dread the lazy life of the prison, but
a flogging has great terrors for them, and its moral value is
considerable. In bygone years men who were flogged were often worse than
before. The flogging had demoralised them. These floggings were,
however, shockingly cruel. Nothing is to be admitted but the sharp
swishing and this, when properly carried out, is totally without any
objectionable feature.

There seems no necessity to combine a flogging and a long term of
imprisonment under one sentence. The maximum punishment of three
floggings might be given within a period of two months, and the culprit
then in most cases discharged. As to the advisability of ordering more
than one flogging a great deal might be said. Fifty lashes and the man
discharged within a week would be sufficient for the majority of cases.
For a very brutal crime or for a second offence of the same nature, a
second flogging after a period of days might be thought necessary. The
very greatest care, however, must be exercised in the administration of
this punishment. The crimes of brutality rightly arouse the indignation
of the public, but there is no need to show a brute that society can be
a greater brute than what he is. Being a brute, leniency invariably
fails, but unimpressionable to these methods as his moral and humane
instincts are, his skin remains sensitive, and through it his instincts
may be appealed to and quickened. Flogging makes him consider that the
practice of brutality is in direct variance to his own personal
interests and comfort. From this he may be led to moralise further.

Gangs of boys who are becoming a nuisance to the neighbourhood they
infest are quickly broken up if their ring-leader is treated to a dozen
strokes that he will not feel inclined to boast about. The mercifulness
of this punishment is seen in its power in thus effectively stopping the
tendency to crime. Larrikins, unnatural husbands and fathers, brutes and
torturers, cattle maimers and stack burners, all see their personal
interests lying in a very different direction to that which leads to the
"cat."

=Capital Punishment.=--The authority to take the life of a fellow-man is
based on God's word to Noah, "whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall
his blood be shed;" and upon the abstract idea of justice "a life for a
life." These words in no sense contain a command to us of this century
to execute all murderers without exception. For the present state of
civilisatio