Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 2.djvu/692

672 understood to secure successful coöperation in such games as cricket, football, etc.

The case of discipline which gave rise to the recent discussion, is this. A prefect at Winchester sent for a "house" (the boys of a particular building) to examine them in their "notions," i. e., perhaps, in their general school-boy proficiency in matters out of study. One boy refused to come, on the ground that, being a senior fifth-form boy, he could not be fagged. The prefects held a meeting, decided his conduct rebellious, and that he must be "tunded"—that is, should be whipped with ground-ash rods. The boy appealed to the head-master, who told him he must submit to the "tunding." The number of "cuts" which a prefect may give, is theoretically limited to twelve; in this case thirty were given.

A Mr. Maude reports the matter to the London Times as a specimen of "licensed tyranny," worse than any "bullying" (by which the English understand a large boy imposing on a small one), a gross relic of past centuries, disgracing English public schools, and demanding the interference of English public opinion for its suppression. He says a "tunding" is far worse than any master's flogging; the ash rod is as large as the finger, three feet long, seasoned until tough as whalebone, and that not less than four must have been broken over the boy's back, leaving it in a condition horrible to be thought upon. The head-master, when appealed to afterward, condemned the decision of the prefects, pronounced the punishment excessive, but only required of the "tunding" prefect a private apology, instead of expelling him and punishing his associates. Mr. Maude had been five years at "Winchester, and remembered scores of these "tundings," but never one so gross as that described.

Next a Mr. Fischer, in the Times, applauds Mr. Maude's "admirable letter," condemning without stint the "cruel and cowardly iniquity" long prevailing at Winchester; could give cases where the punishment had been more barbarous than garroter-flogging at Newgate; for the latter was inflicted by law, within legal limits, and in the presence of responsible officials, while the former was in violation of all law, and in the absence of all authority or protection to shield the lad from the anger of his school-fellows; boys should be punished by the masters or in their presence, and the latter should not be allowed to delegate such authority to other boys; the system is brutalizing to punisher and punished—the one hardened by indulgence in cruelty, the other only maliciously biding his turn to inflict on others the harm he has received, and both made brutal and cowardly men.

A Mr. Lechmere deplores the public censure likely to fall upon his revered preceptors of a former generation as a result of Mr. Maude's painful letter. No such torture as "tunding" was known at this peaceful time; was four years a junior at Winchester, and never knew