Evening star., 1901-07-29

watchword and rode off. The compan.
| were greatly pleased to think they hat
| trick'd the highwaymen, and believing
| them out of further danger were takin.
! their money out of the places where the!
| had concealed it when the fellows having
discovered the cheat rode back, made then
| alight out Of the coach. and robbed them o
value f7O.
At Woodford, In Essex, some nights age
Eleven Rogues, maskd and armd, entered
the house of Mr. Woodbridge, and plum
der'd 1t Of all the Brass, Pewter, Window
Curtains. Beds and Bedding, and many
other things; and after drinking all the
Rum, Brandy, and other liquors, loaded
several Horses with the Booty to the
value of 600 and carried it off.
Severity of the Law.
The great prevalence of crime at this
period was not caused by any lack OF
severity in the administration Of the
law. In 1874 four women were burnt at
Tyburn for coming. At the March assizea
at Chelmsford in 1875 six men were SEN
fenced to death for robberies. In August,
1735, Mary Fasson, aged twenty, was burnt
to death for poisoning her husband. In the
same month man was pressed to death
for refusing to plead at the Sussex as
sizes Coming later, we find that when
Sir s. Romilly labored (from 1898 to 1879
to make our criminal law less cruel. it was
death to steal five shillings from the per-
son; death to steal five shillings' worth of
goods from a shop; death to steal strip
of cloth from a bleaching ground. In q
debate in 1916, Sir S. Romiliy stated that
child not ten years old was then in New
gate under sentence of death for shop
lifting.
The early period Of the eighteenth CEN
tury was marked by extreme intemper-
ance. Beer, the great beverage of the
olden time, had been gradually displaced
by the use Of spirits, chiefly gin or Ge-
neva; drink more fiery than any spirit
uous concoction OF the present day. ex-
cept perhaps the Russian vodka. The
three following paragraphs are all taken
from one number of the Ipswich Gazette:
Yesterday one William Thomas after
having drunk nine quartens OF Geneva, in
the Catherine Wheel Yard, in St. James
street, died Immediately.
The same day woman being drunk
with the same liquor, dropped down dead
near Charing Cross.
A tumult being observed last Monday at
a door of certain gin shop, some gentle
men had the curiosity to enquire why such
a number of people were got together. and
found that 1t was no more than that a
man had fallen from his horse stone dead
just as he had drunk his eighteenth dram.
Cheapness of Intoxicants.
In one of the News letters reference is
made to a gin shop in Southwark which
had on It's sign Drunk for a penny, dead
drunk for two-pence, clean straw for moth
and in 1876 an act. called the Geneva act,
was passed-imposing the prohibitive duty
of twenty shillngs per gallon on all spiritu-
Gus liquors sold by retail, and charge Of
fifty pounds year for every license to
sell the same. But this act failed of it.
intended effect, for numerous devices were
adopted, with success. by which the law
was evaded, some of which are iescrils Il
in News letter Of 1876:
A certain person near st. James Market
continues selling drams being colore1 with
red, having a large label tied to the bottle
on which is wrote, Take two or t!,r, c
spoonfuls Of this four or five times a Ja;,
or as often as the fit Is on YOU"
Numbers of people go about the streets
with caggs Of Geneva and glasses under
pretense of crying ink, brass cocks, or any
other Indifferent thing, and when you ac-
cost them they ask you II YOU are for q
dram. ~
Humorous names were given to the liquor
surreptitiously supplied:
The following drains are sold at several
brandy shops in7this city, viz. saug:ee
Tow-Row, Cuckotd's Comfort, Pariia ment
Gin, Make Shift, The Ladies' Delight, The
Baulk. King Theodore OF Corsica, ChoI'c
and Gripe Waters and many others, to
evade the act ofsparliament.