The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-12-10 00:00:00

ANTI:CAT-o'-NINE TAIL SOCIETY.

During the past week two grand meetings have been:held in
London, to organise a society for the abolition of the " torture"
which gentlemen who enter his Majesty's army, navy, or jails,
occasionally have to undergo;-for this society intends to throw
its protecting shield over the backs of citizens as well as soldiers.
Oue of these meetings was honoured with the presidency of a
gentleman of great cockney renown, a Mr. Savage, who pro-
nounced flogging to be savage, barbarous, and all that. At
both of these assemblies Mister ex-private Somerville, of the
Scots Greys, the man " wot was flogged" and dm:tamed out of
that regiment, described in glowing terms how exceedingly un-
pleasant a thing it is to be tied up to the halberts, and operate,l
upon by the drum or trumpet-major's sa-tel-li-tes. Of the other
speakers we know nothing, and therefore cannot positively take
upon us to assert, although their speeches are reported at length
in the True Sun, that either of them ever suffered this "degrad-
ing punishment" from the hands of Jack Ketch. It may be
so, nevertheless. •

We take it for granted that our readers are nut ignorant of
this extraordinary fact, videlicit, that no soldier ever was
flogged who was not innocent of the crime for which he was
punished, and who did not possess all the delicate and refined
sensibilities of a gentleman and a man of honour. To doubt
this would be to doubt the truth of the glowing descriptions of
Mister Somerville, as they were chronicled in Mr. Sheriff Har-
mer's Rogue's Register,'where the aforesaid patriotic soldier was
held up to an admiring world as a poet, a scholar, and an eru-
dite critic on military matters. - Questionless the civil clients of
theeworthy sheriff are likewise all " honourable men ;" and we
therefore think it a trial too great even for his Roman virtue,
after receiving their cash through the agency of his clerks or
partners, (yti facit per cilium facit per se,) to be obliged, be-
cause they cannot persuade an ignorant and vulgar-minded
jury, that a laudable curiosity to ascertain the average amount
of floating capital carried about in purses or reticules is not
theft; or, a prejudiced judge that picking pockets is not a ve-
nial indiscretion; to stand by and witness these grievous in.
flictions iS—and, what is stilt worse, if his deputy the hangman
should chance to havo any qualms of conscience about the
lawfulness or inhumanity of the thing, the work must actually
be performed by his own worshipful hands. The idea, the bare
thought of an attorney stripping his clients, except in a regular
and professional way, is quite horrible ! For all this we have
a remedy ready cut and dried that will, we hope, satisfy all par-
ties. When an officer in the army or navy is found by a court.•
martial guilty of an irregularity or minor breach of discipline,
the sentence of the court is frequently promulgated in words to
this effectL--"That he (the offender) be severely reprimanded ;
and he is accordingly hereby reprimas,ded severely." Now, as
flogging is never inflicted in his ➢Majesty's nav, army, or jails,
on any but gentlemen of irreproachable characters and delicate
nerves, we propose that in future courts-martial shall draw up
their sentences thus :—" The court finds James Scapegallows
(or Dick *Bully), guilty of all the offences laid to his •charge,
and orders that he immediately receive one thousand lashes on
his bare back, which thousand lashes are hereby inflicted upon
him, &c., &c."

Recorders and county magistrates, by adopting the same
phraseology in their sentences, may flog in public or in private
to their heart's content. There can be no doubt that the thing
will " work well;" and we tecommeirl whoever may chance to
be Secretary at War when the nest Mutiny Bill is brought for-
ward, to introduce a clause to effect this reform. After this,
who will dare accuse us Tories of being anti-reformers? There
is not a Radical, or even a Whig of the day, that ever proposed
a reform half so good.

THE ATTORNEY-AT-LAW versus THE LORD HIGH

CHANCELLOR.

Gratefully thankful we of the press ought to be to these
learned persons for giving us something to enliven our readers
with in this du!' and foggy quarter of the year, when we have
generally little more to record than long gazettes and " Melan-
choly suicides." After returning our best thanks to these legal
gladiators for entering the arena of the. Exchequer, where the
" tug of war" was between men of equal renown, in the courts,
we have to remark upon the extraordinary coincidences of the.
case. In the first place, a Chancellor was obliged to descend
three steps from his lofty pedestal to take up the glove of his
assailant;—the high Chancellor had to be judged by an ex-
Chancellor, and one of the witnesses brought against him was
an ex-Chancellor, who, it appears, could not charge his me-
mory with ever having done unto any man a wrong such as the
attorney complained if. But, in the name of all that is won-
derful, what could have induced Mr. Dices, about whom the
'least said is' the soonest mended," to select the Exchequer in
preference to a superior court., where Queen Caroline's go-and-
sin-no-more advocate presides as lord of the ascendant? We
should like, moreover, to put the same questhin to the I r ifes-
siou generally, with this addition;—are law and equity nu where
to be found but in the Exchequer, that you run in crowds to that
place, where, but a short time since, a lawyer was as great a
rarity as wit in a theatre, or honesty at court? Have-you-not,
elsewhere, unthinking varieis! a cheap chief, who is content
with eight instead of ten thousand a-year—the superior of either
the Mansfields, Kenyons, Eilenboroughs, or Tenteruens of by-
gone days, when you were content to wait from term to term to
let your clients know when they would be cleaned out. If you
cockneys turn up your noses at Whig cheap lawyers, what are
we provincials to do, who are threatened-with (Leap law—and
nothing bit cheap law—to be administered by the scrapings of
Westminster-halt. It is hateful to our eyes, mis well as to those
of our Whig contemporaries, to see the Old Sanguinary of Pt int.,
ing-housa-square, day after day, filled -with column following
column of law reports,- heati&l Exciirtot ha or GI; Ays'
H ALL. Pray, gentlemen attornies, consider that two thousand
pounds a-year is a great deal of mummer saved imm these no-tax-
paying-times. It will go near to pay• Messrs. Hogg and Wil-
kinson for their Litmus here and -elsewhere,- end, should
Peninsular or other war bieak out, it wank! help us at a pinch,
and perhaps once more crown us victors at another Waterloo.
Lawyers and clients ! take these timings into your consideration
—divide your business a tittle—do not press-the Lord of Lynd-
hurst so hard lest he turn round by and by, and say, "Give me
better wages; why should I, who do the most work,, receive the
least pay? Give me the two thousand a-rear; is not the labours r
worthy of his hire?" If this reasoning' ao not couyince both.
lawyers and clients of the error of their ways, nothing that we
can say will convince then, and we shall set them all down as
redemptionless blockheads.

At
THE FIRST SERVANT OF TOR late !lonian
Catholic dinner,. in Dublin, the health of William IV. was
given under the complimentary title of " The Fast servant of
the people." The •Whios, it.must be remembered, first tievi-
atea from the practice of toasting the King s health a3s " Tho
King," and substituted the canting phra,e " The first magis-
trate of the people." Our Sovereign has, however, descended
a step lower in the eves of Ins Popish niasteis, for so they as-
sume to be, and is henceforward to be recognised as only —the
first servant of the people." How long his Majesty's services
may be thought worthy to he retained, it is, perhaps, nut diffi-
cult to calculate, from our knowledge of the rate at which
the kingly office has hitherto degraded.—Se!(,i,iun , ~, ,
Tun DIVORCE.—A certain gorgeous batunet, wile has been
separated from his lady fur nearly foulteen years, recently sent
his brother to Paris to collect evidence against his wife, iLienc!-
ing to sue for a divorce. The brother had formerly been the
friend of the lady, and in that. character had interfered ty
arrange the deed of separation; but baying now become recoil--
cited to the baronet, he was suspecten by the wife, who, on his
arrival in Paris, saluted him with--" So, sir, you are conic here
to collect evidence, are you?—you shall have plenty." Then
ringing the bell, she directed a servant to send up Master
George. Upon which a handsome youth of fourteen years of
age made his appearance, of whom neither the baronet or his
brother had ever heard before. "There, sir," said the lady,
"there is living evidence fur you! That boy was born in Eng-
land before the deed-of separation was signed, and is thcreiere
the legitimate heir to the baronetcy." The surprise of the geu-
tleinan may be easily conceited.--Aye.

LOAD LONSDALn AND THE Perss.—At the very time
when the Whig Press was echoing the blatant wailings
of the Journal about the arrest and imprisonment of its
principal proprietor, Mrs. Jollie, and venting an affected
indignation that the noble object of its malignity should
dare to vindicate his character, or to resist its assaults,
he, the Earl of Lonsdale, was causing a weed of mercy
to be extended to the infatuated individual who had been
induced to deny all mercy to herself and her family, by
moving for her liberation from that imprisonment to
which she had subjected herself. On the Wednesday,
we believe it was, she went to gaol, in consequence of
the Court of King's Bench having expressed its ina-
bility to admit her to bail under the circumstances in
which she had involved herself, without the interference
of the prosecutor. On the Monday, but five days after-
wards, we now find—and we regret it was not thought
worth while to have enabled us to state the fact last week
—that Sir James Scarlett, on the behalf of the Earl of
Lonsdale, moved the Court to make a rule for discharg-
ing her out of custody, upon recognizances being en-
tered into—herself in forty pounds, and two sureties in
twenty pounds each—to appear and receive judgment
when called upon. To the latter part of the condittnn,
however, Mr. Creswell, her counsel, demurred, on the
ground that it might keep the defendant in suspense for
an unlimited period ; and he proposed, instead, that the
recognizances should be for appearance next term if re-
quired ; to which Sir James Scarlett at once agreed, and
a rule was immediately made to that effect; and in com-
pliance therewith she was released from prison on Sa-
turday last. What, then, we ask, becomes of all the as-
persions which were cast upon the character of the
noble Earl from the circumstance of the defendant's
arrest! They are all scattered to the winds; for his
lordship had sustained his character for that very quality
of mercy, of which it was foully imputed he was devoid,
ere such imputations had well got utterance.
The only matter of regret in all this is, that the object
of this mercy should be so little deserving of it; for,
female though the defendant be, and moreover a widow
with a family, still we cannot separate her from much of
the responsibility, moral as well as legal,. that attaches
to the infamous offence under prosecution: We showed
last week how cheap was the Journal. of. all its trou-
bles; and how utterly without the shadow of a shade of
a claim to the mercy of the noble Earl had its proprietors
rendered themselves, even since the conviction of her
whose punishment has ensued. True it is that the
heartless calumniator who, skulking behind a fatal tech-
nicality in the indictment, escaped from trial, leaving
his hapless partner in the lurch, hat still been the prime
delinquent ; yet she for whom so much sympathy has
been besought—and who, under other circumstances,
would have been worthy of that sympathy—was obvi-
ously and decidedly a full particeps crimiais, not only
being aware of what was going on, but even partaking
of the fiend-like enjoyment which the pursuit of the al-
most infernal system of vile calumny could afford its
perpetrators. We say, being aware of what was going
on ; for she is no sleeping partner in the concern, but
active and acute in her superintendence of it; and more
than this—and it is a point worthy of special notification
—one of the very five children about whom her scribe
and partner made such dolorous mention in his appeal
to the public, as " looking up to her alone for protec-
'tion and support"—one of these very same, and the
oldest of them, who is fast approaching to, if he be not
already arrived at man's estate, is also in the office, and
diligent in his assistance in the duties of the Editor.
To say, therefore, that the female offender is, under
such circumstances, not morally, but only legally guilty,
were the idlest and most impudent pretence.
But, to look forward to the future. The defendant is
held to bail flirter appearance next term, if required.
Will she be rmirtred to appear and receive judgment of
the Courbi_ 'This is a question very generally specu-
lated upon; and our answer to it is, that if she be so
required, as it has already been so will it be again, the
fault will be her own. The conduct of the Earl of Lons-
dale throughout gives us the strongest assurance of this.
Look at his lordships. generous and merciful bearing,
and forbearing, towards the two other newspapers which
he was constrained to prosecute along with the Journal.
One of these, the Kendal Chronicle, has also a female
for its .proprietor; and as a proof that all his lordship
sought was to confute the shameless aspersions so un-
worthily cast upon him, and repress the vile practice
which had been so recklessly indulged, no sooner did
Mrs. Lough express her. regret that her paper should
have beep the medium of the malicious charges com-
plained of, and give her promise that they should not be
repeated, than there was an emrsoven of the motion for
a criminal information. Does this, then, look like a dis-
position to war against women, or to apt harshly towards
any one, unless driven thereto-by the intolerable and
impudent conduct of the' parties themselves? And in
the case of the Whitehaven Herald, as we showed last
week, although from the absence of all apology or re-
traction in the Court of King's Bench, the rule was
made absolute, yet no sooner were these offered, at the
opening of the Assize trial, than the noble Earl at once,
and most gladly, desisted, having gained all he wanted,
which was not revenge for himself, or even punishment
for the offender, but-an object far more honourable to
him, far more valuable to society, the vindication of his
good name, and, with it, the repression of a system of
slander by whose poisoned shafts a direful evil was being
discharged through the country.
And if such be in any wise a true history of the mat-
ter, how weakly credulous must they be who can give
heed to the lamentations of the Journal Editor about the
sufferings of his unfortunate partner. Lamentations,
forsooth ! And for what ? For " the effects of the libel
law," as he craftily put forth ? Bah! It was for the
effects of his own delinquency in calumniating an ho-
noured and venerated nobleman ; and of his own skulk-
ing in leaving another, and that other a widow, to suf-
fer alone that infliction which was due first and above all
to himself. It has been said, that the difference is slight
between a calumniator and an assassin; but between
the former and the robber Shakspeare has shown us that
whatever difference there may be is in favour of the
latter.

" Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he who filches from me my good name,
Rohs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed."

Such was the offence for which redress was sought in
the laws; and from which has arisen all the cant and all
the bleating which we have had the task of animadvert..
ing upon. And the parties convicted of this offence
must cease from its perpetration, ere they can have any
just claim to the sympathy of the public, or any reason
to expect mercy from the objects of it.—Carlisle Patriot.

SONG AND CHORUS,
Ficxa by EARL GREY AND THR TRIER or FORTUNE.
EARL GREY.
I've been starving, cutting, carving
In a thousand dirty ways ;
I've been teasing, I've been squeezing,
To provide for all the GREYS.
Chorus of 38 GREYS, 5 ELLICRT, IR PONSONRYS, 3 LAMBS, &e. &e. &e,
We are winning, we are winning,
Out of Gaffer's honest gains :
We're beginning, we're beginning
To get something for our pains.
lit PONSONEY.—I'm in Turkey very merry ;
2d GREY.—l've a Reg'ment, Bath, and Guelph ;
3d PoNsoratv.—l am settled snug at Derry ;
4th portsoNaT.—l at Malta touch the pelf.
Chorus--We've been winning, Sze.
4th Powsortnit.—l with pleasure watch the treasure,
As the most efficient Lord ;
Ist WOOD.—I your nephew, honour give you,
And write minutes for your Board.
Chorus—We've been winning, &e.
3d GREY.—I, as bishop, sermons dish up,
And have a prebendal stall ;
Ist PONSONEY.—I the land revenue fish up,
In my office at Whitehall.
Chorus—We've been winning, &c.
sth GREY.—I'M an aid-de-camp in Dublin ;
4th GREY.— I'm a Captain on the sea ;
sth GREY.—I am not—but I've been troubling
Graham to make one of me.
Chorus—We've been winning, &c.
2d Gaay.—l'm M. P., command a regiment,
This itself is not so bad ;
Then, besides, I've an engagement
To write letters for my dad.
Chorus—We've been winning, &e.
Dray BY Two LAMBS.

We, your cousins, (two of dozens,)
Work like horses in our turn,
Then refresh ourselves with dozings,
While unquench'd the wheat-ricks burn.
Chorus—We've been winning, &c.

Ist It LLICB.-I am cropping, paring, stopping,
Cutting down the soldier's pay—
'd Ewe s,--1 n your ardent zeal for lopping
Spare me Portsmouth, brother, pray.
Chorus—We've been winning, &c.

3,1 LA Ntn.—My intention is a pension ;
2(1 LA It RTON.-1 have got a snuggish place ;
2d IIcurEEL.-I'nla biter for a mitre;
3d Gaßy,—l'm for India, Gaffer says.
Chorus—We've been winning, Ste.

2d Gium—l, at present, ('tis not pleasant,)
Am not holding any place ;
My bad temper—idem semper—
llas incurr'd this sad disgrace.
Chorus—We've been winning, &e.
Ist LAmaros.—T: ye been seowling, bragging, howling,
I've been sailing on the main ;
But I'm coming, but I'm coming
Back to Downing-street again.
CEIORVR.
We've been winning, we've been winning,
Out of Gaffer's honest gains :
We'rebeginting. we're beginning
To get something for ourpains. —Jan Bar.

On the 19:11 November, in lat. 43, 20 long. 6(, the Augusta, Petrie,
spoke the Pilot, of and. from Bristol, bound to Si. Andrew's, out 49
days. On the same day, spoke the Hero, of and Crum Poole, bound to
ditto, out 5:3 days.
Lady Douglas, Cox, hence, at Trinidad.
Fieldfare, Capes, from St. Domingo and Nassau; at London.
Usk, —, from Buenos Ayres, sailed for London 16th September.
Abeona,—, from Buenos Ayres, sailed fur this port 18th Sept.
L'kien, Boyd, htmee, at Cape of Good Hope 7th September, and
would sail fur the Mauritius 28th September.
Emerald, Johnson, hence, off Cape of Good Hope.
Edward, —, sailed from the Cape, of Good Hope for this port
20th September.
John, Brooks, from Valparaiso, was spoken 27th ult. in lat. 43.20.
Fairy, Ste_phenson, hence, at Cape de Verd.
Partisan, Dale, hence, at Miramichi.
The cargo saved from the Tromps, in middle of the 'mouth of the.
river Plate, has been sold fOr from 9,000 to 10,000 dollarg.
HOLYHEAD. Dec. 5.—A mast and supposed to belong to a
schooner, mast 50 feet long, with a gall' and topsail-yard, has drifted
on shore at the back of the Head; the mast head and ends of the yard
painted white ; depth of the hold, by the marks on the mast, 9 feet.
Mn.Fottn, Dec. 2.—Four vessels are reported to be lost in Carmar-
then Bay during the late hurricane.