It is a rule, now very generally observed by the best authorities in the Navy, never to punish a man on the day the offence has been committed.  And experience having shown the wisdom of this delay, there seems no reason why so simple a rule should not be established imperatively upon every captain without exception.

It is important, in discussing the subject of naval discipline, to recollect under what peculiar and trying circumstances the captain of a man-of-war is placed, and how much he stands in need not only of every assistance that can possibly be afforded to guide his judgment, but of every artificial check that can be devised to control his temper.  As he is charged with the sole executive government of the community over which he presides, he is called upon to exercise many of the legislative, as well as the judicial functions of his little kingdom.  Having made laws in the first instance, he has to act the part of a judge in the interpretation of those laws; while, in the very next instant, he may stand in the place of a jury to determine the facts of the case, and of a counsel to cross-question the witnesses.  To this strange jumble of offices is finally added the fearful task of allotting the punishment, and seeing it carried into effect!  If ever there was a situation in the world, therefore, requiring all the aids of deliberation, and especially of that sobriety of thought which a night’s rest can alone bestow, it is surely in the case of a captain of a man-of-war.  And if this rule has been found a good one, even by prudent and experienced officers, who, it appears, never trust themselves to punish a man without twenty-four hours’ delay at least, how much more important might not such a regulation prove, if less discreet persons were compelled to adopt invariably a similar course of deliberation?  Nor does it appear probable that, in the whole complicated range of the service, cases will often occur when its true interests may not be better answered by punishments inflicted after such delay, than if the reality or the semblance of passion, or even the slightest suspicion of anger, were allowed to interfere with the purity of naval justice.  It is so difficult, indeed, to detach the appearance of vindictive warmth from punishments which are made to follow quickly after the offence, that in all such cases there is great danger incurred of inflicting much pain to little or no purpose.

In the first place, therefore, I consider it might be very advantageously established, by a positive order from the Admiralty, that one whole day, or twenty-four hours complete, should, in every instance, be allowed to elapse between the investigation of an offence, and the infliction of the punishment which it may be thought to deserve.  The interval in question, to be of use, should take its date from the time the circumstances of the case have been inquired into by the captain himself.  The reason of this limitation will be apparent, if it be recollected that the moment at which the officer’s anger is likely to be the greatest, is when he first becomes acquainted with the details of the offender’s misconduct.