The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-08 00:00:00

Ebttt ii

SUN OFFICE, Three o' Clock,

On the third reading of the Mutiny Bill an attempt is
to be made to insert a clause to the effect that it shall
not be lawful to inflict corporal punishment by flogging
in time of peace, on any private soldier or non-com-
missioned officer, save for offences committed on a line
of march, or fur theft. No reasonable objection can IR
made to this small modification, as experience has proved
that severity is not always followed by the expected re-
sults, and that crimes formerly expiated by the most
dreadful of all punishments have rather been on tin

decrease since the mitigation of the criminal code.
Flogging now is not inflicted to one-fourth of the extent
that it was some years ago, but this, in place of injuring
the discipline of the army, has, from all accounts
had the contrary effect. A soldier, who has
once been subjected to the disgrace rarely re-
covers his good character, he feels himself de-
graded in the eyes of his comrades, becomes
altogether reckless of his conduct, and, from a repetition
of offences, isgenerally at last expelled from the regiment.
Sin-m flogging became less frequent, the condition of a
common soldier stands much higher in public
estimation ; he is not regarded as, a mere
animal, incapable of being influenced by any
other motives than the dread of corporal punishment;
and respectable young men, do not therefore feel the
same repugnance to the service as they did when it was
disgraced by the
.offscourings of our gaols, and by pu•
nishments which no man of spirit could submit to without
lasting shame. Why not carry the experiment still farther?
The objections still urged against mitigation were made
when I{OMILLY, MACKINTOSH, and other humane legis-
lators repeated, Session after Session, their motions for
altering the criminal law, and every one of them has
proied utterly groundless. Why then should not soldiers
and sailors be trea:ed like the rest of the community ?
Humanity, kindness, and mercy often secure obedience,
when.severity and cruelty not only fail, but harden
men in crime. Several officers justly boast that
they, have commanded regiments for many years without
inflicting corporal punishment. NELSON avoided it as
much as possible; and for that reason, more perhaps than
his daring spirit, he became the idol of the navy, and a
word of reproof from him had more effect than the
brutal floggings inflicted by tyrannical and cruel officers.
The present time is peculiarly favourable for the change.
A vast proportion of the army is composed of young men
of good character, greater perhaps than at any former
periud; and for their sakes, as well as to encourage
others to enter, this degrading, revolting, and mischie-
vous mode of preserving discipline should at once be
abolished.

The Pori; Journals of Wednesday have all reached
ts, but at so late an hour that we can only find room
for the following extracts from them :
STOCK EXCHANGE, Two o'Ci.ocx.—For cash, Five per
'Cult. opened at 117 f. 95c. ; Threes at Of. Oc.
The Committee on the Bill for Closing the Accounts of the
Budget for 1840, were yeste-day engaged on those of the Mi-
nister of the Interior. The Aiinister of the '_Marine has not
yet rent in the documents for veryfying his accounts, the exa-
mination of which is consequently postponed. The Committee
has nomiaated M. Etier.cc to be its reporicr.
The Minister Public Works atttnded the Railroads' Com-
mittee yesterday to impart all necessary information on the
lines intended to be followed. It was agreed that the Govern-
ment.should furnish plans and estimates before the Committee
sh,:uld come to any resolution.
The Chronique of Liboume, of the 3d inst., informs us, that
upon an order of the Minister of the Interior, received by tele-
graph, th 3 police had that day paid a domiciliary visit to the
residence of M. Huerta, a refugee Carlist, formerly Chief of
the Order of the Augustinesin Spain, and seized all his papers,
but M. Huerta himself was not arrested.

The Siecle gives the following letter from Algiers, dated the
30th :—" We have received news from the province of Oran
of a hich there are different versions, but which are unsatisfac-
tory, even admitting the most favourable explanation. The
following appears to be pretty positive. General
Bedeau, who had left Tlemcen with three battalions
to execute a razz'a upon a hostile tribe, had succeeded in
'his enterprise, and was returning to head-quarters with his
booty, when of a sudden Abd-el-Kader, who we were told
a few days ago, had been abandoned by everybody, and be-
come a fugitive, appeared at the head of three to four thousand
infantry, and fifteen thousand regular cavalry, who, accord-
ing to the official reports, had either perished in battle
er come over to our standard. A battle ensued,
Isepeeting which the accounts are contradictory. Ac-
cording to one return we have sixty soldiers and seven officers
k 140, according to another only four soldiers and one officer
wee killed. It is stated by some persons that Abd-el-Kader,
after having recaptured all the cattle taken by General Bethau,
followed the arms' to Tlemcen, whilst others affirm that he fled
with tie loss of 150 men. The Governor-General set out
yesterday ors his expedition. During the absence of the army
the duty of the town will be performed by the militia, and a
Colonel will act as Governor. The close of the winter has
beets very fatal to the shipping on our coast. In addition to
the numerous vessels lost at Bona and Algiers, twenty-three
merchant vessels 11 ye been lost near Oran, and nine in the
roadstead of A rzoon.
In the Spanish Chamber of Deputies two projects of law
were prssented on the 30th of March, the one to declare that
the tst of September shall be declared a national fete ; the
other, relative to the establishment of a line of steamers be-
tween Spain and the Canaries. Ti.e two projects were referred
to the. respective Committees. The Espectador says, " The
provis:oisal deputation of Cadiz has sent an address to the Cortes,
requesting that that City may be declared a free port, as the
onlremedy for the progressive decrease in the population of
they ity."
A letter from Tolosa of the 2d, in the. Mare de Pyrenees,
says that General Rodil will shortly go to Pampeluna, without
Vrolonging his tour of inspection to Iron and the line of the
alley of the Pastan.
The Castor steamer, which has just arrived at Toulon, brings
letters from Algiers of March 27. General Buguard was still
oectodf
at Ahem, but he would very shortly set out f r
the
,pemrojnete
expedition. The bad weather had delayed the
movement
romping
the troops. The General is much arsneyei at having been de-
eeived in going
to 131idah to receive suhmisisitohne ap-
(,
s, which
at t
ia havei
n
not been made. It is resolved to carry en
campaign with vigour.— Onnmerce. g

MALT.—A return has been made to the House of
Commons of the quarters of malt made during the year
end ug th,a sth day of January, 1842, together with the
amount of duty payable thereon, from which it appears
that the total quantity of malt charged with duty was
4,520,541 quarters, and the receipts amounted to
4,889,243/. 17 ~ Bd.

CRUELTY TO ComaioN-COUNCILMEN.—It appears,
from a complaint made by Sir Peter Laurie yesterday
at Guildhall, that the members of the Common Council,
at the meeting on Tuesday, were locked in for three
hours. It must have been a tad punisbareht for the
Tories to be c
ompelled to listen all that time to speeches
against the Corn-laws ; and Mr. Taylor, therefore, ought
be severely fined for such wanton cruelty.

Sir ROBERT PEEL'S modified Starvation Bill passed
the House of Commons last night without a division.
As only ninety voted against the third reading, the ad-
vocates of a free trade in food saw the inutility of pro-
tracting ah opposition which would be sure to be borne
down by overwhelming Whig and Tory majorities. In
the early part- of the night Mr. COBDEN sought to get
rid of the Bill altogether by his motion, to the effect,
that as Parliament could not by legislation raise the
price of wages, neither ought it to raise the price of food,
thus contending for its free importation ; but after a
rather interesting debate, his motion was lost by a
majority of 150—only 86 votes being given for, and 236
against it. The opposition to the Bill would have been
greater, but the House having voted the principle
of an Income-tax, several Members of the Whig
party were rather impatient to obtain something
in the shape of an equivalent. That the slip-
pc Premier having obtained the Income-tax,
might wriggle out of his pledges about Corn and the
Tariff, appeared by no means improbable to mans
Members on both sides of the House. There was there-
fore something of an impatience to pass the Bill, seeing
Oat the Opposition was not strong enough to effect any
modification of it, and that Mr. CHRISTOPHER and his
friends had no chance of extending its provisions for tin
robbery of the commercial classes. But the Bill has
another and by no means silent ordeal to pass through
before it can become the law of the land. We anticipate
for it a stormy reception in the House of Lords. We
have no doubt, however, whatever be the result, that the
few friends of the people in that assembly of titled bread-
m will fearlessly perform their duty to GOD
and their country. Earl FITZWILLIAM, the Marquis o.
WESTMINSTER, Lord RADNOR, and Lord BROUGHAM
will be sure to distinguish themselves on the right side.