; still, I think that at that age they showed
insight by knowing it.

Gilbert