The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-17 00:00:00

MORNING VDITION.

picking pockets, because the eyes of all were fixed upon one
object; and at the time when Barrington wrote, stealing from
the person was puunished with death.—(llear.) Ile then
read letters from several chaplains and governors
of gaols, in
different parts of the country, to shove the immoral effects of
'public executions on the mass of the people, and the debauchery
and erime that took place before and after such exhibitions. He
said that in London they were attended with no better effecte,
and he teed from the newspapers an account of the. execution
of Courvoisier, in which it was stated that several per-
sons of the highest respectability and some I',lembers
of Parliament had the good fortune to obtain standing
places in the paseages through which the criminal bad to
pass. The papers went on to state that during the whole of
Sunday a large number of persons visited the Old Bailey,
who re-assembled in the evening, and the numbers continued
to increase till Monday morning. There were shouts, whist-
ling, jeering, and jostling during the entire time. The Globe
added that those windows which commanded a view of the drop
presented a considerable number of well-dressed ladies. The
Observer said that before 7 o'clock several noblemen and gen-
tlemen were admitted int' the prison, ,with Members of Parlia-
ment, foreign Princes and Counts, who wished to see the
English mode of disposing of criminals. Mr. Sheriff Evans,
it was stated, drew a letter from his pocket and asked the pri-
soner fur his autograph, while Mr. Sheriff Wheelton wept bit-
terly. The prisoner on his appearance was received with one
unanimous yell from the assembled multitude. The Observer
remarked on tke indecent way in which those who had been
admitted by special orders nit() the gaol rushed towards the
place of execution. Thus they had Princes, Counts, and sena-
tors running on Sunday morning, nominally to hear the con-
demned sermon, but in reality to stare at the prisoner. On the
following morning the same parties crowded round him while
he was receiving the last offices of religion ; and while
his burial service was being read one Sheriff wept, and the
other very smirkingly asking him for his autograph. Who
wished that executions should be so conducted in future ?
( Hear, hear.) Could any one point out to him the benefit
which would accrue from congregating together such masses of
profligacy, vice, and idleness to witness the death of a fellow-
crezt ure, by which it was impossible but their hearts must be
hardened? But Hon. Gentlemen might say that the mischief
which would result from a change in the law would be such as
to undermine justice itself. He should repeat that he dis-
claimed most emphatically all intention of making executions
private. He asked for publicity, but not such as that which
now existed. lie wished to constitute a formal, appropriate,
and independent assembly to witness' the last solemn scene of
the law, whereby the public might be assured of its full and
exact performance, while the criminal might not be unneces-
sarily interrupted in his last moments. He proposed that all
the officers who now conduct executions should be present ,
he proposed that the Inspector of Prisons should also he pre-
sent, and should make a special report of the whole circum-
stances of the execution to the Hcme-effice, which report should
always be laid on the table of the House of Commons in each
following year. He adopted all the provisions now in force for
securing free access to the ministers of the faith of the culprit:
He alto provided for the admission of those relations or friends of
the party who might wish toassist at the execution. That e do
away with any suspicion which might attend a snore pri-
private execution. lie provided also for the admission of a
certain number of gentlemen of the press, whom; accounts
would have the effect of spreading the knowledge of the exe-
eutioa far and wide. He would require the attendance of all
the convicted prisoners who might be in gaol at the time, who
should be obliged to spend the rernaineer of the day in thei
'private cells, where they would have an opportunity of re-
flecting on the scene they had witnessed. lie also provided
for the admission of a certain limited number of Magistrates,
as well as for that of a certain number of witnesses, indiecri-
erhninately chosen, who on the third day before the execution
should signify to the Governor of the gaol their desire to be
present. Whenever the number of applications should exceed
the number which could be admitted, the matter was to be
settled by drawing lots, in order to prevent any jealousy.—( A
laugh.) By this means he would secure the attendance of 40
or PO independent witnesses. A certificate of the execution
on the part of the Governor of the gaol was fo be transmitted
to the Home Office, and atterwards posted up in
the gaols and other conspicuous places in the counts'.
With a view to arrest the attention of the neigh-
bours, notices should also be fixed in conspicuous
places of the intended execution some time beforehand. Ile
would further require, in order to arrest the attention of the
people in the neighbourhood, that the officers appointed to con-
duct the execution should assemble at the Court-house, or some
other place, and proceed from thence in solemn ceremony to
the place of execution, while the parish bells tolled as they
passed. This was the substance of the resolution which he
submitted to the House. He thought he had provided for suffi-
cient publicity, and for the attendance of persons of all classes,
while the press and the official certificate would be a sufficient
security that an authentic account of the execution should be
given to the world. He had said nothing of the unhappy per-
son himself ; and after having intruded so long on the House,
he did not feel inclined to trespass on their attention at any
greater length ; but he would put it to the House whether it
was just to a Christian, that at his last moment an unhappy
being should be dragged forth pinioned and blindfolded, and
exhibited as a spectacle to an infuriated multitude.—( Hear,
hear.) True he might look calm, but that might be the calm-
ness of unspeakable agony—true he might appear hold, but it
might be a boldness in which every nerve was shaken. The
vision of that ocean of faces, and of that burst of execration, might
ha se caused his unspeakable agony during the nights previous to his
execution; but unlike the criminal condemned to transportation,
he could not return to tell his comrades of his sufferings, and
thus produce a salutary effect on their minds. This terror also
acted very unequally, depending as it did upop the caprice of
the multitude who, after witnessing his dying agonies, retired
to the gin palaces, and, talking over what they had witnessed,
hardened one another by the observations, and perhaps pitied
the prisoner as one who, according to the slang expression, had
died game. How many who, now gone to the last bitter ac-
count, had been deterred born making a full and free confession
from the fear that, it they did so, they should be considered as
not having died game. Aud how litany a young mind bad
been debased and perverted from witnessing the apparent cool-
ness with which the punishment had been endured. lie had
endeavoured to point out the mischiefs of the present system,
and to devise a remedy for those mischiefs.-( Cheers.) Thanking
the House for the patience with which they had heard him, he
should now conclude by moving for leave to bring in a Bill to
prohibit the public execution of criminals, and to provide for
the execution within the gaols in which they may be con-
fined, before duly appointed authorities, and a limited number
of witnesses.
The :notion having been seconded,

General JOHN S6l‘l said that all the arguments of the Hon.
Member went to do away with the punishment of death alto-
gether; in that point lie heartily concurred with him, but he
never could consent to putting people privately to death ; and
after all his plan went to convert an execution into a perfect
raree-show, for admission to which the applications would be
so numerous, as according to the Hon. Gentleman's own
showing, to require to be determined by ballot. lie should
oppose the motion as one altogether foreign to the feelings
of Englishmen, and shoal,' the Hon. Member succeed in bring-
ing in his Bill, he should oppose it at every stage.
Mr. E WART, while doing full justice to the relatives by
which the Hon. Member was actuated in bringing forward this
motion felt bound to oppose it. He fully admitted the evils
of public executions, but the true way of getting rid of it was
to abolish the punishment of death.—( Hear, hear.) Himself
and the other opponents of capital punishments had lone- been
travelling in one direction, and the Hon. Member for lenares-
borough now wished them to travel in another. He was right
in his motives, bat he was wrong in his principles, and by thus
removing one of the arguments against the abolition of capital
punishment the effect of his motion would be to make capital
punishment snore lasting. The principle of private execu-
tions was bad, and he would ask whether such a system might
not be abused? Let them look back to history--all the most
horrible punishments had been inflicted in private ;—the rack,
the torture, and all the horrors of the Inquisition had been in-
flicted in private. Publicity was a check upon cruelty. To
refine and humanize the people they should look to a more
extended measure of cduca'ion, and to the total abolition of
capital punishment. lint he had strong doubts as to the of
of the measure proposed by his Hon. Friend for the attainment
of the object he had in view. The press, in the present day,
was the great interument of publicity, through that all the de-
tails of the ;Tony of the prisoner would be given to the world
exaggerated and magnified, and the public appetiteeevould be
pampered by reading the horrors which they did not see. He
thought the admission of the relatives of the prisoner would be
no effectual check, for he hoped that none of them would ever
attend such a scene. Secrecy was an evil in principle, and in
this case more than any other. A great change had lately
taken place in the public feeling in relation to'criminals : for-
merly they were considered as heroes and martyrs—now they
were considered as miscreants. He would admit that it was
dreadful that the people, as in the case of Courfroisier, should
greet an unhappy criminal, on his appearance on the scaffold,
with bursts of execration • but surely it was better than that
he should be cheered as a hero, as had formerly been the case.
His Hon. Friend's object was to do away with public execu-
' cutions; but, in carrying out this object, he should not forget
the habits of the people. In Prussia private executions were
more unfavourable with the habits of the people than in this
country. On the whole,, though he approved of the motives
of his Hon. Friend, he would not agree to his motion. .He
trusted, however, that they would soon all combine in the one
object, which had How become almost a European object, of
opposing capital punishments altogether.
Mr. FOX MA ULE said, that he could not let this question
go to a vote without expressing his opinion in very few words
upon the subject which his Hon. Friend had brought before
the House. He must say that he entirely concurred with the
view taken by the Hon. and Gallant General, that this attempt
to snake executions private would be abhorrent to the feelings
of the people.—(Hear, hear.) The whole argument of his
Hon. Friend appeared to him (Mr. Fox Maine) rather to
make a case for the abolition of capital punishments, than for
eunx-.
privatetrefle s
eenxteeenuctei oonf of criminals
the
uweahor.)haduefalltehloi
uugnhdte rh
itsh the
Friend had been peculiarly unfortunate in his measure, because
thee
, House.
him on that
ihnoopefeca
hoped
soiutoirni a
tioi
tfoitmtelei yonthouo entirers those
would withdraw that which,
hetanybli
e:honl
abolition
nratr.
enemiesourfat seuedev he, againsttsytueohenffoioi
nsstriegi
:rev
present system of capital punish-
of the House, i ostler
to cut er
taoblseavGectlitietleimleamn,,,,
best from themotives, he had
Which his
b before
With reference to the details
n. Friend had.
t
by referring to
inveotiss were
feeling
' I this—was
The question was sinip y. the
system
of
exe_
thetmi.,s in
this country to be public or private. He lamented,
''asu liel had no doubt the House would lament, that it should ever
entered, he would. not then occupy the House
be
leaTesuted that so much depravity should be witnessed when
ary to have recourse to capital punishments, and he
also
a public example was made for the purpose of encouraging
chloi ashaldiesroegarbeltytepdrothpoatsehdethsheoulleda:R.ffre,
public virtue. But, he believed, that if they were to tl
pu o away
Kith the punishment cf death, above all, it they • Acre to make
rto
shisdu
duty
otno.
it secret, more evils would follow in either case thanwere
complained of under the present system. Holdime their l'
if the lloc)u)sl-
edivided upon it, he (Mr. F. Maitle) eluesuld(ilfeeerl
give hi,
m A
nl
r,N.
who
Hoy oLhtrae,
basii,anotsudtg thhhete
forward
wouldrowtin
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t top Gressenittic:o-
a division, seeing that the sense of the Ileums-Was entirely op-
posed to him. None of his arguments in favour of private
executions had met with support on
.either side. At the same
time, they must all feel obliged to the Hon. Gentleman for the
strong and powerful case which he had made against pubic
executions.—( Hear, hear.) He had proved to dernons!retion
that public executicns were a nuisance, and that, instead of
doing good, they did harm.—( Hear, hear.) He would re-
commend the Noble Lord to the left of the Hon. Gentleman to
weigh well the arguments which had been advanced, and the
facts which had been stated; and he trusted that he would be
prepared, whenever the question of total abolition came on,
either to answer them, or to agree to the motion. He was
quite sure that the details which had been given by the Hon.
Gerelernarn if well reported and well considered, r ould have
great weight upon the co:nary.
Mr. RICH, in rising to reply, taid he should be most un-
willing, on any occasion, to press anything against the general
opinion of the House. He had felt that the object was a new
one, and that if any value attached to his views, his purpose
would be best answered by bringing them before the House
and the country. With respect to the opinion that he would,
by what he proposed, revive anything like secret executions or
inquisitions, lie could only repeat the disclaiiaeers which he had
already made of any such intention. With regard to history
being entirely against his plan, lie believed, that in the very
best periods of ancient history, executions took piece
before competent witnesses. (Hear, hear.) It was only
when profligacy began to prevail that a different custom w

M ORNING EDITION

introduced at Rome. The same might he said of the best times
of Athens; and in the civilised sate of New York, executions
are at present conducted before private parties. In Prussia
they had only done, so he believed, under the order of the Court-
These, however, are matters which he might bring before the
House on some future occasion. For the present he would
simply reserve to himself the power of proposing, at a future
time, that the subject should undergo more ample consideration
through the agency of a Committee. He was obliged to the
House for the attention which his motion had received, and
being, as he had said, unwilling to press the motion against the
inclination of the House, he would now withdraw it.
EXPORTATION OF MACHINERY.