The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-06 00:00:00

MILITAR Y FLOGGING.

REASONS FOR THE ENTIRE ABOLITION OF
FLOGGING AS A PUNISHMENT IN THE
ARMY AND NAVY OF GREAT BRITAIN.
(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)
I. Because of its uncertainty ; arising from, first, the
vastly varied bodily powers of executioners ; from, second,
the humour of commanding officers acting on the powers
of the same executioners ; from, third, the thickness or
thinness of the culprit's skin ; from, fourth, the vast
difference of nervous sensibility of the culprits ; from,
fifth, the perpetual variation of the cat from any given
standard, in despite of all precautions that can be taken
to the contrary. So that, in fact, with all these things
telling one way, you may be inflicting punishment equal
to 1,000 lashes, by the sentence 100, and vice versa.
2. Because it will henceforth, as long as it exists,
tend to mutiny. For the soldiery now know that the
a hole nation is against their officers in this point, and
for them. And they will surmise that if, at any time,
they insist (which is mutiny) that the sentence of flog-
ging by a court-martial be not inflicted, the nation will
stand betwixt them and the extreme of law. And where
some favourite comrade is to be punished,at the instance
of some "brutish" commanding officer, nothing is more
likely than for them to do so.
3. Because of its effects on the innocent. When strong
men faint in the " square," what must be going on among
the women and children, listening to the yells in the
barrack-room ? But suppose the culprit a husband and
father. It is nature's protest given thunder-tongued.
4. Because military and naval people are public ser-
vants, and if they please to take the public money, it
must be for doing the public will. From the fifer to the
com-mander-in-chief, their choice of the profession was
for the gratification of their own instincts, and their pay
and promotion are their wages ; f r it boots
not to call things by too fine names. They have
served the public and the public has paid them.
If they wish to be continued in the public service, let
them do the public work as the public desire it should
be done, otherwise there are plenty who will. Indeed
if this law were altered in 1846, the candidates for
officership in 1847 would be a more elevated class of I
men. Hundreds of our bravest and highest spirited gentry
are kept out of the army and navy by the flogging
system.
5. Because there is no tenable ground for flogging
men, in a mode illegal and held offensive to public rights
in the case of brutes. For the only thing that can be
said on the other part is this—that man being a moral,
and therefore a more responsible being thah the brute,
his criminality is by so much more odious; and then by
so much more deserving of this punishment. But if you
say this, then inasmuch as the officer is a more enlight-
ened and responsible man than the private, his crimes
are so much more odious, and therefore so much more
deserving of this punishment than the private's crimes.
His drunkenness, his brawls, his duels, should be treated
with the same number of lashes, only it should be in the
public forum instead of in " the square." Fiat justitia
ruat calum. But if you will not apply your
moral principle to implicate the officer, you must not to
implicate the private man.
S. Because the worst men are least punished by it. This
moral aspect of the matter is a profoundly important
one. In fact, if the case for flogging he lost here, it is
lost entirely and for ever. Now nothing is more un-
deniable than that the sensitive, honourable-spirited
man is crushed by it, whilst the cool and dogged vaga-
bond backs it off (as is the military phrase) with the most
consummate effrontery.
7. Because of the very offensive character it superin-
duces upon the officers, commissioned and non-commis-
sioned. The feeling of the 7th Hussars towards their ser-
geants (for of their commissioned-officers THEY dare not
speak) is to be very clearly gathered from the appeal
made to the Coroner's Court by one of the military
witnesses respecting a sergeant who was peeping in at the
door to listen to his evidence. No man of common sense
will say that the verdict of a whole regiment (for of
course all the privates feel alike) on a moral
point is likely to be an error. As to
the effect on the commissioned officers—the buffoonery of
Colonel Whyte in the inquest-room—the snarling reply
of Edward Ireland, the adjutant, about "making the
law"—and the denial by Dr. Warren of a conversation
with his patient, that no powers under those of a first-
rate dramatist could so have feigned and fitted to the
facts ; these three circumstances may suffice. To those
who are not aware of the customs of the army, &c., and
of their disparaging effects in certain particulars upon
the characters of those who are otherwise gentlemen,
there is a species of offensiveness about these incidents,
that, but for direct affirmative evidence, would go far to
render them incredible.

8. Because it is equally known, and may be judged, to
be one of the prime promoters of crime in the army.
Flog a man, and he invariably flies to drunkenness to
drown his shame and wretchedness. And this very
drunkenness again leads him into the crime he is consti-
tutionally prone to. But not so only ; one drunkard
makes half-a-dozen. This time he invites this comrade to
join him—another time, another; and the very sympathy
for him which his flogging has created leads his comrade
to consent, for it is thought unkind to refuse anything
that can be done for a man so situated. Thus, not only
the man himself is driven to desperation, but ho becomes
a fountain of infection to others.
_ _

9. Because it actually is done without in other armies;
no ill effects to the discipline and operative faculty of
those armies following. It is a great problem for a per-
son of common sense and direct natural motive—How
the flogging General can have the impudence to ask his
men to fight the General who does not flog ? Really, it
is time for men to begin to judge the good and evil, and
be no longer led blindly on by others ; or hounded
against sections of their kind more advanced than
themselves.
10. Because of its direct tendancy to produce fatal
disease in the physical system. It is very true that a
number of army'(paid) surgeons pronounce it innocu-
ous to a fatal extent. On the other, just as great a num-
ber of army surgeons give the directly opposite opinion.
So that if the matter end here, a case is made out of
the doubtfulness of its effects ; and so of its unjustifi-
ableness. But looking further, we find the opinion of
almost the whole body of the medical and surgical pro-
fessions among civilians against it. And then what a
very sorry spectacle of a minority does the section of
the military medical class supporting it present. Be
it observed, moreover, that this objection is more to 50
lashes than to 500. For the destruction of the mus-
cular organisation, to which Professor Wilson (the only
disinterested referee in the case) attributes death in the
late affair, is more likely to have taken place during the
first 50 lashes than subsequently, because it was affected
by the power of the nervous system, and that was more
forcible during the first 50, than at any time subse
quently.

A WORKING HAND.

FLOGGING IN THE ARMY ' AND

NAVY.
TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD JOHN RUSSELL.

My Lord,—Did the extreme injustice, as well as cruelty,
in the mass of punishment to which a delinquent in the army
or navy is subjected ever occur to those persons who un-
happily possess the power of ordering its infliction ? Has it
ever occurred to them that, in accordance with the mode
adopted, nine times the quantity of agony, degradation, and
distress, is thus endured ?
When a nation, assuming to itself the name of polished,
passes a sentence of punishment as barbarous as it is de-
basing, it is at the same time intended to cover a falsehood
and deception of the grossest kind. The culprit is told that
such a number of stripes are allotted to him ; and the in-
flictors, whom habit has rendered callous to every sentiment
of human sympathy, are commanded to violate both law and
justice, and add to the torture nine-fold! •
No compensation can be made to those who have thus
been made to lose their self-respect—mutilated, murdered—
but the crime may cease to be committed, and the cry of
blood be hushed in this land of boasted freedom and hu-
manity. Oh! let the commencement of your government be
immortalised by the utter and complete annihilation of this
worse than brutal system. Severity never was, never can
be, the avenue to a British heart. Remove this brand of
infamy from our land, and receive in return the honour, the
obedience, the love, the prompt devotedness of emancipated
Englishmen.
August stb, 1846.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN CLUB.—This new establish-
ment, attached to the Institute in George-street, Hanover-
square, was opened by a house dinner to its members on
Monday evening. Mr. Benjamin Bond Cabbell was in the
chair, supported by Lord Dudley Stuart, Sir Benjamin
Smith, Mr. Buckingham, and a large party of gentlemen.
The dinner and wines were served under the direction of
Mr. Bacon, and were of first-rate excellence. Many
animated speeches were delivered, and several songs, duets,
and glees were sung by Mr. Lee and his fellow-choristers of.
the Temple. The entertainment was of a most agreeable
character, and formed an auspicious opening for the club.
THE PRINCE LOUIS NAPOLEON.—The death of the
ex. King of Holland has greatly affected Prince Louis Napo-
leon, who has, since his escape, been refused permission to
visit his venerable father. The Prince, it will be re-
membered, applied to the French Government for permission
to visit his father, and promised to return to his confinement
after performing this filial duty. This request was refused,
and on his escape Prince Louis wrote to Prince Metternich
for permission to visit Florence, and pledged his word in no
way to interfere in politics, but no answer was returned
from the Austrian diplomatist. A similar application was
made to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and refused, princi-
pally, it is stated, through the representations of the French
Government. This latter request was even limited to a visit
of twenty-four hours.
FIRE AT THE ROYAL EXCHANGE.—DUBLIN, Amt. 4.

About one o'clock this morning the roof of this fine struc-
ture was discovered to be on tire, caused, it is understood, by
the negligence of some plumbers, who had been at work
during the day. The alarm was promptly given, and a
number of engines being speedily set to work, in the most
effective manner, by parties of the 30th Regiment, from
Ship- street Barracks, the fire was got under before four o'cicck,
not withcut doing considerable damage to the roof and the
lecture-room of the Mechanics' Institute. In the vaults of
the building are stored several thousand hogsheads of whiskey
in bond, and, had the conflagration extended to the spirits,
the consequences must have been most disastrous, as the
vaults run under the houses in Parliament-street, Dame-
street, and the Lower Castle-yard. The inhabitants of the
neighbourhood, aware of their dangerous proximity to the
inflammable materials, were kept in a state of dreadful sus-
pense while the fire lasted.
EARLY HARVEST.--As an instance of the forwardness
of the harvest this year, we may mention that all the wheat
and oats (about forty Lancashire acres), on the Barlow Farm,
occupied by Mr. Samuel Dean, were cut in the month of July,
an occurrence, we believe, perfectly unprecedented in this
part of the country.—Nanchester Guardian.