16 NOVEMBER 1912, Page 19

On Tuesday the report stage of the Criminal Law Amend-

ment Bill was resumed. Mr. McKenna pointed out that the ardent opponents of flogging were mistaken in saying that flogging had been long ago abandoned by the law. It was still possible under the 1863 Act against garrotters. Moreover, under the Act of 1898 incorrigible rogues could be flogged. and there had been a remarkable recourse to this punishment lately in London. Yet again, a prisoner could be flogged for attacking a warder. Mr. G. Greenwood, however, moved the deletion of the clause providing for the flogging of souteneurs convicted for the second time. His amendment, we are glad to say, was rejected by the great majority of 288 to 74. The proposal that flogging should be inflicted for a first offence was rejected by 188 to 164. This result reversed the decisie of a fortnight ago. We must record here the packed and enthusiastic meeting held on the same evening in the London Opera House, when the Archbishop of Canterbury urged that the Bill should be passed this Session. Both he and the Bishop of Birmingham agreed that in the case of the White Slave Traffic flogging is necessary.