Whipping

Punishment by the infliction of stripes.

Whipping-post.

A stake to which an ofifender is tied to receive stripes; punishment by whipping. At common law, whipping was inflicted on inferior persons for petty larceny and vagrancy, and it accompanied sentences of imprisonment in a few other cases.* Abolished, as to female delinquents, by 1 Geo. IV (1820), c.

57.

Later statutes, notably 24 and ^ Vict. (1861J, and 26 and 27 Vict. (1863), prescribe the offenses, ageg, number of strokes, and the instrument. The punishment of whipping shall not be inflicted.' The Great Law of the Provmce of Pennsylvania, by enactment of 1684, provided that twenty-one stripes Jones, Eq. 347; 6 Ves. Jr. 243; 16 C. B. B9; 7 Ves. 432; 11 id. 489. i Minnig v. Batdorfl, 5 Pa. 606 (1847), cases; Letchworth's Appeal, SO id. 175 (1858); 1 Call. 175; 5 Watts, 436. ! Sutton V. West, 77 N. C. 431 (1877); Fisher v. Johnson, 38 N. J. E. 47 (1884). » Eobinson v. Greene, 14 K. 1. 188 (1883), Durfee, 0. J. * Manderson v. Lukens, 23 Pa. 31 (1854). 5 [Lee V. Cook, 1 Wyom. 419 (1878), Peck, J. should be inflicted where no other number was presdribed.i The Maryland act of 1882, c. 120, which provides that any person who shall brutally assault and beat his wife, shall, upon conviction, be sentenced to be whipped, not exceeding forty lashes, or be imprisoned for a term not exceeding one year, or both, in the discretion of the court, is not in contravention of the Vlllth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which forbids inflicting "cruel and unusual punishments," since that is a restraint upon Congress only: nor is it in contravention of the like prohibition in the constitution of Maryland. The provision appears in 1 W. and M. (1689), stat. 2, c. 2, and in the declarations of the rights of the State promulgated in 1776, i860, 1864, and 1867. From 1776 to 1819, the punishment of whippmg for certain offenses was imposed upon whites and negroes alike, and upon negroesalone until the adoption of the constitution of 1864. The word " brutal," in the act of 1882, has its ordinary, popular meaning."