The House of Lords has accepted the amendment to the
Mutiny Act abolishing corporal punishment, and the Duke of Cambridge, in a sensible but timid speech, pointed out the position in which the Army was now placed. Flogging was only inflicted for mutiny, or insubordination accompanied by violence, and as no other punishment had been prescribed, how were those very serious offences to be met? He hoped the Commission on Army Punish- ment would consider the point. We hope so, too, but we object 'very much to the substitute his Royal Highness hints at, namely, penal servitude. The true penalty for the offence, which is neither more nor less than rebellion in its most dangerous form, is death. If that were once clearly understood—and officers, -commissioned or non-commissioned, absolutely prohibited from approaching a man when mutinous from drink—there would not be an execution in a decade. English Liberals are not so weak- kneed as Dukes seem to think, or so much disposed to see a great army resolved into a disorderly mob.
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