Brief Tales From The Bench Read Online Free PDF Page A

murderer.’
    ‘If we send him home as a murderer,’ said Mr Chilton, ‘he came as one.’
    ‘Then,’ said counsel, ‘he may murder his parents.’
    ‘That is quite possible,’ said Mr Chilton. ‘But if so, he’d have probably murdered them anyway. Such a boy’s parents stand a much better chance of keeping their lives by having their son’s murderous instincts brought out early. I expect we’ve saved a good many lives this way. And the same applies to David. Blackmail is moral murder. If we’d bottled up the blackmail in him, it might have come out as actual murder. I can assure you that David Brooke was a very nasty little boy when he came to us, and an even nastier one when he left us.’
    ‘What good does that do to his parents?’ asked counsel.
    ‘A great deal of good, sir,’ said Mr Chilton. ‘We send a complete report on each boy at the end of each term. We told your client exactly all we knew about David, so that for the first time the parents learned what a horrible little reptile they’d been nurturing. Knowing that, they can take remedial measures.’
    ‘Why don’t you take remedial measures?’ I asked.
    ‘That’s normally quite impossible,’ said Mr Chilton.
    I asked why.
    ‘Usually, the boy isn’t with us long enough. You see, your honour, it’s no small thing to bring out the worst in a boy. And it may take a very long time. Sometimes when we think we’ve got to the dregs, we find there is something even worse below. Life is short, your honour. The part of it that you spend at school is even shorter. There is positively no time to carry out both processes. What we do is to discover the best and worst in our boys, and we leave it to the parents to make the most of the results. And it’s just as well to know their virtues too, your honour. For example, a few boys have a passion for the truth. Well, it would be no good sending them into politics or law.’
    ‘What should I do with a blackmailer or thief?’ I asked.
    ‘Well,’ said Mr Chilton, ‘I don’t know what you’d do with him, your honour. Some parents are blackmailers or thieves themselves, in which case the boy can carry on the family business. But, if it were a boy of mine, I should take remedial measures. What those measures would be would depend entirely upon the individuality of the boy himself. That’s another reason why it’s quite impossible to carry out such treatment at school. Each boy needs individual treatment, and the best people to provide that treatment are the boy’s parents. When they know exactly what is wrong. Major-General Brooke ought to be very grateful to me. David is a very capable young man. If he’d gone to an ordinary school, he’d have very likely gone on to a university and ended in gaol or worse.’
    ‘Worse?’ queried counsel.
    ‘Well, for some people, for me for example, just managing to keep out of gaol would be worse than actually going to gaol. I mean never knowing if and when the blow will fail. A boy of David’s character would almost certainly have taken to crime at some stage in his career. He might have done very well indeed, up to a point, and then suddenly been completely ruined. Now you can’t change his nature, but you can provide against the ill effects of that nature.’
    ‘What do you suggest that David’s parents should do?’ asked counsel.
    ‘Well,’ said Mr Chilton, ‘if they were sensible people, what they would do would be this. First of all they’d pay my bill and put an end to these ridiculous proceedings. Then they would talk to David about his future career. With luck, they’d be able to point out one method by which he could give full play, or almost full play, to his great ability in certain respects without offending against the law. He obviously likes extracting money from people by threats. Well, the legal profession is an obvious possibility for him. I’m not quite sure if he likes hurting people, but if he does, he might either become a