19 FEBRUARY 1870, Page 3

In the Globe's Parliamentary report of Friday night, received just

before we go to press, there occurs the following unpleasant sentence :—" Captain White asked whether it was true, as had been reported within the last month, that corporal punishment had been inflicted upon O'Donovan Roma. The Home Secretary said that no corporal punishment had been inflicted upon Roam since September, 1868." That means, if the report is accurate, that such punishment was inflicted in September, 1868, under the Tory regime. We do trust, if this was the case, that some English Member will take the matter up, ascertain the nature of such corporal punishment, and divide the House on a resolution that it be forbidden in the future. Treason is often an offence against society which it is necessary to punish with death, but it can never be a crime justifying degradation. As for breach of prison rules, solitary confinement is quite sufficient as a preventive, and no political prisoner ought to be visited with more. Even. the Personal Government would not flog Rochefort.