The man in question was stout and healthy, twenty-eight years of age, subject to no constitutional disease, and who, for a considerable length of time previous to his punishment, had enjoyed perfect health. He was sentenced by a court-martial to receive 800 lashes, and received 250, which he bore with a manly resolution, and was taken down, the remainder of the sentence being remitted by the Commanding Officer,-not, however, from any appearance that he could not have borne a considerable number more without incurring the smallest danger.

Fever appeared on the second day after the punishment, which was followed by inflammation and sloughing of the back. On the twentieth day from his punishment, there was scarcely an inch from his neck to his loins free from disease. He continued to languish until twentyfour days from the time of his punishment, when he expired. This case happened in the Mediterranean; and other men who were punished at the same time, and to a more considerable extent, recovered in the ordinary time. The unhappy result of this man's case could not, in Mr. Burmester's opinion, be in any material degree attributed to an unhealthy climate.

In such a punishment as flogging, accident will be sure to assist the intrinsic rigour of the system, oversight will conspire with design, and congenial circumstances will develope strict discipline into cruelty. Startling results serve to arrest the attention, and prove the general character of corporal punishment as a means of enforcing discipline.

It may be observed, that in practice the attendance of a medical officer at a punishment parade is more calculated to prevent a man from escaping the amount of infliction to which he has been sentenced, than to meliorate and reduce the severity of punishment. His professional knowledge is employed to detect whatever latent principle of life a man possesses, which may enable him to undergo the sentence awarded. It has been stated to be "less necessary to dwell upon motives of humanity and discretion, than to caution military surgeons against attempts which are sometimes made to deceive them by soldiers feigning complaints to evade punishment, and feigning syncope or fits during its infliction ;to caution them also against any untimely or undue interference with the discipline of the Service, or any vain parade of authority in the only case in which their authority can be considered as at all paramount to that of the Commanding Officer."

I may here observe, that the authority of a medical officer is on no occasion paramount to that of a Commanding Officer; he has, in fact, no military authority whatever. Medical officers are, in regard to choice of quarters, to be classed with other ranks; but this indulgence is not to give them any claim to exercise command.

Dr. Hamilton informs us, that he had seen several cases of partial or temporary loss of power of one or both arms, resulting from flogging. I have met with only one case of this kind, the right arm having become paralytic, on which account the man was discharged.

When an unusual degree of tumefaction of the back takes place during punishment, a delinquent should be taken down, as this symptom is frequently followed by long protracted disease.

Bombadier Alexander incidentally mentions a case of this kind in his Memoirs.

"In 1803, at Chatham, a private of the 9th Regiment having been found asleep on his post, was tried by a court-martial, and sentenced to be flogged. The soldier was a fine-looking lad, and bore an excellent character in his regiment. The officers were much interested in his behalf, and it was said they endeavoured to prevail upon the General in command, to give his case a favourable consideration, but without success. All the troops were assembled to witness the punishment; and during the infliction I saw the Drum-Major strike a drummer to the ground for not using his strength sufficiently. The man's back became black as the darkest mahogany, and greatly swelled. He was taken down at the recommendation of the medical officer, after he had received 229 lashes, and sent to the hospital, where he died in eight days, his back having mortified. I have witnessed 700 lashes inflicted, but I have never seen a man's back so black and swelled."

I have already stated, that extensive sloughing of the back occasionally occurs from flogging, notwithstanding the utmost care on the part of a medical officer.

"Burck," says Dr. Hamilton, "had so great a discharge from his back, accompanied with a smell so great, that though a more than ordinary robust man, it made him extremely faint and uneasy; he complained more of this than of the pain he suffered, yet he was carefully dressed and washed twice a day, and for sometime shirted once every day."

"Dale was punished for stealing, and smelled so offensively, though the greatest attention was paid to dressing and washing his back, as well as to changing his linen; and so great effect did it produce on his health, that he fell into a fever, and narrowly escaped with life. He was removed to a ward by himself, the smell being extremely offensive to the other patients. From the putrid smell of his sores, it was no easy task to dress him; and such was the precarious state of his health, that I durst trust it to no one but myself."-Hamilton, vol. ii., 60.J

In cases where great ulceration and sloughing occurs, the cicatrix is long, and, in some cases, permanently so sensible and tender, as not to permit a man to wear his cross-belts, or at any rate to carry his knapsack. I have seen a soldier permanently disabled for duty by this means, and rendered unfit for the service. It is alleged, by persons who have witnessed much flogging, that the back becomes callous by frequent corporal punishment, a circumstance which is probably occasioned by the repeated effusion of lymph.

"By frequently punishing offenders," says Dr. Williamson, "the parts become insensible to that laceration which tears up the skin. When that barbarous consequence is arrived at, its infliction becomes a matter of indifference to the unfortunate negro; and new sources of torture must be found out by which the commission of crime may be checked. It can scarcely be necessary to add, that such a condition of torpor in the parts to which punishment has been applied, can never be justified on any pretext; and I blush to reflect that white men should be the directors of such disgraceful deeds."-Observations relative to the West India Islands, by J. Williamson,. M.D., 1817.

Dr. Williamson had peculiar opportunities of acquiring information on this subject, he having resided in a medical capacity during fourteen years upon different plantations in Jamaica.

"Although that few or none die, which," says Dr. Hamilton, "I believe to be the fact, immediately from punishments moderately inflicted, I knew, from experience in the Service, that constitutions have been considerably impaired by them. We sometimes find the body melt away into a spectre

of skin and bone, from the large suppurations that have followed; nor were they ever afterwards, as long as I knew them, able to bear the same hardships as before; and they must from thence also be more incident, not only to contagious diseases, if they be in the way of them, but to other complaints to which fatigue or hardships of duty may expose them."-Hamilton, vol. ii., 56.

Dr. Kirckhoff makes a similar observation in regard to the use of the cane in the army of the King of the Netherlands :—

"The punishment of the cane," says the Doctor, "is injurious to the health, for it may occasion spitting of blood and inflammatory affections of the chest, followed by consumption and death. I have seen men expire immediately after the punishment, and even during the infliction."

Serjeant Armstrong, who was flogged to death by the orders of Governor Wall, passed blood constantly after his punishment, both by urine and stool; and the Surgeon stated also, that he had an asthma from the extraordinary absorption of the blood.

Sir Henry Hardinge bears strong testimony in regard to the injurious effects of the Portuguese mode of punishing military delinquents.

"Punishment," says Sir Henry, was inflicted by a Corporal seizing the culprit, and striking him with the flat of the sword upon the back. It was necessary to be done with the utmost caution, for it affected the chest so severely, that sometimes consumption and lingering complaints were the consequence. It bruised the body, and frequently led to spitting of blood, ind very serious complaints."-Evidence on Military Punishments, Questions £657 and 5658.

Sir Henry commanded five Portuguese battalions in the Pyrenees, by which means his attention was peculiarly directed towards the hurtful consequences of this mode of punishment.

"The proper end of human punishment," says Paley, "is not the satisfaction of justice, but the prevention of crimes. By the satisfaction of justice, I mean the retribution of so much pain for so much guilt."

The chief design of punishment being therefore to prevent the commission of crimes, not to avenge wrongs, if this can be obtained, the end of the law is accomplished. And may not that be as effectually done by moderate as by excessive severity? To reform delinquents, and to deter others from committing crimes, being the true object of the military law, it is presumed the punishment of offenders should be such as to give temporary pain and anxiety, but which should carry no lasting infamy with it, other than the reflection of having been punished, a punishment, in fine, which repentance might obliterate. The ignominy which is connected with corporal punishment, but especially the brand of infamy which results from an ulcerated back, is an indelible and fearful consequence of flogging.

Great melioration of the penal laws and usages of the Army has taken place since 1812; and I take leave to observe, that the general state and conduct of the troops has proved the safety and the policy of the alteration. I sincerely hope that "the improvement will be extended, and that the Army will not long be subjected to a degrading nd barbarous torture, from which less moral men and much worse soldiers are exempted in every service in Europe."

Previously to concluding this part of my subject, I may express my U. S. MAG., No. 187, JUNE, 1844.

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cordial concurrence with the sentiments which Dr. Hamilton published fifty years ago, in his chapter on military punishments. "I wish," said he, "after all, the military laws knew no such thing as flogging, and that in place thereof some other mode of punishment could be devised less ignominious. On this head, however, I dare say nothing, it is out of my line of life, though I wish it with all my soul abolished as an inhuman thing, more suiting the nature of savages than civilized and polished nations." Indeed, I feel confident, that in a very short time flogging will be very little resorted to in the Army, that it will in fact fall into disuse, and that people will lift up their hands and wonder, as we do now in regard to some of the former barbarous punishments, that it has been tolerated and practised so long.

Were it demonstrated that flogging is sufficient to deter soldiers from the commission of certain crimes, and that other means of preventing crime after an adequate trial are insufficient, then perhaps flogging should be inflicted in a limited degree; but if it does not effect the above object, then it ought to be completely abolished, the only legitimate ends of punishment being to prevent the delinquent from repeating the crime, and to deter others from emulating it.

The usual defence of the punishment of flogging by military officers, rests wholly on the assumption that corporal puuishment has the effect of preventing crime and sustaining discipline, and that it is superior to every other remedial means for that end. Degrading punishments very rarely produce contrition and reformation.

"There is not an instance in a thousand," says Dr. Jackson, "where severe punishment has made a soldier what he ought to be; there are thousands where it has rendered those who were forgetful and careless, rather than vicious, insensible to honour and abandoned to crime."

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The reformation of a delinquent should be the motive, the object, and measure of all penal inflictions of a secondary character. Let reformation be recognised as a primary object in all punishments, and we shall have good security for the adoption of humane and judicious measures. Should the allegation of the Reverend Robert Hall, in regard to the trade of war be well founded, and, perhaps, it is much too true, great care should be taken to promote good conduct, and to repress vice in the Army. "War," says he, reverses with respect to its objects all the rules of morality. It is nothing less than a temporary repeal of all the principles of virtue. It is a system out of which almost all the virtues are excluded, and in which nearly all the vices are incorporated." A State which contracts for the minds and bodies of men for an unlimited period, and which leads them into the temptations incident to a military life, becomes in a great measure responsible for their temporal and eternal welfare. Having surrendered their independence for life, and sworn unconditional obedience to their superiors, soldiers have a strong claim to become the adopted children of their country, and to be treated accordingly. The State has no doubt a right to command, but it has also important duties to perform; duties which comprehend the means of promoting the efficiency, the welfare, and the happiness of the Army.

AN INCIDENT OF CIVIL WARFARE.

PRIOR to the peace of Fontainbleau, in 1762, it is known that Mr. Pitt and his successors directed all the energies of our country to the extirpation of the French from America, and to depriving that nation of her colonies in every part of the world. General Wolfe's glorious conquest of Quebec, greatly contributed to our success. Our military force in North America was necessarily very large, and it of course comprised many of our regiments of Guards. It happened that the first regiment of Foot Guards was for some time stationed at Charleston, the capital of South Carolina, then a most important province in turning the scale of victory in our favour. In that regiment there was a young gentleman, of very superior appearance, a Lieutenant Powell, of the highest and richest of the families in Glamorganshire, in South Wales. This young officer became violently attached to a Miss Middleton, the sole heiress of a very large property, and the female representative of, without exception, the most aristocratic family in what we should now call "The United States," or, “The Union.” Miss Middleton was beautiful and highly accomplished, and in those days accomplishments were very little sought after or attended to in our colonies, by either males or females, whatever might be the affluence of their families. A marriage ensued between the young lovers, and a son was born, and christened Middleton Powell.

The peace being concluded, the first regiment of Foot Guards was ordered home, and though excessively attached to his young wife, the Lieutenant was such a military enthusiast, that he resisted all her entreaties to sell out and leave the Army, and he returned with his regiment to England. The boy was left to the care of his mother till the age of eight, when the father, reflecting on the extremely unintellectual culture, with the gross habits and language prevalent throughout all our slave colonies, resolved to bring his son to England for education. He repaired to Charleston, to soothe the mother's affliction at separating from her only son and child. The lady, though intensely affectionate, saw the necessity of the measure; and concealing the throbbings of an aching heart, took leave of her son.

The boy was brought to England, was put to Eton, studied suc cessfully for honours at Oxford, was entered at Lincoln's Inn, and called to the bar. He had no intention or inclination to practice the legal profession; but his wish was to qualify himself for the senate and for public business.

Having arrived at the age of twenty-one, and completed every study, he took his passage for America, in order to embrace his mother. On the eve of embarking, he received a letter from Charleston, announcing the death of his parent, and conveying an intimation that, with respect to property, his presence on his estates would be advisable.

He left England, after most affectionately taking leave of his beloved father. Arriving in the American capital, he resolved on his plan and habits of life. He had a house spacious and elegant, and as elegantly furnished. His establishment was good; but though his aristocracy of birth, and his great wealth, were passports to society, and even to public