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Untitled Article
continued through two days ; the following was the decision of the Bench : 4 From the very difficult situation in which we are placed with a brother magistrate , we could have wished that we had not had the case to decide . The Court , however , is unanimously of opinion that this case is not of sufficient importance to be sent to the Sessions ; they do consider the assault proved , and do adjudicate the full penalty of jive pounds to be paid by the defendant . '
Assuredly all persons in England , of whatever sex or age , who happen to be weak of body , have abundant reason to be grateful for the mildness and humanity of modern manners ; for it is now proclaimed to the world that any person of property and station , who is sufficiently a brute in his own . nature , and is not ashamed of being considered so by
others , may beat and kick his female servants to any pitch , short of danger to life or limb , and may insult them with any degree of contumely , without incurring from the justice of his country the slightest inconvenience . Suppose that this girl had a brother , or a lover , who had resented the injury to her , let us say only by knocking down the wretch who committed it ; was there a man on that Bench who would
not have thought him most leniently dealt with by being sent for only a month to the tread-mill ? And these dastardly creatures would be the foremost , probably , to inveigh against the insubordination and against the immorality of the poor . Why , if the English people , being a brave people , were not also a most obedient , peaceable , and moral people , these men would not have dared show themselves in the streets without an escort of soldiers after delivering such a judgment .
The ' Chronicle' says it cannot doubt that the matter will be investigated , and that if the facts stated are correct , Major Pitman will be dismissed from the magistracy * Alas ! no . Who ever heard of a magistrate dismissed for oppressing the poor , or tyrannizing over the weak ? It is not for such trifles , that Chancellors and Home Secretaries vvill be uncivil to a gentlemanly man . If Major Pitman had even done any thing really ungentlemanly ; if he had refused to pay a gaming debt , or shown the white feather in an affair of honour ; even then ,
though a minister might cut him , no minister would think of turning him out of the Commission of the Peace . lie would retain the power of imprisoning and transporting his fellow creatures until he happened to be hanged or transported himself . But these things will not last much longer . Every such occurrence is but another kick to the ball which is rushing down hill with perpetually increasing velocity . The magistracy of England , with the rest of our aristocratic institutions , will , in a few years , have ceased to be . at
27 th July . Flogging in the A frny . —The late disgusting exhibition Charing Cross Barracks has excited a feeling in the public , which has compelled the Secretary at War to promise that a commission shall be issued to revise the whole of our military system . In the speech i « which he made this announcement , Mr . Ellice declared that since public opinion has so greatly restricted the punishment of flogging , military discipline has greatly relaxed ; that acts of insubordination have become much more frequent than before , and that in the last year one-fifth ° ' the whole army have been subjected to charges of different kinds . * T '
Untitled Article
598 Notes on the Newspapers .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1834, page 598, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2636/page/68/
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