ABSTRACT
Antiquity of flagellation as a mode of punishment—Laws of Moses relating to flagellation—References to flogging in the New Testament—Popularity of the whip among the Romans—Whipping in England—Judge Jeffrey’s brutal sentence on a woman—The terrible punishment meted out to Edward Floyde—Severe floggings inflicted on Australian convicts—Whipping in the Bridewells—Defoe’s description of a flogging—Types of whips used—Flogging of prostitutes—Flagellation in Russia—The terrible knout—Whipping of the beautiful Madame Lapuchin—An eye-witness’s account of the knouting of a man and a woman—Whipping in France—Flogging in American prisons—The terrible cruelties in the American convict camps—Evils of the “convict lease system” in U.S.A.—General decline of penal flagellation—Corporal punishment in England to-day—Crimes for which floggings with the “cat” may be inflicted—Juvenile offences for which birching may be ordered —Tendency to increased partiality for flogging and birching on the part of some judges and magistrates—Official figures relating to corporal punishment—Injustice manifest in present legal system—Some recent sentences.
