The Sun.
London, England, 1830-10-20 00:00:00

awful extent." Nor do we wonder at being told
that " no less than fifty-four licenses were granted
for the district of Lewes alone, and that at ten
o'clock in the evening there were more people
drunk than was ever known at any former
instances
of in Lewes." Without multiplyieg
of the sad effects of this Bill, which are
furnished from various quarters of the king-
dom, we ask was there not misery • enough
existing before in the families of the labouring pons
in this kingdom, and were not the gaols filling suffi-
ciently fast ? Posterity will hear with astonishment
that, at the very time when the increase of crime
and disorder is made a pretext for introducing a no-
vel and arbitrary system of police, to the great dan-
ger of the liberty of the subject, the Government
by whom that police has been created procure the
enactment of a Bill, the obvious tendency of which
is to make the duties of the police still more difficult
by encouraging riot, disorder, and crime, among the
population ! We told the Government and the Le-
gislature, when the Beer Bill was under discussion,
that the extravagance of the measure was not re-
commended even by the plea of orginality, for an
unrestricted trade in beer had been tried ages ago,
and found to produce so much public mischief, that
it was found necessary to enact laws to put it under
controul, as a matter of police. The wholesome
principle of those laws was, that the person who
applied for a license should produce testimonials of
character, and that it should be shown the house
was necessary for the accommodation of the public.
The new Bill has broken down these restraints,
when all that was necessary to be done was to regu-
late their application by a reform of the practice
of the system—not a subversion of the prvielde.
'thus Government has done its utmost to. render ale-
houses what they were before the sth and Gth of
Edward VL—not public convenience, but public
nuisances—not places of recreation and refreshment,
but hovels and dens of riot and dissipation.—Morn-
ing Herald.
It is certain that the Military Code requires re-
vision as well as the Civil. We would submit to
Government the propriety of substituting some
other punishment for that of flogging. It savours
too much of torture to be suited to the habits of a
civilised age, and it is also calculated to harden ra-
ther than improve the disposition of the offender,
by destroying the sense of shame, and inducing that
recklessness of character which is the natural con-
sequence of hopeless degradation. It is not sur-
pulsing that some recent exhibitions of this species
of military chastisement have excited great disgust
among the public, by whom it was witnessed. We
are aware that this mode of enforcing subordination
in the army is not so much practised as it used to be,
and we have heard that in some regiments it has
been quite discontinued. We believe the obedience
of the soldier is quite as strict and as exemplary in
those regiments in which flogging is disused, as in
those in which it is still considered essential to the
preservation of military government. Why then is
not this cruel and degrading practice dispensed with
altogether? The goveinment of soldiers by moral
influence has been too much neglected, and the in-
fliction of bodily pain has been too generally applied
to the correction of offences against the law military,
in preference to modes of punishment which, in-
stead of destroying the sense of shame, makes it
subservient to the reformation of character. School-
, masters had formerly fallen into the same error as
the military disciplinarians. As the latter think
that military subordination would perish unless it
was upheld by the terror of the lash, so the former
thought the rides of grammar could never be im-
pressed upon the youthful memory without the ma-
gical influence of the rod ; and thus Mars ought to
be always painted brandishing a cat.o'nine-tails, and
Minerva wielding a formidable handful of birch. It
has, however, been at length discoveredsthat the boys
who are most flogged make the worst scholars, and
we Imagine it will be found to be no less true that
the men whose backs undergo similar castigation
make the worst soldiers. Less of the discipline of
the rod, and more of moral government, is now ex-
ercised in schools in general, and certainly the inte•
rests of education have not suffered by the change
any more than those of decency. It is true that, ua
long as the punishment of the lash is used only in
strict accordance with the rules of military law, and
not made subservient to a wanton and cruel exercise
of authority, which, we believe, happens very rarely
now-a-days, soldiers have no just cause of complaint
on the score of being liable to this punishment, be-
cause they enter the army with the knowledge of
being subject, for certain offences and breaches of
duty, to this sort of chastisement; but if military
discipline can be preserved, as we believe it can,
without it, public, opinion has some right to be lis-
tened to when pleading for its abolition. It is cer-
tainly essential to the military system that it should
mould masses of men into mere machines. But,
while all self-will is destroyed, it is not necessary
that their feelings should be also extinguished; on
the contrary, their feelings might be usefully engaged
on the side of their duty by such a system of re-
wards and punishments as would best preserve
manliness of character, and keep in a state of lively
action the sense of honour and of shame. Some
commanding officers have practised such methods of
preserving discipline with greet success, and have
been enabled to diseense with flogging altogether.
We know that any great reform, as well in military
as civil lath's, appears at first difficult ; but con.
vinced as we are that the army can be preserved in
the highest and most effective state of subordination
by means less revolting to reason and humanity
than the punishment of the cat-o'-nine-tails, we do
entreat the Government to turn their attention to
this subject, and make the government of the army
what the civilization of the age demands.—Morning
Herald.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

GUILDHALL.

Yesterday WiMum Husband, a young man of highly
respectable appearance, warehouseman to Moisrs. Harvey,
Brand, and Co., Friday.street, Cheapside, was charged
before Mr. Alderman COPISLAND with stealing a quantity
of rich silk gauge scarfs, handkerchiefs, and veils, to the
value of between 50/. and (WI., the property of his em-
ployers.—The prisoner declined saying any thing, and
was committed.