Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/451

408 hours at school and to devote two hours in the mornings and two in the evenings at home. It is certain that under the proposed arrangements they will be able to go through the same amount of reading in 2 hours with better success. As a necessary consequence, they will surely attain a much larger amount of useful information and far better knowledge of the language during their short stay and prove more useful members of society in after-life, than they can possibly be expected to do under existing arrangements. But, if those arrangements are continued, and the Wards leave the Institution with the little knowledge that they do at present, it will, I fear, be but a sorry compensation for the trials and inconveniences to which they were put, at a tender age, in the separation from their homes and families.

"I also take the liberty to bring to prominent notice Rule XI of the Rules for the management of the Wards Institution. That rule prescribes that "Corporal punishment shall be resorted to only in aggravated cases." It appears from the Order Book that almost in every month one or more boys have received ratan cuts varying from 4 to 12. The instances, in which they have thus been punished, do not however appear to me to come under the class—"aggravated cases," with the exception perhaps of one which is not sufficiently described. But, irrespective of the nature of the offences committed, I would beg leave to observe that corporal punishment should be discarded altogether as a part of the training of the Wards. This punishment is strictly prohibited in all Educational Institutions on account of its baneful influence. Hundreds of pupils are managed in them without the use of the cane;—its necessity in the Wards Institution is scarcely perceptible. In my humble opinion, such barbarous harsh treatment does by no means become the inmates of that Institution. I have some experience in the training of boys and my firm conviction is that corporal punishment, from