To see a venerable old man tied as if to be broken on the wheel, and cut to the bone by the lash of an athletic driver--writhing and yelling under the most exquisite torture, were certainly circumstances sufficiently strong to touch the heart of any one possessed of the smallest degree of common humanity.

The usual preparations being made, the old man quietly stripped off his upper garments, and lay down upon the board--he was then tied by his legs, middle, above the elbows, and at each wrist.

Mr .-- -- then called out to the driver, 'I hope you will do your duty--he is not sent here for nothing.' At the first lash the skin started up; and at the third, the blood began to flow; ere the driver had given ten, the cat was covered with gore; and he stopped to change it for a dry one, which appeared to me somewhat longer than the first.

When the poor tortured creature had received sixteen, his violent struggles enabled him to get one of his hands loose, which he put instantly to his back--the driver stopped to retie him, and then proceeded to give the remaining four.

The struggles of the poor old man from the first lash bespoke the most extreme torture; and his cries were to me most distressing.