The Sun.
London, England, 1824-01-09 00:00:00

ghat
is more essential than even talent or learning—religion;
• I.le attempted to defend by a miserable substitute for reason-
ing the propriety of regarding death as an occurrence of no
moment. "To die," he wrote on a paper which he left in his
cell, "is natural and proper. Perfectly sensible of this, 1
fear no more to die than I did to be born." Such were his vain
expressions, But bow did that unhappy man seek to prove
that he felt so perfectly unmoved as he wished the world, or at
least a few profligates in it, to believe? He could so ill bear
his own meditations, that he madly .strove to be his own execu.
timer, anti thus attempted to add to the crime of murder of
which he stood convicted—the awful crime of suicide.
" Another criminal, whose hands had also been stained with
blood, but a man whose habits were very different from those of
Eugene Aram sought the applause of those who had been his
associates, by acting a part not exactly similar, but equally
fearful to contemplate. Jeremiah Abershaw displayed what •
he expected would be mistaken for courage, by indulging in
low jests on the punishment to which he had been doomed, and
by the most profane mockery of religious instruction. On his
way to the scene of expiation, he wasted the precious mo-
ments which might have been most conducive to his eternal
welfare, in foolish laughter and indecorous conversation.
You know the opinion which all his fellow men have enter-
tained of that sufferer's character. You do not lack understand-
ing, and departing sura.;7—surely you would rather that it
should be said you died with the humble contrite spirit of a
penitent, than that you had at all resembled the misguided
Abershaw, who pretended to scoff at • the punishment which
appalled him, while passing with fictitious merriment, and with
a flower in his mouth to the fatal tree.
" Within your own recollection, and but a few years back,
a young man named Cashman was executed in London for a
riot. His conduct on the last morning was marked by a weak
desire to appear intrepidly wicked. All the efforts of the Rev.
Gentleman who attended him in his dying moments, to reclaim
him, proved unavailing. Nothing could repress the reprobate
folly which had taken possession of him. The most shocking
blasphemies escaped from his lips when prayer ought to have
occupied his whole soul. To the last he continued to sin ; and
uttering language too horrid to be repeated, the still offend-
ing and unprepared spirit passed into the presence of an out-
raged Deity.
" The case of that sufferer can hardly have escaped your
notice, or your memory. You know what was the universal
opinion respecting him. Did any one admire the heroism or
the constancy of Cashman ? Could compassion itself do less
than pronounce the impenitence with which lie perished, to be
the offspring of habitual depravity, and lamentable ignorance ?
" Happily the humane spirit of the present age exempts
those adjudged to die, for whatever crime, from those tremend-
ous inflictions which might formerly have operated on the
weakness of human nature, to the extent of withdrawing the
prisoner's thoughts from his immortal concerns, to contemplate
the horrors which awaited him on the day of execution. In
England the forfeited life is taken without torture, and the
offender's spirit dismissed after a brief pang to the bar of God.
It is the hope of your friends that knowing this, your mind
will evince its strength in proving to the world that it en.
joyed a holy calm up to your final hour, and enabled you in
that to bear with resignation to the stern, but righteous decree,
which removes you from the scene of your transgressions. " There are some most striking features in your car i . It s
the will of a just Providence that you fall by the testimony of
the partner of your guilt. You cannot but have known much
bitterness of heart when this has occupied your thoughts. But
let not resentment, however merited, interfere with your solemn
preparations for another world. If possible, die in charity with
all mankind; but wishing so to die some exceptions may be
absolutely necessary. You ought not to feel yourself restrained
froth disclosing the true character of that diabolical association
which has been stated to exist, if the statement be at all well
founded.

"The party by whom you are thus admonished would fain
believe that it is unworthy of credit. You know the truth, and
in the moment which calls you to his presence from whom no-
thing can be concealed.-0 let it not appear to you a duty to
be faithful to the iniquity which has brought you to your end.
Think not of what the victims may say—but ask your heart
what you ought to do, and let your last atonement to society be
as perfect as your former sinnings have been great. Acting
thus, the hearts which now weep for your distress will be en-
abled to admit the consoling impression, that " God, who
knoweth our frailty, and desireth not our death, will accept
your repentance for the sake of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord."

FATAL EFFECTS OF THE SMALLPDX.

CORONERS' INQUESTS.--Considerable alarm
,aving been excited inCambridge,:n consequence of the extent
;o which the small-pox has within these few weeks committed
its dreadful ravages, several children having died, and it being
the parish of St.. Giles, it was deemed advisable, in
reported' that' he infection was rapidly gaining
ground, parti-
loo
Yllinwing case, that an inquest should be held, with the
view
ascertaining precisely the cause of the death of the
ctchhule,ladrf; oft
and on Illonday last an inquisition was accordingly
held a the Thre2 Swans, in that parish, before Mr. Ciit-
VELL, one of the Coroners of this town, on view of the
body of Maria Easton, when it appeared in evidence, that on
Wednesday three weeks, the mother of the child went to a
neighbour's house, with the deceased and another child, and
took from the child of Mrs. Champion, (the neighbour) which
was then lying ill, a quantity of matter, with which the mo-
ther performed innoculation on her own two children, by
puncturing the skin of the right arm with a needle, and in-
troducing the matter. On the following day the mother con-
ceiving the arm of the deceased had not sufficiently received
the infection, again took the deceased to Mrs. Champion's,
and performed the operation again in a similar way. Previous
to this, the mother admits that she gave the deceased a quan-
tity of salts. On the Sunday morning week after the inocu-
lation, the deceased sickened, as did the other child, and on
last unday morning the deceased died. The other child is
doing well. The mother stated the deceased to be a full gross
child, and admitted that she did not call in any medical gentle-
man, or obtain medical assistance.—Mrs. Campion, the neigh-
bour, confirmed the above testimony, and further stated, that in
two mornings she had permittednot less than thirty children in the
neighbourhood to be inoculated from her child in this manner,
and considered she was doing no harm.—Mr. Farish, surgeon,
examined the body after its decease, and found the child had
died of a very virulent confluent small-pox, and that the arm in-
oculated had the appearance of a large black spot, which look-
ed like gangrene ; that it was necessary previous to inocula-
tion to prepare the patient by a course of medicine, which
depended upon the habit of body, and was of opinion that if a
medical man had been called in after the child had sickened, some
benefit might have arisen, but it was a very virulent infection
of the small-pox. The Jury considered it a case of great im-
portance as it regarded the public health, and after a long deli-
beration returned the following verdict :—That the child died
in consequence of inoculation for the small-pox by its own
mother, without due attention to the previous habit of body,
being a gross full child, and afterwards omitting to call in any
medical advice during the progress of the infection.

The following account of an executio n in
Rome is from a letter from a young painter, Lon-
don, 1748--" About two months ago a person
was found murdered in the stables of the
Pope's Palace ; on which two fellows suspected
of the fact were taken up, and put to the rack in
order to extort a confession from them ; with-
' out which no one can suffer here, though
direct evidence appear against him. Only
one of them confessed, and was condemned ;
and on execution-day hundreds of odd dismal
figures, in long black gowns, their faces covered
with black cloth in the shape of a mask, marched
through the principal streets, raffling a money-
box, to move charitable persons to contribute
something towards prayers for the deliverance of
the poor sufferer's soul out of purgatory. A long
train of these sable petitioners preceeded the
miserable wretch, immediately before whom was
carried a crucifix, with a black covering over it,and
lights all round him. He was seated in a cart be-
twixt two priests, who, with two of their hands
supported him, and with the other two held a tab-
let close to his face,. having a Madona painted on
one side. Being brought upon the scaffold close
to which a gibbet was erected, his face was cover-
ed with black crape ; and being ordered to
kneel down, the executioner instantly knocked
him on the head with a mallet, and then cut his
throat. After this his accomplice wars likewise
brought upon the scaffold, and tied to a post,
while the hangman quartered the other before
his face, and hung up his limbs on the gibbet,
where they remained till night; he was after.
wards sent to the galleys for life. I stood within
ten yards of the scaffold."