infinitely more children spoiled, rendered
dogged and bad, and put into the wrong way,
by the application of personal chastisement as
a panacea for all evil—I believe many more
moderately good children have been thus
made perverse and incorrigible, than perverse
children have been rendered mild and docile
by the softening influence of the omnipotent
stick. The French law forbids flogging children,
except in extreme cases of rebellion. Not
that monsters do not now and then appear,
at intervals, similar to those of natural
portents—such as the afore-mentioned wretch,
Doudet, who is now undergoing her five
years' imprisonment; not that impertinent
and aggravating pupils never get a box on
the ear, a push, or a pinch, from the worn-
out patience of an over-vexed usher; but,
as a rule, gentleness is the guiding principle
laid down by the educational powers; and
the law gives them the power to enforce
that principle. "Respect your children; do
not ' tutoyer ' them, that is, be not too
familiar with them in speech, and do not
brutalise them by blows," is a direction
given to all authorised teachers—and no
others are permitted to exercise the profession
of teacher. Any breach of the respect which
an instructor owes to his pupil is punishable
more severely, in that case, than the same
offence if complained of by one not so
connected. Even the last resource with an
incorrigible pupil—expulsion—is resorted to
most unwillingly, and never if it is possible
to avoid it. No matter what may be the
motive of such long-suffering, we are glad
that it exists, if it be but a pledge to English
parents against the likelihood of measures of
uncalled-for severity.

"Lowhead is a very bad boy, sir," said a
master to his principal.  I can do nothing
with him. In fact, sir, if I were you, I would
expel him at once."

"Oh no! I'm sure you wouldn't!" replied
the head of the establishment.

"Why not, sir? I am perfectly convinced
he is incorrigible."

"I quite agree with you, there, Mr. Smithson.
But you don't know the value of an
English connection; I do."

It is sad that, in most large assemblies of
boys, there may be expected to be a certain
small per-centage—two and a fraction in a
thousand say; perhaps not so much—of
thoroughly bad children, under the circumstances,
for whom utter banishment and removal from
the rest is the only possible mode of treatment,
in justice to the great majority. I use the
qualifying phrase "under the circumstances,"
in connection with thoroughly bad, because
it might be that, under other circumstances,
the unmanageable individuals would turn out
better, or at least, not so bad. The old expedient
of sending to sea, or establishing in a
half-savage colony, or apprenticeship to a
dangerous and exciting trade, such as horse-
breaking, whale-fishing, and the like, may
occupy and divert from actual crime the
fierce passions of a boy whose existence is
utterly incompatible with the society of lads
of more humane temperament. We have
had to deplore the presence of such
exceptional creatures, even amongst our own
boys here.

An English youth, whose evil disposition
and untameable character had long been
known to his masters and schoolfellows, rather
through the utterance of muttered threats
than by overt and punishable acts, was to take
his departure one morning, to the relief and
gratification of all. During the previous
night, by the merest accident it was discovered
that the house was on fire; and
the fire had broken out in such a place that,
in another quarter of an hour or twenty
minutes, the children must have been roasted
alive. A tutor, against whom a special
grudge was entertained, was barricaded in his
room. The alarm was given; the pupils
were hurried, in their night-clothes, into a
place of safety; and the cause of danger was
soon extinguished. The author of the
mischief was up and dressed, ready for a start.
Whether the suspicions were inadequate for
his detention, or whether the master felt
compassion for the parents of such a child,
the incendiary was suffered to make his way
to England. The gendarmerie and police
made due inspection and inquest on the spot;
and as, by French law, an accused person
can be tried in his absence, if he choose to
absent himself, and is condemned, on account
of that contumacy, to the heaviest penalty
which the law awards to the offence, if proved
—our would-be firebrand was sentenced to
death by the court, and his sentence advertised
and placarded in the usual form. The
young convict-at-large will take care how he
sets foot in France again. Doubtless, he
would not be guillotined; but, certainly he
would be treated to a long and severe
imprisonment, with heavy law-costs to be paid
before his final liberation could take place.
Let me add, that no intending candidate for
admission into our boy-community need be
alarmed at the above example (unless he too
has an idea of committing arson); because,
a danger escaped only makes people more
careful to guard against a repetition of the
same danger to come.

Inquiries into the question of religion are
only natural and just. More than nine-
tenths of the children are Protestants, sent
from home, and confided to the charge of
Roman Catholic preceptors. Do those
preceptors, as they are bound, leave the
ancestral faith of their charges undisturbed,
making no attempts to draw them over to
their own? I may answer, that I sincerely
believe they do honourably fulfil this implied
contract. Lately, considerable uneasiness
was felt, in consequence of the conduct of
the Bishop of Arras, which threatened
seriously to disturb the cordial understanding