The Sun.
London, England, 1820-12-06 00:00:00

FOR THE SUN.

THE PUNISHMENT OF DEATH.
lkin. EDITOR-It has been the weakness of
most ages to attribute to themselves a superiority
over those which had gone before them. The
period of SHAKESPEARE might reasonably appro-
priate to itself an excellence which had not been-
displayed in the times before ; and our "Augus—
tan age " '(as it has been called by some) pre-
sumed on its classic smoothness and epigrammatic
style for a pre-eminence even over the great sera
which preceded it. We ourselves even.are not
wanting in making a high estimate of our own
, worth, and we rely on our, improvements in
science and art, for a name which shall stand in-
disputably without a rival. But, above all, we
pique ourselves on the conquest of HUMANITY
over centuries of error. We refer to the " Abo-

lition of the Slave Trade " with a pride that the
extirpation of that most hideous traffic in human
blood may well excuse.
That the " Abolition" has been a mighty vic-
tory over a desperate prejudice we shall be the
last to disallow ; but we must remind our Coun-
trymen, that while the_war in favour of Humanity

la 3 been carried with success in one. quarter,

there is another left-lamentably Open. to the..at-
tacks of those who may feel disposed to question
the amount of our benevolence, or perhaps even
to deny the reality of that good feeling which
has prompted us for once to do so well. It may
be said that cruelty is tolerated at honie, while a
spew of humanity is practised abroad—that we
are less interested. itr the barter of slaves than in
keeping the countenance of the King and the
handwriting of the Bank Directors safe from.
imitation.—They may• say that the dreadful
'punishment of Death has had no effect in stopping
the progress of forgery ; that such punishment
is not proportioned to the crime ; that, although
punishment has little or no effect, the : employ-
ment of ingenious artists upon the gold and
paper currency must'have great effe6t. They may
say that all this waS known fifty years ago, and .
yet that the system of hanging has gone on, and
is still going on, to- the utter abhorrence of -all
feeling) minds, and to the manifest hardship of
the ignorant.—All this was known ; and yet we
talk of the progress of Humanity.
The inadequacy of punishments to crimes is, I
know, more easily lamented than rettified but
if we err at ail, it,were surely better to sin on
the side of lenity than. to persist in the vain en-
deavour of .washing, away faults with the blood
of ignorant (perhaps starving) people. It is
not my wish to advocate the cause of error,
nor to extenuate the commercial crime of for-
gery; but it is my wish to raise one voice at
least against the barbarity of capital punish-
ments., where the penalty .may be so easily and,
so incautiously incurred. There are few things
which the people would feel more gratefully
than the remission of the punishment of death.—
Why will not the Legislature listen to the voice-
of 'wisdom and humanity ? Whatever some of the
advocates may say. for the system on the-principle .1
of " blood for b100d.," there are few. men:of even
moderate benevolence • who would -now insist
upon it in the case of uttering a forged one pound.
note ; and there are none of common sense but
must admit its total inefficacy. leave the con-
sideration of this matter, Sir, to you and to your
Readers : taking leave, of both with an extract
from a speech of Sir W. MEREDITH, in the House
of Commons, in the year 1777. It is well wor-
thy the attention of your Readers :--
s< • * • " Strange it it, that in the case of blood,
Of which we ought to- be most tender, we should still go on,
agailtst reason and against experience, to make unavailing
slaughter of.our fellow-creatures. A recent event has'proved
that policy will do what _blood cannot do.--I mean the late
regulation of the coinage. Thirty years together men were
continuallybanged forcoining ; still it went on; bufon the new
repletion of the gold coin, it ceased. This event proves these
two things; the efficacy ofpulici, and the inefficacy of hang-
nut,-is it not very.e.xtraordivary, that since the regula-
tion of the gold coin, an Act has passed, making it Treason
to coin silver?. But has it stopped the coining of silver? On
the contrary, do yon.not hear of it more than ever ? It seems
as if the law' and the crime bore the 'same date. I do not
know what the Honourable Member thinks who brought in
the Bill; but perhaps .some-feelings may come across his
mind, when be sees how many lives' he is taking away for no
* I * .1 •

purpose."
" By the nickname of • Treason, there lies at this moment
in Navigate, under sentence
,to be burnt alive, a girl just
turned of fourteen; at her master's bidding, she hid some
white washed farthings behind her stays, on which the Jury
found her-guilty, 'as an accomplice with her master in the
Treason. The master was hanged last Wednesday: and the
faggots.all lay ready—no reprieve came till just as the cart
was setting out, and the girl would have been blunt alive on
the same day, bad it not been for the humane but casual in-
terference of Lord Weymouth. Good God; Sir, are we taught
to execrate the fires of SMithfield, and are we lighting them
now to burn i poor harmless child for hiding a white washed
farthing ! • And yet this barbarous sentence, which ought to
make men shudder at the thought of shedding blood for such
trivial causes, is brought as a reason for more hanging and
but It was recommended to me not Many' days ago, to
bring in a Bill. to make it Treason to coin copper, as well as
gold and 'silver.- Yet, in the 'formation of these sanguinary
laws, humanity, religion, and policy, are throwu out of the
question. This • one wise argument is always sutelent ; if
yoti' hang for one fault, why not fOr another ? If for stealing
a sheep, why not for a cow or a horse ? If for a shilling, why
not for a handlier(hief that is worth eighteen-pence ? and so
on. We 'therefore ought to oppose the increase of these
new laws; the more, because'every fresh one begets twenty
"others.

" When a Member of Parliament brings in a new Hanging
Law, he begin's with mentioning some Injury that may be
dune to private property, for Which a man is not yet liable to
be hanged ; and then proposes- the gallows as the specific and
infallible means of cure and p►event.ion. But the Bill, in
progress
.of time, makes crimes capital, that, scarce deserve
whipping. For instance, the Shoplifting Act was to prevent
banters and ,lilrersmiths, and other shops, where there are
commonly :goods of great value, from being robbed ; but it
goes so far as to make it death to hft any thing off a counter
with intent to steal." . _

" Under this Act, one Mary Jones was executed, whose
case I shall justmention4 it was at the time when press-

• warrants were issued, on the alarm about Falkland Isl4o°
The woman's husband was pressed, their goods seised 1,46
some debt of his, and she, with two small children, tur%,
into the streets a-begging. 'Tis a circumstance not to,
forgotten, that she was very young (under nineteen) al
most remarkably handsome. She went to a linen-driPt,,t
shop,look some coarse linen off the counter, and slipPed
dt
under her Seek ; the shoptnan saw her, and she
down fer tl4She was. hatry,ed. -Her defence was (I b 3
the trial in my pocket) " that she had lived In credit, 411,
wanted for nothing, pressgang came and 6"es.
her husband from her; but since then, she bad nq
to lie on ;nothing to give her children to eat; and ditlig
were almost naked, and pet baps she might have di
something wrong, for she hardly knew what she d e
'
The parish officers testified the truth of this story''s
it seems, there had been a good deal of shoplifting 21#1,,
Ludgate: an example was thought necessary ; and this:";•
man was hanged for the comfort and satisfaction of 7,0
shopkeepers in Ludgate-street. When brought to rg,,"
sentence, she behaved in such a frantic manner, as Pitie
her mind to be in a distracted and desponding state;
an
child was sucking at her breast when she set out for'tYt
I arn, Sir, your friend and servant,

ERRATA in Yesterday's Paper.—Art. Newcastle-upan
First Page—add after " maintain the ancient chaxact
the words " of this Town and County."