Mr. Picton was, however, successful in adding a clause to
the Bill, substituting a whipping for imprisonment in the case of offenders under sixteen years of age, and permitting the Court to send them to a reformatory school after the whipping has been administered. That seems to us a useful amendment ; but we do not think the difference between brutal boys and still more brutal men,—for a man guilty of such offences must be even more hardened in brutality than a boy,—so great as to justify the difference between Mr. Pieton's speeches and votes in the two cases.. All that can be said is that flogging is de- cidedly a less punishment in the case of boys than in that of men, and leaves a less fatal brand behind it. But is it not desirable to brand, and to brand deeply, those deliberate wretches who are matures and who are not brutes, only because it is not possible for brutes to be so brutal P
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