The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-28 00:00:00

CROSS-CUPPING IN TEE ARMY.

-&onie correspondents of the Telegraph continue
the discussion on the subject of cross-cupping in the
army. One of them declares that he has himself
~
performed the " barbarous operation by order in
cases where it was not only unnecessary, but posi-
tively injurious. That this operation is done chiefly
as a mar:, is known to the men themselves, and some
objected to it strongly on that score. An excellent
suggestion is made by one writer, that a member of
Parliament should move-for a:return of the number of
soldiers discharged from the army during the last live
years who had previously undergone the operation of
cross-cupping. It isuselss asking questions on thesub-
j ect, as equivocation in replying is too often resorted
to. "A Pensioner" proposes that Mr. Cardwell
should attend a pension ollice any pension day and
improve his knowledge by ocular demonstration.
Some details are given by one who was stationed in
Ireland many years ago. The d,inp atmosphere
affected his health, and the doctor subjected hnii to
cross-cupping to cure him of his supposed partiality
for the hospital.
THE REPRIEVE OF CHARLES WILTSHIRE.

Sir George Jenkinson opens a letter to the Times
with the complaint- that the forms of the House
' prevented him from speaking in reply to Mr. Bruce
in the matter of the reprieve of Charles Wiltshire.
Seeing that the member for North Wilts has spoken
during his brief Parliamentary life more.tban older
members do in several sessions, it may be looked
upon as rather good than evil that an accident of
form should shut his mouth, even though he be
never so eloquent. But Sir George will
not be cheated out of an opportunity of
laying his opinions" before the country. If his-
name cannot be found under the head " House of
Commons," it shall be seen in the correspondence
column. We are, therefore, treated to a letter.from
the hon. baronet. He charges Mr. Bruce with hav-
ing altogether avoided the most important part of
the question put to him, whether Wiltshire
endeavoured to murder his warder, and hints that
this circumstance ought to have prevented a
reprieve. "It may be right," he says, " that
women arc never hung for the murder of
their children, but I doubt the wisdom of such an
announcement being made in Parliament by the
IlOrne Secretary. It may be right that juries
should convict pro forma and sly ' Guilty' in public,
but Not Guilty' privately. It may be right that
judges should sentence convicted murderers to be
lung in the same way—With a private reservation ;
and it may be right that, out of eleven .mur-
derers so convicted and so sentenced, six should
be hung and five reprieved, some being
alleged- to be innocent and some insane, though
not so- found at the trial, and on no subsequent
evidence that anyone has ever heard of. It maybe
right that Sheward should be hung on his own sole
confession, unsupported, for a murder done, as he
says, eighteen years ago, and that this nice man, C.
Wiltshire, convicted of rape, a murder,. and
attempted murder since, should not be hung. But
all this, if right, should not depend solely on the
private decision of any one man, he. he Horne Secre-
tary or anyone else, but should be decided by some
tr:banal, on some evidence which should be made
public, and which could bear the test of oxamina-
tion."