{"id":"01KG8AMJWDW8TP3FM1CN3MSYBM","cid":"bafkreiclojj63z4aej6dvi6uyh7udrzq5slzdkhhdq7gbm37gt3g27dleu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5798,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.271Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":5731,"text":"But it is incredible that, with such crews as Lord\r\nCollingwood’s—composed, in part, of the most desperate characters, the\r\nrakings of the jails—it is incredible that such a set of men could have\r\nbeen governed by the mere _memory_ of the lash. Some other influence\r\nmust have been brought to bear; mainly, no doubt, the influence wrought\r\nby a powerful brain, and a determined, intrepid spirit over a\r\nmiscellaneous rabble.\r\n\r\nIt is well known that Lord Nelson himself, in point of policy, was\r\naverse to flogging; and that, too, when he had witnessed the mutinous\r\neffects of government abuses in the navy—unknown in our times—and\r\nwhich, to the terror of all England, developed themselves at the great\r\nmutiny of the Nore: an outbreak that for several weeks jeopardised the\r\nvery existence of the British navy.\r\n\r\nBut we may press this thing nearly two centuries further back, for it\r\nis a matter of historical doubt whether, in Robert Blake’s time,\r\nCromwell’s great admiral, such a thing as flogging was known at the\r\ngangways of his victorious fleets. And as in this matter we cannot go\r\nfurther back than to Blake, so we cannot advance further than to our\r\nown time, which shows Commodore Stockton, during the recent war with\r\nMexico, governing the American squadron in the Pacific without\r\nemploying the scourge.\r\n\r\nBut if of three famous English Admirals one has abhorred flogging,\r\nanother almost governed his ships without it, and to the third it may\r\nbe supposed to have been unknown, while an American Commander has,\r\nwithin the present year almost, been enabled to sustain the good\r\ndiscipline of an entire squadron in time of war without having an\r\ninstrument of scourging on board, what inevitable inferences must be\r\ndrawn, and how disastrous to the mental character of all advocates of\r\nnavy flogging, who may happen to be navy officers themselves.\r\n\r\nIt cannot have escaped the discernment of any observer of mankind,\r\nthat, in the presence of its conventional inferiors, conscious\r\nimbecility in power often seeks to carry off that imbecility by\r\nassumptions of lordly severity. The amount of flogging on board an\r\nAmerican man-of-war is, in many cases, in exact proportion to the\r\nprofessional and intellectual incapacity of her officers to command.\r\nThus, in these cases, the law that authorises flogging does but put a\r\nscourge into the hand of a fool. In most calamitous instances this has\r\nbeen shown.\r\n\r\nIt is a matter of record, that some English ships of war have fallen a\r\nprey to the enemy through the insubordination of the crew, induced by\r\nthe witless cruelty of their officers; officers so armed by the law\r\nthat they could inflict that cruelty without restraint. Nor have there\r\nbeen wanting instances where the seamen have ran away with their ships,\r\nas in the case of the Hermione and Danae, and forever rid themselves of\r\nthe outrageous inflictions of their officers by sacrificing their lives\r\nto their fury.\r\n\r\nEvents like these aroused the attention of the British public at the\r\ntime. But it was a tender theme, the public agitation of which the\r\ngovernment was anxious to suppress. Nevertheless, whenever the thing\r\nwas privately discussed, these terrific mutinies, together with the\r\nthen prevailing insubordination of the men in the navy, were almost\r\nuniversally attributed to the exasperating system of flogging. And the\r\nnecessity for flogging was generally believed to be directly referable\r\nto the impressment of such crowds of dissatisfied men. And in high\r\nquarters it was held that if, by any mode, the English fleet could be\r\nmanned without resource to coercive measures, then the necessity of\r\nflogging would cease.\r\n\r\n“If we abolish either impressment or flogging, the abolition of the\r\nother will follow as a matter of course.” This was the language of the\r\n_Edinburgh Review_, at a still later period, 1824.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJRBP8WW7ATFWPYWQXFEQ","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMJWFP7QDTBVBVK8NKVDB","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMJWFWTRSHR20NJ7AQ29E","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:41.869Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:47.417Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}