TWENTY LASHES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1175, 5 September 1884, Page 3

TWENTY LASHES.

The Sydney Bulletin says that at ihe rear of the Yass Courthouse, on the Bbh of July, 1884 a scene occurred for which no parallel can be found in the recent annals of States claiming a place among. civilised communities Some days before, Samuel Lillycrop, a half-witted chimney-sweep—with the poor sense apportioned to him on his start in life deadened or destroyed by the poisonous abominations the sale of which enables black-coated, fairs spoken citizens to keep liveried ser vantsand showy-suburban residences —was being baited by larrikins. The latter marked their quarry, knew his shortcomings, and, resolved that such an opportunity for enjoyment should not be lost, amused themselves by goading the insensate, • creature to madness. Murk the sequel. Two policeman bnke through the jeering canaille seized the tipsy imbecile, and, after the manner of the tribe, induced him to accompany them to the lockup, followed by a ribald mob. On the way their prisoner, who was about as responsible for his words as ap occu pant of Gladesville, used blasphemous and bawdy langauge. A few days afterwards his shrieks were heard over V ass, as securely tied to a ladder be hind the f'ourt-house, he received 20 la-lies. The people gathered in the street to listen to the angry swish of the ,! cat” through the air, the dull squash of the knotted thongs on the sweep’s back, and the yell of the half idiotic victim as the skin was being dexterously flipped off his shoulders. The opei'ator, we are told, made two or three feints before gauging the dis» tance properly, and then “ broke the skin with the tirst stroke,” taking care that each such succeeding stroke dealt with any spot of cutaneous tissue the last had missed. A t each yell, the crowds round the hotel doors cried “ shame,” forgetting the fact that manhood suffrage was the law of the land, and that it was they who were inflicting a punishment which great men of their race had devoted their lives to wipe off the scatute-hook, to bury with the thumb screw, the rack, and the scavenger’s daughter—a punishment at the mere mention of which Englishmen howl when they hear oi its infliction iu Russia or Turkey. But be was only a chimney-sweep—a Creature that tied a brush to the end of a pole and pulled down soot. Throughout the whole area of New South Wales there is not a clergyman to enter the pulpit and say that the occurrence was as scandalous as it was useless. . Odd, it is not, that the people of Yass and other towns, who cry “shame ” when the real meaning of the revival of personal torture is brought home to them will go gtodiiy on voting for it fiom year to year ? Stranger still, they do not sea how they have abandoned all right to criticise the barbarities of semi-civilised nations. Strangest ot all, when one reflects that—assuming the magistrates to “do their duty,” as in the chimney-sweep’s case—their own backs are not safe if a couple of policemen, towing them to the watchhouse hear them mutter doubts about the Trinity or acquaintance with, ribaldry. As the law stands in this favoured country, we would guarantee —always supposing we had a loose woman or a couple of thoughtful policemen to help us—to have the Bishop ot Sydney or even a C.M.Q. tied to a ladder and scourged, if the magistrates “ did their duty ” as they did towards the chimney-sweep Lillycrop. The use of the triangles for any crime is a brutal anachronism. Ihe law sanctioning their erection for the purpose of suppressing obscenity and profanity should occupy the highest niche in the great temple of legislative folly.