The Express.
London, England, 1846-10-16 00:00:00

did sot see Redputh. Ile was reported to me as found
vismidsat .•Do you know of any man being confined in the bunker
Is Dits t—l know of its haring bees done. lbw it been dose
VALI orkel—No. Was it reported in the logbook!—Certainly
ad. you Inqufre Into the ircumatarices--Certainly not. Did
yea dadb& wit'. it!.-No. Did you consider it a trivial pun
Omsk iddilt the first lieuteuant might adopt t—That depends upon
the Mad the offence committal Was it a trivial ravishment for
the eases omitted by Edward Redpith!—l consider lt. waa.
redline de motor lieutenant on a former =Won to indict the same
ralliblassi without reporting it to you!—No.
OoMmalare Cower—la the court to consider that you approve of
thotproMegMaahloent T—No.
you do not dud fault with the First Lieutenant !
No.
Commodore War—Did you express your disapprobation of it !
No, I Minot
Captain Elliot—Was the First Lleutamat eatadoua thatst were
Dot armor Qat mode of punishment basing been !—I am
not swore oMt. On the other I.4.c.tidolli were the PettY
°Biomes, act t—lf 1 refer to the books I ean tsll you ; not otherwise.
Commedere Collier—Arc thr puaialedien's inflicted yym tdarkdast
assareisweadtaisaat—Not those who are rat et theolach Its. to aroid
Mar bay roportat to we.
ckftska llMllms--Did you rind fault with it I—No; brearse the
maw. of which the awe had tura guilty were so pros: that if report
m ed
to ate their world Aare maspell, I sae to ssuGet much strove punish-
meats.
Thus it has been customary in the Retribution, and
customary in other men-of-war, to allow the first-
lieutenant to punish a great number of offences in
various manners at his discretion. Shutting the men
up in a bunker for ten hours, is considered, both by
Captain LeSIIINGTON and the crew, as a trivial
punishment ; not so severe 'as being placed on the
weather-gangway on a winter's day for the same
period ; and such trivial punishments are inflicted by
the lieutenants without the formality of a trial, or
even informing the captain of what they have done.
" They are not reported in the log-book." They
swell to a vast amount the sum of misery inflicted on
the crews of her MAJ EST y's ships ; but they are not noted
down. They are expressly inflicted to avoid reporting
offenders to the captain, who, if he inflicted severer
punishments, would have to record them in the log-
book, and transmit an account of the number of lashes
he had ordered to the Admiralty. The dread of publicity
leads captains to tolerate the usurpation of their
authority by the lieutenants ; and the means taken to
satisfy the public that flogging is diminished in the
navy, only brings about a vast increase of those
trivial punishments which are inflicted to avoid re-
porting offences to the captain.
About the year 1814, captains were first ordered
to make returns to the Admiralty of the persons cor-
porally punished; but such returns become a mockery,
when a number of other punishments may be in-
flicted which are never recorded. In future, the
returns of the number of persons flogged on
board ship will be scouted ;as it remembered
that trivial punishments, carryin is
g with them the
chance of death, are not included. When a cap-
tain inflicts a punishment, he summons the whole
crew to witness it; he reads the articles of war ; he
goes through certain forms which give solemnity and
deliberation to his proceedings ; but the trivial pun-
ishments inflicted by the lieutenants, now the ma-
jority, are ordered in hot haste without any solemnity,
and without the presence of more than one witness
who carries the order for punishment into execution.
In the army, the most trivial offences are not punished
except by the sentence of a court-martial ; in the
navy, the most serious offences are now punished at
the discretion of an individual whose captain even is
ignorant of his conduct. That conduct is never liable
either to exposure or control. unless it end, as in this
case, in the death of the man punished.
As there is no record kept of these trivial punish-
ments, we cannot even guess at their number. We
see their nature ; and, apart from their incidental con-
sequences, they seem to us extremely severe. But
Lieut. &roar, with tho approbation of the crew,
inflicted these punishments to avoid reporting the
men to the captain, who would have punished
them more severely. What then must be
the nature, what the opinion of the officers
themselves, of those authorised punishments
inflicted by the captain, from which lieutenant and
crew take refuge alike in the punishment of' the
bunker? A more striking testimony to the cruelty
of flogging has not fallen under our notice, than this
testimony incidentally given by the officers and crew
of the Retribution. They hate it so much that the
officers commit irregularities, and the crew submit to
many other punishments, to avoid it. Its inutility
is proved, too, by the same fact. The officer in whose
hands is actually placed the discipline and govern-
ment of the ship,—for Captain LUSIIINOTON has evi-
dently known little or nothing of them, and has left
them, like most captains, to his first lieutenant,—will
not have recourse to flogging. Lieut. &rola and the
crew combine, as it were, to make it a useless me-
mento of worn-out cruelty in the hands of officers,
who have become, if we may judge by Captain
LUSHINGTON'S conduct, very nearly sinecurists.

A select committee was appointed by the House of
Commons, last session, to inquire into the present
state of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland. The re-
port of this committee, with minutes of evidence and
appendix, which has just been published, supplies
materials for a not uninstructivo general history of
the Ordnance Survey.

The triangulation on which the survey of South
Britain has been based, was commenced as far back
as 1781. At first, nothing more was contemplated
than the fixing of certain points for astronomical
purposes, and the formation of a map on a small
scale. The operations were listlessly carried on ; sus-
pended for about four years ; and resumed, principally
with a view to afford practical instractionto the officers
of the Royal Engineers, and a corps of mite ry surveyors
and draughtsmen formed during the war. Military
plans of some portions of Kent were formed for the use
of the Ordnance, and some parts of a military map were
published on a scale of one inch to a mile. The progress
of this map after the peace was extremely slow, till
the gentlemen of Lincolnshire and Rutlandshire pro-
posed to Government to proceed with their district out
of its tarn, on condition of their subscribing for a cer-
tain number of copies. "These gentlemen," says
Colonel COLBY, " partly wished for the map for their
use in hunting, and partly for the improvement of the
country in marking out the drainage of the fens, Sze."
In 1820 Colonel COLBY was charged with the survey.
The contract plans were found so incomplete and in-
correct, that the engineer officers appointed to assist
him had to add, revise, and correct with intense
labour; and after all "a map was produced better
than any preceding map, but not satisfactory as a
national work." It has been found necessary to
revise and correct all the plans not engraved, and
to revise and re-engrave those previously en-
graved for a military map, " because it did
not possess the accuracy required by the Admiralty
in forming the basis of their coast surveys, for the
geological survey of Mr. DE LA BECHE, or for the
'civil engineers." In short, in the words of Colonel
COLBY, " a cost of time and money has been bestowed
upon the English map, which, had the original design
been founded upon a thorough knowledge of its future
uses, would have gono far towards the progress of a
national map on a larger scale, and fitted to receive
additions, marking the progress of society from time
to time, at a trifling expense." Be it observed, that
the work begun in 1781 is still unfinished.

The survey of Ireland commenced in 1823, under
far more favourable circumstances. Colonel COLBY'S
experience had enabled him to estimate the impedi-
menta which obstructed the English survey, and to
devise means of removing them. He was liberally
and energetically supported by the Duko of Wm:
urforox and the Ordnance. His scientific aoqu irements
enabled him to devise more accurate apparatus than had
ever beforebeen employed, and to prepare a better code
of instructions for those acting under him. A larger
and more just estimate, too, had been formed of the
objects of the survey. It was directed to be conducted
in such a manner as to satisfy the requirements of
valuers requiring the boundaries of cultivation, and
the areas of legal divisions; of the Admiralty re-
quiring the coasts of the sea, and the shores of navi-
gable lakes and rivers • of the Ordnance ; of the
railway commissioners, Shannon commissioners, board
Of public( works, soul county surveyors, requiring