Bygone Punishments. Andrews William

      "My residence was a short distance from Ludgate Hill (Dorset Street); and after witnessing the tragic-scene, I went home, and in ten minutes designed and made a sketch of this 'Bank-note not to be imitated.' About half-an-hour after this was done, William Hone came into my room, and saw the sketch lying on my table; he was much struck with it, and said, 'What are you going to do with this, George?'

      "'To publish it,' I replied. Then he said, 'Will you let me have it?' To his request I consented, made an etching of it, and it was published. Mr. Hone then resided on Ludgate Hill, not many yards from the spot where I had seen the people hanging on the gibbet; and when it appeared in his shop windows, it caused a great sensation, and the people gathered round his house in such numbers that the Lord Mayor had to send the City police (of that day) to disperse the CROWD. The Bank directors held a meeting immediately upon the subject, and AFTER THAT they issued no more one-pound notes, and so there was no more hanging for passing FORGED one-pound notes; not only that, but ultimately no hanging even for forgery. After this Sir Robert Peel got a bill passed in Parliament for the 'Resumption of cash payments.' After this he revised the Penal Code, and AFTER THAT there was not any more hanging or punishment of DEATH for minor offences." We are enabled, by the courtesy of Mr. Walter Hamilton, the author of a favourably-known life of Cruikshank, to reproduce a picture of the "Bank-note not to be imitated." In concluding his letter to Mr. Whitaker, Cruikshank said: "I consider it the most important design and etching that I have ever made in my life; for it has saved the life of thousands of my fellow-creatures; and for having been able to do this Christian act, I am, indeed, most sincerely thankful."

      THE

       BANK RESTRICTION BAROMETER;

       OR, SCALE OF EFFECTS ON SOCIETY OF THE

       Bank Note System, and Payments in Gold.

      BY ABRAHAM FRANKLIN.

      ^*_*^* To be read from the words "BANK RESTRICTION," in the middle, upwards or downwards.

NATIONAL PROSPERITY PROMOTED. 10. The Number of useless Public Executions diminished. 9. The Amelioration of the Criminal Code facilitated. 8. The Forgery of Bank Notes at an end. 7. Manufacturers and Journeymen obtain Necessaries and Comforts for their Wages. 6. The Means of Persons with small Incomes enlarged. 5. A Fall of Rents and Prices. 4. The Circulating Medium diminished. 3. Fictitious Capital and False Credit destroyed. 2. Exchanges equalized, and the Gold Coin preserved, if allowed to be freely exported. 1. The Gold Currency restored. Consequences, if taken off, will be as above:—viz. THE BANK RESTRICTION. Consequences of its Operation are as follows:—viz. 1. Disappearance of the legal Gold Coin. 2. The Issues of Bank of England Notes and Country Bank Notes extended. 3. Paper Accommodation, creating False Credit, Fictitious Capital, Mischievous Speculation. 4. The Circulating Medium enormously enlarged. 5. Rents and Prices of Articles of the first Necessity doubled and trebled. 6. The Income and Wages of small Annuitants, and Artizans and Labourers, insufficient to purchase Necessaries for their Support. 7. Industry reduced to Indigence, broken-spirited, and in the Workhouse: or, endeavouring to preserve independence, lingering in despair, committing suicide, or dying broken-hearted. 8. The Temptation to forge Bank of England Notes increased and facilitated. 9. New and sanguinary Laws against Forgery ineffectually enacted. 10. Frequent and useless inflictions of the barbarous Punishment of Death. GENERAL DISTRESS INCREASED.

At Nottingham in the olden time the culprits were usually taken to St. Mary's Church, where the officiating clergyman preached their funeral sermon. Next they would inspect their graves, and sometimes even test their capabilities by seeing if they were large enough to hold their remains. Frequently they would put on their shrouds, and in various ways try to show that they were indifferent to their impending fate. Then they would be conveyed on a cart also containing their coffin to the place of execution some distance from the prison.[6] Similar usages prevailed in other places.

Public executions always brought together a large gathering of men and women, not always of the lowest order, indeed many wealthy people attended. "The last person publicly executed at Northampton," says Mr. Christopher A. Markham, F.S.A., "was Elizabeth Pinckhard, who was found guilty of murdering her mother-in-law, and who was sentenced to death by Sir John Jervis, on the 27th February, 1852. As a rule all executions had taken place on a Monday, so a rumour was spread that the execution would take place on Monday, the 15th of March; accordingly the people came together in their thousands. They were, however, all disappointed; some of them said they wished they had the under-sheriff and they would let him know what it was to keep honest people in suspense; and one old lady said seriously that she should claim her expenses from the sheriff. However, on Tuesday, the 16th March, Mrs. Pinckhard was executed before an immense number of persons, estimated at ten thousand, the day fixed having by some means or other got known."[7] The conduct of the crowds which gathered before Newgate and other prisons was long a blot on the boasted civilisation of this country, and there can be little doubt that public executions had a baneful influence on the public.

      It will not be without historical interest to state that the last execution for attempted murder was Martin Doyle, hanged at Chester, August 27th, 1861. By the Criminal Law Consolidation Act, passed 1861, death was confined to treason and wilful murder. The Act was passed before Doyle was put on trial, but (unfortunately for him) did not take effect until November 1st, 1861. Michael Barrett, author of the Fenian explosion at Clerkenwell, hanged at Newgate, May 26th, 1868, was the last person publicly executed in England. Thomas Wells (murderer of Mr. Walsh, station-master at Dover), hanged at Maidstone, August 13th, 1868, was the first person to be executed within a prison.