The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-29 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, .111/: CII 29, 1867.

The opinion of tke House of Commons respect-
ing the Canadian Loan was last night unmistakeably
expressed, and we hope that the 'rote will not be
without its effect on the other side of the Atlantic.
Despite the elaborate arguments of some crotchety
philosophers, and the short-sighted economy of
timorous financiers, there is no doubt that the pre-
vailing sentiment in this country is heartily in
favour of giving prompt and cordial assistance to
our colonies in time of need. More especially does
this fooling display itself when the assistance asked is
only supplementary to the efforts of the colonies them-
selves, and all they wantiromus isthat moral support

The subject of flogging in the army was last night
again introduced in the House by Sir J. PAKING-
TON, and the right hon. baronet suggested some im-
portant alterations, which will no doubt have the
effect of improving the condition of the soldier, and
also of raising the tone of the army. He brought
up a new clause, which he said had the full concur-
rence of the Commander-in-Chief, who desired to
modify the practice of flogging as far as possible.
First of all, Sir JOHN PAKINGTON explained
that he did not think it was fair to say
he had treated the opinion of the House with
disrespect, because he had come to the conclu-
sion that a majority of one in a house of 215
members was a " deliberate decision" of the House
on the matter. In order that the House might re-
consider the matter, the right hon. baronet thought
it best to retain the clause in the bill. The desire
to have this punishment got rid of is now so gene-
rally felt that the Secretary for War only expressed
a common belief when he said he thought it was
unanimously wished that the practice naight be
abolished, and the discipline of the army be main-
tained without it. The difficulty in the way of
total abolition is that no punishment has been sug-
gested that can take its place, the proposals sub-
stituted being quite inadequate for them, as it has
been thought that men would commit offences with
a view to being dismissed from the service.
Two concessions have been made, however,
which seem to go a long way in meeting the dif-
ficulty of the matter. Corporal punishment is to
be limited to three offences of the gravest charac-
ter, and soldiers in the first class shall be exempted
from the punishment altogether. This is an ad-
mirable suggestion, because it holds out an in-
ducement to a man to strive to keep in that en-
viable position if he has already attained it, or else
it gives him a powerful incentive to rise to the de-
sired place. As matters stand at present there
is 91 per cent. of the whole army consisting of men
of the first class, and thus, if they were exempted
from this punishment, a great advance would be
made. Of course, a great deal of discussion took
place as to the best mode of dealing with the ques-
tion, but nothing very new was said on either aide,
Mr. ()Tway rather unreasonably, as we think, inter.
posinglhis veto to the proposition of the clause, which
be admitted was a considerable concession. On a divi-
sion, however, the clause was carried by a majority
of 91. A final agreement was not, however, come
to in consequence of the confusion that prevailed