232 CRIME AND PUNISHMENT Hanyat's stories. Abolition off History of reform. of- war. There may be some exaggeration in the stories told by Marryat on the subject ; but if his narratives were not always founded on fact, his descriptions were drawn from his own experience during the years he was at sea. The story of the captain of an eighteen-gun brig ordering five dozen lashes to be given to a seaman for spitting on the quarter- deck, may be a humourous invention ; but it is nevertheless a good illustration of the manner in which punishment was usually administered in the navy at that period. It was inflicted not only by the captains and superior officers, but by the boatswain and boatswain's mates, who carried rattans or rope's ends to quicken the movements of the men. The practice continued for many years after the close of the last century. The agitation in Parliament for its abolition began in 1811 ; but it was not until 1859 that corporal punishment in the navy was restricted to cases of insubordination or other serious offences, established before a Court of inquiry held by a captain and two lieutenants.* The results of the abolition form an unanswerable argu- ment in favor of the reform. At no time in the history of the army and navy was discipline better than it is in the present day, when flogging is never heard of; a fact which justifies the conclusion that discipline might have been maintained in both services throughout the whole of the flogging period without any recourse to that method of correction. The temper of the age with respect to the question of crime and its punishment may perhaps be best understood by reviewing the efforts made to reform the existing system. During the eighteenth century no serious or systematic effort was made for that purpose; it is doubtful, indeed, whether the House of Commons would have listened to any proposals of the kind. The Lords would certainly have
- lb., p. 570. Floff^Dg in the army was abolished in time of peace in
1868, and totally abolished in 1881. A proposal to abolish it in we navy was negatived in the House of Commons in 1879, by 239 votes to 56. — Haydn, Dictionary of Dates. Digitized by Google
