316 TIMEHRI. a 
system of Free Schools in this Colony is a great mistake. Itis highly 
desirable that those parents who can afford to pay for their childrens _ 
education should do so, and very few comparatively are there in this 4 fe 
land with whom poverty is a legitimate excuse. The negro will = 
value education for his child unless he pay for it. The higher the fee, 
the more regularly is it paid, and the more regularly does his child — 
attend ; and in those schools where least is demanded, the most difficulty 
is experienced in obtaining it. The principle of Free Schools for this : 
Colony is a false one. If schools must be free, it should only be hea 4 
the imposition of a rate for educational purposes. + 
The usual method of enforcing order in the schools of this Colony is’ ; 
by the use of a leathern strap, sometimes cut at the end into thongs, 
which is more or less freely used on the hands of the children, according 
to the disposition and temper of the teacher. I have not unfrequently 
also seen it wielded still more freely and wantonly by a monitor. It is 
used indiscriminately for both sexes. Evenin girls’ schools the mistress 
has it at hand. Most teachers profess to employ it as seldom as possible, 
but it is pronounced almost universally to be indispensable, inasmuch as ~ S 
children who are ruled by their parents wholly by the use of the rod — 3 
could never be effeétually controlled in school by other means, In one 
instance only do I recolleét a master to abjure,its use, and he had ex- 
perience for some years in a neighbouring Colony of the efficacy of 
milder discipline. In a few other cases, though the strap or rod is 
occasionally used, the ordinary mode of punishment is by detention 
after school-hours, or by the imposition of tasks. In one school it is 
the practice to immure delinquents in a “ black hole” under the stairs. 
In one instance only have I seen discipline reduced toa system. A list — 
of crimes and faults to be punished was suspended in the school-room ; 
the former, which involved offences against morality, such as lying, 
deceit, theft, swearing, using obscene language, &c., were to be punished © F 
with a certain number of stripes on the hand with the leathern strap, 
according to the delinquency of the culprit; the latter such as inatten- 
tion, idleness, disobedience, or want of cleanliness, were punished by — 
detention after school-hours. 
The sexes are generally mixed in class in the schools of this Colony— 
often from the want of separate accommodation at other times, because, 
to keep them together, forms part of the system professedly pursued, 
In the better schools of the Church of England the boys and girls are 
kept separate, Also in the few belonging to the Church of Rome. In 
a 
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