The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-03-11 00:00:00

this retpeet, would persevere in the glorious career of reformaiinn.
Ile hoped to live to see the day when corporal punishment wouLl
be abolished. It had been said--

" God fixed it certain, that whatever day
Mule man a slave took half his worth away."
but a soldier loses all hie value in such an emergency,
Sir R. FEROUSSON (as we understood) said that reagent'
should be reported, or that the lion. Member (Mr. home) should

bring in a sprite on the report.
Sir J. BRI'D(IES fully appmved of the abolition of flogging
in the army, for honour war the essence of the soldier's profession,
and when lost to shame he was deprived of the great incentive to
merit. Besides. flogging did nut answer the purpose of preventing
the mischiefs which it Vial intended to counteract (hear), for he
thereby became callous to the punishment, and more emboldened
to persevere in those acts which had occasioned its infliction.
Sir O. MItRRAY said no one could be more alive than he to

all the sufferings of humanity. Ile could not survey more than
others even the unavoidable calamities of men without shedding

tears of tonipassion ; nor did he claim any merit from the posses.
thin of such feelings, for every man possesses such feelings of com-
passion. Even among the meanest of the rabble am b sentiments
are called forth by the sight of punishment of extraordinary seve-
rity, and no greater pleasure can be found than in the indulgence
of such feelings. But it is ore thing to possess these sensations and
another to legislate under their impression. It is impossible to legit'.
late, even in civil matters---and still less fa it tangible In military
punishments. to legislate with propriety under the influence of such
principles. In Well cases it is necessary to call to counsel the
soundest feelings and the most sober judgment. No army ever
existed without punishment, whether in ancient or modern times.
He believed that the very system now practised in the English
army was the system which regulated the discipline of the Roman
armies; and that was not the only point in which the English
army resembled that of the ancient Romans. None ever resembled
it an nearly in valour, none was ever more similar to that army in.
the lustre of its exploits. The Honourable and Galileo General
(Sir It. Fergusson) had alluded to foreign armies; lie had mentioned
the American army as one in which corporeal punishment was dis-
used, but for his part lie denied that there was any army at ail in
that country ; what few troops it possesses are scattered over an
immense continent, and are therefore never embodied in any re-
gular corps, as in the armies of Europe. America has no need of
an army ; he has on foreign possessions to defend, no powerful
entity in her vicinity, against whose invasions she has to defend
hetself. Vse natural obstacles of the country, even if she had such
an waemy.mould be sufficient to secure her against every danger
(Matt, hear, bear). She is not, therefore, an example for
us on such a subject. Nor is France by any means to be
considered as a model for our imitation. Since the return
of the present family to the throne of France, and previ.
oils so that return, there was everything in their armies but a re-
laxation of punishments. Their punishments before the return of
the Bourbons were far more severe than oure. and their men were
sacrificed with a prodigal waste of life, which in our army would
hive been deemed the height of barbarity. He had received from
a German friend an account of several of the German armies, and
it appeared from that information that there were few countries in
which discipline was so atnct. The Hon. and Gallant General
proceeded to read several extracts. By the articles of war In 1808,
for regulating the Prussian armies. the cane was universally allow-
ed. end that in a manner wholly arbitrary. An alteration had since
taken place in the Prussian armies. They should call to their recol-
lection the circumstatice that the constitution of the Prussian unties
was entirely different from the English. Every man in the coun-
try was there subject to serve his country in the army, and conse•
quently the rules by which they mum be regulated mum he very
different. The whole Prussian army wits divided into timed:ones.
Every soldier on entering the service wits placed in the lino class,
and that class was entirely exempted from corporal punishment ;
but if in that class the lighter punishment were found inefficient to
check offences or unsoldierliko conduct, the soldier is then trans-
ferred to the second class, and is then liable to such punishment ;
but his being in this class is not necessarily attended by punish-
ment, though it is sometimes inflicted at the time when the trans-
fer into this class is made. The punishment of the cane is in-
flicted by a non-commissioned officer, and never in public. Private
and secret punishment had indeed been recommended ; but such a
system element' more of the cruelty of despotism than of the true
epiritormilitary punishments. As to theextent to which thiepunieh-
ment was allowed to be carried, forty blows with a stick were al-
lowed to be inflicted w ithout a Court-martial. Was that (asked
the Gallant General) a system to be recommended for British
soldiers ? The lion. Gentleman (Mr. Hume) had said that every
thing like confinement was banished from every service but the
English. But so far was this from being the case, there were two
or three different sorts of confinement particularised for different
degrees of delinquency in the third class of the soldiers in the
Prussian service. There was, in the first place, solitary confine-
ment simply, in a barrack or otherwise; there was alto solitary
confinement on bread and water; there was a species of confinement
in which the prisoner could not lie down without inconvenience.
The soldiers were sometimes deprived .of their rations, Inc. for a
certain number of days, at the same time that they were thus con-
fined. In still more aggravated cases they were bound to a tree,
with their face towards the trunk, and in such a position that
it was impoesilSle for them to sit or lie down for several
hours. These are pnnishmenta which existed in the Pros.
sien war, whose system of discipline hat been extolled as
the mildest of all codes. If the House did not think that
hi wl>t trespassing too long on their time, he would read some
entrants About the Saxon army. `The bank he held in his
hand on this subject contained accounts of higher punishments
than threw of which he had hithetto spoken. The punishment of
detdh, it seemed, was inflicted in that army sometiroes simply by
shooting—a punishment frequently increased and embittered by the
previous stretching of the culprit on the rack. Disgraceful crimes
were aim punished by confinement in irons, and for thta purpose
leg Irons were frequently used fixed by chains. Prisoners are often
also confined in the gaols in their quarters, where they wear a par.
titular dress and are fell on bread and water. They are employed
in the most disgraceful offices, and rendered incapable of return-
ing.into the ranks of the army. There is also a species of solitary
confinement which is only inflicted on great criminals, who are kept
in a dark cell, without bed or bedding, fixed either to the wall or to
the ground, their hands and feet fastened, and their body fixed in
a bent position. The longest duration fixed for the first punish.
merit is eight months, for the second six months. Ile would next
proceed to make a few observations on the system which prevailed
in the Ilanoverian armies previously to the reoccupation of that
country by his 3lajesty. Ihe use of the cane was then universal
in that PerviCe, and we see in this instance that the English system,
on its introduction into that country, was hailed as • more hu-
mane code than that which had previously been in force. The
number of lashes was then limited to NO, and all crimes except
those of the smallest order should be tried by • Court-martial.
We see from this circumstance that the Hanoverian army, pre-
viously to the return of the Guelfs, had been governed without
Courts-martial. It would not be difficult for him to show that the
practice of other armies was regulated by the same principles as
those of which he had given these details. The Hon. Gentleman
with whom the motion had originated had suggested that the milder
system should be confined to England, and troops on the colonial
service should not be permitted to participate in its advantages
but no system could be more enoneous—rione could be more
calculated to produce injurious consequences, than • system which
should introduce a difference in the service of the Colonies from
that which prevailed in the ;Mother Country. Nothing contributes
so much to the high tone of military discipline in the British
army, which rendered it so greatly superior to any other in ancient
or modern times.—(Hear.)—nothing had contributed so much to
establish in it that moral discipline for which it was now so much
distinguished, as that liability which every man was subject to of
being forced to go to any quarter of the globe where his Sovereign
might please to order hint. This hardens and prepares the mind
to undergo every turn of fortune ; it not only prepares the mind to
aflioat death in the field of battle, hin to prepare for it in every
variety of form which different climates or diseases present in any
part of the globe. It was that which raised the British service to
the height which it had attained. It was that which had
rendered it so distinguished, aril wound continue to render
it distiaguished, unless the Honourable Member succeeetled in
getting his system adopted, that system by which the ser-
vice of the Colonies is to be separated from and rendered entirely
distinct from that of the Mother Country. The constant Inlet-
chsuage of troops is that circumstance which contributes to the tin-
' provement of the soldiers in any service. This country is not the
whole of the British empire; its boundaries are far more extensive.
Its heart is indeed in this country, but its limbs are scattered over
Asia, Africa, and America. It had been asserted that the measure
of tee Hon. Gent. OIL Hume) was approved of by the army ; bet
so far from this being the case, if he might he allowed co speak
for the part of the army to which he belonged (Hear,) they rejected
the boon thus proflired to them. The army is sensible that it is
to discipline that they owe all their successes. It is not breast.
plates or harness, it is not even courage, it is discipline alone that
forms the heart anu the soul of an army—it is that which leads to
success—it is that which renders it useful to its country, and re.'
specter] and feared by its enemies—it is from that very quarter now
that this boon is presented to us from which those attempts pro-
ceeded, which did all that their nuthors were capable of doing to
tarnish its laurels in Spain and Portugal—it is from that quarter
whence we have heard it so often branded as a niece instrument in
the hands of Ministers to coerce the people—it is that same hand
which is now stretched out with the boon, which has been so long
stretched out " with desperate hook to cut dowc" the armies of the
country, to cut off the means of the education provided in our mili-
tary schools, and oblige our officers to seek professional information
in foreign countries (Hear, hear,)—to cut down the whole of the
establishments which have been formed for the support of those
veterans who have spent their strength in the service of their coon.
try, and are now left without a friend to comfort them in this last
stage of their career. " I cannot accept the boon, and lam re-
minded of that lesson; that strong but just and true lesson Timeo
!Mown et dons ferentes."
Sir R. WILSON said he would state facts on this subject nether
than any abstract reasonings. He would not. however, give any
exemplification of a painful nature. The Hon. Baronet mid he
regretted that such punishments should be continued in the service
for such a length of time. The Honourable and Gallant General
had cited one or two powers in Gemiany ; hot the system of car.
pont punishment does not exist in many parts of Germany. It
does not exist in any shape in America. In Holland it was cont.
pletely abolished by a decree, made by the King on his return to
that country. An opinion might beformed of the effectsof the system
in that country, for it has not been found that it has there had any
effect prejudicial to the service. The Honourable and Ga:lai.t
General had adverted to France at the time preceding the re-
turn of the Bourbons, when there was a waste of life which
would have shocked the British people. But since the return
of the Bourbone, thediscipline of the army had been by no means
relaxed ; and is that must unrighteous acid most unholy expe-