The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-11-22 00:00:00

LONDON!
THURSDAY RUINING, NOVEMRILR 22, 1821.

. STOCK EXCHANGE, TWELVE O'CLOCK.
The /ifarket continues stationary, owing, it is.—sup-
posed, to the scarcity of Money, and the approach of
the Settling Day. Consols are, at present, 73ie for
Mone•.

The awful scene exhibited yesterday morning is
the Old Bailey, and the second exhibition of the same
appalling kind, announced.] as about to take piece on
thesarne spot, within the same week, are circumstan-

ces so revolting as to call forth load and very general
animadversion. Without enquiring into the Tight
which States assume to make the sacrifice of human
life, the penalty of what their laws define to be
offences, or without entering into any nice dis-
tinctions relative to the sort of offences that ought
to be visited with death, we know that the dreadful
punishment as inflicted on occasions herr, is found
to produce the reverse of the effect for which
it is professed to he ordained. According to the
Christian maxim the Magistrate should not bear Me
sword in rain, but as a terror to evil doer, aid the
praise of than that do well. But what is the impres-
sion made by tbe vverity we are accustomed to wit-
nesa ? Does it obtlia approbAtiii& ti;
posed ? Does it deter the profligate nom their

courses ? Let the Language of reflection be beard;
let tho conduct of the thoughtless be observed; the
testimony of all unites in rcptobating the system. The
class of beings on whoa. it is chiefly designed to ope-
rate, and of whom the largest portion of the spec-
tators of such scenes consists, are those who feel the
least in the way expected. They crowd the place, as
they would a Theatre, to witness a tragedy ; and if
they repeat their visits they soon become callous to
the scene. If ever they are shocked, their minds reflect,
not on the justice of the sentence they have seen
inflicted, not on the expeditney of guarding themselves
from a like temptation or a similar fate, but in most
cases probably on the unfairness and cruelty of the
law which has doomed the victims to death. Let any
person ask what the sentiment is that appears pre-
vailing, or the language that is uttered round the
place of execution, and he will not fail to learn that
the sacrifice has, as warning, been entirely thrown
away. The effect, indeed, is worse than useless, for
instead of producing submission, it exci'es a feeling
of revolt, and may be one of the causes which
combine to set the lower orders in the metropolis.
r more than in other places, against the dominion of
law. What can have a stronger tendency to destroy
respect for its administration, than the manner in
which it has been enforced respecting forgeries on the
Bank of England. At one period, when that institu-
tion bad issued millions of notes, to pass for the value
of pounds sterling, and made them in such a slovenly
wanner, that auy novice of an *agree's could nosily
imitate them, it was the policy of the Bank to punish,
with death, the utterers of counterfeits, by hundreds,
instead of taking pains to render theimitation difficult
The wreegth of the temptation, and the descrip-
tion of the persons on whom it operated,
raised an almost universal sympathy in behalf
of the wretched victims, and induced the Bank of
England at last to relent. In our Courts of Law it
was found, in fact, that the Bank of England could, at
their discretion, mitigate or aggravate the doom of the
sedated ; and after their smaller notes were withdrawn
from circulation and the larger ones have become coun-
terfeited, the severity which, at their instance, had been
suspended, is new let loose upon offenders whit 411
its horrors. The same facility of imitation coidnding,
and a greater temptation presenting itself to the
utterer, the uneven haided justice of the Bank is now
the theme of heavy and of general censure. Nothing
can be more derogatory to the dignity of llovernmento
or to the authority and . inflame which it aims to
&errors, the minds of the people, than this eaprieleos,
ilactaatiag, and dreadfnl policy which it thus parsecs,
The strong and affecting light in which this p.Uq
was yesterday placed by one of the unhappy safferersl
will, it is greatly to be desired, not be shed in wits,•-