between these two services, notwithstanding there may be great difference in their different modes of treating the soldiery. I shall sedulously avoid all personal allusions,―the object in view is of greater magnitude than the accusation of individual malefactors. I shall not enter into particulars of that excess of punishment which has, in many instances, been attended with the most fatal consequences. I will not, by quoting examples, represent a picture in too frightful a colouring for patient examination." He then says, "The pre sent age is a remarkable epoch in the history of the world,-civilization is daily making the most rapid progress, and humanity is triumphing hourly over the last enemies of mankind; but whilst the African excites the compassion of the nation, and engages the attention of the British legislature, the British soldier, their fellow-countryman, the gallant, faithful protector of their liberties, and champion of their honour, is daily exposed to suffer under the abuse of that power with which ignorance or a bad disposition may be armed." "There is no mode of punishment so disgraceful as flogging, and none more inconsistent with the military character, which should be esteemed as the essence of honour and the pride of manhood; but when what should be used but in very extreme cases, as the ultimum supplicium, producing the moral death of the criminal, becomes the common penalty for offences in which there is no moral turpitude, or but a petty violation of martial law, the evil requires serious attention." Here he appeals with a proud and exulting recollection to the practice of the regiment in which he began his military life.-"Educated," says he, "in the 15th Light Dragoons, I was early instructed to respect the soldier; that was a corps before which the triangles were never planted;"-meaning the triangles against which men are tied up when they receive the punishment of flogging." There," he adds, in the same language of glowing satisfaction, con

trasting the character of his favourite corps with that debasement which the system of flogging elsewhere engenders,-"There," he exclaims, "each man felt an individual spirit of independence; walked erect, as if conscious of his value as a man and a soldier; where affection for his officer, and pride in his corps, were so blended, that duty became a satisfactory employment, and to acquire, for each new distinction, the chief object of their wishes. With such men every enterprise was to be attempted, which could be executed by courage and devotion, and there was a satisfaction in commanding them which could never have been derived from a system of severity." He proceeds,

There is no maxim more true than that cruelty is generated in cowardice, and that humanity is inseparable from courage. The ingenuity of officers should be exercised to devise a mode of mitigating the punishment, and yet maintaining discipline. If the heart be well disposed, a thousand different methods of treating offences will suggest themselves; but to prescribe positive penalties for breaches of duty is impossible, since no two cases are ever exactly alike. Unfortunately, many officers will not give themselves the trouble to consider how they can be merciful; and if a return was published of all regimental punishments within the last two years, the number would be as much a subject of astonishment as regret. I knew a colonel of Irish militia, happily now dead, who flogged, in one day, seventy of his men, and I believe punished several more the next morning; but, notwithstanding this extensive correction, the regiment was by no means improved. Corporal punishments never yet reformed a corps; but they have totally ruined many a man who would have proved, under milder treatment, a meritorious soldier. They break the spirit, without amending the disposition; whilst the lash strips the back, despair writhes round the heart, and the miserable culprit, viewing himself as fallen below the rank

of his fellow-species, can no longer attempt the recovery of his station in society. Can the brave man, and he endowed with any generosity of feeling, forget the mortifying vile condition in which he was exposed? Does not, therefore, the cat-o'-nine-tails defeat the chief object of punishment, and is not a mode of punishment too severe, which for ever degrades and renders abject? Instead of upholding the character of the soldier, as entitled to the respect of the community, this system renders him despicable in his own eyes, and the object of opprobrium in the state, or of mortifying commiseration."

He is now about to touch upon a topic which I admit to be of some delicacy. It is one of the topics introduced into the composition before you: but a man of principle and courage, who feels that he has a grave duty to perform, will not shrink from it, even if it be of a delicate nature, through the fear of having motives imputed to him by which he was never actuated, or lest some foolish persons should accuse him of acting with views by which he was never swayed. Accordingly, Sir Robert Wilson is not deterred from the performance of his duty by such childish apprehensions; and, having gone through all his remarks, of which I have read only a small part, and having eloquently, feelingly, and most forcibly summed it up in the passage I have just quoted, he says, "It is a melancholy truth, that punishments have considerably augmented, that ignorant and fatal notions of discipline have been introduced into the service, subduing all the amiable emotions of human nature. Gentlemen who justly boast the most liberal education in the world, have familiarized themselves to a degree of punishment which characterizes no other nation in Europe." England" (he adds pursuing the same comparative argument on which so much has this day been said), England should not be the last nation to adopt humane improvements;" and then, coming to the very

66

66

point of comparison which has been felt by the Attorney-General as the most offensive, Sir Robert Wilson says: "France allows of flogging only in her marine ; for men confined together on board ship require a peculiar discipline, and the punishment is very different from military severity. The Germans make great criminals run the gauntlet" thus illustrating the principle that in no country, save and except England alone (to use the words of these defendants), is this mode of punishment by flogging adopted.

Gentlemen, it is not from the writings of this gallant officer alone that I can produce similar passages, though, perhaps, in none could I find language so admirable and so strong as his. I shall trouble you, however, with no more references, excepting to an able publication of another officer, who is an ornament to his profession, and whose name, I dare to say, is well known amongst you; I mean Brigadier-General Stewart, of the 95th regiment, the brother of my Lord Galloway. This work was written while the plans, which I have already mentioned, were in agitation for the improvement of the army; and the object of it is the same with that of Sir Robert Wilson, to show the defects of the present system, and to point out the proper remedies. "Without (he begins) a radical change in our present military system, Britain will certainly not long continue to be either formidable abroad, or secure at home." This radical change in our system is merely that which I have already detailed. He says, after laying down some general remarks, "If this view of the subject be correct, how will the several parts of our present military system be reconciled to common sense, or to any insight into men and things?" He then mentions the chief defects in the system, such as perpetuity of service, and the frequency of corporal punishments; and in discussing the latter subject he says, "No circumstance can mark a want of just discrimination more than the very general recurrence, in

any stage of society, to that description of punishment which, among the same class of men, and with the alteration of the profession alone, bears the stamp of infamy in the estimate of every man. The frequent infliction of corporal punishment in our armies, tends strongly to debase the minds and destroy the high spirit of the soldiery. It renders a system of increasing rigour necessary; it deprives discipline of honour, and destroys the subordination of the heart, which can alone add voluntary zeal to the cold obligations of duty. Soldiers of naturally correct minds, having been once punished corporally, generally become negligent and unworthy of any confidence. Discipline requires the intervention of strong acts to maintain it, and to impress it on vulgar minds; punishment may be formidable, but must not be familiar; generosity or solemn severity must at times be equally recurred to; pardon or death have been resorted to with equal success; but the perpetual recurrence to the infliction of infamy on a soldier by the punishment of flogging, is one of the most mistaken modes for enforcing discipline which can be conceived." And then, alluding to the same delicate topic of comparison, which, somehow or other, it does appear no man can write on this subject without introducing,-I mean the comparative state of the enemy's discipline and our own, he says: "In the French army a soldier is often shot, but he rarely receives corporal punishment; and in no other service is discipline preserved on truer principles." Gentlemen, I like not the custom, which is too prevalent with some men, of being over-prone to praise the enemy, of having no eyes for the merits and advantages of their own country, and only feeling gratified when they can find food for censure at home, while abroad all is praiseworthy and perfect. I love not this propensity to make such a comparison; however it is sometimes absolutely necessary, though it may always be liable to abuse: but in an officer like General