As the utility of flogging is again being discussed, and as magistrates who were birched in their boyhood are avowing that they are “none the worse” for it, and suggesting that we live in “a namby-pamby age,” may I once more remind the advocates of lash and birch that the humanitarian objection to corporal punishments is based on pity less for those who undergo than for those who inflict or witness them? I was told by the headmaster of a great school that he had noticed the sixth form boys, one of whom had to be present on such occasions, turning away in disgust from the sight. I cannot think that there was anything namby-pamby in that. I should regard it rather as a symptom of civilization.
Henry S. Salt
21, Cleveland Road, Brighton