230 CRIME AND PUNISHMENT Military upon their dignity in these matters. Any breach of discipline, however slight, was sufficient to set the law in motion. In 1792, a sergeant named Grant was sentenced to one thousand lashes for having enlisted two drummers of the Coldstream Guards into the East India Company^s service. And in 1832, a private in the Scots Greys was tried and sentenced to two hundred lashes "for highly unsoldierlike conduct in dismounting without leave, when taking his lesson in the riding-school, and absolutely refus- ing to remount his horse when ordered to do so." Many other instances of the same kind might be quoted. The manner in which this form of punishment was admin- istered in the army is forcibly described by Sir Charles Sir Charles Napier. Referring to the time when he was a subaltern, he says : — I then frequently saw six hundred, seven hundred, eight hun- dred, nine hundred, and a thousand lashes sentenced by regimental Courts-martial ; and generally every lash inflicted. I have heard of twelve hundred having been inflicted, but never witnessed such an execution. Even a General Court-martial cannot do this now. Its sentence cannot exceed two hundred lashes. I then often saw the unhappy victim of such barbarous work brought out from the hospital three and four times to receive the remainder of his punishment, too severe to be borne without danger of death at one flogging ; and sometimes I have witnessed this prolonged tor- ture applied for the avowed purpose of adding to its severity. On these occasions it was terrible to see the new tender skin of the scarcely healed back again laid bare to receive the lash. I declare that, accustomed as I was to such scenes, I could not on these occasions bear to look at the first blows : the feeling of horror which ran through the ranks was evident, and all soldiers know the frequent faintings that take place among recruits when they first see a soldier flogged. Some commanders appear to have studied flogging as an art, with a view to the infliction of the greatest possible torture on the victim : — I have heard, and I have no doubt of the fact because it was generally talked of and admitted to be so, though I never saw it. Scenes at the triangles. The art of flogging. Digitized by Google
