I’m not squeamish about corporal punishment. I’m not even squeamish about the idea of inflicting it on the bottom (although times have changed, and such a caning by a teacher in a modern climate could hardly be reasonable). So when I see a punishment as exceeding reason, it’s not because I’m some bleeding heart. It’s because it goes so far beyond the pale – well, it just does.
I think whoever it was who arrived at a fairly consistent standard of six strokes being severe and reasonable knew what they were doing. You can probably step a little over that line before you reach the limits of reasonable behaviour – but only a little. My experience – and it’s limited at this type of level, though far less limited than most peoples – leads me to the conclusion that anything over six is pushing the limits, anything over eight is stretching them to breaking point, and anything over nine or ten and you’ve left the path of all reason.