and feeding the Prisoners, although minor Client in the ingredient. The amount of the evil should not be altogether overlooked.
Your Lordship will observe that I have proposed that the punishment of whipping may be resorted to in cases where parties are convicted of Larceny, Embezzlement, or altering coin with a guilty Knowledge.
These are crimes that are disgraceful in themselves; and I think it therefore no abuse of power to render any party, of whatever nation, convicted of them, liable to a disgraceful punishment.
It will be observed that I have not conferred the power proposed by this Ordinance on every Magistrate, but have vested it solely in the Chief Magistrate, or Magistrate acting for him under express authority from the Government.
This assurance I have deemed necessary to insure that the extensive power proposed to be vested in a single Magistrate should be as little liable to abuse as possible.
I have also limited the amount of Corporal Punishment to 36 Blows with a Rattan, instead of 60, as heretofore. I am satisfied that a corporal punishment of 36 Blows is as much as the human frame can properly bear, and that all punishment in excess would only render the sufferer an object of pity and not of commiseration.