Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1879 — Forbes on the Lash. [ARTICLE]

Forbes on the Lash.

In the new number of the Nineteenth Century Mr. Arcnib&ld Forbes denounces the factious conduct of the “obstructionists, humanitarians, claptrapists and what not,” whose persistent aud unpatriotic opposition to the flogging clauses of the Army Discipline bill has produced an act that can nave no other effect than to diminish the efficiency of the British army. Borne of the arguments of opponents of corporeal punishment he meets with opposite instances. For instance, with reference to the contention that the consciousness of a liability to be flogged does not act as a deterrent, Mr. Forbes relucantly adduces bis owu experience: “Twenty years ago I enlisted in a cavalry regiment. Young, full of spirits and vigor, not destitute of money, and having no experience of descipliue, it must be said that not in every respect was I a model soldier. For offences of light-tenderness _l was somewhat scandalously often in trouble. At length, for an escapade on the line of march from Liverpool to Sheffield, I was tried by a regimental court-martial, a.,d underwent twenty-eight days’ imprisonment, on the most strickly farinaceous food, in the Sheffield ‘garrison provost.’ Emerging from confinement, with a head shorn so bare that it resembled an affable turnip, my light-hearted ness was not long in reasserting itself. Brought as a prisoner before my commanding officer, I stood at attention in the orderly room before him, when he asked me the question, ‘Do you know, sir, that you are now a second-class man ?’ I had not studied those niceties of military grades, and failing to see the drift of the question, I simply reElied, ‘No, sir.’ The manner in which e pursued the subject was not wholly agreeable. ‘Well,’ said he, ‘you are, aud as such liable to be flogged, and by God, the uext time you come before me I’ll flog you!” I did not want any more of that topic. He never saw me again as a prisoner, and when I left the regiment ic was with a good character. I simply adduce this personal example to demonstrate how effectual a deterrent from military crime it is to be brought in this unpleasant manner face to face, as it were with the lash.”