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Berg Collection, New York Public Library. ALS; 4p. . Not previously published.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Ian Packer and Lynda Pratt
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I did not chuse to be too positive concerning the law against flogging school-boys, as four or five years had elapsed
since I had met with it. But upon referring to xxxxxxxxxxxxx <a> collection of Buenos Ayres xxxxx x newspapers
& political journals, which I possess, I have found this curious edict, & now send you the ipsissima
verba,
Buenos Ayres. 9 de Octobre de 1813.
Haviendo llegado a entender este Gobierno que aun continua en las escuelas de educacion la practica barbara de imponer a los Niños la pena de azotes, cuyo castigo es excesivo y arbitrario por parte de los Preceptores, que no estan autorizados para ello en manera alguna, y perjudicialisimo a lost objetos mismos de las instituciones juveniles; siendo adeinas absurdo a impropio que los Niños que se educan para ser Ciudadanos libres, sean en sus primeros años abatidos, vexados, y oprimidos por la imposicion de una pena corporal tan odiosa y humillante como la expresada de azotes: queda desdo hoy en adelante abolida y proscripta semajante costumbre, y pasese oficio al Cabildo de este Capital para quo lo haga executas en sus Escuelas. y al Intendente de Policia en los establecimintos particulares de esta clase, baxo la inteligencia de que los Maistros que la continuen aun despues del presonte Decreto seran privados de su oficio y castigados como infractores, pudiendo en su lugar usar de los estimulos decentes del honor y la emulacion en sus discipulos, con otras correcciones que no sean penas corporales aflictivas: y circulase a las Provincias.
Perez.
Secretario interino.
“This Government having understood that the barbarous practise of inflicting upon boys the punishment of flogging still
continues in Schools of Education, which punishment is excessive & arbitrary on the part of the Preceptors, who are not in any
manner authorized to inflict it, & most injurious to the very objects of juvenile institutions, – it being moreover absurd &
unfit that boys who are educated to be free Citizens, should in their first years be humiliated <dispirited>, vexed &
oppressed by the imposition of a corporal punishment so odious & humiliating as the said flogging; – the said custom is from this
day forth abolished & proscribed: & the decree it is transmitted to the Corporation of this City that it may be
carried into effect in their schools, & to the Intendant of Police for the private establishments of this kind; it being understood
that the Masters who shall persist in it after the present decree shall be deprived of their situations, & punished as breakers of
the law, they being able to use in its place the decent natures <impulses> of honour & emulation in their scholars, with
other mode of correction which may not be afflictive bodily pain. This decree shall circulate in the Provinces.
Would that the Revolutionists of the Plata had done nothing worse than this! – I believe the only
faithful account of this proceedings is that in the Edinburgh Annual Register for 1811. (Chapter 17.)
A letter from Koster has just reached me. He intended to have
written to you by the same vessel, but want of time prevented him, & he has therefore desired me to communicate to you the
following fact. “A French brig, called the Aurora, arrived here sometime ago from Cayenne (now in possession of the French)x Captainth) with a considerable number of these miserables for
Cayenne, where it is generally understood he means to land them. Now this is against English, Portugueze & French laws.value current value in the Portugueze Dominions, & came here
with it. He has purchased slaves, & some British manufactures, but principally the former, with the copper, & if he gets these
people safe into Cayenne he will obtain an enormous price for them. This copper will do us some harm in our trade, as it is
disadvantageous to receive part of our payments in such money. – I hear there are no British cruisers off Demerara
I have now received from Koster the whole of his abridgement of
the History of the Abolition into Portugueze, which would make about 200 pages in octavo, – such pages as the original.an envy hatred & malice towards England, – two of them are revolutionary, the one with little, – the
other with no disguise; – the third, tho set up by the late Minister <Portugueze> P. Embassador as an antidote betrays its
revolutionary wishes upon every occasion.but till he was disgusted with the violence
& falsehood which it not unfrequently contains.
I have left myself no room for other things which I had thought of saying, neither indeed would it be fitting to trespass longer upon your time, for which there are so many calls. – Early in the spring I hope to find my way to your door.
Present my remembrances to Mrs Wilberforce
I hope you have received the little book on Dr
Bells system, which I desired Murray to send you.