Against these positive merits it is very unequal in its incidence; one victim will suffer more than others over the same punishment; and it is brutalising, in some measure, to the flogger and floggee. Too much may be made of this last argument, for nothing can be more brutalising and deadening to all hopeful and better instincts than long terms of imprisonment. On the whole, my instinct is against flogging, because I am an optimist and believe that though it has had its uses in the past as an educative influence we have come to a state of civilisation when we should abolish if possible all violent or cruel punishments. There was a lot perhaps to be said for thumbscrews in their day, but that day is admittedly over. My grumble about the cat-of-nine-tails and the birch is not so much that the law should put them in the cupboard once and for ever, but that if they are to be used at all, their lashes should, like God's good rain, descend on rich and poor alike. Take the crimes for which flogging is permissible punishment to-day. For adults there is garrotting, offences under the Criminal Law Amendment Act, procuring, etc., and being an incorrigible rogue. For lads under sixteen, stealing and malicious damage. Now the first objection to these punishments is that whether flogging is or is not to be administered depends altogether on the taste and fancy of the presiding Judge. Some think it is an advisable form of punishment; others view it with disfavour. This element of human lottery in the administration of the law should surely be kept under as far as possible. Out of a hundred and forty-five criminals convicted of robbery only three were flogged. An intending robber therefore who studies judicial "form" in the statistics will see that it is about fifty to one against the cat, and if he is the one unfortunate surely he has a distinct grievance against the forty-nine lucky blackguards who escape. When only three criminals receive this punishment in one year it is worth while considering whether it should be continued, or, if it is to be continued, whether it should not be extended to crimes against women and children and other nameless horrors. Highway robbers to-day are all of the lowest and the poorest, but in the other category of crime there are sometimes men of means who find their way into the dock.