ty years' experience of Wellington in the arne House should rest th the order which he ven, and should grant ■ confidence as to the nich he was carrying on ne of the army. ring had heard with unciusion at which Lord nad just arrived. He that the recent expresse public opinion would the total and immediate corporal punishment in but he now found that the antill to be left in the hand Ager, and that the appliit was to be justified on aut's plea of necessity. He d to argue that necessity Justify the retention of any this system, and that miligging should be no longer . Even the limitation which . Russell had just announced deliver the soldier over to an ated despotism; for it was well ...w in Russia that twelve blows e knout, if dexterously applied, Paid inflict death, and fifty lashes, ministered by a scourger who no mercy, might be equal to infliction of a thousand ordinary -nes. He then harrowed the ngs of the House by quoting ral cases of excessive torture ficted by flogging, and recorded , Dr. Fergusson and Dr. Mar-nall in medical publications to which they had appended their names. He showed that the punishment of flogging was uncertain and unequal in amount, depending upon the greater or less humanity of the drummer, farrier, and commanding officer, and upon the greater or less skill of the surgeon of the regiment. He then commented on the case of the soldier

White, who had died in consequence of the flogging which he had recently received at Hounslow, and called attention to the verdict given by the coroner's inquest on his body, in which they declared their horror and disgust at the cruel mode of his death, and called upon their fellow countrymen to join hand and heart with them in removing the slur which the prac tice of flogging cast on the humanity and fair fame of England. A jury of the people had sent the representatives of the people a verdict, declaring that a man had been put to death who was not condemned to death, and he hoped that the House would not forget that, even while that inquest was sitting, two cases had occurred at Devonport, in which the flogging had been suddenly stopped, because it was ascertained that the men could not suffer further punishment without danger to their lives. In all such cases the victims were carried away mangled and bleeding. Were they rendered better men by such torture? Quite the reverse. They were rendered worse men, and became insensible to honour and abandoned to crime. The abolition of this cruel torture was demanded by the general opinion of the press and by the unanimous voice of the nation. The assurances of Lord J. Russell upon this subject would only be welcome to the country, in the hope that the system of military flogging would at some future period be got rid of altogether. He concluded by calling on the House to force the noble Lord to anticipate that period, by agreeing to his resolution, that flogging in the army should be now and for ever abolished.

The motion was seconded by Mr. Henry Berkley, and gave rise to a

long discussion. It was supported by Mr. W. Williams, Captain Layard, Mr. Bernal Osborne, Mr. Wakley, Mr. Bright, and Mr. Hume; and opposed by Mr. Neville, Colonel Peel, Mr. Fox Maule, Mr. C. Buller, Colonel Reid, Mr. Goulburn and Colonel Wood. These gentlemen, though unfavourable to Dr. Bowring's motion, expressed no disinclination to a measure of moderate reform. Sir C. Napier, Mr. Craven Berkley, and Colonel Sibthorp, expressed a more emphatic hostility to the principle of the motion.

Colonel Peel argued that the punishment would be necessary so long as the constitution of the British Army should continue as at present. At the same time, the benefit to be derived from flogging was in proportion to the rarity of its infliction. It was, indeed, notorious that, in regiments where corporal punishment was constantly inflicted, it was found to be perfectly inefficient: it descended to be a mere punishment without any salutary effect upon those who witnessed it, and without any benefit to the individuals upon whom it was inflicted.

Captain Layard was glad that the authorities at the head of the army had at last seen that a necessity existed for altering the system of corporal punishment. It was, however, but a late conversion; for only a fortnight ago 200 lashes might have been inflicted, and nearly 150 had been inflicted, on a military offender.

He pro

ceeded to defend the expediency of abolishing corporal punishment in the British Army, by reference to the admirable consequences which had resulted from the abolition of it in the Indian Army by Lord W. Bentinck. Being informed by Mr.

Bernal that Lord Hardinge had reintroduced flogging into the Sepoy regiments, he observed that he was sorry to hear it; but it was a proof, that if it should be found that discipline could not be maintained without it, we could recur to it without fear of danger. He should certainly vote in favour of Dr. Bowring's resolution, which he supported by reading the eleven objections which Sir C. Napier had drawn up against the inhuman practice of flogging.

Colonel Reid made an impressive appeal to the House on the discomforts of the soldiery in their barracks, and on the deficiency of the pensions awarded them on their retirement from the service; and contended, that till these grievances were remedied it would be impossible to elevate their moral condition. Would the House believe that at this moment soldiers had not common means of properly washing themselves! Personal cleanliness was a great point of discipline, most strictly enforced; and if a soldier appeared dirty on parade he was liable to punishment. Now, not less than twenty or thirty men slept in one room, and the only means they had of washing themselves was a couple of buckets of water, and they had all to wash in them. Then, the crowded way in which they lived, twenty or thirty men being crowded into one room, had an ill effect upon their health. At the age of forty or forty-five, a man became old and unfit for service; and he could only attribute this to the foul air they breathed. The windows could not be opened, because a man slept close to the window.

Mr. Bernal Osborne still doubted the practicability of abolishing cor

poral punishment altogether with the present army; but he would force the Government to establish a better mode of constituting the army; and he suggested that the experiment of total abolition should be tried upon the Household Brigade.

Mr. Wakley said, that a current of opinion had set in against the practice of flogging, which the House would find it difficult to resist, and he expressed his surprise that the Government were not prepared to consent to its entire abolition. He then proceeded to vindicate his own conduct against some reflections which had been made upon it in reference to the late inquest which he had held as Coroner upon the soldier named White, whose case has been already adverted to. He strongly supported Dr. Bowring's amendment, not being satisfied with the diminution in the punishment made by the recent order at the Horse Guards.

Mr. Fox Maule, adverting to Dr. Bowring's statements respecting the soldier White's case, said, it was very easy to dress up this question in such a way as would harrow up men's feelings; but he called upon those who would not permit the practice of flogging to be justified on the stern plea of necessity, to state what punishment they would substitute in its stead. The public mind had been moved on this subject by an unfortunate occurrence, and but for that occurrence, he believed that no notice would have been taken this Session of the code of punishment inflicted in the army. In justice to those whose names had been mixed up with that occurrence, he was bound to say that every thing which they had done had been done in conformity with the rules of the VOL. LXXXVIII.

service. Having defended the conduct of Colonel Whyte, as the commanding officer of the 7th Hussars, he proceeded to express his regret at the manner in which the privates of that regiment had been called to give evidence against their officers, and to state that it must undergo further investigation. He also expressed his regret at the death of private White. When the Duke of Wellington heard of it, he said at once, "This shall not occur again; though I believe that corporal punishment cannot be dispensed with, yet I will not sanction that degree of it which shall lead to loss of life and limb." He therefore suggested at once that all punishments should be reduced to fifty lashes. In that suggestion the Government willingly concurred, and he trusted that when they had succeeded in raising the character of the British soldier, the power of corporal punishment would become dormant, and the use of the lash unknown to the British army.

After some further discussion, chiefly in reference to the soldier White's case, and the inquest upon it, the House divided, when there appeared

For Dr. Bowring's reso-
lution

Against it.

37

wards mooted in both Houses of Parliament. In the Upper House, Lord Beaumont moved for the production of papers and correspondence between this country and the courts of Vienna, Petersburgh, and Berlin, respecting events which had lately taken place at Cracow in violation of the treaty of Vienna. The noble Lord said that he brought forward this motion upon three grounds-first, that it was necessary for this country to enforce treaties to which the Sovereign of this realm had become a party; secondly, that it became necessary to do so with a view to the maintenance of the balance of power in Europe; and thirdly, on the broad ground of humanity; and proceeded at great length to prove that the independence of Cracow had been guaranteed at the Congress of Vienna, and was now violated by the steps taken to quell the late insurrection in Gallicia. He also referred to the butchery of the nobles by the peasants in that part of Poland, and while he believed that the Government at Vienna had been ignorant of those excesses, he charged them with neglect in not taking sufficient precautions to prevent the outbreak. In conclusion, he expressed his confidence in the noble lord at the head of Foreign Affairs, and hoped that all peaceful and proper means would be taken to prevent the like atrocities in future.

The Marquis of Lansdowne agreed with Lord Beaumont in thinking that the independent existence of Cracow was guaranteed by the treaty of Vienna, and lamented that any thing should have happened to justify a departure, however temporary, from that independence there could be no doubt, however, that Cracow had

been the focus from which the revolutionary movement had spread itself over Gallicia, and a temporary occupation of the city had been. the necessary consequence. It was desirable that this occupation should be as short as possible, and at this moment conferences were going on having for their object the reconstruction of the civil Government of Cracow. With respect to the excesses in Gallicia, he could not contradict the noble lord's statement, but until it was officially proved he could never believe that the Austrian Government had played the part which some of the accounts represented.

The Duke of Wellington concurred in the sentiments expressed by Lord Lansdowne. It was clear that, under the treaty, Cracow could not be occupied by foreign troops: but when that treaty was made, the state of things which existed when the recent occupation took place was not contemplated. It was not thought possible that committees would be sitting in many of the great metropolises of Europe in order to carry on a secret conspiracy, and to organize insurrection against an actual Government of a country; which occurred in this very city of Cracow; and this circumstance could not have been foreseen at the time of the treaty of Vienna. It was quite certain that the measures adopted as to Cracow were contrary to the treaty, and could only be justified by the circumstances of the time. He had no hesitation in saying, that if ever a breach of treaty was justifiable it was the one which had occurred. But it was not to be supposed that be

cause the Austrians were left alone in Cracow, therefore the independence of that town was destroyed.