In 1870 James Glass Bertram wrote a book called A history of the rod under the pseudonym of Rev William Cooper. This book detailed the history of corporal punishment though the ages which included a study of the use of the cane or birch in English schools. The below extracts from a history of the rod provide a good example of the changing views of corporal punishment in the later part of Queen Victoria's reign when punishment moved from a regular occurrence to virtual disuse. The School Inquiry report mentions was a review on schools in Surrey and Sussex carried out by Mr H A Giffard  who was listed as a Assistant Commissioner of a national survey which reported in 1868 of conditions in public and endowed schools.   In England the schoolboy has been, time out of mind,subject to the birch. In the middle ages we read of children running to the shrines of the Saints in the hope of there obtaining protection against the cruelty of their masters. In those days it would appear that boys were flogged not for any offence, or omission, or unwillingness or incapacity to learn, but upon the abstract theory that they ought to be flogged. So necessary was the rod considered in education that in the case of the Princes whose delicate skin could not be ruffled, whipping boys were provided, on whom the offences of their royal masters were unsparingly visited. Most of the schools of England in the 16th century have their stories of flogging and of masters who were proficient in the art. With regard to flagellation as now practiced in schools in England, the report of the Schools Inquiry Commission furnish some particulars. From Mr Giffard's report on the schools of Surrey and Sussex we find out that in 16 out of 22 boarding schools corporal punishment of some kind is in use but in almost every case the use of the cane or birch is said to be very rare and no assistant is allowed to inflict the punishment which is the correction for lying, indecent conduct, swearing, insolence and moral offences. Impositions, fines and stoppages of pocket money are the other punishments. In all endowed schools the cane or birch is in use.
	Mr Giffard reports that the accounts given by schoolmasters of the efficacy or corporal punishment vary widely. Dr Hurst of Hurstpierpoint says " It is a positive kindness to boy's" A private school teacher in Sussex said that the discipline at his school had been ruined by the exclusion of the cane. On the other hand the commissioner was told that it was degrading and unnecessary. His conclusion was that in general, both masters and boys seem to prefer the short and sharp remedy of the birch to impositions or confinement