The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-23 00:00:00

THE SUN," LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1841.

LORD CARDIGAN AND IVIR.

MACALTLAY.

(From the Morning Chronicle.)
The answer of Mr. Macaulay to Mr. Hume's' question
respecting Lord Cardigan has done liLtle service to that
nobleman, while it will, we fear, prove injurious to the
Right Hon. Gentleman himself.
Mr. Macaulay's statement was either irrelevant or un-
true. As to the circumstance so minutely described of the
11th Regiment having been marched out of the Ridieg-
school, inspected for half an hour, and then marched tack
to the Riding-school, when the punishment was infl,cted,
we understand that the whole took place under what is
caged a church parade." But the matter is unimp •rt-
ant. Mr. Macaulay, however, went out of his way to
volunteer a tri'sute to the humanity of the Earl of Cardi-
enn. We have already observed that the charge against
his Lordship was not for inhumanity, but for indecency.
In noticing the case, we expressly avoided entering into
the question of flogging. or whether private Rogers de
served it or not, and confined ourke:v,s to the mete fact
of tlir punishment having been infl!eted on a Sunday.
But as Mr. Macaulay has become Lord Cardigan's trum-
peter, and injudiciously raised the question of his humanity,
as a set-off for his disregard of decency, the will proceed
to join issue with him on that point.
As a proof of the hun,anily of Lord Cardigan, Mr.
Macaulay has asserted that no man in, the 11th hussars has
been punished with the lash since 1839 Thi; inference
can scarcely be drawn from all the circumstances cone ec-
ted with his Lordship's command.

The strength or the corps under his Lordship's com-
mand is about 335, rank and file.
The number of Courts-martial from June, 1838,
to June, 1839, tvrs about
June, 1839, to May, 1840, about

Tot,l .... 105
Of this number four were pardoned,

The punishments by Lord Cardigan's own, authority cn
the defaulter: list were—

In the first year, abodt
In dle s;:cond eleven months, about 3lB

Total 748
During the time the regiment was in Canterbury there
were about 90 men confined in the ga,l.
In regard to the defaulters arnountiag to about 748, it
is understood Lord Cardigan received instructions from
head-quarters to diminish the severity of his punishments.
And as to the c.)urts-martial, the Inspector-General of
Cavalry, Sir C. Dalbiac, recorded his opinion, that " Lid
Cardigan's command bad been characterised by unneces-
sary harshness."
The inference therefore iv, that it is not to Lord Cardi-
gan's humanity, but to the orders of the Horse Guards c
sequent on his Lordship's severity, that the diminution of
punishments is to be attributed since the regiment left
Canterbury.
With respect to the quasi-justification, that " the case
was not peculiar, as similar instances had occurred in the
army, as well as in the other branches of the service," we
were sure that Mr. Macaulay was here calumniating the
officers of the army. We have made iaquirles is the proper
quarter, and are positively assured that such a thing as
flagging on a Sunday is utterly unknown in England—
nay, that even in the colonies it is unheard of. We sub-
join a lAter on the subject from an officer who has com-
manded two regiments, in which Mr. Macaulay is chal-
lenged to produce a single case of such an outrage in the
United Kingdom or the Colonies :--
" appears to me most essential that the public
should be disahused with regard to punishment in the
army being inflicted on a Sunday. I challenge Mr.
Macaulay, or any other person, civil or military, to pro-
duce a case of such outrage in the United Kingdom, or in
the Colonies, and I hope you, on behalf of the pub!ic,
will not let the matter rest until the case is produced. It
is possible that in the field or active service such an occur-
rence has taken place ; but that is a very different aff,,ir.
Your obedient servant,
" AN OLD OFFICER,
Forty years in the army, having com-
manded two regiments."
. _

We cannot quit the subject witimut observing that it
give: us pain to see a man like Mr. Macaulay compromis-
i,,g his own title to public regard by his mode of &fend-
i-g Lord Ca-digan. When Lord Cardigan vias the sub-
ject of a discussion in the House before the recess, the
Right Honourable Gentleman positively misrepresented the
nature of the communication from the Commander-in-
Chief. when he contradicted Mr. Warburton, whose ac-
count of it was strictly correct. Mr. Macaulay said
"he believed that the communication of Lord till
wan a general admonit'on t . the regiment, to the effect
that tae dissensions between the commanding effic,r and
some of the officers had a tendency to render the corps in-
efficient," 'whereas t-e c.mmanding officer distinet,y
stare. • that thellth Hussars is not in the state in which
a regiment ougl.t to be, in order to afftrd ground for con-
fidence that it would, in quarters or in the field, at home or
abroad, render the efficient service which might be ex.
petted '•' from such a bidy. It cannot surely be necessary
for the Right Honourable Gentleman, in the discharge of
his official duty, to play the advocate for Lord Cardigan,
though, even as all advocate, Ire has indulged in a mare
than allowable looseness of sta:ement. The whole style,
too, of his answer to Mr. Hume on Tuesday night—his
laboured tribute to Lord Cardigan's humanity, and his
questionable endeavour to shelter his Lordship's inde-
cency under precedent, in order to weaken the feeling
which his outrageous conduct was calculated to excite—
was altogether unworthy of Mr. Macaulay.

( From the Morning Advertiser.)

In the whole course of our newspaper experience—that
experience extends to about e'ghteen years—we h.,ve
never beard or known of such an atrocious outrage upon
public feeling as that perpetrated by Lord Cardigan in
flJgging a soldier upon tile Sabbath-day—a day of rest
and forgiveness, and forgetfulness of injuries—of charity
and prayer—of kindliness and good feeling.
_ . . .

Flogging, in any instance, is a brutal, loWrbarous, and de-
moralising act, and can only be committed, or put into
practice, by a barbarian or a brute ; but for any one to
have said, as in the course of divine service he must
have said, "forgive us our debts, as we forgive the
debts of others," and flogging a soldier immediately after-
wards, the barbarism of the flogging becomes infinitely
more disgusting and atrocious.
And what did Lord Cardigan do, according to the ac-
counts which have appeared in almost every paper? Why,
after making his orisons to his Maker—alter hearing
Divine service, in the course of which we doubt not the
Rev. official inculca.ed the principles cf mercy and for-
giveness, and brotherly love—he leaves the house of God,
and in thorough contradiction of the holy principles Iv-
tempted to be impre,sed upon his mind, he orders the ha'-
berts to be prepared, the cat to be in readiness, and a nr-
serable poor brother in flesh to be stripped, and his bare
back exposed to• the involuntary but savage lash cf
the drummer. Was there ever such a scene exhibited in
the whole annals of the army as that to which we now
refer ? Will even the " Neagate Calendar," or the Ca..
lendar of any other gaol in any part of the United King-
dom, furnish us will such a signal instance of cruelty on
the one hand, or desecration of the Sabb,ith on the other?
Lord Cardigan, if we arc rightly informed, is supported
by a Royal Lady, and has hitherto escaped from being
cashiered, in consequence of his private influence in that
quarter; but whatever that influence may be, we will tell
Lord Melbourne, honestly and sincerely, that if he sub-
mit to the cUetation to which we allude, be will not only
materially damage his own personal character, but also
that of the administration of which he is the head. Ii
Lord Hill be waning into dotage, and incapable of dis-
charging his duties as Commander of the Forces, which
to all appearance seems to be the case, lie ought to be
cal!ed upon to resign his cffiee, which he has held too
long, and to transmit its rights and privileges to more firm
and able hands At all event,, his cantina respectin::
Lord Cardigan. has given tho greatest disgust ti the pub-
ic generally ; and if Lord Hill do not have him dismis, ed
fix the desecrating outrage of whi,,h the N isle Lord has
been guilty, since the last lecture administered to him at
Brighton, there is no One who will net concur in ;h.
opinion teat be is i.tterly and totally unfit to fill the high
situa,ion, and execute the important duties committed to
his charge.

( From t Herald.)

In adverting—in the Herald of-the 15th instant—to the
case of a flogging inflicted on a private of the llth Hus-
sars on a Sunday, in the riding-school of Hounslow filar_
races, and 4' immediately after (as it was alleged) the
celebration ol Divine Service,"- we availed ourselves of
that opportunity to express a doubt Ls to some parts of the
statement which was originally published of that transac-
t:on. The explanations which have since been offered in
the House of Commons have amply justified the doubts
which we then intimated; we wish we could add tha,
they had altogether relieved us from the necessity of re-
deeming the pledge which we then gave, that, in the event
of its thereaf er appearing that Lord Cardigan had ren-
dered himself justly obnoxious, by his conduct in the mat
tar, to the imputations which.had been lavishly cast upon
hire, we should not be slow to concur with the Chronicle
in calling for the severest censure upon his Lordship at the
hands of the highest military authorities.
We must own that the discussion which took place on
this affair, in the House, the night before last, has excited
in us a strong feeling of disappointment and regret. The
case, as very fairly put by Mr. Nlscaulay, the Secretary at
War, certainly exhibits an important mitigation of those
circumstances, on the assumption of which, alone, we pre-
sume, could our Contemporary, the Illormng Chronicle,
have been betrayed into the coarse, not to say ferocious,
expressions in which it passed judgment on Lord Cardi-
gan, unheard :
With the punishment of the soldier in question asked
by his Hon. Friend had nothing to do, and, whatever
other charge might be brought against the Noble Lord
( Cardigan) in the command of that regiment, there could
he none on the ground of humanity, as would be proved by
the fact, that since the early part of 1839 there had not
been an instance of corporal punishment in the regiment,
except in the case just referred he charge which
might be, and had been brorigla against Lord Cardigan
on this occasion, was for Laving directed the punish.
ment to bs inflicted on a Sunday—(llear, hear)., pre_
creding which he (Mr. Macaulay) would net defend, be-
lieving it to be utterly repugnant to the general feelings of
the country—( Hear, hear)—and though the case was not
without a precedent in the service, yet all the officers of
great experience whom he had consulted on the subject,
stated that corporal punishment was never inflicted on a
Sunday, except under circumstances cf great exigency_
circumstances which certainly did not exist in this case—
(Hear.) However, he had to state to the House thet
such notice bad Leen taken, and would be taken, of the
case as would effectually prevent the recurrence of any
similar one in future."—( Hear.)
Now, taking for granted the perfect impartiality of
this account of the affair, it amounts to no exoneration of
the Noble Lieutenant-Colonel, from the charge of having
needlessly and offensively desecrated the Sabbath. His
Lordship may—as the Secretary at war seems, in charity,
to suggest for him—have been intent only on carrying cut
that unremitting system of discipline, for his success
in administering and maintaining which the Corn.
mander-in-Chicf has, on more than one occasion, so highly
eulogised him. But:whatever value Lord Cardigan may