New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-08-11
A CASE OF CmLp.MURcHR.

A CASE OF chill O~MUREaRs
The race of Squeers and schools of the cAarac-
ter Of DothebOys Hall are not yet extinct in En-
gland, Notwithstanding the efforts Of that truly
great philanthropist and reformer, Mr.. Charles
Dickens. On the 2}d Of July last, schoolmss-
ter, ono Thomas HOpley, was tried for maa-
slaughter before Lord ChiefJustice Cockburu,
found guilty, and sentenced to penal serviude for
four years. The act for which be suffers this not
severe punishment was whipping boy to desth.
The lad was his pupil. He was dull, particularly
in arithmetic; rather dull, probably, in everything
else; and his masters method of teaching him
was to beat him with csne and he beat him
till be died. 1t was not apparently process Of
slow torture, and therein Mr.. Hopley certainly
was TO be commended; not that the whippings
we're not long continued, for they were. But their
effect in the milder form was neither Q
marked improvement in the science Of srith-
metic nor marked decay in the vital forces
of the boy. So tho master complained TO this
lads father that more active treatment was mecca
sary to subdue case Of chronic obstinacy and
due authority was given him to resort to all need.
full measures-for this Mr.. Hopley was the prinoi-
pal of a respectable school at Eastbourne, was
believed to be man of high attachments, and ht
person as teacher of youth. On the night OF tho
22d of April, therefore, he undertook to substitute
the heroic treatment for the mlder regimen he had
hitherto used. He substituted the heroic treat
ment with the most positive result, Tor IN tne
morning the poor boy was found dead In his bed.
The excellent Mrs. Hopley had come In at the end
to the aid of her respectable husband, go far as to
wash away some tell-tale spots Of blood, to make
the body ready for the rites Of sepulture, to put
kid gloves of pure and innocent white upon tho
hands to hide the spots of extravasated blood, and
upon the legs long stockings which covered tho
skin call torn to pieces and lacerated by the
blows" and two wounds "about the size Of
sixpence, and an inch in depth, occasioned,"
said the examining surgeon, "by job or thrust
with the pointed end of the stick" with which
the principal of the respectable school at East.
bourne taught arithmetic. When, the next day,
the brother of the deceased stood by his little coffin
with his late teacher, that pious gentleman said,
clasping his hands, "Heaven knows, have done
my duty to that poor boy"
The "poor boy" whose name was Reginald
who paid for his education to the man who muir.
dered him ESQ, or 5000 year. 1t was difficult
to teach him, for he was greatly and nOtoriously
wanting in intelligence. A child Of weak mind
is never likely to have his intellect quickened by
blows which will break the tissues beneath tbs
thick cuticle of the palm Of the hand, reduce tho
skin of the thighs "tO q perfect jelly" or BY
"jobbing" stick repeatedly into the legs an inch
deep.
The man who cannot distinguish between dull
ness and obstinacy is unfit to be intrusted with
the education of the young. But the duness of this
lad was not even of that common sort which comes
of inattention and may sometimes be corrected BY
little judicious severity. His was weakness Of
intellect arising from disease. Hydrocephalus had
given to his head a peculiar shape, aud produced
dulled and inactive brain. The case was one
which needed physician and not a schoolmaster
and such schoOlmaster! The mistake was
cruel and objectionable. 1t is easy to conceive
how wretched life the poor child had led, sub
jected to long course of punishment as reasonable
as if he had been daily bastinadoed for perssting
in appearing daily in blue eyes instead of black.
That his prosecutor, and finally murderer, put him
out of his misery at length in single night, and
did not prolong his extreme suffering, was q merci-
full dispensatiOn. That the wretch who was tho
instrument of it has met with due punishment is
creditable to the impartiality of English law The
case is one which parents may ponder gravely, who
propose to ntrust the education of their childrea
to other hands than their own.