XLIII. CHAP. ducing interests in the centre, and the admission of direct colonial representation from the extremities, will, beyond all doubt, in the end, dissolve the British empire.* 1846. 22. Another important subject powerfully arrested the atDiscussion tention of the British people and legislature at this on flogging period, and that was the matter of flogging in the army. The immediate cause of the excitement on the subject in the army. was the melancholy end of a private soldier named White, who died a few days after having received a very severe flogging at Hounslow, though whether from the effects of the punishment, or from it combined with an organic disease in the sufferer, was rendered doubtful by the medical evidence on the subject. The case came before Mr Wakley as coroner of Middlesex, and was very ably In the debate on the sugar bill, Mr Disraeli observed: "I do not oppose the resolutions of Ministers merely because they are antagonistic to our previous arrangements for the suppression of slavery and the slave trade; I oppose them because they are antagonistic to the fragment left of the old colonial system of England. I venture to predict that the house will soon retrace its steps, and reconstruct that now almost annihilated system. I say so because the history of England is a history of reaction. I believe the prosperity of England may be attributed to this cause, not that it has committed less blunders than other countries, but the people are a people more sensible of their errors. What have you not done, and what steps have you not retraced? You destroyed your church establishment, and you replaced it; you destroyed your ancient monarchy, and you re-established it; you destroyed the House of Lords, and now you are obliged to take up your bills to them for their sanction. You even abolished this very House of Commons, and yet we are here in it debating a great question. What are you doing now but retracing your steps on a vital question, and confessing to the people of England, that after having laboured for forty years and spent £50,000,000 to destroy the slave trade, you find it now necessary to re-establish it ?” —Parl. Deb., lxxxviii. pp. 164, 165. Mr Disraeli was right as to reaction in matters of opinion or passion; they are often the subject of most extraordinary changes among men. But it is by no means equally clear that reactions will take place against vested interests; or whether a particular class of men, once become possessed of power, will ever voluntarily share it with others, or use it for any other purpose than the forwarding of its own immediate interests. Certain it is, that whatever may be the case in future, there has hitherto been no reaction whatever in the British constituencies in favour of this obvious colonial injustice, but rather the reverse. A very able man and sagacious observer, Mr Justice Halyburton, observed with truth in a public speech delivered at Glasgow on 25th March 1857, in the midst of the turmoil of the elections going on in every part of the empire at that period, that amidst all the opinions delivered by candidates, and the questions put to them by constituents, there had not been one which had reference to the colonies of Great Britain, though they have become so considerable as to have taken off in 1854 no less than £34,000,000 out of the entire £97,000,000 exports of the empire. XLIII. 1846. conducted by that gentleman through an investigation CHAP. which extended over several days. The harrowing details brought out in the evidence strongly affected the public mind, to which the continuance of this degrading torture in a noble service had long been matter of abhorrence; and as the case went on, the excitement became so strong that the subject was brought forward in more than one motion in the House of Commons, and terminated ere long in a humane and judicious regulation of the Duke of Wellington's, which has removed the most 1846, 203. flagrant evils connected with this mode of punishment.1 1 Ann. Reg. the subject, lington's Captain Layard brought this painful matter before 23. the house by a motion for an address to her Ma- Motion on jesty, praying for an inquiry how far the introduction and Wel of limited service would improve the efficiency of the army. From the returns to which he referred, it appeared that, in the last ten years, the number of recruits had been, on an average, 12,000 a-year, and that of desertions 5300; that fully two-thirds of these deserters had been recovered and rejoined the service, and a third were unaccounted for; and that, during five years preceding 1845, £17,000 had been paid for the apprehension of deserters, and £54,500 for the maintenance of men in confinement. Another return showed that, from 1st January 1839 to 31st December 1843, a period of five years, 3355 had undergone corporal punishment, and 28,190 sentences of imprisonment had been pronounced. * From these facts, which were certainly suf * COST OF APPREHENSION OF DESERTERS, AND OF SOLDIERS IN CONFINEMENT, FROM 1840 To 1845. XLIII. 1846. CHAP. ficiently surprising, he argued that there must be something wrong in the constitution of the army, or the class of men from which it was recruited, and that recruiting for a limited period would materially improve the character and condition of the soldier. His proposal was, to enlist for ten years only, and that, after twenty-one years' service, the soldier should be entitled to the old pension of tenpence a-day, and one shilling if disabled, instead of the present reduced pension of sixpence a-day after twenty-five years' service. The Secretary at War, Mr Fox Maule, resisted the motion, and explained that the great majority of the desertions were in Canada, where the facility of escaping into the States, and the demand for labour there, presented so many temptations to the soldier to leave his colours. He referred also to the many improvements recently introduced into the service, especially for the education and amusement of the men. Captain Layard did not press his motion to a division, it being understood that the Commander-in-Chief had a regulation on the subject in preparation. On the 7th August, Lord John Russell announced the change he had made, which consisted in a general order, that, by no court-martial, general, special, or regimental, should a sentence be pronounced ordering more than fifty lashes to be inflicted. This was accompanied by minute directions that every precaution should be taken to ascertain the health of the person who was to suffer the punishment, and any circumstance, as heat or cold, taken into consideration, which might either aggravate his sufferings, or augment the danger of the punishment. Notwithstanding this great modification, Dr Bowring brought forward a motion, a few 1 Parl. Deb, days after, for the total abolition of corporal punishment in the army, but it was negatived by a majority of 97 to Ann. Reg. 37; and the Duke of Wellington's regulation has ever since continued to be the law to regulate the practice of the army.1* Aug. 7. lxxxviii. 290, 694; 1846, 203,' 206. * The Duke said, in his brief characteristic way, upon learning of the unfortunate occurrence at Hounslow: "This shall not occur again: though I be XLIII. 1846. 24. on this sub The question of the length of time for which soldiers CHAP. should be enlisted is one of comparatively easy solution, and has, since Captain Layard's motion, been put on a most satisfactory footing. Enlistment is always made Reflections for ten years only; with the provision, that if the man, ject. after getting his discharge at the end of that period, shall re-enlist, and serve for eleven years more, he shall then be entitled to his discharge, with a pension for life, which, if unfit for further service, is a shilling a-day. This system meets every requirement on the subject; for, on the one hand, the enlistment for ten years only avoids the appearance of perpetual servitude, while, on the other, so easy is the life of a soldier, compared to that of ordinary workmen, that nine-tenths of those who get their discharge at the end of ten years find daily toil insupportable, re-enlist at the end of a few months, and voluntarily serve out the remaining eleven years, so as to become entitled to their retired allowance. But the question of corporal punishment is surrounded with much greater difficulties; for the Duke of Wellington's regulation has introduced a limitation greater in appearance than reality. The severity and danger of flogging arises much more from the weight of the instrument used than the number of lashes; it is well known that twenty-four strokes with the cat-o'-nine-tails in the navy, where it is much heavier, is a severer punishment than two hundred and fifty with the ordinary one used in the army. There is seldom more than twelve strokes inflicted by the knout in Russia, and yet the infliction often occasions death; and it is in the power of the executioner, by four or five blows inflicted in a particular way, to destroy the victim. Notwithstanding this, the Duke's restriction has proved most salutary, and has nearly terminated the complaints formerly so frequent on the subject. There have been no deaths, at least that are known of, from the effects of flogging since it was lieve that corporal punishment cannot be dispensed with, yet I will not sanction that degree of it that shall lead to loss of life or limb."-Per Mr Fox MAULE, Ann. Reg. 1846, p. 209. XLIII. 1846. CHAP. issued; in many regiments, at least on home service, corporal punishment has been unknown for a number of years; in none is it ever now inflicted except for insubordination or disgraceful offences, such as theft; and in all, the number of the inflictions, in peace at least, has been most materially diminished. 25. position of and foreign armies. In considering this subject, which doubtless, at some Difference future period, will again come to occupy the attention of in the com- the legislature, there are two considerations which must the British be constantly kept in view, if a correct conclusion is to be arrived at on the subject. The first of these is the entirely different class of men from whom our army is drawn, and that of which all those of the Continental States are composed. In France, the German States, and Russia, the army is raised by conscription, which embraces, without exception, the whole population, but compels the soldiers only to a few years' service. In Russia, the period is twenty years, after which the soldier becomes a freeman, and is entitled to his discharge; but in France, Austria, and Prussia, the military force is kept up by forced service, exacted from the whole male inhabitants in early life for three years, reserving to those who acquire, in that time, a taste for a military life, to embrace it as a permanent profession. In Great Britain, on the other hand, conscription for the regular army has been unknown for half a century; and even for the militia, though authorised by law, during the late war, it was never put into execution. Thus the whole force requires to be enrolled by voluntary enlistment, and this, unless in periods of uncommon excitement, confines the recruits to the lowest ranks of society, chiefly drawn from the inhabitants of great towns, and often inveigled into the service in a moment of intoxication, or induced to enter it to escape from creditors, or the claims of bastard children. difference in the composition of the force necessarily occasions a vast difference in the means by which its discipline is to be enforced. If the whole nobility and gentry of This |