Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-03-27

I
ENT's RECoLLECTIoSs.
1t is really surprising 10 those Of the
present century to learn for what COM
pqratiYely light and trivial offences cap
ital punishment in the olden time was
inflicted. A correspondent gives the
Z following incident While John Han
I cock was Governor Of the Common
wealth, Rachel Whall was hung in Bos-
ton for highway robbery. Her offence
consisted IN tsSitehing from the bande-
of another fema.e bonnet worth per-
haps. seyenty-fiye cents, and running off
with it. ] mention this not to the dis
paragement of the Governor. He.
doubtless, acted upon a sense of duty
thinking il best for the community that
the laws of the land however frightful-
" seYere-while they were laws, should
age was hung in Salem for arson, dur
ing the administration of Governor
Strong, similar appeals in his favor be-
ing considered and oveTruled. Yet the
intelligence and the humanity, alike of
the Executive and Council, notwith-
standing the result arrived at in both
these instances, were unquestionable.
Within the same period a gentleman
saw a girl seventeen years Of age hung
in London, for stealing a silver cream
pitcher Edward Vail Brown was hung
in Boston for burglary, committed In
the house of Captain Osias Goodwin, in
Charter street, and stealing therefrom
sundry articles.
| once owned a set of the Old Bailey
Trials (17S5 to 1926 embraced in Sc
ries Of, perhaps, fifty-eight quarto vol
umes. The earliest of the volumes con
| tain the details of the trial of the unfor-
Etunate DR.. Dodd, for forgery, whose
touching appeals for mercy here record
ed were fruitlessly enforced by the splen-
| did eloQuencc of a johnson. In a later
volume, long after the commencement
of the present century, eight separate
capital convictions are recorded as one
days job of a single tribunal, the cul-
prits being all boys and girls between
the ages of ten and fifteen, and their Of
fences petty thefts. One case remem-
Der of peculiar judicial atrocity. A
young girl in her eighteenth year was
indicted for stealing a roll of ribbon
worth three shillings. The prosecutors
evidence was to this effect: "The pris
oner came into my shop and purchased
some ribbons. / personally knew her
and was on the most friendly terms
ed her and offered her my arm, which
she accepted. We conyersed together.
AS we reached the corner of street lead
ing to the Bow street office, l turned to-
ward it, She said she was going in an
other direction, and bade me good morn
ing. No! you are coming with me /
saw you steal piece of ribbon. She
Immediately implored me for Gods sake
to overlook il, and restored to me the
article. ! said to her that had lost
many things in this way, and was re-
solved to make an example, was de
termined TO have her life" And he
got it.
1 can never forget how my blood boil
ed as ] read the evidence 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 the poor, frail, erring girl, on
/ the scaffold, than in the place of her
| heartless accuser. / rose from the pc
rusal of these volumes horror-struck
with the continuous record Of inconceiv-
able cruelties. 1t appears to me that
1 the seventy thousand hangiDgs in the
/ reign of Henry VIII, were matched by
an equally long list Of persons condemn
/ ed to be hanged in the reign of George
III. Since that time much has been
4 done by Romily, Brougbam, Macintosh,
/ and Sidney Smith, and as much, perhaps
more, by kindred philanthropists on this
/ side of the atlantic.-Cone0Td, ". III.
i Patriot.