The Express.
London, England, 1849-11-20 00:00:00

MR. DICKENS'S LETTER.

The folLwing letter appears in the colonial di
nit mine contemporary:
Sir,—When I wrote to you on Tuesday last I bad oil.
tention of truu, ling you again; but as one of your arm
spood.nts has to-day expressed a reasonable desire that I
would explain myself more clearly, and as I hot e I trey di
no injury ta the cause I would serve by stating any now
upon at a ,tale more in detail, I shall be glad to do ss,ifyst
will allow me the opportunity.
My positions in reference to the demoralising Wand
public executions are—
First, that they chiefly attract as spectators the lowest,th
must depraved, the moat abandoned of manaind; in Ida
they inspire no whole...brae emotioix whatever.
Sacuudlv, that the public infliction of a violent detail
not a salutary •pectacle for any class of people ; but that
is in the nature of things that on the -class by whom ui
g aerally witnessed it should have a debasing and haulm*
influence.

On the first head I must appeal again to my owe espe
deuce of the execution of last Tuesday morning ; to all 6
evidence that has ever been taken on the subject, nogg
that r leeutions have been the favourite sight of consinii
all descriptions; to the knowledge possessed by the wipe
'racy and police of the general character of such creeds; I
the police repute that are sure to fellow their assemblers;
to the unvarying description of them given in the sew
genre; to the indisputable fact that no decent Wel
willing that hie son—chat no decent maitrr a. wilbegtba
his apprentices or servants—should mingle is them; teth
indisputable fact that all society, its dregs excepted, rest
from them as masses of abomination and brutality. (ibe
there w. re not more robberies committed at this last eases
lion was not the fault of the :mumbled thieve., whom eat
ben on the ming in the Home Secretary may easily less
from the Commissioners in Scotland-yard, but the merit d
the polce, whose vigilance was beyond all praise.)
On the second heed, after a paying allusion to the hullo
Mg influence which familiarity even with 'neural death pre
duces on coarse minds, I must again refer to my on
experience. Nothiog would have been a greater coign
to me—nothing would have so math relieved in my aid
the unspeakable terrors of the scene es to have tut
enabled to believe that any portion of the immense crowd-
that any grains of sand in the vast moral desert stietekhg
away on every side—were moved to any sentiment• of felee
repenta.me' pity, or natural horror by what they SW sups
the drop. It was impassible to look around and rest Mall
such belief. With every consideration and respict fay"
suggestion that the concourse may have been belying the
as. null struggles by frantic exaggerations, I am conned
that if you hod been there beside me, seeing what I surf
and hearing what I hand, you could
the thought. Such a state of mind has its signs and taken
equally with any other, and no such signs and tokens WO
there. The mirth was not hysterical, the shoutiap aid
fighting, were not the efforts of a strained excitement smk•
tog to vent itself in any relief. The whole was unmistske
ably callous end bad. As the ferocious woman who IV
charged on the same dsy with threatening to murder oak
in the midst of the multitude, proclaiming that she hi s
knife about her, and would have her heart's blood, sad N
hanged on the same gibbet with her namesake, Mrs. KU
ning, whose death she had come to see—u she had her ed
pes.ions excited to the utmost by the scene, so bad ill*
crowd. I believe this was the whole and sole iff.ct of die
they had come to see, and I hold that no human being. 0
being the better for such a sight, could go away withal
being the worse for
To prevent such frightful spectacles in a Christian null,
and all the incalculable sails they engender, I would hew
the last sentence of the law executed with conning"
privacy within the prison walls. Before I state how, let fle
strengthen this proposal with some words of Fielding re t$
subject, to whose profound knowledge of human network
I know, will render full j
ustice:
" The execution should be in some degree private. AN
here the poets will again assist as. Foreigners have fag
fault with the cruelty of the English drama, in reprise
i frequent murders upon the stage. In fact this wed
only cruel, hut highly injudicious : a murder behind dal
scenes, if the poet knows how to mange it, wS
affect the audience with greater terror than if is
was acted before their aim. Of this we have an he
stance in the murder of the Ring in " Macbeth." Tents
bath, I believe, been carried higher by this single install
than by all the blood which bath been spilt upon the IV
To the poets I may add the priests, whose paiitics bare water
been doubted. Those of Egypt in particular, when the
sacred mysteries were first dewed, well knew the tie .
hiding hoax the eyes of the vulgar what they liana'
should inspire them with the greatest awe and dread. The
mind of man is so much more capable of magnifying thee,
his eye, that I question whether every object is not leans
by being lo,'ked upon, and this more especially when the
passions are concerned; for those are ever apt to fancy shell,
more satisfaction in those objects which they affect, hie
much more of mischief in those which they abhor, than caw
really to be found in either. If executions, therefore, rrer,
' so contrived that few could be present at them, they wee 4
be much more shocking and terrible to the crowd *adult
doors than at present, as well as much more dreadful to hie
criminals themselves."
From the moment of a murderer being renteneed,!
death, I would dismiss him to the dread obeccrity to whoa
' the wisest judge upon the bench consigned the murderer
Rush. I would allow no curious visitors to bold any ore:
muoication wiih him ; I would place every obstacle in 01
way of his sayings and doings being served up in print as
Sunday mornings, for the perusal of families. His even;
' tion within the walls of the prison should be conducted with
every terrible solemnity that careful considerati couN•he:
I vise. Mr. Calcnift, the hangman (of whom I have some miee.
nation in reference to this last occetion),should be
strained in his unseemly briskness, in his jokes, his °sr!:
r and his brandy. To attend the execution I would sum;
a jury of 24, to be called the Witness Jury, ea
t
t summoned on a low qualification, eight on a bigger,
r on a higher still; so that it might fairly releeleV'" tys
I classes of society. There should be present, likewish
of .
I governor of the gaol, the chaplain, the surgeon, and
t officers, the sheriffs of the county or city, and two ineps,T.
1 of prisons. All these should sign a grave sad solemn New

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■

ef sertilleass (tin same is mei soma) diet ea sash a day, at
sash se Minh ha sash a psi. Fes auk • mime. seek • sew
dorm sne Weed Is doh den. Time skald be media
estilles" hem *.'Meese of the prim got dk ram
mod sae Met end Nis; a thud, that that
'WPM ON This. Nimbi be awed ea tits rhea
sme fir 21 Sdarldsied laf Oderl sad addlited la
saw rim sad aria*, hear ef the body's Mos-
by I wadi the belle el *Elbe &wales is that Sewn
,41$1 waddirket 11. mad alll6 M den
deaa. bar PM op, that all alight be
sewieded
I meek is you. with a. law es aber_the pubs
re.141::,0,00 knew mask mere setae elf Nit
t tie they know d the lellemies et
=re tset map esessasa selyeets, I Wok,
of widig. Mey haw ism than Wiewpanatisa ; aad yet they
sew deal* that whoa a ins is embed Nbe seas a
bs broad
gAlithempl. The idea el the sommeaset Weft in Ina-
do adiaswa le the galas &Slum but they me also
serld MM. prisomme M be bible we Obit yed ase
oily these mad Twit is ElMlglas. The " say.-
el prints emeatims b Ages's' ft; bat bale sot aye-
wry bees the slaked only ime•Nalelit la tsarist
assement sad prima MMlelle, 'fried within the last 20
yews? Thiel tiaras yes to Nadi Wm& watt aU the
iiisseesenegre Oat sedge the lessameet er die prisoner aye-
Wises ? Mondale& ia hie 1111•MIONS hither end Nitha
ism the pahlis eight, instead of bis Way walked through
sbe sulsts, stress will 20 were is a slain, like the galley-
sloe in Dee Qamote (ma I remember w lave some is my
akeilisys), sakes • mystery el bias. Hie beim; knows by
• sambas issued et by • name, sad Wbelay wider the
sigmas siessiiitsd sliest quer to say
ef W @slimy, wad& I rived se • wierake—is all
mit▪
tenoes. I wend sedradmil that the mystery et sash
sa 'manta as I prepsse maid be other Wm • Ikea,
Maas co all these wise mphileal. or why, if there Is &Dy-
ads. ia Wa elyedies, we dead net retina to the days
rho Yam pad obits to blikwayeses, drink iag their
mesh la Ile euriesised sells et Renate, or N.d Ward,
Mr UM= my, ems spa a =rim day of the week
N !Mardi is ass in VIM
Aisisdker dos it *ewe 1 IN., than us, wb, de-
als@ the Mil abellwad NOW purkbppit, will 'hese
lees; sad radon ass lbe Wed halms°,
as
SlVis esseadsse. geoid Yoe it winded tor as bade&
ale as., tuba *ma ore eke losieuellestios they do aot
2awhat t
as doh bazzoft their
ht.!
ow psi sat we la meads, vameassabto, sad not to
be awed vitt.
Trek away Wake to pa for your 'cutesy, sat lowing
met woody Is men yea %bet I write is • deep soave-
Sea that 1 imenti a egg oboe 1 blouse a vitae. of the
aerates ea Tuesday lad. Is.. whisk soaking might to
sets me, sod whisk gym henee relleetisa weariness,
I am air. year feitaral sermat.
CHARLES DICKENS.
Demaddre-Isevese, Saturday, Nev. 17.