The Columbus journal., 1882-07-26

his accusers, and without being heard in
his own defense" Anyone can read in
Macaulay the story of the bloody assize
in the west, after Monmouth's rebellion,
when men were hanged and guartered
by hundreds, and Jeffreys sentenced
Alice Lisle to be burned alive, the sem
tence being with difficulty commuted to
decapitation. Elizabeth Gaunt WIS
less fortunate. being burned to death at
Tyburn in October, 1856. When there
was not evidence enough for Scroggs or
Jefreys, the crown could always pass .
bill of attainder and have Parliament
declare A or B guilty Of high treason,
and therefore be executed, with ex-
tinction of his titles and confiscation OF
his property. William of Orange made
haste to do honor to Russell and Sid
ney's memory, yet he was the last
sovereign to employ a bill of attainder.
Thus he sent Sir John Fenwick,
Jacobite, to the gallows. it being hope
less to indict him with one witness to
the overt act. The bill was with diff
Guilty got through Parliament. Lord
Derby opposing it eloquently in the
Lords. In those days the prisoner was
hanged for half an hour; then his heart
and bowels were torn out and burned:
then his body was quartered, and the
four fragments and his head were stuck
upon spikes in different parts of the
country. After the Jacobite rising of
1745, Townley and Hatcher were thus
dismembered. their heads being set up
over Temple Bar, where Samuel Rogers.
the banker-poet, remembered seeing
them. They rotted away about the time
of our Declaration of Independence.
The last persons executed in England
for high treason were Arthur Thistle
wood and his four companions. hanged
at the Old Bailey, May 1, 1920. for the
famous Cato street conspiracy to massa-
ere the Ministers at dinner and carry OF
the heads of Castlereagh and Sidmouth
as special trophies in bags prepared for
the purpose. They were the last pris-
oners confined in the tower. and the last
beheaded after death. By the way,
hanging, drawing and quartering was
inaugurated in England in 1241. when
William Marise. the son of a nobleman,
suffered for piracy. September 81, 1S4S,
William Smith O'Brien, convicted of
ulSA tTcdSOU, W6 cCutCHCCu W OO
hanged, and then beheaded and quar-
tered. A similar sentence had been
passed on John Francis. in June, 1912.
for the attempted murder of the Queen.
Mr.. O'Brien rather nonplused the au-
thorities by objecting to have his death
sentence commuted to transportation, on
the ground that the Queen had no pow
er to substitute one penalty for another.
and it was deemed expedient to pass an
act of Parliament to remove the doubts
excited as to the legality of the act of
clemency.
In old times the fact that q true bill
for treason had to be found by Grand
Jury saved many a noble politician
whose head would have fallen once he
was before the lords. Two witnesses
were needed as to the overt act, and the
prisoner was entitled to a copy of the
Indictment and the jury panel certain
time before his arraignment. But &C
cording to the act of 1900, where the
overt act is in the nature of a direct at
tempt on the life of the sovereign. tho
trial is TO be conducted in the same man.
ner as an ordinary indictment for felo-
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