Swansea and Glamorgan Herald, and South Wales Free Press. — 1849-11-21 (Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales)

CHARLES THCKENS ON PUBLIC EXECUTIONS. The following letter on Public Executions appeared in the colonies of the Times on lVednesday morning: " Sir,—t was a witness of the execution at Horsemonge thane this morning. I went there with the intention of observing the crowd gathered to behold it, and I had excellent opportunities of doing so, at iiitervals all through the night, and continuously from daybreak until after the spectacle ~as over. " I do not address you on the subject with any intention of discussing the abstract question of capital punishment, 01 any of the arguments of as opponents or advocates. I simply wish to turn this dreadful experience to some cccount for the general good, by taking the readiest and most public means of adverting to an intimation given by Sig G. Grey in the last session of parliament, that government might be induced to give its support to a measure, I making the infliction of capital punishment a private solemnity within the prison walls (with, such guarantees fur the last sentence of the law being irtexorably and surely administered as should he satisfactory to the public at large),and of most earnestly beseeching Sir G. Grey, ass solemn duty which he owes to society, and a responsibility which he cannot for ever put away, to originate such a legislative change himself. '4 I believe that a sight so inconceivably awful as the wickedness and levity of the immense crowd collected at that execution this morning could be imagined by no man, end could be presented in no heathen land under the sun. The horrors of the gibbet and of the crime which brought the wretched murderers to it, faded in mind before the atrocious bearing, looks, and language, of the assembled epeci atm ri. When I cam upon the scene at midnight, the shrilleees of the cries and lion Is that were raised from time to time, denoting that they came from a concourse of boys and girls already asitembled in the best places, made my blood run cold. AN the night a entoll,sereeching and laughing, mid yelling in strong chorus of parulies 0,, Negro melodies, with substitutions of" Mrs. Mouning" for " Susannet'," Itild the like, were added to these. When the day dawned, thieves, low proetitutes,ruffianeand vagabonds of every kind, flocked on to the ground, with every variety of offeusive and foul behaviour. Fightings, faintings, whistling', imitations of Punch, brutal jokes, tumultuous demonstrations of indecent delight when swooping women were dragged out of the crowd by the police with their dresses disordered, gave a new zest to the general entertainment. When the sun rose brightly—as it did—it gilded thousands upon thousands of upturned faces so inexpressibly odious in their brutal mirth or callousness, that a was had cause to feel ashamed of the shape he wore, and to shrink from , himself, as fashioned in the image of the devil. When the ' tee miserable creatures who attracted all this ghastly sight about them were turned quivering into the air, there was no more emotion, no snore pity, no more thought that two immortal souls had gone to judgment, no more restraint in any of the previous obscenities, than if the name of Christ had never been heard in this world, and there were no belief among men but that they perished like the beasts. "I have seen, habitually, some of the worst sources of general contamination and corruption in this country, and I think there are riot many phases of London life that could surprise me. lam solemnly convinced that nothing that ingenuity could devise to he done in this city, in the same COOlpill% of time, could work such ruin as one public execution, and I stand astonished and appalled by the wickedness it exhibits. I do not beheive that any community can prosper where such a scene of horror and demoralization as was enacted this morning outside Horsemonger-lane goal is presented sit the very doors of good citizens, and is passed by, unknown or forgotten. And whet), in our prey' era arid thanksgivings for the season, we are humbly expressing before God our desire to remove the nioral evils of the land, I would ask sour readers to consider whether it is not a time to think of this one, and to root it out.— am, Sir, your faithful servant, "