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Untitled Article
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Examiner hints that there has been another cause of the relaxation of iiscipline * that a spirit of hatred between the soldiers and the people ias been sedulously cultivated by their officers : — 1 suspect that the truculent spirit boastfully manifested by the officers towards the people has had some effect on the actions of the men . Military outrages against the people have been looked upon by the ifficers with an indulgent eye , and hence , doubtless , an increase of such
jffences ; and misconduct in one direction begets misconduct in another , ind the soldier who has spurned the civil law , under a superior provoking he transgression which he seems to chide , soon ventures to trespass ilso against the military law . We could mention cases in which tnere nas been mixed a violation of military and civil law , and in -which the wrong against the people seems to have redeemed , in the eyes of the nilitary judges , the infraction of military rule , for the punishment allotted n consideration of both offences has been far short of what it would in
ill probability have been had the military offence been unmingled with he other . We have put a question thus to military men : What would > e the punishment of a party drunk on their march , who used their roop-horses for the sport of women picked up on the road side ?—And he sentence supposed in the answer has far exceeded the punishment rhich was actually awarded in such a case—with this ( excusing ) addiion , that the sword was drawn upon people who manifested their disgust 1 the most indecent and brutal conduct . The remark which will not
vant examples in various quarters is this—that offences against the liscipline of the army , which would be severely punished if solely ) ffences against discipline , are more leniently dealt with if mixed up nth offences against the laws of the land . The people of the lower part if Westminster will bear testimony to the truth of this observation . But here is not only an indulgence for military riot at the expense of the mblic peace , but a direct defiance of the civil law is occasionally taught
o the soldiery ; thus a commanding officer lately ordered the barrack-[ ates to be closed against a constable with a warrant for the apprehenion of one of the privates . Whatever insubordination there now is in be army , is the natural effect of the spirit and countenance of its officers ince the agitation of the Reform Bill . The license of the soldiery > as extended , as license always will do , beyond the intention of those riio were pleased to relax discipline for a particular object . ' We fear there is much truth in these remarks . But we conceive that
he root of the matter lies still deeper . It is a vice inherent in an army r a navy exclusively officered by gentlemen , that the soldiers and sailors mat be treated like brutes . If indeed the commanding officer be a > an to whom those under him can look up with reverence , that reveence renders his mere displeasure so severe a punishment , that he is We to dispense with corporal torture . Nelson needed it not , nor
Coln gwood , nor Sir Alexander Ball ; and never were ships' crews bo hnirabl y disciplined as theirs . Whether in a regiment , a ship , or a -hool , those only govern by torture who have not the virtue necessary ) r governing by personal influence . When the scourge is needed , it is w the fault and often the crime of the superior . But from almost 1 superiors , faults , and from many , crimes , are to be expected . No my or navy is officered with Nelsons and Collingwoods . These were r men . The discipline of an army or navy cannot be left dependent
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Flogging in the Army . 599
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1834, page 599, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2636/page/69/
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