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MILITARY FLOGGING.
(From the South Australian Refitster.)
' The questioh of floggizgm in the navy without
court-martial is beginning. to attract attention.
The service, on account of.that practise, is growitng
daily more unpopular.
Military flogging is exciting the most intense in
terest. Not only. has Colonel Whyte of the 7th
IHussars, just had a poor fellow flogged to death for
striking a sergeant, but it came out.at the inquest
that the most brutal lacerations are frequently in
flicted by him, and sometimes for offences so trivial
as not to deserve the name. He has chosen also the
most powerful men to wield the cat, that the torture
may be the more dreadful. The Coroner's jury ex
pressed the deepest disgust at the system of flogging
in the army ; but at the same time found that the
revolting torture was in this case legally inflicted,
and that the death of the victim was its result.. The
numberof lashes was one hundred and fifty. The
question has been. brought before .Parliament to no
effect; but the Duke of Wellington, as Commander
in-chief, has forbidden courts-martial to award more
than fifty:lasles for any offence. The former limit
was two hundred.. This is not a satisfactory ar
rangement, as an. evil-disposed officer could so
manage to increase the severity of these strokes, that
their number would avail little. A skilful Russian
torturer can produce death by twelve blows of the
knout..
A " Licutenant.from the ranks" writes as follows
to the Times:-I saw soldiers flogged upon the
ramparts of Brussels, by order of Colonel Jones, late
of Marylebone, who was commandant of that gar
rison within three weeks of their being wounded at
WVaterloo; and 'I well remember two of these cases,
whose writhings ciused their scarcely-healed wounds
to gush out bleedbng through the hdhesive plaster
coverings them, and whose wrists were cut to the
bone, by the cords in- their writhings, and took
many more weeks to heal than did their backs. I
have seen" this officer flog men at the halberds until
they fainted, when he ordered them to be taken ,ldwnp
laid on a form, and the remaining lashes given as
iapon a dead corpse." It is intimated that this
Colonel Jones (now in his grave) was the lion
hearted patriot, who spouted at political unions, and
wrote such stirring stuff for the 'Times, under the
signature of " Radical !'
Punch has addressed some touching " Lines on
the Lash," to the Queen, which we quote:
Queen of Christian England, hearken;
Know, the nation that thou swayest,
That a guilty shade doth darken :
Wilt thou chase it P for thou mayest.
Thy wish only need be spoken
' In the Senate of the land,
And the cursed lash is broken;
For thy wish is a command.
Royal woman ! hast thou thought
That the men who guard thy crown,.
.Andto shield thee think it nought
*To lay life and member down,
For a trifling word of scorn,
For a hasty threat or blow, . :
.IavoAheir flesh to pieces torn
Whilst the living blood doth flow P
Thy defender thou hast seen
In his'red and gold array'd,
IIast admired his gallant mien
At review or on parade.
-last thou ever seen him stripp'd P
itst thou heard him shriek and groan
Whilst his quivering flesh was whipp'd
Whipp'd by piecemeal froin the bone P
ITast thou traced him to the bed,
Whpre, in torments worse than death,
He at length hath bow'd the head,
And hath yielded up the breath P
Gracious Lady, credit us,
It is true that such things be.
Should the soldier perish thus
He who would have died for thee P
Let thy queenly voice be heard
VWhb shall dare'to disobey P- -
It but costs thy royal word,
And the lash is cast away.
-With thyself it rests to scour
From our arms the loathsome stain;
Then of mercy show thy power,
And.immortal be thy reign i Punch.
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