The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-04-02 00:00:00

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E4t itturthan 'Timm

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 1856

THE frightful tragedy enacted in front of New-
gate, on Monday last, is enough to disgust all
Christendom. There never was such a brutal
exhibition witnessed in any Christian country as
that which took place in the English metropolis at
the execution of the wretched culprit BOUSZIELD.
We have had the murderer murdered—not hanged
as the law directs, but tortured in a way which all
sense of " justice in mercy" forbids. On Saturday
the convict attempted to destroy his life by throw..
ing himself head foremost on the fire burning in
the condemned cell,_ and from which he was not
rescued until the lower part of his face and neck
were much burned. This appears to have been
almost the last act of which the miscreant was
conscious, as his face became livid and swollen.
The bodily suffering thus caused, when added to
the agonies
~of his mind, rendered him perfectly
insensible, to all appearance, except for a few
seconds on the morning of his execution, when he
asked for a glass of wine, whicn was given to him.
As the fatal moment drew nearer, his prostration
became greater, and at last he was placed on a
chair and carried up to the scaffold, from which he
was launched into eternity in a sitting position,
the chair dropping with him when the bolt was
drawn. The burning of the neck and face had in
the meantime rendered his appearance most

revolting.
The tragedy which followed the drawing of the
bolt we leave the pen of others to describe :
" Scarcely two seconds had passel before the
' wretched culprit exhibited a power and strength
" truly astonishing to those who had seen him but
" a minute before. He raised himself upward by
" sheer muscular strength, and succeeded in
" placing both his feet on the right side of the
" scaffold, and in that position supported himself
" for several seconds. Calcraft having disappeared
" the moment he had withdrawn the fatal
" bolt, one of the turnkeys ascended the
" scaffold and threw off his legs, when
" he dropped once more ; the yelling
"of the crowd became terrific. Again the wretched
" man struggled, and again succeeded in planting
" both feet on the left side of the scaffold. The
" sheriffs were horrified, and Calcraft being
"brought back, withdrew the legs, and for the
" third time the body fell, yet life was not extinct,
" for in a few seconds, for the third time, the
" wretched criminal succeeded in planting both his
" feet on the right side of the scaffold. The cries,
`'hooting, and yelling of the crowd became
" frightful." Civilised • men surely never beheld
such a brutal and demoralising spectacle before.
Do we merely dream when we talk of the civilisa-

tion of the nineteenth century? And are the
highways of our cities and towns to be for ever
disgraced by such savage butcheries?

If a crown were the reward that awaited
torture in this age, it could not have
been carried to a greater height of infer-
nal barbarity than it has been in the
case of this inhuman being. There never was
a monster whose crime more completely silenced
the tongue of commiseration. It would be damn-
able to think him innocent, and no less abominable
to attempt to extenuate his offence. But what
says religion—what does justice ask, and mercy
demand, where the sinner is made to atone for his
offences ? Those who do not know ought to
inquire , and those who do ought to reflect before
the hundreds of thousands who attend public
executions are still further demoralised, and
brutalised by such savage sights, than they are
already. When the suffering criminal raised his.
feet for a " third time," and placed them on " the
" right of the scaffold," our informant says :
" The cries, hooting, and yelling of the crowd be-
" came frightful"—we doubt the truth of this state-
ment. It was not the crowd but the Heavens and
the earth which must have cried aloud shame !
—" For Jesus sake forbear !" There is not a
crowd of ten thousand men and women to be
congregated at this day who could behold such
scenes, and not possess among them one solitary
cloak of charity to throw around the worst monster
in such a merciless picture. The Priest who stood
upon the scaffold, the Sheriffs who trembled again,
and the unutterable terror of the hardened execu.
tioner, all needed sheltering from the eye of God
and the disgust of mankind.

These bloody tragedies are becoming by far too
frequent. Scarcely a month passes over without
our hearing of some most brutal execution—such
in fact as would disgrace the most savage nation
under the sun. We are not law makers, or judges,
and have little sentimentality in our composition,
but there are certain limits at which a common
sense of public decency steps iu and says,
" these things ought not to be, and cannot be
" continued." If the punishment of death is to be
continued something must be done to improve the
modus operandi, or popular indignation may possi-
bly step in some day between the law and its tortured
' victim. But we do not believe that the many
allegations urged in favour of capital punishment
have been proved to be true. "As an " example"
it has not led to any diminution of premeditated,
or any other description of murders. It does
not make criminals penitent, for in a great
majority of eases they die without acknow-
ledging their guilt, and beyond the pale of
all faith in the forgiveness of ' their sins.
What advantage is gained then? Who is benefitted
by hanging beyond CALCRAFT, or the hangman who
receives ten or fifteen guineas for his day's work ?
The public mind cannot be improved by the
heinous spectacle witnessed, even at the most
merciful execution. JONATHAN HEYWOOD'S corpse
was scarcely cold in the grave, before a murder was
committed in this town, and by a man who, as we
have been informed, went to see HEYWOOD hung
only a few day's previously. And we should
remember that law ceases to be justice, when it
fails to obtain the end for which it is made ; and
we really do hope that, while crime of a less
terrible character is engrossing so much public
attention, that the subject of murder, and its
punishment, will be diligently inquired into, and
that death will be wholly abolished, unless its
advocates can prove that Christianity sanctions it,
and the state of society demands its continuance.
This proof has not yet been given in our opinion, nor
do we believe that hanging can produce any moral
effect on the mind of the masses of our population.
On the contrary, we have no hesitation in saying that
the ten thousand persons who beheld BOUSFIELD'S
tortures, returned to their homes worse characters,
and more dangerous subjects, than they were the
day before.