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#792. political progrefs of Britain. 239 
terrible, and the lofs of a nose, an ear, or a chin, 
is but one of its slightest consequences. 
‘© A Hefsian soldier had deserted, and his officers 
were determined to dispatch him as soon as pof= 
sible. He was tied up to be flogged in a north- 
west snow storm. Every drop of blood froze on 
the cat's tail. I was within an hundred yards of 
the halberts when he expired.. - 
** One evening, when riding into Halifax, about 
eleven o’clock, I was stopped and insulted by the 
corporal of a Hefsian picket guard. I complained 
next morning to his colonel, who, with all the dig- 
nity of a despot, ordered the man to stand with his 
left arm stretched above his head. Two serjeasts 
were called, and their orders were to thrafh at him 
with their sticks till I fhould bid them stop. In 
ten minutes I suppose they must have pounded 
him into a mummy. Ineed hardly tell you that 
I immediately put an end to such.a barbarous su- 
perfluity of vengeance. 
“Among the Hefsians, theft was universal: 
One of them, an old man, stole a great coat of 
mine; it was found, but he had cut off and sold 
the buttons. I interposed with his commander, but 
in vain. He was condemned to run the gauntlet 
twelve times through the regiment, which con- 
sisted of athousand men. They were drawn up in 
two lines. Every man was supplied with a switch ; 
an officer, armed with a cudgel, walked up behind 
each of the ranks, as the prisoner walked, and woe 
be to the man who neglected to give him a severe 
stroke! To make him march deliberate and erect, 
