The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-10-10 00:00:00

that imver- wl

or twenty

men is great, particulaily in the punishment
of offences, the perpetration of Which involves the
honour of the establishment, the hig

hest function

_ mposital power being the infliction of what is
called a hall-licking—that is, a judicial thrashing
administered in the hall of the " House." An
illustration of this form of justice is given by Mr.
Melly : it arose out of a theft committed on the
hamper" of one of the boys. One had
broken into the hamper and despoiled it, sharing
the plunder with other four boys. The chief depre-
dator was dismissed, and properly dismissed, from
the school; the punishment of the others was
deputed to the heads of the " house" to which they
belonged. At an evening assembly of the " house,"
the business is explained in a speech by the prw-
postor, who enlarges on the disgraceful nature of

le, and ti

stigma it has

'brought upon the

ur of the " house;" a formal sentence is then
passed on the-delinquents, and then, in the follow-
ensues the

mg manner

HILL-LICKING

The eldc

Le four delinquents now came forward,
I V OrdS of private and personal remon-

and received a few v
strance from the Head of ih

then, foldh

arms tightly together, he stood straight up in the middle
of the hall: he was a boy about fourteen years old, thin,
_
The pmpostor was about nineteen,
and in delivering the strokes of the

a tall, well-ma

cane he put forth nearly all his strength ; it seemed to
me, as I shrunk within myself, as if every cut had fallen
on my back instead of that of the sufferer. At first I
thought he was never going to stop; but I soon noticed
that he counted every cut, and twelve was the number
fixed upon beforehand for the offence. Then came the
turn of the next boy, who was licked by the second

prwpostor ; the third being operated upon-by the third
prmpostor. Then, after the manner of Captain Marryatt's
execution of the deserter; the fourth, a very little boy
indeed, was let off, with no severer punishment than a
reprimand. The four Culprits then left the room. All
was over, and the sixth-form boys had nearly recovered
their usual unmoved tone of mind, when "Stop a moment !"
was uttered by one of the leaders of the house, who was
not as yet in the sixth form—a fine, tall, light-haired
young man, and the greatest favourite among us, both
with the master and the school. " I think, on the whole,"
said be, " that the house had better make no difference

;h those four misguided boys

that sort,

The prxpost

ors bear m.

this view

Let cavillers say as they will, the above scene,
if really enacted in the manner set down, and there
seems no reason for doubting that it was so, is a
good indication that the right feeling of individual
and collective honour is duly inculcated and well
understood and acted on in the establishment.
In all his arguments, Mr. Melly takes it for
granted that wherevet there is a number of boys
congregated, there acts of oppression and tyranny
will be found to exist, and he, taking for granted
the existence of the evil, contends for its regula-
tion on the principle that " what cannot be cured
must be endured." Opposed to this view and
these forms of argument, many contend that there
is no necessity for the existence of tyranny and
oppression. Far, very far be it from us to advo-
cate the necessity or justify the operation of
tyranny and oppression; but, with Mr. Melly, we
hold to the belief of its actual existence, and sym-
pathise to a considerable extent in his views as to
the propriety of regulating what we cannot eradi-
cate. So long as it is true that the "child is
father of the man," and that man is selfish and
self-willed, so long do we fear will be the necessity
for endeavouring to regulate those youthful incen-
tives to dangerous action which have been im-
planted in our nature.

The History of .Russia, from the earliest period
to the present time. By Walter K. Kelly.
London : Henry G. Bohn.

As is properly observed by Mr. Kelly, works
describing the actual condition of vast tracts of
the Russian empire have for a long period been
common, and since the outbreak of the present
hostilities, have become so numerous as to leave
little reason for desiring more extensive informa-
tion as regards the details of the soil, culture, and
the social position of its people. The history of the
empire, however, as that is contained in a digested
narrative of events, and a comparison of their
results, as these have operated in forming the
national character, and placing it in the political
position it occupies, has not previously found much
cultivation. Such attempts at rendering this ser-
vice as have hitherto been made are either so dif-
fuse and loose as to offer no consecutive view of the
facts and circumstances involved in the narrative,
or so entirely one-sided and partial as to convey
anything but a legitimate impression of the steps
by which the territorial colossus has grown to its
unwieldy magnitude. To remedy this deficiency
is the avowed object of Mr. Kelly, who proposes,
in two volumes—the first of which only is, as yet,
before us—to give such a view of Russian history
as will render the English reader familiar with
the leading facts and the order of their occurrence.
The first volume begins at the accession of Rurik,
and is concluded with the assent to the throne of
Catherine 11., embracing the reign of Peter th 3
Great. Of this last-named monarch, Mr. Kelly
draws a truthful, if not a very flattering, character.
He shows that in a moral point of view Peter was
profligate, vicious, and unscrupulous—as a poli-
tician, greedy and unprincipled, rather than en-
lightened or magnanimous. As he properly
remarks, " The reign of that monarch was the
turning-point in the history of Russia. The em-
pire is at this day what he and his successors—in-
heritors of his system as well as of his throne—
have contributed to make it. We judge that sys-
tem by its results. If these are irredeemably bad,
what praise is due to the source from which they
flow ?" What, indeed ? Viewed from this point,
and in such relations as force themselves on the
observation of the student, Mr. Kelly maintains,
and proves, that the fame of Peter has been greatly
over-estimated. So far as can be judged by the
executed portion of his task, Mr. Kelly seems well
qualified for the discharge of his self-imnnsid antipQ

1. Handbook for Travellers in Ireland. By Jas.
Fraser. Dublin : James M`Glashan.
In this admirable hand-book the traveller will
nd nearly all the information which the most
sating could demand. An extensive and deserved
(boil _ _

populanzy tor a fourth edition of the
book, and in each response to the call for farther
supplies of it, the author and the publisher have
combined their experience and united their endea-
vours to render the work more and more perfect.
The fourth edition has been. almost entirely re-
written, much recently acqTred information has
been added, and, wherever it was called for, cor-
rections have been made. It is now furnished with
a comprehensive and accurate map of Ireland, and