LETTER XX, 215 



the day, is a proper subject to come under Mr. Martin's 

 Act, and the treadmill is his only fit place. 



He remarks again, that " Such hounds as are notorious 

 offenders should also feel the lash and hear a rate as they 

 go to the covert ; it may be a useful hint to them, and may 

 prevent a severer flogging afterwards." It strikes me as 

 a monstrous absurdity, and a most v^^anton piece of cruelty 

 as well, to allow a whipper-in to cut a hound nearly in 

 two, as some of these gentry will do, when the dog is 

 committing no fault at all, but quietly walking to the 

 covert side, and in the presence of the huntsman, where 

 he is entitled to protection ! 



When a hound is caught, flagrante delicto, in the 

 actual commission of the crime of running riot, then, and 

 then only, should he be punished ; he then knows for 

 what he is corrected ; but to punish a hound, in cold 

 blood, for no fault at all, and only as a hint of what he 

 is to expect, is, in my humble opinion, a most cruel and 

 unwarrantable act. 



A boy may as well be flogged at school, merely be- 

 cause his master thinks he may commit some fault during 

 the day. When a senior at school I once witnessed the 

 effect of too much severity upon rather a dull boy, whose 

 failure was only in ability, not in disposition, to learn. 

 He had a task set him by the master, in which occurred 

 one hard word which he could not pronounce correctly, 

 and having been beaten for it, he either committed the 

 same fault again, or stopped at it, and began crying. 

 Out of school this boy was of a cheerful and good tem- 

 per, but he was frightened at his lessons. The master, 

 being out of patience with his stupidity, handed him 

 over to me to teach him his task. He went on tolerably 



