Star.
London, England, 1812-03-14 00:00:00

of bottom-. The excess, hoSieYer, vas tehat he chiefly
reP
robated. It was said by some, that, if not suf.
food to continue,
the punishment of death must be,
asstituted ; but, in many instances, flogging amounted
hment of death, and that with 'torture..
tote punishment
J/4 no ! from several Members.) He would
(atallteer,Yin7 ans:aer to what seemed to be the opinion of
ws Gentlemen, the foundation of his assertion. It
;rose from a communication made by Gentlemen of
de Missionary Society. A Clergyman, who at-
tended, at their last moments, two deserters at the
Cape of Good Hope, one sentenced to by shot, and
the other to receive one thousand lashes, relates, that
the Lauer was so much exhausted when he had re-
;old no more than two hundred and twenty-four,
that, by the advice of Ahe surgeon, the remainder of
she
the hpunishmewherent washe d susp ied ended,
Here and h
was?
was :arrit d to
ospital, . an instance
he a man sentenced to four times the degree of suf-
fering wore than (Top had enabled him to endure.
Yle was sorry to be under the necessity of saying any
eini,g from which any mischief could possibly arise,
but it w 49 impossible to avoid discussion. Two hun-
dred lashes he thought a punishment of excessive se-
/city. would not say that it might be altoge-
ther removeil; perhaps on a march it might be ne-
t ary, but still he wondered that any man would
assert, that shame, disgrace, self-dissatisfaction, and
olf.contempt, did not mile in the mind of the
wretched sufferer. He was desirous not to give a
aient vote on the question, and to protest against the
sloctrines advanced in support of the punishment.
The manner of introducing the clause, at the third
re2digg, he thought inconvenient, but still, rather
dial& the benefit of the clause, he would submit to
some inconvenience, and vote for the motion.
Lord C. SOMERSET was adverse to the clause.
Every other punishment had been tried without ef-
fect: and it was not possible to send soldiers to wait
rill the Assizes fur I: tying made free with their cons-
odes' neussarjes, and for other minor off,nces for
wlrch this was cued. He should be glad if it could
be dispen.ed with, hut it was impossible to preserve
discipline without it. As to excess of this made if
Pishment it w.c., never resorted to but in cases (I:
actual ilecessu y.
Mr. NV ILLERFORCE said, when he considered
what a huge and multifarious b dy an army was, he
should be afraid of adopting suaLlenl3 so m aerial a
charge in what was deemed to be so essential to its
discione, on which depended entirely the rnmige- '
merit and government of it. He could wish, how-
ever, that it should sot be enfo: ced but by the sen-
tence of a General Court-m irtial. He upderstoo.l it
'vets n iw thought to be less necessary than it was for-
merly; and it would, in his opinion, be safer and bet-
ter it it were hereafter inflicted only on an average
opinion of the officers, Which he thOught would have
the effect of ienderihg this punishment less frequent.
General•PHIPPS said, there would be a great cif-
Acuity in most cases of obtaining officers enough to
term a General Court-martial, so that the mishe, of
the. Honourable Gentleman who bad just down could
sof, in that respect be complied with. , With respect
is the case mentioned by Sir Samuel Romilly, 111 •
nalld not conceive a man 'could die from receiving
224 lashes.. He had nbdonbt of the man having
Alien, but not in consequence.of the stripes. The Sur-
-von was always present, and would joterfere.belout.
?Jibe tights, ell so fatal an effect.
General PORTER said, he had never known this
punishment aditioistered but with the greatest leni-
ency. As to its having a degrading effect on the
minds of those men who had suffered it ; so far was
that from being the case, that he. had known a man
-litho had oftenheen punished, who died a Captain.
Mr. WHITBREAD said, he hoped be should not
be induced to express himself warmly in consequence
of what had fallen from the two last speakers. The
Honourable General who had just sat down had in-
formed the House, thathe had never seen this pu-
nishment inflicted but with the greatest leniency.o—
On the contrary, he (Mr. Whitbread) had heard Ge-
neral Officers of the very first character ind respecta-
bility, and of as lung stondintin the army as the last
speakers say otherwise. That Honourable General,
.as well as the Noble Lord opposite, (Lord C. Somer.
set) bid very much under-rated the statements he
had heard from various other quarters, for which he
was very sorry, as, when they came to be made pub-
lic, they might have a bad-effect, and produce con-
siderable indignation in the minds of those who had
expressed their opinions on the subject in terms so
widely cliff:rent. 'When the Honourable General
on the opposite side of the House (General Phipps)
asserted, that it was impossible a man should die
from receiving 22,1• lashes, he must differ with him in
()Pillion; .he had heard from very good audio' ity
Many instances in which this had b:eit the case. he
did not mean to impeach the character of those Offi-
cers who inflicted it : as long as it remained as the
punishment for certain degrees of offence, they must
do their duty in administering it. Notwithstanding
the letter which had been read by the gallant Gene-
ral reit. ltim (Tarleton) General Money_ had cer-
tanly published his pointed disapprobation of this
Punishment, and had said that desertion was the only
crime for which it teusht to be inflicted. 'He (Mr.
Whitbread) did not near to say that the situatiois
4 the British soldier was in itself degrading, but he
was clearly of opinion this punishment was very de-
Eadiiig to the character of a British soldier.—
was it known, that inevery regiment there-is a thief's
!at, and that according to the manner in which the
Incts ate tied, and their number,.'the severity of the
%aging is greatly increased ? Was there not also a
awe of prolonging punishment?' These were the
• instances' which constituted the degradation, as
tit&red the soldiers liable to suffer by the caprice
efficeis, who had the power to increase these
mins and to prolong thopunishment. Some yearsago,
' gifts this subject was teroughtinto discussion, it was
let denied, that the ponishment-did exist, and that
very generally, but now it was deckted to be the
Pride of several regiments, not to have such punish-
ents att,tched to their dLciplinz. He must again
declare, he could not agree with the Hon. General
that a man could not die from receiving 2i.l4a.shes.
Ile would, on the contrary, undertake to prove at the
lar, that • such had been the case. He declared he
• 'sass() great an enemy to this punishment, that he
would giie it -a deans blow, if lie could, without
thanking it at all necessary to find any substitute for
10-the case of minute, if he were asked what he
would substitute for it he would directly answer-
11%ilieg• Tortnre ouipst not f3o be any whet e allowed;