The daily gazette. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1874-1883, 1880-10-05
WHIPPING FOR CERTAIN KINDS
OF CRIMINALS.
From the Journal OF Commerce.

From the Journal OF Commerce.
On the 18th ult. one of the most
brazen-faced rufiians who ever stood
up in British court suddenly will ed
and uttered scream on hearing the
terms of The Judge's sen ence, and was
taken away i'll "a fainting condition.
He had no defence. The evidence
against him was conclusive. He was
sure of conviction and of severe SEN
tence, and he knew it. But he was
not prepared for the punishment pre-
scribed by Mr.. Justice Stephen. He
screamed and almost tainted, not in
view of The twenty years of penal ser
vitude, but because the Judge ordered
as fitting prelude, thirty lash.s from
cato nine- tails. This man had
robbed and attempted to murder by
drugging, and then throwing from
railway carriage, travelling compan-
ion, in whose confidence he had art
fully ingratialed himself. 1t was a
premediated crime of the most heinous
kind. 1t would have ended in murder
but for the inability Of the assassin to
eject his victim from the car before
the train stopped. The rufhan then
escaped with his booty, but was fol-
owed by the half stupefed, badly in
ured man, who staggered upon the
platform and gave an alarm which led
to the capture of his assailant. This
strange affair took place in a car (of
the London underground line), of
which the two men were the only oc-
cupants. Mr.. Justice Stephen, in
passing sentence, said it was "the most
cowardly and brutal outrage that had
ever been brought under his notice. ~
He marked his sense of horror, as well
as made the sentence a wholesome eau
ton to all other like-minded despera-
does, by prefixing the thirty lashes to
the twenty years imprisonment. The
prisoner would not have fllnched from
the incarceration, but he WINGED terri
bly, under the judgment of the cat, a,
if he already felt her nine tails raising
wales ON his bare back.
1t is the uniform experience of Brit
ish Judges that corporal punishment
is the most certain known deterrent OF
cowardly and brutal offences. Wher
any peculiarly shocking crimes against
the person begin to become common
in England, the Judges always check
it by ordering a dose of the cat wei
laid on in addition to a long term o
imprisonment with hard labor. Thil
is the best known preventive of out
RACES on women and children. 1t i
the only thing that has put "a stop t,
garrotlng. It's success is SO marked il
the declining frequency of cruel an,
malicious assaults upon the person il
e England that the British public al
most unanimously approve of it. On
, ly little minority of those philanthro
r pists whose sympathies for criminal
rise in exact proportion TO the diabo
z ism of their protGges continue to pre-
0 test against the lash as a remedis
n agent of society. While that ageI
does 80 maniiestly good a work
England, it will be judiciously COZ
3 served there. The theoretical oppos
tion TO it in the United States is wild,
: spread and intense, as any man find
!, out to his cost who proposes to reintrt
duce it in our judicial system. BIT
. now and then thinking Americans wi
r brave the consequences and ask then
3 selves and their neighbors if corpori
r chastisement, SO common among OF
ancestors as penalty for minor voli
, tions of law, might not be revive,
/ with signal advantage to society, f,
g the punishment of certain special
n atrocious crimes.