The Cannock Chase Examiner. — 1877-04-13 (Cannock, Staffordshire, England)

SCENES AT EXECUTIONS.  Within about a score of years have occurred at lent four sights of quite as painful a nature as that which happened at Armley Gaol on the 3rd April. At the execution of the Soho murderer., Bousfield, at Newgate, on march list, 1850, which took place amid the pealing of the bells of the London churches in celebration of the peace just concluded with Russia, the wretched man, by extraordinary muscular efforts, raised himself to the scaffold three times after the drop fell, and was MI many times pushed off by Calera t and the prison official., and had to be held off until life woo extinct. Just ten years later, within three days, a woman named Ashford, executed at Exeter for the murder of her husband, similarly managed to get her feet on the scaffold after the bolt was pulled, and was not killed until Caleraft seized her from beneath, and there held her. In .1114, 1870, a man named Patrick Carr was decapitated at Dublin on account of the enormously long drop. And only last year, at an execution by Marwooci at hriatol, the oalprit's feet touched the ground when the drop fell, an o he had to be held up by the governor of the gaol with his walking seta in order that the extreme sentence of the law might be carried into effect. These cases are sufficient to show that various hangmen—and three are here instanced- may be so careless as to cause needless suffering to the condemned; but the only recent instance of a similar scene to that at Armley was furnished at Durham about twelve years ago, and, strange to say, was the fault of the same ex -eutioner as on Tuesday officiated. Matthew Atkinson was sentenced to death on March 4th, 1805, at the Durham Assizes, for the murder of his wife, and the execution was appointed to take place on the morning of March 16th. A moment of her the clock struck eight, the culprit mounted the scaffold, being accompanied by Askern, the executioner, and the usual officials. When the drop fell the rope snapped elo+e to the noose, and the orowd—for those were the day. of public executions-set up a loud shout of applause. As may be imagined, the excitement amongst the multitude which had assembled to witness the execution was most intense. The prisoner fell through the drop, a distance of 15 feet, and it was thought that, if not killed, he must at all eventa be considerably injured by the fall. Great anxiety was felt as to the fate of the prisoner, and the feeling seemed to be universal that, after such a terrible occurrence, his life ought to be spared. About twenty,minutes afterwards a workman came ou the scaffold and replaced the drop, and soon after tl'e hangman reappeared, and, amidst shouts and execrations, attached anew rope to the beans. A few miuutee later the condemned man a second time ascended the scaffold with an undaunted step, apparently nothing the worse for the terrible fall he had received, the only effect risible being a livid mark around his throat where the rope had been placed. The deadly pallor which had overspread his features when he mounted the scaffold On the first Occasion had, however, disappeared, arid he placed himself beneath the drop without assistance, and eeerned anxious to give the executioner as little trouble as possible Askern then performed his office with great celerity, and in lees than a minute Atkinson had ceased to exist, hat load triet "Alas-der, am-Act '" were raised by the crowd as the drop again felt. Although the Home Secretary said in the Hesse that he was not prepared to suggest any alteration in the law, we (Daily Neul) trust that he will not dismiss the question from his mind altogether without considering whether some alteration might not be an Improvement. The hanging system has undeniably a great deal that hi barbarously hideous and revolting about it. There are, we are well aware, many persons who contend that this is one of the advantages of the eystem, that its brutal and disgusting character carries a deeper shame with it, and so acts as an additional puniiihment and an additional deterrent. Any one, it is argued, if he were under sentence of death, would. if allowed his choice, prefer to be shot than to be hanged. Andre begged to be shot, and Washington, against the envie° of Hamilton, refused to grant his prayer. Wolfe Trine asked to be shot, and committed suicide in order to avoid the shame of being hanged. Emmett begged for any death rather than hanging. But In all these and other such eases the victims objected to the one particular mode of punishment because it was that assigned to base criminals of the ordinary kind. They would have asked to he hanged rather than put to death in any other way If, as has been the case In some countries, hanging were the fate reserved for prisoners of the higher and nobler order. It inflicts no additional shame or degradation on a common murderer that he dies as all common murderers die. Indeed, If the shame came from the more associations of the punishment, irrespective of the crime, it might be argued that there have been men enotds of the noblest character and the purest aims put to death by hanging to make the drop and the noose seem far too good for the common murderer, to whom alone we devote them in our milder times. The present system of capital punishment is to be objected to partly on the same grounds as those which have made public opinion condemn the hanging of men in chains, and the erect, tions in front of a gaol before a roaring crowd. The objection is one founded on considerations of public decency and natural feeling. Added to these, however, has now come the doubt, made active for the moment by the recent scene at Leeds, and put too carelessly away by the Home Secretary—the doubt whether there are not other systems of capital Tarnishwent less liable to interruption, accident, and bungling, than that at present In use in these countries.