The Sun.
London, England, 1821-11-23 00:00:00

RECENT EXECUTION.

[From " THE TIMES" of Nov. 22.]
'We are requested by a highly respectable cor-
respondent to insert the following observa-
tions :

Five of the unfortunate persons who suffered yesterday were
under '26 years of age. Considerable exertions were used to
save the lives of two of those young men, but without avail.—
Several of the most respectable Bankers in London signed a
petition in favour of Ellis. One circumstance attending the
case of this youth is peculiar. It appears that his fa'her, ob-
serving the irregularity of his conduct, and suspecting that he
was concerned in the circulation of forged notes, was induced,
in order to stop his career, to give the information to the Bank
which led to his apprehension. He made; however, no stipu-
lotion that his son should be secured from the penalty of death ;
•and the Bank refused to allow him to plead guilty to the minor
offence. Ellis was educated at St. Paul's School, and his
literary attainments were respectable. So affected was he
on hearing the condemned sermon, that he fainted. Another
of the sufferers, Cadman, sustained until lately an excellent cha-
racter. His talents were considerable. He had served and been
severely wounded in the service of his country, and was seduced
to the commission of crime by the pressure of distress, arising
from the want of employment. When he committed the crime
for which he hai suffered, his wife lay dangerously ill, and he had
not the means of procuring for her the common necessaries of
life. He conducted himself, after the order for execution had
arrived, with becoming firmness : and he would have been per-
fectly resigned, had not his reflections been imbittered by the
recollection that he was about to suffer the severest sentence of
the law, while many notorious offenders, after a long career of
guilt, had been permitted to escape. But for this consideration,
he said, he could have borne his doom with tranquill t. Is it
not strangethat the lenity which has hitherto been ext ,nded to
the utterers of forged Denk-notes should now be withheld, and
especially, in the present instance, from one so young, previ-
ously so respectable, urged and seduced by circumstances so
peculiar, and so unpractised in transactions of this nature, and
after a learned Judge had declared that the recommendation of
his case for mercy by the Jury should receive consideration ?
But these are a few only of the anomalies arising from penalties
of excessive severity. It is, indeed, unaccountahle that enact-
ments so sanguinary in their character should continue to be
rigorously enforced, when they have been found to fail in their
intended effect, when it is evident that crime is increasing under
them, and when their execution is revolting to the best feelings
and interests of the community. The public opinion on the 1
inhumanity, inefficacy, and impolicv of capital punishments,
has been decidedly expressed during'the last session of Parlia-
ment by the numerous petitions which were sent up from all
parts ( f the kingdom for the amelioration of the criminal laws.
These petitions were signed by persons of the highest respecta-
bility, and of various professions. Bankers, who are the most
interested in the suppression of forgeries, joined in the protest,
and the House of Commons itself assented, by three distinct
majorities, to the principle urged by the petitioners.
These remarks have arisen from the awful scene which was
yesterday exhibited, and from the affecting consideration that
five more person's are sentenced to suffer 9n Tuesday zest. •
Thus, unless the intercessions of humanity prevail, will one
scaffold witness the dying convulsions of thirteen human beings
in the short space of one week ! It is earnestly hoped, how-
ever, that compassion will be extended on behalf of those whose
remaining days have been numbered. It is the duty of every
one to exert himself to the utmost to save the life of a fellow-
creature. Timidity in such cases is a criminal dereliction of
duty ; for no man, however private his station, can foresee the
extent of the benefits' which his individeal exertions may pro-
duce. Let no One delude himself with the impression that
others are engaged in that course which his own feelings dic-
tate to be his duty, lest he should find, too late, that human
life has been sacrificed through his supineness and indifference.

•
• One of these; Joseph" t-_;outh, aged sixteen, is ibr uttering
, forged Bank of England note, and was recommended to
aerey on his trial

I • The Lona CHASCELLOII a4tail, that in this cause an infor-
f mation had been originally MO by the Attorney-General,
which stated that in the 7th year
_of' the reign of Edward VI.,
- Sir Andre* Judd obtained a tarter froni the King to found a
free grammar school at Tunbrielge,„jn the comity of Kent, for
the children of that town and the neighbouring villages ; and
that Sir A. Judd purchased from two persons, named Gates
and Thorogood, divers lands and tenements, situate in 'the
parishes of St. Pancras and All Saints, yielding an annual rent
of 301. for the maintenance of the said school. Here he raight
observe, that the importance of the question in point of value
arose from the circumstance, that the estate at _St. Pancras,
Which formerly consisted of sand hills, had recently been
covered with buildings, and becoMe a valuable property. The
information farther stated, that. Judd, in. his life-time, pub-
lished certain rules and ordinances for thagovernment of the
school. It might be material to read part of those rules. They
directed that the master and wardens of the Skinners' Cons-
' Pany, who, according to the charter, were to become the go-
vernors of the school after the death of Ju.dtl should pay the
master of the school an annual salary of 201. and the usher an
annual salary of 81., out of the rents of the estates held in trust
for the benefit of the school. If any surplus rents should re-
main after the salaries of the teachers at the school were paid,
theanaster and wardens of the Company were directed to em-
ploy them in reparations of the school, and the tenements form-
ing part of the trust estates. These rules having been made,
the information went on to state, that Judd made a will, dated
the 2d of September, 1558, being before the statute of the 43d
of Elizabeth was passed. • By this will Judd devised the estates
purchased from Gates and Thorogood, in the parishes of St.
Pancras and All Saints, together with other estates in other
places, yielding altogether an annual rent of 62L 3s. 4d., to the
master and wardens of the Skinners' Company. Judd then
proceeded in his will to make a declaration of trust, if it might
be so called. He willed that the master and -wardens of the
Company should pay out of the rents of the devised estates 20L
to the master, and 81. to the usher of the school. Ile next
directed that the master and wardens of the Company should
ride once every year to the school, to see that themastera and
scholars fulfilled their respective duties, for which service they
(the master and wardens) were to take 101. annually out of the
rents. He farther directed that the master and wardens of the
Company shoUld pay to six poor alms-men in the alms-houses
of-the testator, in the parish of St. Helen's, the weekly sum of
four shillings each. His Lordship here observed, that in
the Acts of Parliament. to which he was about presently
to refer, no mention was made of those alms-men as de-
riving any benefit from the property of Judd. The testa;
for finally willed, that if any surplus rents should exist
after the payment of the bequests before recited, they
should be employed in needful reparations of the school
and of the estates generally ; and if any overplus should
remain after that,. it should go to the use and behalf of
the master and wardens of the Company, to be ordered and
disposed of at their will and pleasure. A question might ezise
on that last clause of the will, supposing it to be a valid instru-
ment, namely, whether the testator intended the overplus to be
employed by the master and wardens for their own benefit, or
for the benefit of the Company generally, or in support of some
charities. ' It was next declared by the information, that after
the death of Judd, a person named Fisher, whom Judd had
constituted joint tenant in fee with himself in the estates pur-
chased from Gates and Thorogood, conveyed these estates to
the Skinners' Company. After alleging that the Skinners'
Company had received, and still received, the rents-arising from
all the estates devised by Judd's will, the information prayed__
first, that it might be declared that the rents of the estates pur-
chased from Gates and Thorogood, and conveyed to the Skin-
ners' CoMpany by Fisher, were vested-in the Company for the
support of the Tunbridge School ; secondly, that it might be
declared that all the estates devised to the Company byJudd,
exclusive of those purchased from Gates and Thorogood, were
vested in the Company for the support of Tunbridge School,
subject to the appointment of a portion of the rents among the
poor alms-men, and to the other uses mentioned in the will;
and, thirdly, that it might be referred to the Master to take an
account of the rents and profits arising from the estates before
mentioned, with a view to make the Company answerable for
any improper application of them. His Lordship said he col-
lected from the information, that the informants considered the
estates bought by-Judd from Gates and Thorogood, and con-
veyed by Fisher to the Skinners' Company, to be distinguished
from the other estates devised by the will. The information was
argued before the Vice-Chancellor, and his Honour, in his de-
cree, declared that the estates purchased from Gates and 'rho-
.rogood, mentioned in the Acts of Parliament of the 14th and
31st of Elizabeth, were vested in the master and wardens of
the Skinners' Company, in their corporate charaeter of gover-
nors of the Tunbridge School, not under the will of Judd, but
in consequence of a previous trust reposed by Judd in Fisher,
and according to the intention of the charter of Edw. VI. The
decree then directed, that the Master should take ail account of
the rents of all the estates since the filing of the information, and
form a scheme for the future application of them. The decree
of the Vice-Chancellor, as well as the complaint, recognized
the paper which Judd called his will to be a will. He supposed
that that character was attributed to it under the 43d of Eliza-
beth. that was the case, it was evident there must havebeen
a long period dining which the will was inoperative, because
upon comparing dates it would be seen that the Act of the 43d
of Elizabeth was not passed till 'a great many years after the
execution of the will. Those who contended that the will was
rendered valid by the retrospective operation of the 43d of Eli-
zabeth, were supported in their argument by many determina-
tions at law. The great point in dispute was whether the title
to the estates purchased from Gates and Thorogood was to be
taken under the paper called the will, rendered operative by the"
statute of the 43d of Elizabeth, or whether it was taken for cer-
tain purposes of trust not named in the will. The Vice-Chan=
cellor had been of opinion that the estates which Judd intended
to dispose of by the paper called his will were not in his power to
dispose of, not merely because he
,gave them to a body which in
its corporate capacity could not take, but because there was an
inability in Judd himself to grant' them. The decree turned
on that point, and the Vice-Chancellor decided that the title to
the estate was out of Judd by reason of acts done by him prior
to the time he made his will. The circumstance of the inability
of Judd to grant the estate was extremely important, because
all the decisions in favour, of devises under the Act of the 4311
of Elizabeth proceeded upon the supposition that there was abi-
lity in the testator to rant. A bequest by a person unable to
grant must be considered in the same light as a deed executed
by an infant. It was a task of great diMeulty to decide the
question whether Judd was or was not able to grant the estate:
at the time he made his will. He might be liable to error
the decision to which he should come, but he would found his
conclusion upon a careful investigation of all the facts which
bore upon the question. In the view which he took of the
question, he did not feel himself called upon to decide whether
or not the other estates devised by Judd, exclusive of the Pan-
cras and All Saints estates, could be taken by the Company un-
der the will by virtue of the 43d of Elizabeth. The construc-
tion which had been put upon that Act appeared to be a very ex-
traordinary one. It seemed very strange that the effect of that
Act should be to give validity to gifts and devises before inva-
lid, when the Act itself only provided for the appointment of
Commissioners to inquire concerning gifti which ought to be
presumed to be good. He doubted much whether the paper
called the will might not be considered a good declaration of
trust. But the real question to be decided was, whether Judd
had not appropriated the estates purchased from Gatesand Tho-
rogooti to some specific trust before the date of his will. In order
to obtain evidence of this facali e was compelled to resort to the two
Acts of Parliament upon which so much and such ingenious criti-
cism had been made by the different Counsel engaged in the cause,
but particularly by Mr. Heald. Those Acts ought td be viewed net
only, as legislative enactments, but also as the declarations of
the Skinners' Company, and' the school who were parties to
them. The obtaining of the acts was a transaction between the
Company, the BchoOl, and Fisher, none, of which parties could
be ignorant that the will was in existence. Both the Acts of
the 14th and.3lst of Elizabeth expressly stated, that the estates
purchased from Gates and Thorogood were conveyed to the
Company for the support of the school, and for no other pur-
pose whatever. It was impossible to account for the passing of
supposition that
aotnwthh;ever might have
the Acts
p ae
Totni
et a is
cnoi
nn
cge
rthn ac
dt dwe
ecrl ae rcaot inovnem
convinced
e te.hs
been the operation of the will of Judd with respect to the other
estates, yet, with respect to the estates purchased from Gates
and Thorogood, there had bc,n some previous trusts which pre-
vented then), from being affected by the will. The fact that the
Company had taken he other estates was an argument against
them with respect to the estates; for why, it they