The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1883-04-25
Social Life Under queen Anne.
THE LAwLEssNEss OF HER TINE NOT uNEuVAI
LED BY OUR OWN.

THE LAWLESSNEsS OF HER TINE Noi e"hSN
LED BY OUR OWN.
(i.ondon SPECTATOR
Everybody seems agreed thatthe literary
and social history OF Queen Anne's reign
IL one Of the few things which still remain
to be written; yet nobody undertakes tue
task. From social point OF view there II,
In fact, no period OF history which Is NJ
once so well known andyet so little known,
From Addison and Steele we have learned
the folies, foibles, and fashions ofthaf gene
ration; from Swift we have learned great
deal Of the daily household life OF the time,
and have gathered that IN what we should
call the best society there was found coarse
ness of speech and manners which appears
incredible until. we remember that the
picture is certainly a gross exaggeratlon.
What a frightful picture might be drawn
OF our generation, and without the least
exaggeration, Of the things which go on
daily in our streets, the millions OF men
who never open their mouths without an
oath. and never utter single noun substan-
tive without prefiXing one and the same ugly
and meaningless adjective; the shameless
vice which hides not its head even ut high
noon: the Embankment, where men are
nightly set upon, robbed, and thrown into
the Iiyer--just as used to happen In the
Fleet ditch the gambling clubs, suburban
races. the roughs and thieves OF this place
and that place; the courts in MaryleDone,
Soho. Whitechapel, into which no decent
person may venture by day or night; the
music-halls and their senseless, stupid, and
mischievous songs: the drinking and the
wife-kicking and the starvation. Were all
these things written down, picture might
be produced, true IN everything but the pro-
portion, which would make the London OF
Victoria compare not only with the London
of Anne. but with the Rome Of Nero. AS
regards crime and punishments, the ses-
sions for trying criminals were held eight
times a wear. and there were sometimes
twenty taken out to be hanged at time.
Five or six were put in cart together.
.The eXecutioner stops the cart under one
OF the crossbeams OF the gibbet. and fastens
10 that ill-favored beam one end OF the rope,
while the other Is round the wretcb's neck.
This done, he gives the horse a lash with
his whip; away goes the cart and there
swings my gentleman kicking In the air.
This was elementary. The writer goes on
TO say that il was left for the friends OF the
criminal to put HIM out of pain by pulling
his legs and beating his breast. Captain
Kidd, the pirate, went to his death drunk.
Tom Cox, highwayman, kicked chaplain
and executioner both out OF the cart; one
Anne Greene, condemned for numbering
her child, which was afterwards found to
have been still-bOrn, was hanged with the
assistance OF her friends in the humane
manner above described and on being to-
ken to the anatOmist's, actually recovered.
Those who refused to plead were still press
ed to death. Highway robbers and pirates
were hanged in chains. Thee were q
good many highwaymen about the roads.
and near London the footpads were trou-
blesome. Gipsies might be hanged as fel-
ons after the ace OF fourteen. The pillory
was. so to speak, in the height OF its pop
ularity, and the ducking-stOoi was still con-
sidered necessary for the maintenance OF
sound discipline.