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Untitled Article
WOtild appear , differed materially from the atmosphere of We&tr minster and St Stephen ' s , for immediately that he arrived there he put the flogging syateiii into execution to an extent which is even unknown in the British service . The sentence of the very first Court Martial ordering the infliction of corporeal
punishment , he confirmed ; he attended the punishment parade himself ; and made a speech , in which he stated , that the service wherein the troops had embarked rendered it necessary that the strictest order and discipline should be observed to prevent those , whose interests they had come to protect , looking on them as enemies—that the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsula
had hanged men for being guilty of plundering , but for the present he should be contented with the infliction of a minor punishment- —that he had never been an advocate for corporeal punishment iii the army , but that now he was determined to have recourse to it . He kept his word . Never did the lash resound louder at San Domingo , or Tobago , than it has done at Santander , Estellero , Portugualette , Bilbao ; wherever , in fact ,
the British Legion has been quartered . But this is not all . He put the odious and degrading system of " provosting" upon a principle which allowed every stripling officer in the service to order the infliction of the lash , just as caprice or ill-temper might dictate , Without the accused being allowed even a trial , or permitted to advance any evidence in self-defence The constituents of General Evans will read with astonishment the following General Order , which is so diametrically opposed to all his former professions on the subject , that it looks more like a forgery than an authentic document : —
O . O . " Head Quarters , San Sebastian , " September 2 , 1835 . # * # « au provosts and their assistants are empowered to inflict summary punishment on the breech to the amount of twenty four lashes , according to the degree of the offence , on soldiers and followers of the army committing offences against discipline , plundering , drunkenness , ? iotence , and , id short , every thing tending to the subversion of good order in the army . The provost must either witness the offence himself or have it from the evidence of competent eye witnesses ; the punish * ment in every case to be inflicted on the spot or near the same . "
Under this General Order , almost every officer being necessarily held a competent witness , was at liberty to order the infliction of punishment . This was done in the following manner : —Captain A ., Surgeon B ., or Assistant-Surgeon C ., forwarded a note to the Provost Marshal , inscribed after the following fashion : —Private J—n— , 9 th reg . —Crimes ; 1 st , dirty on parade , 2 dozen ; 2 nd , neglect of duty , 2 dozen ; 3 rd , insolence , 2 dozen ; then followed the signature of the officer ;
Untitled Article
The Civil War in Spain . 196
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 1, 1837, page 195, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1830/page/5/
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