328 
Dialogue relative to School Discipline^ 
[Not. 1, 
nnt witliout a previous stipulation on my 
part, that the choice of a school should 
be left wholly to myseir. 
Mrs. Tozcnly .—Your precaution was a 
prurient one. Schoolmasters are in gene¬ 
ral very inhuman fellows; little better, I 
assure you, than downright savages. They 
think no more of whipping a poor little 
lielpless fellow, when h.ecflencis them, than 
you vvoulri think of whipping your cat. 
Mrs. Shallow. —My Tomm.y hipped 
like a cat! it sha’n’t he, Mrs. Townly. 
He shall never be sent to a boarding- 
school. 
Mrs Torc72(y'.”—Besides you will scarce- 
b’ meet with a schoolmaster vvlio is in 
any respect like a gentleman. His man¬ 
ners are uncouth; his dress slovenly; his 
language pedantic; and his countenance 
austere. There’s Mr. Venables, I con¬ 
clude vou must have heard of him—He 
V 
is precisely the character that I have de¬ 
scribed to you ; and yet my friend, M.". 
Joh.nson, who, by the bye, is not without 
his eccentricities, speaks most highly of 
him. 
Ml'S. Shallow. —That is easily account¬ 
ed for; his son, I have somewhere heard, 
is placed with him; and it is for Mr. 
Johnson’s interest to recommend the 
master of his son. 
Mrs. Townly. —Whatever may be Mr. 
Johnson’s defects, my dear madam, I 
must, I believe, acquit him of intentional 
misrepresentation. He has, as I observed 
before, some singular notions: he is blind 
to the imperfections of iiis son; his ex¬ 
cessive and ridiculous propensity to read- 
.;ng, he calls a laudable attention to his 
studies; and his scrupulous adherence to 
some unimportant ininutite, which in 
such a youtli is absolutely ianvjirdjle, he 
terms a conscientious regard to principle. 
Tor ih.ese benciicial elfects, as he ex¬ 
presses it, upon llie di.'^po.hilon of his 
son, he considers himself mflehted to 
Jvlr. Venables, who in accom jij’slnng such 
salutarv ends, does not alwavs, I under- 
stand, spare the rod. 
hlrs. Shallow. —The rod, Mrs.Townly I 
Oh, my poor dear Tommy! — he never 
saw a rod in all his life —the bare sight 
of one would frigliten him into firs. But 
I’ll keep I'.lm out of the hands of tins 
cruel Venables. 
Miss Sliallozv. —Oh la, mamma ! do not 
mention tlie barbarous uian any more. 
I do assure you, mamma, I was never 
whipped at sciioci. Miss Melmoth was 
too good to inflict punisinnent upon the 
young ladies; and she used to exclaim 
u.ih vehemence against the inhurnanitv 
of IMiss allies, the other governess, w]io 
you know was ruined for punishing Sir 
William Mildman’s clangliter with seve¬ 
rity, because she had broken into the 
box of one of her schoolfellow's. 
Mrs. Shallow. —A brute! to punish 
another person’s child witli severity. She 
richly deserved to be ruinerl for it, and 
I am heartily glad she met with her 
deserts. 
Miss Shallow.^'Bot, mamma, it must 
be arimiued that Miss Miidman was nut 
a well-aisposed young lady; she liad 
done bad things several times before. 
]\lrs. Shallow. —It matters not, child. 
If Miss Miles had served you so, I would 
have had her sent to gaol. 
Miss Shallow. —So my governess said, 
mamma. She said that Miss Miles 
ought to have been confined to hard la¬ 
bour in a gaol, for exercising such un¬ 
warrantable severities. 
• Mrs. Tozcnly. —Will you permit me, 
Mrs. Shallow, to recommend a school tor 
your son—one that will exactly suit him. 
My nephew is there, and 1 am perfectly 
satisfied with his treatment. I mean the 
academy of Dr. Montague, who !ias late¬ 
ly beet) established by the H<m. Mr. 
Daione, in opposition to Mr. Venables, 
who, it seems, had expelled Mr. Dalone’s 
son from his seminary for some trifling 
misconduct. 
Ml'S. SharLozv.-—‘A\'i audacioiip fellow ! 
to take such a liberty wuh the son of a 
gentleman of Mr. Daione*s fortune and 
consequence. For, thuugh 1 have not 
the honour of i\Ir. Dalone’s acquaint¬ 
ance, yet, from his having the title of 
iionouiubie, I readily admit his preten¬ 
sions in these respects, and give him full 
credit for possessing many other valuable 
qualities. Surely it was not his son who 
'was expelled from school for striking a 
poof collier’s son with an open knife in 
his hand 1—-tlie story was related to me 
somewhere, but the names of the parties 
were, I think, omitted. 
Mrs. Townly. —It is the same story. 
Mr. Daione himself informed me that 
his son was in such a passion, that he 
was not aware he had tiie knife in his 
hand ; that the cobler’s son gave the 
first provocation: and it was only the 
use of the jackanapes’s left hand which 
was gone; that he would otherwise have 
made him an ample compensation for 
his loss. 
Mr.s. Shallozc.-—The statement you give 
of tiie affair differs materiall y from the one 
winch was before reported to me. But 
yours I cannot reasonably doubt, as it is 
4 
