The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY MORNING, AUGUST 20, 1846.

culiar to human nature, they had been pleased and at-
tached to him. If they Were to try kindly treatment—
generous treatment—rewards for good conduct, the
most agreeable results would be produced. On the
other hand, if men were treated as brutes, or something
worse—if no confidence were reposed in them—if they
were treated as individuals not possessed of those qua-
lities or sentiments which actuated human beings—such
treatment invariably begot moroseness and a savage
disposition ; end such was precisely the feeling which
was to be expected. They could, in fact, feel nothing
but contempt towards the perpetrators of such cruel
practices, which were against all justice. That which
the meeting wished to promote was that a new system
should be adopted in the army, and that instead of the
present cruelly of government, they ought to have an-
other of a different nature ; and that instead of giving
to the officers the power of punishing their men, they
should give them the power of pleasing them, and
rendering them good and efficient servants to the nation.
The English public were fully aware of the arduous
duties of a soldier, to what dangers he was exposed.
They knew that his life was but a short one, and that
during that life he was but ill paid for the services to his
country. Such a meeting as the present one, actuated
only by a desire to render a service to those whom they
believed to be subjected to an, unjust punishment, must
speak in a voice of thunder to the nation. He had al-
ready explained the moral effects of the punishment,
and its physical results were notorious. It ought not,
therefore, to exist, even in its present mitigated form.
It had dwindled from 1,000 and 1,500 to 50 lashes, and
even that endangered the life. The 150 lashes inflicted
upon that unfortunate man, whose death had been the
cause of their meeting there, was the application of
upwards of 1,200 knots of the thong upon his skin.
Let them look at the application of a thong with only
one knot upon a horse, and they Gould not be such de-
mons as to continue the punishment.—(Cheers.) The
date of the warrant under which he suffered was the

26th of April, and he was not punished until the sth of
Jane. He would not have adverted to the circumstance,
but for the unjust attacks which had been made against
him (Mr. Wakley).—(Cheers.) lle thought that, after
these attacks, he was justified in doing so.—(Cheers.)
The tribunal under which these unfortunate men were

tried, was self-constituted. and the acquittals were there-
fore not one in thirty. Ic was not, however, his object
to attack individuals, but a system which he believed to
be injurious to the army and navy, and was a disgrace
to a Christian country.—(Cheers.) It was against the
system that they should direct all their hostility, and in
doing so, they attacked, and furiously too, the indivi-
duals by whom it was upheld. They, who upheld it
knew the horror and the danger of the system, and
when the voice of the people was raised against the
system, where was the Government who, whatever
might be the feeling in other quarters, would dare to
oppose the national will? Every man in England, how-
ever poor. was ready to contribute his mite to the relief

of the soldier, be-cause he felt that they were his
brothers—(Cheers)—and, leaving out of the qttestion
national pride and national glory, the poor man felt
that the nation was insulted by the continuance of the
practice. A letter was that day published in the Times,
signed V, stating that the writer had been thirty-six
years in the army, and was then in command of a regi-
ment, and could confidently speak from experience that
the discipline of the army: could be maintained with-
out such a brutal punishment. He had seen men
flayed alive.—(Great sensation.) He had seen a man
receive seven hundred lashes at once ; the last
two hundred were given while the man was in
a state of insensibility, and apparently dead, and for
ought he could know, dead in reality.—(Hisses.) He
hoped that there would be very little more war.—
(Cheers.) He had not the least objection to plenty of
soldiers and sailors in times of peace. War was a system
of national flogging, and as he did not like to see the
backs of soldiers mutilated, he hoped there would be

no occasion for mutilating them times of wan—
... Cheers.) He knew there were many regiments in
which a case of flogging had not occurred for the last
twenty years.—(Cheers.) Yet, curious enough, the re-
turns of those regiments had been refused in that very
curious House, the House of Commons. He supposed
that they wished to withhold from the officers and the
men that credit which was justly due to them—(Cheers)
—and the parties who refused those returns might
perhaps think that it would operate prejudicially to the
diameter of those regiments where the practice of
flogging was kept up.—(Cheers.) (A voce—`Move
fora return.") He should like to know why such prin

ciples should not be acted upon in all the regiments.
He did not think those regiments were commanded by
what is called " stern officers," but by officers who con-
sidered and treated the men as human beings.—(Cheers.)
With these remarks he would conclude all he had to say
upon the subject, entreating those present to hear all
parties, and if there should be any difference of
opinion, then let them not give rise to angry feelings.
If they could not sustain their case by argument it was
not sustainable at all. If the meeting considered that
they adopted the right course by their present pro-
ceedings he hoped that this would prove a good be-
ginning, and that they would go on and continue the
work till they were completely triumphant.—(Cheers.)
The Hon. Member then read a letter from T. Collett,
Esq., M.P. for Athlone, as follows :
Dear Sir—Will you be kind enough to hand the en-
closed draft for five guineas to John Mathewson, as a
testimonial of my approbation of the honest and inde-
pendent manner in which he gave his evidence upon the
late inquest at Hounslow.—Yours, faithfully,
" JOHN COLLETT."
The Hon. Chairman then went on to say that he had
heard Mathewson upon a former occasion, and from the
manner in which he gave his evidence, he felt that he
could not but believe his testimony.—(Cheers.) He had
never acted, and he never would act, upon the principle

that a man, because he was rich, was to be believed upon
his oath, and that a man, because he was poor, was
not to be believed. It should not be forgotten that a
private, of the name of Cook, hal been singled out from
among the regiment, and in the face of his
comrades was told that he was all but guilty
of perjury, when he gave his evidence upon the
late inquest at Hounslow. He really thought that those
two unfortunate men, Mathewson and Cooke, should be
released from their services.—(Loud cheers.) He did
not like to advert t) any circumstance which had trans-
pired upon that occasion, but there was an anecdote of
poor Mathewson which he would relate. There was
some testimony between Mathewson and the command-
ing officer, and the latter had witnesses to support what
he stated, and Mathewson had none. Mathewson stated
with the utmost naiveté, " It is very true, there was
this interview, but I will take care when I have a pri
vote interview with the commander I will have a wit-
ness too."—(Laughter and cheers.) The Chairman then
read a leter from Luke Hansard, inclosing a cheque for
201. in favour of the objects of the society.—(Cheers.)
A series of resolutions, as follows, were then read by
the Chairman :

" That the practice f scourging and lacerating the
bodies of soldiers and sailors, with the cat-o'-nine-tails,
i 3 at once cruel and disgusting, and a disgrace to the
British nation."— (Cheers.)
" That the constitutional danger of maintaining a
standing army in time of peace is exactly proportioned
to the extent to which the soldier loses the character and
feelings of a citiz .n."—(Cheers.)
" That in the deliberately formed opinion of this
meeting the will of the British nation has decreed that
the practice of flogging in the British army and navy
shall, at once and for ever, be abolished."—(Cheers.)
" That it is now universally known and admitted that
a sentence of flogging may prove to be a sentence of
death, and that thus a capital punishment has been, and
might again be, inflicted for a trifling, insignificant, and
even a ' halloa ' offenee."— (Cheers.)
That as sulo,titutes for floggings, degradations,
and savage puni,,hments, this meeting earnestly and
fervently recommends the adoption, by the Government
and the commander-in-chief, of short periods of enlist-
ment, and rewards and promotions for good conduct, in
the firm belief that the adoption of a benignant and
generous behaviour towards soldiers and sailors, would
beget in them a spirit of honourable bearing, and high
mural sentiments ; and that to allege that the means of
bestowinLr rewards in the army and navy for good con-
' duct would not be cheerfully granted by the people of
this country, is a gross libel on the generosity and judg-
ment of the British nation."—(Cheers.)
F. LENTHALL, Esq., would not be guilty of the gross
impertinence, after the able speech they had heard from
their chairman, of detaining them at any length. He
considered that the time was come when this barbarous
and disgusting treatment should cease. The present
mode of punishment he did not consider as calculated to
operate in a beneficial manner; it was calculated to
create a feeling of moroseness and revenge.—(A
Voice—" Move, and cut it short.") lie would adopt
the hint which had been thrown out, and would there-
fore move the resolutions which had just now been read.

Mr. G. THOMPSON, in seconding the resolutions, said

that it was not his intention to have addressed the
meeting upon the present occasion; lie should, therefore,
content himself with simply seconding the resolution.
He did not adopt that course out of any disrespect to the
purposes of the present meeting, but there were those
present whom they might never have an opportunity of
hearing again, and it would be an act of injustice in him
to detain the meeting from that pleasure.—(Cheers.)
In answer to a question put to the Chairman, he
stated, that in law White received but one punishment
for the offence.
Dr. CARLISLE wished to ask a question of the Chair-
man, and could rot help, at the same time, alluding to
his manly conduct in another capacity. The question,
which he wished to be distinctly understood, was with
reference to the statement made by the Hon. Chairman.
He wished to know whether the warrant for the trial of
White had been signed a considerable time before the
offence was committed ? lie also wished to know why
the Hon. Chairman, in his capacity of coroner, had not,
as was usual with him, issued his warrant for the appre-
hension of those persons who had inflicted the Irvilies
which the jury had stated had caused the death of private
White ?
Mr. WAKLET said. that with reference to the warrant,
he had stated that it was (1,-..tt d on the 26th April, and
the crime was committed in June. Such was the state
of the law, with respect to the second question, he
would state, that if a verdict of wilful murder had been
returned by the jury, he would unhesitatingly have
issued his warrant for the apprehension of the parties
concerned.—(Loud cheers.)
Mr. BRIDGEgAN, M.P., said that he once commanded
a body of grenadiers, and upon 0110 occasion he called
his men together, and said that lie had the power to flog,
but he was determined not to use it ; he had not done so
upon any occasion, and he wished to know why, in the
face of these faCtSt floggin,7 in the army could not be
abolished ? He hoped that' the degrading system of
flogging would soon lr r.'=novt•d, and that every elector
should press upon their candidates the necessity of their
voting for its abolition.—(Lout cheers.)
Mr. JOHNSON NEIL, now of the bar, but late of the
navy, next addressed the meeting, and said he was glad
to see a stand, a determined stand, being made against a
system which he had all his life detested.—