itnesses as to the state of things in the schoolroom. They said
that what they had heard was quite sufficient. He then addressed them on
the merits of the case, pointing out that although in this case one of
the parties was a master and the other a pupil this in no way removed it
in the eye of the law from the category of other assaults.

"In this case," he said, "your worships, the affair has arisen out of
a long course of tyranny and provocation on the part of one of the
parties, and you will observe that this is the party who first commits
the assault, while my client was acting solely in self defense.

"It is he who ought to stand in the witness box; and the complainant
in the dock, for he is at once the aggressor and the assailant. The law
admits any man who is assaulted to defend himself, and there is, so far
as I am aware, no enactment whatever to be found in the statute book
placing boys in a different category to grownup persons. When your
worships have discharged my client, as I have no doubt you will do at
once, I shall advise him to apply for a summons for assault against this
man Hathorn."

The magistrates consulted together for some time, then the squire, who
was the senior, said:

"We are of opinion that Master Sankey, by aiding this rebellion
against his master, has done wrongly, and that he erred grievously in
discharging a heavy missile at his master; at the same time we think
that the provocation that he received by the tyranny which has been
proved to have been exercised by Mr. Hathorn toward the boys under his
charge, and especially by their unjust punishment for an offense which
the complainant conceived without sufficient warrant, or indeed without
any warrant at all, that they had committed, to a great extent justifies
and excuses the conduct of Master Sankey. Therefore, with a reprimand as
to his behavior, and a caution as to the consequences which might have
arisen from his allowing his temper to go beyond bounds, we discharge
him.

"As to you, sir," he said to the schoolmaster, "we wish to express our
opinion that your conduct has been cruel and tyrannical in the extreme,
and we pity the unfortunate boys who are under the care of a man who
treats them with such cruel harshness as you are proved to have done."

The magistrates now rose, and the court broke up. Many of those present
crowded round Ned and shook his hand, congratulating him on the issue;
but at a sign from his father the boy