in every possible way, wipe his eyes with their pinafores, and ask him if he was not sorry for what he had done.  The answer has been, “Yes;” and they have flown to me with, “Master, he says he is sorry for it, and that he will not do it again.”  In short, they have done that which I could not do—­they have so won the child over by kindness, that it has caused the offender not only to be fond of them, but equally as fond of his master and the school.  To these things I attribute the reclaiming of the children I have mentioned, and so far from punishment being productive of the “worst effects,” I have found it productive of the best.

The ill effects of expelling children as incorrigible may be seen in the case of Hartley, who was executed some years back.  He confessed before his execution that he had been concerned in several murders, and upwards of two hundred burglaries; and by the newspaper account we learn that he was dismissed from school at nine years of age, there being no school master who would be troubled with him, when, finding himself at liberty, he immediately became a robber.  “Hartley’s father” (the account proceeds), “formerly kept the Sir John Falstaff inn at Hull in Yorkshire; he was put to school in that neighbourhood, but his conduct at school was so marked with depravity, and so continually did he play the truant, that he was dismissed as unmanageable.  He then, although only nine years of age, began with pilfering and robbing gardens and orchards, till his friends were obliged to send him to sea.  He soon contrived to run away from the ship in which he had been placed, and having regained the land, pursued his old habits, and got connected with many of the principal thieves in London, with whom he commenced business regularly as a house-breaker, which was almost always his line of robbery.”

Should not every means have been resorted to with this child before proceeding to the dangerous mode of expulsion? for it is not the whole who need a physician, but those who are sick; and I strongly suspect that if judicious punishment had been resorted to, it would have had the desired effect.  I can only say that there never was a child expelled from the infant school under my care as incorrigible.

In conclusion, I have to observe, that the broom punishment is only for extraordinary occasions, and I think we are justified in having recourse to any means that are consistent with duty and humanity, in preference to turning a child out into the wide world.

Of all the difficulties I ever had to encounter, to legislate for rewards and punishments, gave me the most trouble.  How often have I seen one child laugh at that which would make another child cry.  If any department in teaching requires knowledge of character more than another it is this.  Many a fine child’s spirits are broken through the ignorance of teachers and parents in this particular; but for me to lay down invariable rules to