The Sun.
London, England, 1834-10-07 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1834

FLOGGING IN THE ARMY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sir,—After reading several of the articles in your paper
lately upon the subject of private Hutchinson, of the Guards,
(who was some time since sentenced by a Court Martial
of his Regiment to corporal punishment), I was certainly
much amused, although not in the least surprised, to ob-
serve in your yesterday's paper a renewal of the attempt by
yourself and some of your contemporaries to obtain a spe-
cies of martyr's crown for this man•! The way in which
you and some others of the liberal press have taken up this
man's case, and insisted upon things as " facts" which are
not at all borne out, proves that you are determined that
the state of the case shall be as you wish to show them,
notwithstanding the facts are proved to the contrary.
I am as much against unnecessary and arbitrary punish-
ment iu the army, and every other profession, as you or any
other person can be ; but I must say I think it (in contra-
distinction to your argument) a bad sign of the times, that
a soldier cannot be punished by a Court Martial of his Re-
giment, legally, and according to the Mutiny Act, for a
most unmilitary and insubordinate crime, the sentence of
corporal punishment having been passed upon him for that
crime, and because he was PROVED beyond all doubt by the
Defaulter records of the Regiment to have been a decidedly
bad character, without a cry being set up instantly (and
specially by those who are most clamorous against the army
for their want of proper discipline!) that the man has been
most inhumanly treated! and all those et cmteras of the
common run of articles, headed " Barbarous military inhu-
manity." At all events, if this man has been ill-treated,
the books of his Regiment will prove, that by some extra-
ordinary fatality, some one or other must have tried to get
him into scrapes ever since he joined ! Who can possibly
believe the nonsense he talked at the Police Office, of the
cruelty of his punishment making him desert? If this is
the sort of encouragement to good discipline in the army,
held up by the liberal press, every rascal who ha§ got into
scrapes, and finds his Regiment " too hot" for Nun, has no-
thing to do but to swear that he has been ill-treated--to
desert—and he is then sure that some tender-hearted mor-
tals, and sympathising journalists, will open their mouths,
and tender their offices to receive subscriptions for pur-
chasing his discharge ! I should like the truth to be known
of how much of the money subscribed for Hutchinson has
ever been applied to his discharge ? In the first place,
whoever subscribed must have been perfectly ignorant of a
most necessary military regulation, which has existed for
many years, by which no man, of either good or bad cha-
racter, who enlists for an indefinite period, has a right to his
discharge, by purchase or otherwise—and that by purchase
has always been reserved for men of good character, to be
granted as a favour ! Is it, therefore, likely that the Com-
mander-in-Chief would be bullied into giving it to a man
who has any thing but deserved it ? It surely cannot be
your object now to hold up a man as a model for soldiers,
and to point him out as an ill-used man, who has positively
deserted his colours. There must be laws for the army as
well as any other profession or class of life ; and probably,
if the man in question had committed his crime (for which
he wasflogged) in time of war, he would have been shot!
October 3. B.

P.S.—I should not have troubled you with this letter,
but I think it incumbent upon those who see what is now
going on, not to allow all statements to go forth to the
public without any comments.

is now closing five and thirty, has but two livings, one in
Kilkenny, and the other in Cavan.
UNCLE GEORGE.—lchabod, Ichabod ! The Church is
tumbling, and no wonder.
UNCLE JACK.—Can a roof stand without walls ?
UNCLE GEORGE.—Or a temple without pillars ?
UNCLE JACK.—Or a Church without pluralities ?
UNCLE GEORGE.—Or a Bishop without boroughs ?
AMBo.—lchabod Ichabod ! The Church is tumbling,
and no wonder !