The Haslingden Gazette. — 1901-07-13 (Haslingden, Lancashire, England)

THI6 EDITOR OF THR 4,GAZETTI." Sin—Atitionling to your recent Report, the Church magistrates flogged a little boy for stealing 6d. from a little gin. Few people hare any conception what , theSe prison hirehings mean, because they are performed in private and in cells. SI) as to smother the screams. Even the Press are not admitted. Sir Walter Foster, speaking Olt Lord James's Birehitar ' Bill in the House of Commons last session, said: , Birching is an 11111111111 M practiee of the grosisist kind. 'There was is view which appeartsl on the I rtsionls of the House where a boy was flogged. I saw the boy two or three days afterwards; his little bach wits covenml with womuls, which extended right through the skin to the muscle, and the mass of rawness came round to the abdomen. After witnessing that sight. I determined to oppose this system of flogging °bikini....  „. As further evidence of dm sheer brutality of birching. I winkt mention that at the end of last year an inmate of the Bedfordshire Reformatory atttnunted to tab, his life in order to avoid the shame of this loathsome flagellation.. In Oetober last tt boy of the Majestic training ship shot, self in the head. dreading the BilBBlo and degradation nif u public flogging (Lomlon Prossh A hue months ago a boy conunitted suicide after being flogged by placing his head on the rails in front of Stress Eastern train at Tottenham, Little Gibbs, of the liltmeoat School. hangisl himself after being , birched. dnuding a second infliction which had los. ordered. Indy 8 few years ago a nomad of poor newspaper Into. were flogged for selling their papers in Wayerley Station. Edinburgh. This ease wog illegal. bid before the Homo Iltfice could intervene the damage was don,'. We may strive to ease our conscienees by hurtnising that the few instances mentioned are the worst 0884, 110( we an' con[nutted with the fart that the great majority of polieemon refits., to inflict the torture, and therefor.. only tine most brutal ones aill volnuteer. Morons., in many districts a sponge is.ked in salt water is used to wits. the bloody back of the flogged boy. British law does not tolerate kirehing for girls. Women, aml mon: a is too barTorons. Tot on baby boys of seven anal all up Is, fourteen ,0188 j0148`9 persist in inflinting it. The Church tnagistrates `Mid not hay; been entirely ignorant of tins' a-rising they wen. sisisog. bee:mans a medical officer is usually scot fur iss examine the boys in 81(88, they should taunt or she  under the treatment. Flogging. after all, only treats with the sy-mptoms of the social disease. It leaves the cause untouched. Theft is purely a speculation. It is committed on the chance of not being found out. The uselessnesu of this secret flogging is also proved by the Govansment statistics. Ireland, where birching is almost un. known, slenvs the best statistical results as regards juvenile clime. The English and Scotch records do not show that the flogging of boys has proved snore efficacious than the acquittal or confinement of girls. Whon the boys are first offenders they ought to ton acquitted, otherwiws they could be fined. In the case of children, say. three months' credit could be allowed to enable them to nines the fines or they could be imprisoned for six to Ins-else hours, and attended by the prison chaplain or pariah minister. I sincerely trust that the tact, and arguments in this skeleton of a discourse will induce these leaders of humanity to relinquish in future this cruel, disgusting. and loathsome iniquity. Other civilised countries have abandoned it, because it demoralised not only those who ordered and inflict.l it. but also those Who suffered for it. and the community whose moral atmosphere was poisoned by it.—l ant. etc..