The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-19

of his offense and of the punishment He |
was probably British clod who, till he en-
listed, had always expressed his anger by
blows. His ideas of right and wrong we're
probably derived exclusively from the ten
commandments, but the offense he committed
was an oGense against a wholly artificial
code. He was probably very sulky, for as
the act was done In India, on the I'd of Sep
tember, he was certainly very hot, aud, as
the scene was garrison cell, he had perhaps
Just recovered from q fit of drunkenness.
For this he is sent-and, we repeat, quite
rightly sent-to penal servitude for ten years.
Now what does that mean ? In the first place,
as Nj. Victor Hugo wrote many pages to i'm
press on us, it means ten years compul-
sorry celibacy. Next, it means ten years
abstinence from all the rough amuse-
ments which are the delight of the British
working man. 1t means ten years of mono
tonous labor, of good books imperfectly
spelled through, and of lectures from the
prison chaplain. Taking the mau as you
have him, the contrast between the pain thus
inflicted and the pain of fogging
is altogether ridiculous. And, after all, the
punishment is wholly out of place. There is
no reason for supposing that the private who
sinned at Agra was man who for his class
was of an unusually low morality. 1t was an
artificial though a very serious crime which
he perpetrated. Whatever be the reasons for
W buloI IOr D6u y0Aht
there are none for putting through the same
discipline q man who struck his sergeant in a
passion. 1t would be curious to hear what
the .chaplain says to this prisoner on the
enormity of his particularoffense
But if the results of the precipitate aban-
donment of fogging are mischievous, the
mode in which it was accomplished is fuller
still of the promise of mischief. The cruelty
of The clash" is tradition of q certain sec
Ia nI ,SxslA H. "A i
sistant section, of the voters in British
boroughs But it is mere tradition, and it
very probably had its origin in the interest
which was taken in the great war at the be-
ginning of the century, when stories of the
undoubtedly cruel foggings which were in
flicted in the army and navy became COM
mon, along with Dibdins songs. Nothing,
at the same time, could have been follower
than the feeling just at the moment when it
took practical effect-whether in the populace
or among the candidates who deferred to it. 1t
is said that On excellent but not highly edu-
Gated member of Parliament once pledged
himself on the hustings to vote for the aboli-
ton of the Decalogue, in the belief that it
meant hogging in the army. The story has
point other than the obvious point, for it
shows how completely a promise to vote
against the clash had become pledge which
a candidate of TIE ordinary stamp swallowed
| dS u uldltSE Ol COURSE IL S6Sluo hS IL plouB0s
| against the Contagious Diseases acts were
likely in future to be taken by candidates
with the same degree of readiness; and, il
so, the demonstration of the meddlesome
folly which the British public alternates with
its military panics will be complete. The
women and womenly men who make the
British private their care will not allow him
to be exposed to the clash, but out of his
pleasant vices they make whips to scourge
him with a vengeance. They will not allow
him to be fogged for what he knows most
thoroughly to be serious offense; but fol
indulgences which no law has as yet made
penal they condemn him to the prolonged
suffering of deadly disease, and render him
incapable of further service.
Our hesitation in saying that fiogging ough
to be reintroduced military punishment
arises entirely from our ignorance of the fu
ture condition of the British army. If it,
rank and file are taken from different class
the reasons for the reintroduction may dis
appear, for fogging is an inappropriate pun
isbment in civic army. But, if the army
continues to be recruited as at present, some
thing must assuredly be done. We take from
an Indian paper the ggestion-which il
makes with all proper affectation of raluc
tance and timidity-that a military convic
ton for insubordination shall, besides en-
failing short imprisonment with hard labor
cause the offender to be drafted into one O
certain special regiments, in which the dis
cipine shall be of the sternest and the flash
shall be permitted.