On this page

• Text (2)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    494 The Leader wnd Satwrday Analyst. D^a...

  • 

    PUNISHMENT OF BOYS. E VERY two or three ...

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    The Derby Bay And The Tsthmian Games. Th...

    these Downs ; in minutes , hours hence , when the telegraph has flashed the news to expectant multitudes in every part of the « 6 uf » try ! The winner has passed through the same" feverish excitement , and his is a delirium of joy , differing little in its moral influt-nce from this man ' s wild despair . Happy we who have only hazarded a few crowns in a sweepstake , or posted a few shillings with our fair friends in the barouche . We cannot look on without excitement—for what -Englishman can witness a horse-race without experiencing a thrill of the most delightful emotion r But we do not pale before those ghostly white figuT-es , and our appetite for the pie and salad is in no way damaged , whether our favourite was up at the post or " nowhere . " Alas ! for the reputation of the sporting prophet *! Only two hesitated about " Thormnnby . " The great authority , " Mr . Bell , gave Wizard as the winner in the most emphatic type , thereby showing , as the result has proved , that he is no wizard himself . The venerable Priam in heroic verse sang'" He wins , " 'he wins / such is the cry I hear , The winner , ' Umpire , * such he will appear . " Oh for Priam ' s prophetic ear ! " Vates " was quite delphic in his oracles , and gave a choice of four . " Argus , " probably contemplating a parallel to the Benicia B > y , " calculated" upon the American Umpire claiming the blue ribbon . *' Touchstone " also fixed his " fiat " upon Umpire ; and " Linkbot" threw the light of his oracular ' . torch upon Wizard . The nearest hits were made by our non-professional contemporary the Telegraph , and by the old sagacious Advertiser , whose oracles very confidently gave Thormanby . . Well , which is to win the next Derby ? and what is Derby himseif going to enter for in the political race ?

    494 The Leader Wnd Satwrday Analyst. D^A...

    494 The Leader wnd Satwrday Analyst . D ^ ay 26 / 1860 .

    Punishment Of Boys. E Very Two Or Three ...

    PUNISHMENT OF BOYS . E VERY two or three years the public is horrified and the scholastic profession scandalised by some flagrant case of excessive corporal chastisement . One of these has recently occurred , the victim a youth named Cancellob , his death attributed to the effect of blows received from aMt \ HoptOn , schoolmasteri a ^ Eastbourne . The result of a seven hours' investigation was , that the master was committed- for manslaughter , bail being accepted , himself in £ 1000 , and two sureties in £ 500 each . There has rarely been a committal Which has gi \ en us more satisfaction ; first , on the broad ground of humanity , and very especially for the sake both of parents and the scholastic profession , _ We are not going into the details of this particular case , but we shall « onfine ourselves to-a feiv remarkson the subject generally , about which there is much violent feeling , of course irrational in proportion to th-e general ignoi-ance of the grade of those who discuss it ;—in other words , those most furious in the condemnation of corporal punishment altogether , are not , as a general rule , persons on whose judgment we should depend in other matters . Ah intelligent , kind , and thoroughly educated father of a boy at Kugby , or at Eton , would probably never be heard declaiming against corporal pnnishmeiVt ~ iir ^ l ^" e g feg 8 ~ g nd uHdci- ^ adi-circmnstaiTcesT-Avith—theysame hearty and indignant disapproval as the ignorant and passionate father of a boy who has been whipped at a fourth-class school : To these latter we have little to say ; but as education is extending and is becoming every day more and more a subject of counsel and reflection , and as codes of educutional , as well as other laws , are worth nothing without their sanctions and penalties , it is worth while to address a few words to intelligent men , and we suspect there are few of them who would expel unreservedly corporal castration of every kind from our codes and places of instruction . Our own belief in its occasional necessity or expediency makes us tlie more glad that all approaches to its abuse should bo visited on tlie guilty head with the most unmitigated severity . People are quite wrong who speak of the corporal punishment of children and schoolboys as an exploded barbarism at its last gasp , not worth an argument , and coming under the same category with the whipping of soldiers and sailors . The system of child-corroution is not exploded , nor is it likely-to be , oven in consequence of tho occasional recurrence of such cases us that which has led to the present remarks . It has been , and will bo moderated , with the advance of refinement and intelligence . Since the dead set mado against it , of which the most intelligent schoolmaster—a inun who knew all the ins and outs of liberulism , und one of the most beloved of the present century—us « d to complnin , as the result of apolitical rather than a parental feeling , this violent feeling on thei subject of corporal punishment has been almost dying away , revived bub occasionally , by some such abuse as that which now startles us . Whatever improvements may take place , us time runs on , in the virile and muture intelligence , making the man less and lens amenable to bodily suffering us inflicted by others , and more and m . tre amenable to instruction " ami geutlenuaa , we arequite euro of tfro non - ; arrival of n golden age , either now or hereafter , ini _ which child and boy nature will be without its inherent infirmities and imperfections , the guidance and correction of which , in somo way or other , will be 'the eternal tank of successive generations of parents and instructors . In this point it is astonishing how littlo we huvo gained upon our ancestors , at any rate upon the intelligent monaml weighty writers of the last two or three centuries . There is scarcely An opinion which has been expressed on the subject during ( he lust twenty years which is not an echo of what ho * been auid bufore , by those who l » avo left records of their study of human nature ; though by boy-philantl ' iropiats very littlo reference is , we have observed ,

    ever made to any wisdom or notions except their own , with vague ireneralities about the improvement , of human nature . ' Qui ad pauca respiciunt de facili pronuntiant . " Want of-space , and want of space only , prevents ua from showing i « their own words the opinions of many of the highest authorities on the Hubjfct ot punishment ; of jurists , as Puffkndorf ; of poets , as ShaKsp E ARE , Pope , Cowley , Ben Jonson , Butler ; of statesmen , sis bur BrcniED Sackvti , i , e ; of wchoolir astern , us Ascham Jind Arnold ; of semi-schoolmasters , as Mii / r .. N , Dr . Johnson , and Goldsmith ; with instances of the various discipline under which such men as Alctjin , Augustine , Luther , and Montaigne were brought up ; the balance of opinion in the practical men being , either directly or by the fairest inference , in favour of corporal punishment ; though , as a general rule , clever men might be expected almost invariably to take the lenient side of the question , that is , if . they judged only from their , own easy running in the paths of learning . In ancient times there certainly were some dark and strange views on thin subject ; bodily pain seems to have been viewed as the great stimulator and strengthener of memory . Benvendto Cellini s father gives him a knock-down blow that he might not forget that he had seen a salamander ! Earlier still , when the order ot knighthood was conferred , a blow was imparted to the kni g ht to make him remember his duty ; and when a charter was confirmed , a hearty slap was given to the witnesses to prevent obliviousness . John Gregory says , " It hath been a-custom to whip children on Innocents' Day morning , that the memory of the murder of the Innocents might stick the closer . " What we call beating the parish bounds , was formerly simply beating the children round the bounds , that the ancient limits- . might . not be forgotten . In his " origin of laws , " Spence says , " At livery and seisin , six or twelve boys were present , according to the . value ; whom the purchaser was ub itmi / iuuu |

    - to lash ana puu oy tue ears , biiiib-biiejr . mig me ucn « if called to give evidence . " * ,. All this making public use of private pain we as much disapprove of as of the vicarious sufferings of Edward VI . ' s and Ja . mesI .-s whipping boys , who smarted to save the sacred flesh of the young Tudor and Stuart , who could only be industrious from delicacy and sympathy with the sufferer . All this is the crude and barbarous formof whatis only irrational when used cruellv , excessively ; aud ~ 0 n wrong occasions . We havethought over the many objections to corporal punishment of all sorts and degrees-T-that it destroys shame by-too frequently producing it ; we do not believe that either parents or boys , from our own experience , view it very keenly in that light ; nor is it wise even in a schoolmaster either to ' look at it or represent it as a sp ;> t of dark opprobrium ; boys rarely think or talk of it as such amongst each other , and the benevolent five-shilling uncle probably makes a . joke about it as he administers the coin . It is represented as breaking tlie spirit ; this , is not true , as our forefathers proved often enough ; they iiave feared the master more than the enemy : — ' Ei terror de * gran guerrier , temea Del vecchio inerme uu ceuno un guardo e 3 trano , , E quellu destra , che poi vinse Ettore , A la verga temuta ivi a aupporre . "—( Marino . ) — gpi , e-fcrU 4 , ] , _ i 9 ^ oiipoml 4 Juuislunentjs ^ u ^^ ment proper for incapacity ; it is for obstinacy , i « idolenee , and wilful inattention ''; it ought only to be viewed as a certain amount of bodily inconvenience , incurred by a certain amount of self-indulgence , of which evident perverseness , insolence , and carelessness are forms . No parent has a right to expect that an instructor who owes the duty of education to many , should waste his time , and that of the best boys in a chus , in explaining and re-explaining to two or three of the worst . In this respect some parents are most inconsiderate , willingly making a man , whose intellect and timo are valuable , a mete slave to the caprices of their children . We know other punishments'are in use ; frewh punishment tasks , which are just as likely to be resisted as tho original lesson , or wearisome impositions , which consume in mechanical drudgery what ought to be allowed for health and play j sometimes the dreary monotony of I being shut up , leaving time for brooding , and every bud passion ; long lectures , of which some lads will absorb any quantity , and delight in the time thus abstracted from the general work , an exultation in which their schoolfellows share . ^ Some starve tho i refractory , which is , of course , u bodily inilictiou much more irrational thiiii that suggested by Solomon , and those of his school . There will , of course , be considerable excitement about this last terrible case , and most justly , for it gives a sad lesson ; still wo question whether even this either will or ought to put a stop to moderate and rational corporal punishment in schools . Let us close , then , with a few hints to schoolmasters ;—punish the . young whilst comparatively gentle punishment will do , and if you do this temperately and regularly , you will have little need to punish at an , ujro when to bo eIllative a punishment must be severe . Set lessons which you are quite Hiiro tire within the power of your pupild . Becuusen high-spirited boy will not flinch , do not fancy that he is nob Huflio ' tently punished j do not ontablish u content between your determination and his obHtinacy , fur you may be beaten , and you are sure to bo cruel ; givo a punishment which is reasonable , and dismiss the case , und , if possible , commence with your pupil the next day us if nothing hud happened . If tho boy is incurable , dismiss him . If you arc conscious of u bad temper , seek somo other line of Hie , for you are not fit to be a school muster ; und it you are not amenablo to your conscience ; you may become , like Mr . Hopton , amenable to your country . Thoro are , we are aware , hoiuo lew largo schools in which punishmont of u corporal kind is altogether dispensed with ; in much schools llioreare always enough willing and

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 26, 1860, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26051860/page/10/