Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-09-15 00:00:00

met in the sl
drels, mid ben,

you want me to do ?' says the boy. Oh,
come amlbe. a soldier.' But lam too little.' -.ICo,
you are not ; you.are just the right height.' Well,
but lam only fourteen.' .‘ Never mind, say-you are
eighteen, and it will be all right.' " Now, having once

reets by one of
ked,

these unmitigated seoun-
Are von wanting 'a job

''What d

soldier, he (Colonel North) had been considerably aston-
ished at this statement, and made some inquiry respect-
ing it, from which he found that the boy went t 3 a
serjeant of the 3rd Regiment, and offered to enlist. No

conversation took place, bat he received the
_ _
)assed hint

surgeon, who

ultimately

ie regiment,

icr and mother of the lad
abused the serjeant for enlisting him, but never asserted
for a moment that he was a y only 14 years of age.
The testimony of the military surgeon who inspected
him was that • his height was Mt. 41in., his weight
1201bs, and that he measured thirty-two inches round
the chest, so that, at all events, he must have been a
most precocious boy of fourteen. (Laughter and cheers.)
The Commander-in-Chief could have had no interest
in detaining the recruit, except as the guardian of the
public interests. During the Russian war he (Colonel
North) had had occasion to apply to the Horse Guards
for the discharge of a boy who had been enlisted
under age, and he found great difficulty in obtaining
it, simply upon public grounds, but the moment he
produced a certificate of birth, showing the real age
of the boy, he was at once handed over to his parents.
(Hear, hear.) All he could say was, that from the
knowledge lie had of the character of his Royal High-
nesS the Commander-in-Chief, if there had been grounds
for refusing the discharge of the boy referred to by the
honourable'memher for Birmingham, neither the urgent
remonstrances of Mr. Bright, nor anything else, would
have influenced his decision. (Cheers.) With regard to
the term " unmitigated scoundrels," he (Colonel North)
could only tell Mr. Bright that if lie referred to the
non-_commissioned officers of the army, they were no
more unmitigated scoundrels than he (Mr. Bright)
was an unmitigated' scoundrel himself. (Laughter and
cheers...), Their respectability as a class, their devotion to
their Sovereign, and their gallantry upon all occasions,
had secured for them the respect and esteem of the whole
country. (Cheers.) No regiment could exist without
its non-commissioned officers, and instead of being
unmitigated scoundrels, they formed one of the efficient
branches of the service. (Hear, hear.) Adverting to
another subject connected with the army, Mr. Bright
said : " But have
..you not seen within the last day or
two what they do with their recruits when they get.
them ? Have you read in the papers the account of the

brutal flogg•ing'of one of these young recruits down at
Woolwich ? I am afraid to read the extract that has
been sent to me by some gentlemen who wished
particularly that I would refer to it on this
occasion. There were two soldiers, but of one of
them ' it' is stated his back when they began with
him was covered with a mass of red inflated boils,
which bled profusely at every stroke, and reddened
the 'ground under his feet." Now the officer who
commanded at Woolwich was General Sir Richard
• Dacres, a most humane mane and certainly a
person who could not be accused of unnecessary
harihness. The recruit's name was Davis. lie enlisted
on the sth of March, 1859, and absented himself from
the regiment on the 23d for three days. He was tried
for the offence, and being a young recruit, was sen-
tenced to a moderate punishment ; but on the 31st of
March he deserted again, and was not brought back for
some months. He was again tried and sentenced to
receive fifty lashes, and to be imprisoned for eighty-four
`days ; but, from feelings of humanity, Sir It. ))acres
remitted the imprisonment. The man, On being taken
down from the halberds, after receiving his punishment,
to show his contempt of the authorities, began to crow
like, a cock, and the moment he came out of hospital he
deserted for a third time. It was for that third offence
that he had been recently flogged, and every one of the
military surgeons who }Lid examined him declared that
the statement of Mr. Bright was false, The punish-
ment of flogging for desertion in the army had only been
lately sanctioned by parliament in the Mutiny Act, and
it was absolutely necessary, because during last year
alone there were no less than 11,000 desertions ; and it
must be borne in mind that every soldier cost the coun-
try for his kit and his bounty alone £6 18s., indepen-.
dently of which a large expense was incurred in drill.
With the regard to the punishment of flogging, he had
no hesitation in saying that it was a degrading punish-
ment, but it was intended to be a degrading one. No
doubt it was a severe punishment, and he had seen both
officers and men faint whilst it was being inflicted ; and
if Mr. Bright, or any other man, would provide an
effectual substitute, he had no doubt the whole army
would gladly receive it. (Hear, hear.) As to the opi-
nions of Mr. Bright with regard to the officers of the
army, the officers of the army cared very little for any-
thing he might say. (Laughter and cheers) In con-
clusion, he begged to propose " The Health of the
Army and Navy

Several Other toasts having been drunk, the proceed-
.
ings were brought to a close.