The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1855-12-18
HANGING FOR THEFT.

While John Hancock was Governor Of the
| Commonwealth, Rachel Whail was hung in
Boston, for highway robbery. Her otiense
consisted in twitching from the hand of anoth.
er female bonnet worth, perhaps, seventy
| five cents, and running off with it. The mos:
urgent applications for her pardon were un-
successful. mention this not ro the dispar-
agcment of the Governor He doubtless acted
from a sense of duty-thinking il best that
the laws of the land-howevcr frightfully Sc
vere-should be executed.
A lad of eighteen years Of age was hung in
Boston for urson, daring the administration o!
Governo- Strong similar appeals in his favor
being considered and overuled. Yet the in
teligence and the humanity of the Exccu-
tive and of the Council, Notwithstanding the
resuld arrived at in both instances, were un-
questionable. N.Y
Within the same period, gentlemen Of
this city saw a girl o. seventeen hung in Lon
don for stealing silver cream pitcher. Ed
ward Vale Brown was hung in Boston for
burglary committed in the house Of Capt.
Osas Goodwin, in Charter street, for stealing
thercfroIn sundry articles once owned
set Of the Old pney Tyiata, NS75, ls34,)
embraced in perhaps series OF 60 quarto vol
umes. The carliert of these volum5s con-
tained the details of the trial OF the unfortu-
nate DR.. Dodd, for forgery, whose touching
appeal for mercy, here recorded, was fruit
lessly enforced 10y the splendid eloqucnco of
Johnson. In the later volume, long after
the commencement of the present century,
eight sepcrate convictions are recorded as one
days work of single tribunal, the culprits
being all boys and girls between the ages Of
ten and sixteen, and their offences petty
thefts.
One case remember of peculiar judicial
atrocity. A yonng girl of seventeen was in
dicted for stealing roll Of ribbon worth three
shillings. The prosecutors testimony was to
this effect: "The prisoner came into my
shop and bought some ribbon. saw her
secrete this piece also. / personally knew
her, and was on the most friendly and sociable
arms with her. When sho left the shop
accompanied her, and cferea her ny arm,
which she accepted We chattei together
As we reached the corner Of street lending
to the Bow street office, turned towards il.
She said she was going in another direction
and bade me good morning. | said her, No
you are going with me | saw you steal
piece o my ribbonp She Immediately i'm
plored me for Gods sake to overlook il, and
restored to me the lost article. | said to her
that had lost many things in this manner
and was resolved to make her an example,
that he uas determined to hare her Hfel'-
And he got it, | can never forget how my
blood boiled as read the testimony of this
cold-hearted wretch. In view of the judg-
ment of a merciful God, far rather, il seemed
to me, would have been in the place of that
poor, frail, erring girl, even on the scaffoll,
than in the place of her heartless accuser.
rose from the perusal of these yolum s,
horror-struck with the continuous records of
inconceivable legal cruelty. 1t seemed to me
the 10000 hangings in the rcgin of Henry
VIII was matched by an equally long list of
persons condemned to be hung in the reign of
George Ill.
The world has, indeed, grown w;ses and
better in some respects; but in the criminal
law, there is a noble battlefield of humanity
yet to be fought and won.
T"Gleaner," in Boston Transcrip.