MtheGM. Somerville was actually sentenced to 200 lashes, not 500 as I thought and not 100 as Wikipedia claims. His sentence was commuted after 100 lashes, after which he spent six days in a hospital, recovering from his ordeal. My apologies for any confusion I may have caused, but I was going off my memory when I should have taken the trouble to look up Somerville's autobiography.

Please note though that I did not say Somerville was tried for sedition. I said, and this was purely for the sake of brevity, that he was flogged for an act which the authorities considered seditious. He was in fact set up deliberately and precisely because he hadn't broken any law of sedition.

The point I was making was that one doesn't come across too many openly seditious songs, about the monarchy or anything else, simply because the singing of such songs was too bloody dangerous.

BTW. Here's the actual quote from Somerville's commanding officer, as it appears in The Autobiography of a Working Man. "Stop. Take him down, he is a young soldier". That, presumably is what counted for clemency in the British army and Wikipedia's misquote is presumably what counts for accuracy in Wikipedia.



The actual facts about Somerville. Note that it was 100 lashes not 500 to which he was sentenced; of which he received only 50, his colonel saying half-way thru that 50 were enough, "He is but a young soldier" [quoted in his Autobiography Of A Working Man, 1848]. Note also that he was NOT punished for sedition as such, as this was NOT a breach of military law; but his officers had to trump up a charge of disobedience to orders against him.

"Somerville had joined the Royal Scots Greys regiment of the British Army in December 1831. In May 1832, during the disturbances caused by the Reform Bill, Somerville wrote to a newspaper claiming that the army would protect property but would not stop citizens exercising their rights and would not support a military government. Officers in the army wanted to punish him but because he had not broke the law they ordered him at riding school to ride a unruly horse. When he dismounted and refused to remount he was court-martialled and punished with 100 lashes. He was supported by newspapers and MPs as they believed he had been punished for his political opinions. The court of inquiry acquitted his commanding officer but Somerville's questioning of the officers aroused suspicions that he had been flogged for the letter. He purchased his discharge from the army after a subscription was raised." Wikipedia