The punishment of whipping in England, Russia, and France
Illustration:
A whipping in the press-yard of Newgate Prison
In Russia, this punishment is such as may well serve for the sake of example. It is there very severe, while (through the instrumentality of a guinea or so) it is often too leniently inflicted in England.
The knout of Russia would be well applied to the shoulders of an English swindler.. The instrument with which whipping is inflicted in Russia is made of leather curiously twisted, and brought to a fine end like whipcord: with this whip the executioners dexterously carry off a slip of skin from the neck to the bottom of the back, laid bare to the waist; and, repeating their blows, in a little while rend away all the skin off the back in parallel stripes. In the common knout, the criminal receives the lashes suspended on the back of one of the executioners; but in the great knout, which is generally used on the wheel in France, the criminal is hoisted into the air by means of a pulley fixed to the gallows, a cord fastened to the two wrists tied together, and another, of a crucial form, under his breast. Sometimes his hands are tied behind, over his back; and when he is pulled up in this position, his shoulders are dislocated. The executioners make this punishment more or less cruel; and it is said are so dexterous, that, when a criminal is condemned to die, they can make him expire at pleasure, either by one or several lashes.
