The report of the proceedings of the Court-martial which sen-
tenced fluTeniNsosr, the private of the Scots Fusileer Guards, to the terrible flogging which excited so much public attention, has been published in the Daily Papers this week. H yrc arsosi was charged with being drunk, quitting his post as sentry over the canteen-door, and abusing and threatening to strike Sergeant DONALD M'K5C'HNIE. Sergeant MILES swore that HUTCHIN- SON was unsteady, and therefore he ordered him to the guard- room ; where, however, lie did not hear him threaten, or see him offer to strike Sergeant M'KECHNIE. Similar evidence was given by a Corporal. Sergeant M`KECHNIE gave the following evidence.
" In consequence of the report he had received, it became his duty to order the prisoner into the dry-room (a kind of black-hole). He found the prisoner on a bench inside the guard-room. When lie went in, witness said, ' Why the Devil don't you take that man to the dry-room.' The prisoner rose up, and said that he wished to see the Sergeant-Major before he was confined ; at the same time lifting., up his arm, as if about to make a How. Ha parried the blow, and knocked the prisoner over the bench which he had been sitting upon. The prisoner called him a damned scoundrel, and said that he would knock his brains out. Ile then ordered two men to move the prisoner to the dry-roots, and he went quietly."
This evidence, from which it appears that IleTctuNsosr spoke the abusive language after he had been knocked down, was con- firmed by a Corporal. Raw privates swore that they were in the guard-room all the time HUTCHINSON was there, and that he did not attempt to strike time Sergeant, or make use of abusive language towards him. As regards the charge of leaving his post, HUTCHINSON proved that he only left it for a few minutes, to prevent a soldier, who he thought was a built man (one confined to barracks, and prohibited from entering the canteen) from going into the canteen. It was proved that a sentinel over the can- teen should have reported to the Sergeant if lie saw a built man going to the canteen, and not have left his post.
It was upon such evidence as this that HUTCHINSON was sen- tenced to a flogging, from the effects of which Ile did not recover, so as to be allowed to leave the hospital, for twenty-eight days. It will be seen, that it was principally on the evidence of Ser- geant M'KECHNIE the Court found HUTCHINSON guilty; and a pretty fellow this Sergeant M'KECHNIE seems to be. On Satur- day last, he attended an investigation at the Queen Square Police- office, where he charged two prostitutes with robbing him while he was drunk, at some vile place whither he bad accompanied them. Perhaps it was he, not HuTenINSON, who was drunk in the guard- room. Another time, we should think, the officers of a Court- martial will be cautious how they condemn privates to be flogged on such evidence as this, especially when it is peremptorily con- tradicted. But we have no high opinion of the skill of military men as judges of evidence. They never seem, in their double capacity of judges and jurymen, to give prisoners the benefit of doubtful points ; unless when some honest blockhead of an ensign or lieutenant has the hardihood to bring his superior officer to a trial : then, indeed, the humanity of a Court-martial—their eager- ness to interpret all evidence in favour of the accused—is remark- able.
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