On this page

• Departments (1)
  • 
• Text (4)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    AN INNER YIEW OF A:\IE11ICAN AFFAIRS.*

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    Feb 11 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 185

    Untitled Article

    * Theodora l * arkor ' a Mxporionoo as a Minister ; with some aooomt of hi * early Lifo '< t » d Education for ( ho Ministry . London : John Qhnpninn * 1851 ) .

    Untitled Article

    EVERY country is unique . Only in a very modified measure does the understanding of one ' s own land help to the comprehension of another . The reading- of the impressions left by their sojourns in England , even by such competent men as Max Schlesmger and Kohl , leaves upon our minds a strong" sense of the incornpetency of the most intelligent and . liberal foreigners fully to understand England and our institutions . No Frenchman understands us . Montalembei't , perhaps , lias made the nearest approach fco a clear view ; and yet his . whole conclusions are affected by a narrow parliamentary way of looking at us , and a still narrower , " Upper Ten Thousand" restraint qf vision . And even the paradox is sound , that the more similar two states are , the greater is the difficulty for a member of either temporarily to denationalize himself ; , and to look at the other with the oyes of its own citizen . The cosmopolitanism bred by modern facility of mutual intercourse and tho expansion of reciprocal trade in things and thoughts , does a great deal to rub off the accidents of nationality , but does nearly as much to indurate tho essentials . The most cosvnopolitan of Scotchmen , most cosmopolitan of fill people , has a firm national basis behind ; in which ho fixes his anahor all tho firmer , that he rides on the wide waves of the world with a very long- cable . If this view be accepted as truthful ^ wo have paved tho way for the acknowledgment that the reading of a good , many recent books , by English travellers and residents in the United States , Dr . tylackay and Mr , Grftttan among tbeni , while largely informing us of tho American habits and institutions , lias also left an impression oi incompleteness . We have left tho perusal , grateful for new stores of facts about America , but wishful for a better rnaatcr-key with which to unlock the meanings of the facts . The former of these writers was n tourist , saw only the Qutsides of things , and in their holiday habiliments . The diplomatic office of tho latter prevented his forgetting that he Was an Englishman . He was necessarily , and prominently , in antagonism with the States on many public questions . At the best , lacking sympathy and appreciation , a type of tho average travelling Englishman , and so genteel as to bo shocked by much around him in Now England that waa worthy but roughKy set , —ho was made ull . tUo more unfitted for his work by tho special conditions of his place . In a very small and remarkably . modest and unpretending broohuro . which has recency mat our oycB , wo huvo found a groat deal about

    Untitled Article

    ¦ nine hundred and ninety-seven of them were flogged in the year 1 OK . Q- " ¦ ¦ ¦ . ¦ ¦'¦¦¦ . ¦ ¦ . .. '¦ . ¦ . ; Let us , if we can , figure to ourselves what this flogging of nine hundred and ninety-seven human beings actually means . A man guarded by soldiers and ship ' corporals , is taken out of irons , or put of bonfmeuiekand conducted to the place of * umshment . There his feet . ire tied apart to a grating placed on the ^ deck , and his handsrare tied apart to another grating , reared upright from one deck to another , and lie stands as if nailed to a cross , his back a fan : mark for the jcanfier , 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 tn ay have no protection . AH the officers and men . of the ship are summoned to be present . He is surrounded by soldiers and ^ others and cannot possibly wrest himself loose , even to throw himself overboard . Perfectly resistless and helpless , he stands tied fast , while the captain solemnly reads the article of war against which he is said to have offended , aud gives the order to the boatswain , or his mates , to flog him . The instrument used is a formidable cat 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 to hit as hard as he can , I < ash after ¦ lash falls on the naked back , and the man groans and writhes with agony , or stoically grinds his teeth , and bears unwincingly what lie can by , no means escape from . His back , first marked with whitish stripes , soon becomes red , inflamed , swollen , and black ; the blood begins to drop , to trickle , and to run , till it flows from the bruised body into the trousers ; lash follows lash—boatswain ' s-mate follows boatswairi ' s-niate—till the ordained torture has been suffered to the last blow . The head begins , perhaps , to droop ; the sufferer grows faint ; water is handed to him , to enable him to undergo the whole torture ; the doctor feels his pulse , declares that be . will not yet faint or die , and the last of the ordained lashes is as mercilessly given as the first . Solemnly , as an act , so-called , of jiistice , as if in mockery of the sacred word , is all this cruelty perpetrated . The sun may scorch under the trppics- ^ the snow and ice may lie on the decks , as in our own climate in winter—the bloody work is done all tke same ; slowly , and with horrid ceremonials , 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 and ninety-seven 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 Chajing Cross to Temple Bar , were tortured in this horrid barbarian fashion on board the ships of the Empress of , the sea , who boasts that she is for ever engaged in 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 bis nine-tailed cat .. Some peculiarities in the return reveal to \ is that this solemn system of justice is about the least uniform and most capricious of all systems of punishment . 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 , Tho caj ) tain of the "Actseon" gave one hundred and forty-four lashes to -three men ; 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 tho men under their orders . The captains of the Iris and the Coquet inflicted on the average thirty-nine lashes on the backs of their wen , and the captain of ihe Ariel keeps the golden mean of thirty-six . The captain of the C » sar inflicted one hundred and thirty-ei ^ ht lashes on seven men , which is less than twenty each man . The captain of the Briine gave only eighteen lashes to only one man ; the captain of the Fisgard , lying we think at Deptford , and under our eye , inflicted only twelve lashes on each of tho persons he flogged . The offences in all the ships are much the . same . Drunkenness , insubordination , theft ; and the gveat 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 punisher , than on tho gravity of the offence punished . The" same important truth , convincing us that the scandalous system is maintained not from any necessity for punishment in tho flogged 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 tho persons liable to punishment on board tho ¦* ' Excellent , " to quote one or two examples , pnly one in three hundred and fifteen men was flogged—average twenty lashoa ; in the " Ceoaar , " one in one hundred and eleven—average twenty lashes ; in the " Eurjaius , " one in ninety-eight—average twenty-eight lushes ; in the " Jjyra , " however , one in five of those liable wore iioggo 4 ; in the * ' Weser , " one in six ; and in tho " Opossum , " one in seven : and in these ships the number of lashes inflicted respectively at each flogging was thirty « four > thirty-seven , and thirtynine . As the vale , and wo can quote but these few examples , wumprous floggings , and severe floggings , aro found on boArd the enmo ships . In some ships about forty out of two hundred and . sixteen , having oi > . board nearly d , 50 Q persons liable to be flogged , or one-ninth of the whole , no men wore flogged . Now , as the crows of all the ships ore much alike , as they aro frequently mingled and

    mon observation- common humaiiifcy , sind common sense . Only by so doing can . there be any hope of driving , this stolid body to alter the system . As now reflected , however , in 4 / he conduct of American Flippers and mates , who use in hot anger handspikes and marlinspikes to men who can get out of the way of their blows , where the Admiralty slowly and solemnly uses the cat on the helpless tied-up Victim who cannot budge , Britannia ' s naval discipline is becoming much too atrocious to be borne . Justice , humanity ^ patriotism , the national safety , all protest loudly against it ; and the whole world will despise Englishmen if they do not inform jthe Board of Admiralty , corrupt in its origin and continuance , that Britannia must no longer by it be so scandalously dishonoured .

    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 inunerous desertions , of the character of seamen being degraded ; but 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

    comman , 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 such 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 whom it corrupts and debases we find , judging from the return , the worst examples of

    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 seamem It is possible—even though we shrink with horror from the thought-r-that the intemperance of , individual captains maj influence the number aiid 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 on board the smaller ships . Britannia's big ships , commanded by her veterans- —her men of experience—wlio know something more than the striplings 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 midship-

    An Inner Yiew Of A:\Ie11ican Affairs.*

    \ - \ T TXTVT 17 TJ VTT ? . W r » P AArF . TJTf . /\ M ATPFATTCS *

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 11, 1860, page 135, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2333/page/11/