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    Peb. 11, I860.] The Leader and Saturday ...

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    AN ItfNETL VIEW OF AMETUCAN AljTAIHS* E ...

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    ir^ - 1 - , i ji i - r .ii l, ¦¦ i ii i ...

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    Britannia's Shame.* We Hear So Pftcu And...

    nine hundred and ninety-seven of them were flogged in the year 1858 ... Let us , if we can , figure to ourselves what this flogging of nine limidred and ninety-seven human beings actually means . A man , guarded by soldiers and ship ' s corporals , is taken out of irons , or out of Confinement , and conducted to the place of punishment . / Lhere his feet are tied apart to a grating placed on the deck , and his hands are tied apart to another grating , reared upright from one deck to another , and he stand ' s as if nailed to a cross , his back a fair mark for the ^ cariner , and his face to the hard grating . He is stripped naked to the waist ; his hair is carefully fastened round his head , that his back may have no protection . All the officers and men of the ship are summoned to be present . He is surrounded by soldiers and others , sintl cannot nossiblv wrest himself loose , even to throw himself

    overboard . Perfectly resistless and helpless , he stands tied last , while the captain solemnly reads the article of war against which Le is said to have offended , aud gives the order to the boatswain , or his mates , to flog him . The instrument used is a formidable « afc of nine knotted tails , each of which is as thick as a tobacco pipe stem , fastened to a stout , strong handle . It is wielded by a stalwart man—his jacket off , his arms bare—and compelled by a threat of similar punishment tohit as hard as he can . Lash after lash falls on the naked back , and the man groans and writhes with agony ,, or stoically grinds his teeth , and bears unwincingly what he can by no means escape from . His back , first marked with ¦ whitish stripes , soon becomes red , inflamed , swollen , and black ; the Wood begins t & drop , to trickle , and to run , till it flows from the bruised body into the trousers ; lash followsIashr—boats wain ' s-m ate follows boatswain ' s-mate—till the ordained torture has been suffered to the last blow . The head begins , perhaps ,, to droop ; the sufferer

    snows faint ; water is handed to him , to enable him to undergo the whole torture ; the doctor feels his pulse , declares that lie will not yet faint or die , and the last of the ordained lashes is as mercilesslv given as the first . Solemnly , as an act , so-called , ofjustice , as if in mockery of the sacred word , is all this cruelty perpetrated . The sun may scorch under the tropics—the snow and ice may lie _ on the decks , as in otir own climiate in winter—the bloody work is done all the same ; slowly , and with horrid ceremonialsj such as accompany all barbarian sacrifices ! On the last year but one of the national existence , this brutal , bloody work , of which we have endeavoured to give our readers an idea , was done on the backs of nine hundred ami ninety-seve ; n of our fellow-creatures engaged in the noble service of the national defence . Almost one thousand , as many persons ^ as giving the hand to each other might reach in a line from Charing . ¦ Ci'ifas to ^ Temple Bar , were tortured in this horrid barbarian fashion on board the ships of the Empress of the sea , wlio boasts that she is for ever engaged iu missionary works of humanity and Christian

    love . The nine hundred and ninety-seven bruised and bloody backs had inflicted on them 32 , 420 lashes ; and if we suppose that only six of the tails struck each time , they felt the anguish of 194 , 520 stripes . On every back , on the average , thirty-two lashes . and ¦ something more were struck by the heavy-handed boatswain ' s mate and his linie-tailed cat . Some peculiarities in the return reveal to us that this solemn system of justice is about the least uniform and most capricious of all systems of punishmen t * On some backs fifty lashes fell , on others only three ; but the general average may be stated at three dozen lashes , which the captains and commanders of Britannia ' s ships inflicted on each person flogged . The captain of the " Action "gave one hundred and forty-four lashes to three jn en 5 the captain of the " ' Antelope" ninety-six lashes to two men ; the captain of the " Conflict " the same ; so that they were in

    the habit of inflicting four dozen lashes on the naked backs of the an < n under their orders . The captains , of the Iris and the Coquet inflicted on the average thirty-nine lashes on the bacsUs of their men , « in & the captain' of the Ariel keeps the golden ¦ mean of thirty-six . Tlje captain of the Csesar inflicted one hundred and thirty-eight lashes on seven men , which is Jess than twenty each man . The captain of the Bruno gave only eighteen , lashes to only one man j the captain of the Fisgard , lying 1 we think at Deptfbrd , and under our eye , inflicted only twelve lashes on each of the persons he flogged . The oftbnees in all the ships are much the same . Drunkenness , insubordination , theft ; 4 ind the g- 'eat difference of punishment between one dozen and four dozen lashes for the same offences proves completely that the severity of the punishment depends more on the temper of each individual , captain or punislier , than on the gravity of the offence punished ..

    The same important truth , convincing us that the scandalous system is maintained not from any necessity for punishment in the Hogged and tortured mass , but from the cruel dispositions of the iloggors , glares on us from the number of persons flogged in the different ships . Of the persons liable to punishment on board the " Excellent , " to quote one or two examples , " only one in three hundred and fifteen men was flogged- —average twenty lashes ; in the " Ccosnr , " one in one hundred and eleven—average twenty lashes ; in the " Eui'yalus , " one in njnety-oight—average twenty-eight lnshes ; in the " Lyra , " however , one in five of those liable were

    flogged ; in the " Weser , " one in six ; and in the " Opossum , " ono in seven : and in these ships the number of lnshqs inflicted respectively at each flogging was thirty-four , tliirty ^ sovon , and thirty * nino . As the rule , and wo oan quote but tnese few . examples , Jdumorons floggings , and severe floggings , nro found onboard the same ships , Jn some ships about forty out of two hundred and sixteen , having 1 on board nenrly 5 , 500 persona liable to bo flogged , ox one-ninth of the whole , no then wore flogged . Now , as the crows of all the ships are much alike , aa they are frequently mingled an 4

    interchanged , it becomes perfectly clear that the different degrees of brutality noticed are due to the idiosyncrasies of different captains , not to the virtues and vices of the seamen . It is possible- —even though we shrink with horror from the thought—that the intemperance of individual - captains may influence the 1 number and severity of the floggings * . ^ ¦/ , ' - As the rule , too , it appears that the greater proportionate number of men tortured , and tortured in the severest manner , occurs ou board the smaller ships . Britannia's big ships , commanded by her veterans—her men of experience ^—who know something more than the stripling's placed by aristocratic connections , and . Admiralty corruption in command—are far less dishonoured - by brutal floggings than the little vessels . Hot , hasty , and ignorant , the young

    midshipman , hardened by the cruel sights he is forced to witness and bear a part in , as he steps into command becomes a martinet , and has no notion of using any other means than the bloody cat he is intrusted with to preserve the obedience of his crew . It must be a horrible reflection for the aristocratic mothers of England , that the gentle boys who go from their arms or the care of kind preceptors to be Britannia ' s sea captains , are compelled to attend su _ ch cruel scenes , and are thus corrupted and hardened in the very beginning of life , to delight afterwards , perhaps , in cruelty originally abhorrent to their natures . Thus , however , by continually hardening youngsters , instruments are created for perpetuating the barbarous system from generation to generation , and amongst the youth whoni it corrupts and debases we find , judging from the return , the worst examples of

    its abominations . ¦ ¦[ It is not our fault—it is the fault of the besotted Admiralty that we are obliged to recur again and again to these brutalities . Annually is evidence . laid before the Board of its extreme folly . Monthly , weekly , almost daily , does it hear of a difficulty'in getting seamen , of mnnerous desertions , of the character ' o ' f--seamen being degraded ; hut obstinately does it shut its eyes and its ears to the consequences of its own acts , and continue the capricious , partial , barbarous , and' disgusting old . system , which , it dignifies with the name of discipline . The Board compels the press repeatedly and continually to notice the consequences of its utter want , of comseiis Onlb

    mon observation , common humanity , and common e . y y so doing can there be any hope of driving this stolid body to alter the system . As now reflected , however , in the conduct of American Bkippers and mates , who use in hot anger handspikes and marlinspikes to men who caii get out of the way of their blows , wliere the Admiralty slowly and solemnly uses the . baton the helpless tied-up victim who cannot budge , Britannia ' s , naval discipline is becoming much top atrocious to be borne . Justice , humanity , patriotism , the national safetv , all protest loudly against it and the whole world will despise Englishmen ' if they do not inform tlie Board of Admiralty , corrupt in its origin and continuance , that Britannia must no longer by it be so scandalously , dishonoured .

    Peb. 11, I860.] The Leader And Saturday ...

    Peb . 11 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 135

    An Itfnetl View Of Ametucan Aljtaihs* E ...

    AN ItfNETL VIEW OF AMETUCAN AljTAIHS * E VERY country is unique . Only in a very modified measure docs the understanding of one ' s own land help to the comprehension of another . The reading of the impressions left by their sojourns in ^ Eng land , even by such competent men as Max Scihlesingor and Kohl , leaves upon our minds a . strong sense of the ineompetency of the most intelligent and liberal foreigners fully to understand EnghmcJ and our institutions . No French man understands us . HVXontalembcrt , perhaps , has wade the nearest approach to a clear view ; and yet . his whole conclusions are affected by a narrow parliamentary way of looking afc us , and a stijl narrower , " Upper Ten Thousand" restraint of vision . And even the paradox is sound , that the more similar two states arc , tho greater is the

    difficulty for a member of either temporarily to denationalize himself , ami to look at the other with the eyes of its own citizen . The cosmopolitanism bred by modern . facility of mutual intercourse and the expansion of reciprocal trade in things and thoughts , does a great deal to rub oil' tho accidents of nationality , but does nearly as much to indurate the essentials . Tho most cosmopolitan of Scotchmen , wu > st cosmopolitan of all people , has a firm uational basis behind ; in which ho fixes his anchor all tho firmer , that he ridos oil the wide waves of tho world with a very long cable . If this view be accepted as truthful , wo- have paved the way for the acknowledgment that the reading of a good many recent books , by English travellers and residents in the United States , Dr . Mackay and Mr . Grattnn , among thorn , while largely informing ub of the American habits find institutions , has altio left an impression of incomplctoaesfl . Wo ljavo loft , tho porusul , grateful for new storoa of facts about America , but wiBh . Au for a better mastor-lcey with which to unlock tho meanings of tho facts . Tho former of those writers Was a tourist , saw only tho outsides of things , and in their holiday habiliments . Tho diplomatic odlco of the latter pvovontod his forgetting that ho was an Englishman . Ho was nocpssanly , and prominently , in antagoniam with"tho Statoa on many public quostions . At tho best , lacking sympathy and appreciation , a typo of the ' average travelling Englishman , and ho gontool tia to bo shocked by much around him in Now England that was worthy but roughly sot , ' —ho was uwclo till tho more unfittod for his work by tho special conditions * of his place . In a very small and remarkably modest and unpretending ' OrooUuro which luis recently mot our eyes , we Imvo found a great deal noout i ¦

    Ir^ - 1 - , I Ji I - R .Ii L, ¦¦ I Ii I ...

    ir - 1 - , i ji i - r . ii l , ¦¦ i ii i . . , , i | i i ) " ii t— "" ¦¦¦¦ ' ¦( ' — " ' * B * Thoodoro Pttrk-or ' s ' Ji ^ orienoa as a Mlnlatori with " ° > ' <> , ' J ! , JiC ! , l ! , s oarh / ' Ltfo ' aml JSUuvadvU for tho Ministry . London t John ClmpnMUU 1800 . .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 11, 1860, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11021860/page/11/