The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-17 00:00:00

other great Powers be obtained. But for the ap si
prehension of a general war with Europe, NAPO-1
LEON would not care a jot for public opinion, but
would at once appropriate Savoy without scruple,
letting VICTOR EMMANUEL help himself further
South. We have said before that if the EMPEROR
be so anxious to get a kingdom for his cousin, let
him look to Naples, where the people would ex-
change their present master for any tyrant above
ground, and we suspect the young King would
not get a friend to help him—not even the PORE in
his direst need.

Who can doubt but that, before very much longer,

there will be an end put, both in the Royal Army

and in the Royal Navy, for once and for all, under
any and every circumstance, to the brutal and de-
grading punishment of Flogging ? We ourselves,
at any rate, for one, doubt it not for a single in-
stant. Already in the last few years we have made
advances—positil'e and distinct advances—towards
its abolition. We nave seen the number of
stripes applicable to those convicted of certain
offences diminished. We have seen the cata-
logue of those offences considerably hlibreviated.
According to the scheme of the new regulations
introduced into the Army for the better arrangement
of military discipline, under the authority of H.R.H.

;he Duke of CAMBRIDGE, those offences have at
Last dwindled down to the number of ten : by the

perpetration of any one of which a soldier is degraded
from the first to the second class, and when in
that second class is liable to be flogged for

any one of those ten offences upon its renewed
commission ! Unhappily, the case is far dif-
ferent in the Royal Navy of Old England.

There, in that heroic and peculiarly national ser-
vice, the pristine stringency and harshness of the
service are so far retained that the sailors, whether
in the first or in the second class, are alike liable
to be flogged : there being only this difference
between the two classes—those in the first

class requiring to be tried first of all
by court-martial, whereas those in the second are
liable any day out of the 365 to be flogged simply

at the pleasure of the captain ! So long as this

continues to be the case in the army and in the

navy, so long as the soldier may be brutally lashed

as though he were a hound rather than a man, so

long as our tars are liable at the whim of an irascible
captain to this cruel and degrading flaggelation,
so long certainly must two things follow as inevit-
able consequences ! Firstly, the agitation for the
further diminution and ultimate abolition of this
execrable system of punishment must be an inci-
dent of perpetual recurrence both within and
without Parliament ! And, secondly, ad-
mission to either service must be viewed
askance by the masses of the population, and
enlistment in either shrunk from by hundreds
and thousands (who would be otherwise too eager
to be enrolled upon the books of the navy, or on
the muster-roll of a regiment) with a feeling of
peculiar and easily comprehensible repugnance.
No wonder the Merchant Service is preferred to
the service of the Royal Navy, when in the
former there is not, and when in the latter
there is, this harsh and brutal punishment !
No wonder thousands of pounds sterling have
been paid down as an inducement to men
to enter the Royal Navy—no wonder we have need
of the bounty, as a golden " set off" to the igno-
miny of the mere liability to this detested punish-
ment ! But Admiral Sir CHARLES NAPIER said
last evening, in regard to this degrading punish-
ment,—" If it were stopped, the discipline of the
service could not be carried on !" We
don't believe it. We cannot for one instant se-
riously think this—any more than could the House
of Commons that rang with incredulous and derisive
cries of " Oh ! oh !" at that astounding announce-
ment. It is the argument, however, the old fami-
liar argument (by this time one might imagine
thoroughly used up) of that old-fashioned
school known as the school of the Disciplinarians.
We cannot possibly do without the lash, they say,
the discipline of the service requires it ! There is
an old phrase, that may be in vogue, perhaps more
seasonably atout Michaelmas, to the effect that
"What is good for the goose is good for
the gander." Suppose—they tried a touch of
it themselves ! It is so beneficial, so whole-
some, so especially advantageous in its opera-
tion, that really the notion of turn and turn about
may perhaps be worthy in this matter of a moment's
consideration. But seriously, is it not astonishing
to find a gallant old sailor like the member for
Southwark not only reiterating this threadbare
argument, that if the punishment of the cat-o'nine-
tails were abandoned, the discipline of the service
could not be carried on—but actually (with a shrewd
head of his own upon his shoulders) maintaining
that " the infliction of the punishment was as pain-
ful to the men who performed the duty as to the
criminal !" The Parliamentary reporter adds
" (Laughter)," and no wonder there was laughter !
Why, the brutality of this degrading punishment
is pretty nearly beyond the reach of exag-
geration by any mere verbal description.
What, by way of painful illustration to
this remark—what were some of the parti-
culars given in the course of the impressive
and able speech delivered by the hon. gentleman
(Mr. BUXTON) who had- the ear of the House, and
the eye of the Speaker, before the hon. and gallant
member for Southwark rose ? Why, we find in the
abbreviated reports of Mr. BUXTON'S speech, among
other distressing particulars, the following :—"The
hon.
suffering
membertben read a harrowing description of
causedthe
' by
E
flogging. written by
ALEXANDER SOMERNILL
, who was sentenced to
receive 200 lashes. He became black in the face,
and water was administered to him, and then
the flogging recommenced and was continued until
ho was covered with blood, and he writhed with
agony, and it appeared to him as if the time when
1w had lived without this pain had passed long away.
When 100 lashes had been inflicted ho was taken
down, being unable to bear more. The hon. mem-
ber proceeded to say that the punishment was much
aggravated when it was inflicted in cold weather;
and he related an instance of its being infllicted on
a man when the day was so cold that the mere strip-
ping and exposing him to the cold was of itself a
severe punishment. At the first lash the blood
spurted out some yards. ?hat man afterwards shot
himself. His own feeling was that such a punish-
ment as that was a brutal punishment. To
strip a man half naked,uand tie him up by his
arms and legs, and flog him until the blood streamed
down, was a punishment so degrading and cruel
that nothing would justify it but strong necessity,
and it ought to be abolished unless it could be
proved that its abolishment would cause a relaxa-
tion of discipline, and the onus probandi ought to
be on those who were in favour of the punishment.
But there was nothing he had heard to-night
that proved that its abolition would have such a
result." We rejoice at every additional step, how
ever slight, that is taken towards the diminution
and eventual abolition of this cruel and brutal
punishment. The adoption by the House of Com-
mons, last evening, of the resolution proposed by the
hon. member for Lambeth (Mr. W. WILLIAMS)
was one of those steps in advance, even though the
motion, we regret to observe, was only agreed to