Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1883 — Whipping by Proxy. [ARTICLE]

Whipping by Proxy.

In 187 G, the Pekin Gazette, the official journal of China, recorded the appointment of several instructors to the young Emperor. Among them was a Hahachutez, or “whipping-hoy,” who, by reason of his office, was to silfler on his person for all the sins of his royal fellow-student. The record is one of many illustrations of the fact that the “celestials” have in many things anticipated the “Outside Barbarians.” “Whipping by proxy” was thought a singular old custom associated with the English, Scotch, and Spanish courts. -But it seems to have been, long- prac-. tised at the Chinese court. ,The following ex tracts from an English magazine explain the custom: ping-boy doomed its unfortunate occupant to undergo all the corporal punishment which the heir-apparent to the throne—whose proper person was, as the Lord’s anointed, considered sacred —might chance to incur ‘in the course of traveling through his grammar and prosody.’ One of the most celebrated instances of the observance of this custom was the appointment of Barnaby Fitzpatrick as King Edward VL’s whipping/boy, to which we find numerous«allusions. Sir Walter Scott, in his “Fortunes of Nigel” (chapter G), on introducing Sir Mungo Malagrowther, of Girnigo Castle, to his readers, gives a graphic account of this custom. After narrating how he had been early attached to court in the capacity of whipping-boy, to King James VI., aud trained to all polite learning, with his Majesty, by his celebrated preceptor, George Buchanan, he adds—- “ Under his stern rule—for he did hot approve of the vicarious mode of punishment —James boro the penance of his own faults, and Mungo Malagrowther enjoyed a sinecure.

“Bui James’' other pedagogue, Master Patrick Young, went more ceremoniously to work, and appalled the very soul of the youthful King by the floggings which he bestowed upon the whipping-boy when the royal task was not suitably performed. And be it told to Sir Mungo's praise that there were points about him in the highest respect suited to his official situation. “His voice was high-pitched and querulous, so that, when smarting un* 1 der Master Peter Youngj? unsparing inflictions, the expression of his grotesque physiognomy, and the superhuman veils* which he uttered, were well suited to produce all the effects on the monarch who deserved the lash that could possibly be produced by seeing another and an innocent individual suffering for his delict."

In an old p*lay the custom is thus noticed: “Prince (Edward -VI.) —Why, how now, Browne? what’s the matter? “Browne—Your grace loiters, and will not ply your book T and your tutors have whipped me for it. “Prince —Alas, poor Ned! I am sorry for it; Pll take the more pains, and entreat my tutors for thee.”— Youth’s Companion.