BLACKGUARDISM NO ESSENTIAL PART OF GENTLE EDUCATION.
Ona attention has been called to the following statement in the Scottish Episcopal Times, a journal which we are not otherwise acquainted with. A. boy of six•een years of age, named Black, entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, on Thursday the 1st of last month, IFebruary,1 as a gentleman-cadet; and had hardly been within the walls of the place when he found himself exposed to every sort of rode insult, personal maltreatment, and vulgar outrage. For the first four days of his residence within the seminary, he continued to get on tolerably well ; being merely ordered by the other boys out of his bed, after the fires and lamps were out, and being made to stand in one end of the room while his co-gentlemen-cadets initiated themselves in the mysteries of their intended profession, by throwing shoes, shoe-brushes, or whatever else came to hand, at his head. On the Sunday, during the day. having tied his feet together with a rope, they raised him up in such a manner as to enable them to force his head into a bucket of water ; and on the evening of the same day, they compelled him, under threats of injury of a similar kind, to go out and purchase whisky and brandy for their use. On his return with a bottle of each, the bottle of whisky was accidentally broken ; but the brandy the hopeful young gentlemen converted into toddy: and having drank it, re- tired to bed. From Monday to Thursday, Gentleman-cadet Black continued to endure every sort of personal violence from the lads who had heralded him to the Academy ; and on the Thursday be was beaten, because, in requesting from one cadet, for the use of another, a bason of water, he refused to utter the words, • Where the It— is the bason ? ' and merely said, Can you tell me where the basun is ? ' On Friday morning, covered with bruises—shocked and disgusted with the society into which he had been thrown—and perceiving no prospect of an end to the sufferings which he was compelled daily to undergo— Cadet Black fled from the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; and, after wandering about London for two days and two nights, got on board a steamer, and found his way to Fifeshire, where his parents reside. " This lad's case is not the only one of which we have heard as illustrating the state of juvenile ferocity in which the authorities at the Royal Academy, Woolwich, by some extraordinary oversight or other, permit the young men committed to their care to rear themselves. On the contrary, one new cadet was lately stripped quite naked by his more elderly compeers, and, in the depth -of winter, compelled to go outside of a window ; where, resting his feet, in the best manner he could, on the outer sill of the window, and clinging to the window itself with his hands, he was obliged to remain upwards of an hour— the young savages, meanwhile, in the room within, enjoying the agony they thus caused ! The consequence of this latter piece of barbarity, we are assured, is, that the cadet so treated had to be placed in the hospital of the Academy, and has been alarmingly ill."
A correspondent in whom we trust assures us that in so far as it respects BLACK, this statement is correct ; and he adds some parti- culars respecting the youth. He is a mild, inoffensive lad. He was sent back to the Academy ; where he was again subjected to brutal usage, and a second time be escaped. For this offence, aggravated by the fact of his having "broken his arrest," he was refused re- admission ; and thus he forfeited an appointment which his parents had with difficulty procured for him. Two if not three of his youthful oppressors were expelled by the authorities.
At first sight, the case presents nothing but the grossest neglect on the part of the teachers and guardians, and simple exposure would seem to be sufficient to enforce an instant cure. But there may be more in it: there may be the apology that it is necessary to wink at these irregularities, in order not to check the "spirit" of the young men ; a vulgar plea for indiscriminate nonintervention, which has often been urged in similar cases.
One of the greatest improvements in modern pharmacy has been the discovery of a means of exhibiting what is called the "active principle" of a drug without the gross refuse in which it is latent : half a pint of the nauseous infusion called " bark " lies in a few grains of the almost impalpable powder called quinine with no taste but a pure bitter. A similar process—the art of cooking the pig with just enough fuel instead of a whole house—is carried on in many other things of public concern, and among them in educa- tion: several new plans of tuition are under experiment, all more or less distinguished by economical apportionment of mean ''the end—the teaching nothing more and nothing different from what is desirable to have learned. The neglect of improvement is chiefly found in our public academies. Their conservation of obsolete abuses seems to be based upon the strange and not very intelligent reason, that they were once a great deal better than the other schools in the country, and that they should therefore remain just as they always have been. It is true that Eton and Harrow have turned out many clever, high-minded, manly men ; yet few would attribute that result to some particular things that have been done at Eton and Harrow, any more than one would attribute the bene- ficial effect of the classics to the naughty parts of the Latin writers : the classic lore that imparts the high and almost sacred character, in all time and place, to "the scholar," does not consist its par- ticular confessions of Hoaacs or in the bestialities of CATULLUS. Lawless tyranny and secret cruelty, winked at by authorities, are in like manner no ingredients in the manly character. A youth may outgrow the cowing effects of such wanton oppression exer- cised on him, its demoralizing effects when exercised by him- self; but it will be in spite of such influences, not by their help. Instructers may rest assured that the ingenuous youth will not derive arty beneficial effect from the unbearable misery of having to stand to have shoes and shoe-brushes flung at his head ; nor will the jaculators of the shoes be improved by throwing the sail shoes and shoe-brushes. Cock-throwing on Shrove Tuesday was among the manly sports that ennobled the popular character, but it was not one of them, and is now universally condemned : substitute a boy for a cock, let the sport be a secret breach of discipline, and we cannot perceive that it becomes a jot more capable of imparting generous and courageous sentiments. Too great sensitivenes is no doubt, to be checked in the infant soldier, indeed in any youth: a contempt for pain—a manly power to give and take in a hearty fashion, alike devoid of malignant cruelty—a disregard of danger—these are things which can be taught by direct means, that bring no despair to the tender youth. A sufficient amount of smarting must be endured in the manly game of single- stick, before the eye can become sharp, the wrist or leg quick enough; and if the player can learn to bear the sting with a cheer- ful look, and watch to strike home without malignancy, fortitude and generous courage have had a good lesson. Riding sports may be pushed to any pitch of fearless venturing ; and the games of youth will invent petty perils in abundance to test boldness and confidence. But all these things may be done openly, under the master's eye—with no debasing secrecy, and its attendant falsehood —with no debasing cruelty. Tender youth may at first be daunted by pain or danger ; but weak must be the heart that is not em- boldened by emulation and by an almost voluntary dalliance and courting of the dreaded but envied spurt. A few bruises, a few broken bones—nay, a few lives perchance—must be sacrificed ; but there is no bitterness in the memory of a son whose life goes out suddenly in the free and happy use of manly faculties, like that which mourns over the prospects of a child blighted by a degrading
oppression. Let teachers believe that such outrages form no desirable, no unavoidable element in tuition ; that they disgrace principally the instructors; and that the sooner they are stopped the better for all parties.
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