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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange
+and Curious Punishments, by Henry M. Brooks
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange and Curious Punishments
+       Gleanings Chiefly from Old Newspapers of Boston and Salem, Massachusetts
+
+Author: Henry M. Brooks
+
+Release Date: August 3, 2005 [EBook #16419]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLDEN TIME SERIES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+_THE OLDEN-TIME SERIES._
+
+16mo. Per vol., 50 cents.
+
+
+
+There appears to be, from year to year, a growing popular taste for
+quaint and curious reminiscences of "Ye Olden Time," and to meet this,
+Mr. Henry M. Brooks has prepared a series of interesting handbooks.
+The materials have been gleaned chiefly from old newspapers of Boston
+and Salem, sources not easily accessible, and while not professing to
+be history, the volumes contain much material for history, so combined
+and presented as to be both amusing and instructive. The titles of
+some of the volumes indicate their scope and their promise of
+entertainment:--
+
+CURIOSITIES OF THE OLD LOTTERY.
+
+DAYS OF THE SPINNING-WHEEL.
+
+SOME STRANGE AND CURIOUS PUNISHMENTS.
+
+QUAINT AND CURIOUS ADVERTISEMENTS.
+
+LITERARY CURIOSITIES.
+
+NEW-ENGLAND SUNDAY, ETC.
+
+
+
+"It has been the good fortune of the writer to be allowed a peep at
+the manuscript for this series, and he can assure the lovers of the
+historical and the quaint in literature that something both valuable
+and pleasant is in store for them. In the specialties treated of in
+these books Mr. Brooks has been for many years a careful collector and
+student, and it is gratifying to learn that the material is to be
+committed to book form."--_Salem Gazette._
+
+
+
+_For sale by all Booksellers. Sent, post-paid, upon receipt of price.
+Catalogues of our books mailed free._
+
+TICKNOR & CO., BOSTON.
+
+
+
+THE OLDEN TIME SERIES
+
+SOME STRANGE AND CURIOUS PUNISHMENTS
+
+
+_Yet, taught by time, my heart has learned to glow
+For others' good, and melt at others' woe._
+
+                                     POPE: Odyssey.
+
+_But hushed be every thought that springs
+From out the bitterness of things._
+
+                                        WORDSWORTH.
+
+
+
+THE OLDEN TIME SERIES.
+
+GLEANINGS CHIEFLY FROM OLD NEWSPAPERS OF BOSTON AND SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS
+
+SELECTED AND ARRANGED, WITH BRIEF COMMENTS
+
+BY
+
+HENRY M. BROOKS
+
+
+
+Some Strange and Curious Punishments
+
+"Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is
+no thread that is not a twist of these two strands. By necessity, by
+proclivity, and by delight, we all quote."--EMERSON
+
+BOSTON
+TICKNOR AND COMPANY
+1886
+
+
+_Copyright, 1886_,
+BY TICKNOR AND COMPANY.
+
+_All rights reserved._
+
+University Press:
+JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE.
+
+
+
+
+PUNISHMENTS MENTIONED.
+
+                                             PAGE
+
+ARREST of the dead                             86
+
+
+BACK "dress'd"                                 63
+
+Banished                                       10
+
+Books burned                               15, 16
+
+Bound and chained                               8
+
+Branded with a hot iron                  2, 3, 43
+
+Burned                                         83
+
+
+CLEFT stick put on tongue                       8
+
+Confined at Castle Island                   5, 48
+
+
+EARS cropped                            3, 10, 24
+
+Eating one's own words                         67
+
+Executed (of frequent mention).
+
+
+FINE and imprisonment (of frequent mention).
+
+
+GAGGED and dipped or ducked (of frequent mention).
+
+
+HUNG in chains                             14, 15
+
+
+IMPRISONMENT for debt                      70, 71
+
+In the bilboes                                 35
+
+In the pillory (of frequent mention).
+
+In the stocks                                  35
+
+In the stocks on lecture-day                    8
+
+
+"KISSING the Yssrow"                           44
+
+
+LIMITS of the jail                         70, 71
+
+
+PAPER on the breast with the word _Cheat_      33
+
+Prisoners sold                 21, 22, 47, 48, 49
+
+Prosecution against animals                    78
+
+
+SENT back to England                           51
+
+Sent to Castle Island to make nails            65
+
+Sewed up in bed-clothes and thrashed           68
+
+
+TIED neck and heels and thrown into a pond     28
+
+Tied to a gun and whipped                      20
+
+Tied to a tree and chastised                   81
+
+Tongue bored with a hot iron                   20
+
+Tread-mill                               71 to 76
+
+
+UPON the gallows with rope about the neck (of frequent mention).
+
+
+WHIPPED at the cart's tail                   1, 9
+
+Whipping-post (of frequent mention).
+
+
+
+
+SOME STRANGE AND CURIOUS PUNISHMENTS.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+In the month of January, 1761, "Joseph Bennett, John Jenkins, Owen
+McCarty, and John Wright were publickly whipt at the Cart's Tail thro'
+the City of New York for petty Larceny,"--so the newspaper account
+states,--"pursuant to Sentence inflicted on them by the Court of
+Quarter Sessions held last Week for the Trial of Robbers," etc. In
+March the same year "One Andrew Cayto received 49 Stripes at the
+public Whipping Post" in Boston "for House-robbing; viz., 39 for
+robbing one House, and 10 for robbing another." In 1762 "Jeremiah
+Dexter, of Walpole, pursuant to Sentence, stood in the Pillory in that
+Town the space of one Hour for uttering two Counterfeit Mill'd
+Dollars, knowing them to be such." At Ipswich, Mass., June 16, 1763,
+"one Francis Brown, for stealing a large quantity of Goods, was found
+Guilty, and it being the second Conviction, he was sentenced by the
+Court to sit on the Gallows an Hour with a Rope about his Neck, to be
+whipt 30 Stripes, and pay treble Damages. He says he was born in
+Lisbon, and has been a great Thief."
+
+We extract the following from the "Boston Chronicle," Nov. 20, 1769:--
+
+    We hear from Worcester that on the eighth instant one Lindsay
+    stood in the Pillory there one hour, after which he received 30
+    stripes at the public whipping post, and was then branded in the
+    hand; his crime was forgery.
+
+Lindsay was probably branded with the letter F, by means of a hot
+iron, on the palm of his right hand; this was the custom in such
+cases.
+
+In Boston, in June, 1762, "the noted Dr. Seth Hudson and Joshua How
+stood a second Time in the Pillory for the space of one Hour, and the
+former received 20 and the latter 39 Stripes." In the same town in
+February, 1764, "one David Powers for Stealing was sentenced to be
+whip't 20 Stripes, to pay tripel Damages, being L30, and Costs. And
+one John Gray, Cordwainer, for endeavouring to spread the Infection of
+the Small Pox, was sentenced to pay a Fine of L6, to suffer three
+months' Imprisonment, and to pay Costs." In New York in January, 1767,
+"A Negro Wench was executed for stealing sundry Articles out of the
+House of Mr. Forbes; and one John Douglass was burnt in the Hand for
+Stealing a Copper Kettle." In the last half of the eighteenth century
+it appears to have been a capital crime for negroes to steal. At
+Springfield, Mass., in October, 1767, "one Elnathan Muggin was found
+Guilty of passing Counterfeit Dollars, and sentenced to have his Ears
+cropped," etc. On reading these quaint accounts we are led to inquire
+whether the punishment for crime in "olden times" was more severe than
+at the present time. Many people think it was, and justly so, and
+argue that crime has consequently greatly increased of late years, on
+account of the lightness of modern sentences or the uncertainty about
+punishment. This may be true. Crime is said to increase with
+population always. According to Mr. Buckle, it can be calculated with
+a considerable degree of accuracy. We can estimate, for instance, the
+probable number of murders which will take place in a year in a given
+number of inhabitants. Whether this theory is true or not would
+require a vast amount of study and observation to determine. We know
+that population in our time crowds in cities; especially is this true
+of the classes most likely to furnish criminals. Still, in spite of
+this, do not most of us feel that it has of late years been rather
+safer to reside in a city than in the country? Consider the numbers of
+lawless and too often cruel tramps which have overrun the country
+towns and villages for a few years past, making it so unsafe for women
+to walk unattended in woods and highways, even in the quietest parts
+of New England, where once they could go with perfect safety alone and
+at all hours. No laws can be too severe against _cruel_ tramps. It has
+been affirmed that people who live in cities are in reality more moral
+than country people of the same class.
+
+Is this state of things brought about by the infliction of light
+sentences, or is it caused by the increase among us of a bad foreign
+element? We have heard many serious and humane persons express
+themselves as in favor of a restoration of the whipping-post and
+stocks, really supposing that these things would lessen crime. But is
+it likely that the old methods of punishment would be considered by
+criminals themselves as severer than the present? Let us see what some
+of the last century rogues thought about the matter. At a session of
+the Supreme Judicial Court held at Salem, Mass., in December, 1788,
+one James Ray was sentenced, for stealing goods from the shop of
+Captain John Hathorne (a relative of Nathaniel Hawthorne), to sit upon
+the gallows with a rope about his neck for an hour, to be whipped with
+thirty-nine stripes, and to be confined to hard labor on Castle Island
+(Boston Harbor) for three years. "It is observable of this man," the
+account continues, "that he has been lately released from a two years'
+service at the Castle, that during the trial he was very merry and
+impudent, and continued in the same humor while his sentence was
+reading, holding up his head and looking boldly at the Court, till the
+three years' confinement was mentioned; when his countenance changed,
+his head dropped on his breast, and he fetched a deep groan,--an
+instance of how much more dreadful the idea of labor is to such
+villains than that of Corporal punishment."
+
+At a session of the Court of Oyer and Terminer held at Norristown,
+Pa., for the county of Montgomery, Oct. 11, 1786, we are furnished
+with a case in point. "A bill was presented against Philip Hoosnagle
+for burglary, who was convicted by the traverse Jury on the clearest
+testimony. He was, after a very pathetick and instructing admonition
+from the bench, sentenced to five years' hard labour, under the _new_
+act of Assembly. It was with some difficulty that this reprobate
+was prevailed upon to make the election of labour instead of the
+halter, ... a convincing proof," the report says, "that the punishments
+directed by the new law are more terrifying to idle vagabonds than all
+the horrors of an ignominious death."
+
+Probably there are many more cases on record where criminals preferred
+death to imprisonment. Burglary and forgery were once punished by
+death. We have all noticed on the old Continental currency these
+words: "Death to counterfeit this."
+
+On the 17th June, 1791, Samuel Cook, in the eighty-fourth year of his
+age, was executed at Johnstown, N.Y., for forgery. On the 6th
+December, 1787, William Clarke was executed at Northampton for
+burglary; the same day Charles Rose and Jonathan Bly were executed at
+Lenox for robbery. On the 4th May, 1786, at Worcester, Johnson Green,
+indicted for three burglaries committed in one night within the space
+of about half a mile, was tried on one indictment, convicted, and
+received sentence of death. The papers contain numerous similar cases.
+It would be useless to enumerate them all; we give only a few in order
+to show what the punishment formerly awarded to these crimes really
+was. We do not, of course, know the circumstances attending all these
+cases; but robbery and burglary are usually premeditated, and the
+criminals are prepared to commit murder if it should be necessary for
+their purpose, so that we can have no sympathy with the perpetrators.
+Our sympathy ought, we think, to go to the victims.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+OLD NEW ENGLAND.
+
+Early in the settlement of New England, as is pretty generally known,
+some of the laws and punishments were singular enough. A few extracts
+from Felt's "Annals of Salem" may not be out of place here, as
+illustrating our subject:--
+
+    "In 1637, Dorothy Talby, for beating her husband, is _ordered to
+    be bound and chained to a post_."
+
+    "In 1638, the Assistants order two Salem men to _sit in the
+    Stocks, on Lecture day_, for travelling on the Sabbath."
+
+    "In 1644, Mary, wife of Thomas Oliver, was sentenced _to be
+    publickly whipped_ for reproaching the Magistrates."
+
+    "In August, 1646, for slandering the Elders, she had a _cleft
+    stick put on her tongue for half an hour_." Felt says: "It is
+    evident that her standing out for what she considered 'woman's
+    rights' brought her into frequent and severe trouble. Mr.
+    Winthrop says that she excelled Mrs. Hutchinson in zeal and
+    eloquence."
+
+She finally, in 1650, left the colony, after having caused much
+trouble to the Church and the authorities.
+
+    "In 1649, women were prosecuted in Salem for scolding," and
+    probably in many cases whipped or ducked.
+
+    "May 15, 1672, the General Court of Massachusetts orders that
+    Scolds and Railers shall be gagged or set in a ducking-stool and
+    dipped over head and ears three times."
+
+This treatment we should suppose would be likely to make the victims
+_very pleasant_, especially in cold weather.
+
+    "May 3, 1669, Thomas Maule is ordered to be whipped for saying
+    that Mr. Higginson preached lies, and that his instruction was
+    'the doctrine of devils.'"
+
+Josiah Southwick, Mrs. Wilson, Mrs. Buffum, and others, Quakers, for
+making disturbances in the meeting-house, etc., were whipped at the
+cart's tail through the town. Southwick, for returning after having
+been banished, was whipped through the towns of Boston, Roxbury, and
+Dedham. These are only a few of the cases of the punishments inflicted
+upon the Quakers. Mr. Felt says in reference to the persecution of the
+Quakers:
+
+    "Before any new denomination becomes consolidated, some of its
+    members are apt to show more zeal than discretion. No sect who are
+    regular and useful should have an ill name for the improprieties
+    committed by a few of them."
+
+Our "pious forefathers," we must confess, were too apt to be a little
+hard towards those who annoyed them with their tongue and pen upon
+Church doctrine and discipline or the administration of the
+government. As early as 1631, one Philip Ratclif is sentenced by the
+Assistants to pay L40, to be whipped, to have his ears cropped, and
+to be banished. What had he done to merit such a punishment as this?
+He had made "hard speeches against Salem Church, as well as the
+Government." "The execution of this decision," Mr. Felt says, "was
+represented in England to the great disadvantage of Massachusetts."
+Jeffries was not yet on the bench in England.
+
+In 1652 a man was fined for excess of apparel "in bootes, rebonds,
+gould and silver lace."
+
+Mr. Charles W. Palfrey contributed in 1866 to the "Salem Register" the
+following interesting item on the Salem witchcraft trials:
+
+    Among the many attempts to remedy the mischiefs caused by the
+    witchcraft delusion, the subjoined is not without interest. About
+    eighteen years after the memorable year, 1692, four members, a
+    committee of the Legislature, were sent to Salem to hear certain
+    parties and receive certain petitions, and the following is the
+    record, in the Journal, of their Report:--
+
+    October 26, 1711. Present in Council, His Excellency Joseph
+    Dudley, Esqr., Governor, John Hathorne, Samuel Sewall, Jonathan
+    Corwin, Joseph Lynde, Penn Townsend, John Higginson, Daniel Epes,
+    Andrew Belcher, etc., etc.
+
+    Report of the Committee appointed, Relating to the Affair of
+    Witchcraft in the year 1692; viz.--
+
+    We whose Names are subscribed in Obedience to your Honours' Act at
+    a Court held the last of May, 1710, for our inserting the Names of
+    the several Persons who were condemned for Witchcraft in the year
+    1692, & of the Damages they sustained by their prosecution; Being
+    met at Salem, for the Ends aforesaid, the 13th Septem., 1710, Upon
+    Examination of the Records of the several Persons condemned,
+    Humbly offer to your Honours the Names as follows, to be inserted
+    for the Reversing their Attainders: Elizabeth How, George Jacob,
+    Mary Easty, Mary Parker, Mr. George Burroughs, Gyles Cory & Wife,
+    Rebecca Nurse, John Willard, Sarah Good, Martha Carrier, Samuel
+    Wardel, John Procter, Sarah Wild, Mary Bradbury, Abigail Falkner,
+    Abigail Hobbs, Ann Foster, Rebecca Eams, Dorcas Hoar, Mary Post,
+    Mary Lacy:
+
+    And having heard the several Demands of the Damages of the
+    aforesaid Persons & those in their behalf; & upon Conference have
+    so moderated their respective Demands that We doubt not but they
+    will be readily complied with by your Honours.
+
+    Which respective Demands are as follows:--
+
+    Elizabeth How, Twelve Pounds; George Jacob, Seventy nine Pounds;
+    Mary Easty, Twenty Pounds; Mary Parker, Eight Pounds; Mr. George
+    Burroughs, Fifty Pounds; Gyles Core & Martha Core his Wife, Twenty
+    one Pounds; Rebecca Nurse, Twenty five Pounds; John Willard,
+    Twenty Pounds; Sarah Good, Thirty Pounds; Martha Carrier, Seven
+    Pounds six shillings; Samuel Wardell & Sarah his Wife, Thirty six
+    Pounds fifteen shillings; John Proctor & ---- Proctor his Wife,
+    One Hundred and fifty Pounds; Sarah Wilde, Fourteen Pounds; Mrs.
+    Mary Bradbury, Twenty Pounds; Abigail Faulkner, Twenty Pounds;
+    Abigail Hobbs, Ten Pounds; Ann Foster, Six Pounds ten shillings;
+    Rebecca Eams, Ten Pounds; Dorcas Hoar, Twenty one Pounds seventeen
+    shillings; Mary Post Eight Pounds fourteen shillings; Mary Lacey
+    Eight Pounds ten shillings. The Whole amounting unto Five Hundred
+    & seventy eight Pounds, & twelve shillings.
+
+      (Sign'd) Jno. Appleton, Thomas Noyes, John Burrill,
+      Nehem'a Jewett.
+
+    Salem, Septemr. 14, 1711.
+
+      Read & Accepted in the House of Represent'ves
+          Signed JOHN BURRILL Speak'r
+
+      Read & Concur'd in Council
+    Consented to        J. DUDLEY.
+
+    The following quaint memorandum of the expenses of the commission
+    is minuted in the report, viz.:--
+
+                   _Ye Acct of gr servts_
+
+    Charges 3 days a peis ourselves & horses       4.0.0.
+    Entertainment at Salem Mr. Pratts              1.3.0.
+    Major Sewals attendans & sendg notifications
+      to all Concerned                             1.0.0.
+                                                  -------
+                                                  L6.3.0.
+
+It is a grave error into which many modern writers have been drawn,
+when alluding to Salem witchcraft, to lay the responsibility of that
+dire delusion entirely upon Salem people, as if they alone were to
+be held accountable for the dreadful occurrences of 1692. The laws
+of England in those days, all the authorities of New England, and,
+with but rare exceptions, all the people everywhere throughout the
+civilized world, recognized witchcraft as a fact and believed it to
+be a crime. The most learned men in England and in other countries
+believed fully in witchcraft. Sir Matthew Hale had given a legal
+opinion on the subject; Lord Bacon believed in witchcraft; and there
+are strong reasons for thinking that Shakspeare and other great men
+of the time of Queen Elizabeth and still later believed in it fully.
+Cotton Mather, Judge Sewall, Peter Sargent, Lieutenant-Governor
+Stoughton, all belonging to Boston, were the leaders in the
+proceedings against the witches of 1692.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+HUNG IN CHAINS.
+
+In the papers that we have examined we have not found any instances
+recorded of the old English law of hanging the remains of executed
+criminals in chains as having been carried into effect in our country.
+But from some investigations of Mr. James E. Mauran, of Newport, R.I.,
+we learn that on March 12, 1715, one Mecum of that town was executed
+for murder and his body was hung in chains on Miantonomy Hill, where
+the remains of an Indian were then hanging, who had been executed
+Sept. 12, 1712. Mecum was a Scotchman, and lived at the head of Broad
+Street. A negro was hanged in Newport in 1679, and his remains were
+exposed on the same hill.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+A BOOK ORDERED TO BE BURNED BY THE COUNCIL IN 1695.
+
+The "Salem Observer" of Feb. 14, 1829, quotes from the Rev. Dr.
+Bentley's "Diary" as follows:--
+
+    Tho's Maule, shopkeeper of Salem, is brought before the Council
+    to answer for his printing and publishing a pamphlet of 260
+    pages, entitled "Truth held forth and maintained," owns the book
+    but will not own all, till he sees his copy which is at New-York
+    with Bradford, who printed it. Saith he writt to ye Gov'r of N.
+    York before he could get it printed. Book is ordered to be
+    burnt--being stuff'd with notorious lyes and scandals, and he
+    recognizes to answer it next Court of Assize and gen'l gaol
+    delivery to be held for the County of Essex. He acknowledges that
+    what was written concerning the circumstance of Major Gen.
+    Atherton's death was a mistake (p. 112 and 113), was chiefly
+    insisted on against him, which I believe was a surprize to him,
+    he expecting to be examined in some point of religion, as should
+    seem by his bringing his bible under his arm.
+
+Thomas Maule was a Quaker who lived in Essex Street, Salem, on the
+spot now occupied by James B. Curwen, Esq., as a residence.
+
+Imported books were ordered to be burned in Boston as early as 1653,
+by command of the General Court; but we believe this is the first
+instance of burning an American book.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+Punishment for wearing long hair in New England. From an old Salem
+paper.
+
+    PURITANICAL ZEAL. It is known that there was one of the statutes
+    in our ancestors' code which imposed a penalty for the wearing of
+    long hair. At the time Endicott was the magistrate of this town
+    he caused the following order to be passed:--
+
+      "John Gatshell is fyened ten shillings for building upon the
+      town's ground without leave; and in case he shall cutt of his
+      loung hair of his head in to sevill frame (fewell flame?) in the
+      meane time, shall have abated five shillings his fine, to be
+      paid in to the Towne meeting within two months from this time,
+      and have leave to go in his building in the meantime."
+
+Purchas says of long hair that--
+
+    "It is an ornament to the female sex, a token of subjection, an
+    ensign of modesty; but modesty grows short in men as their hair
+    grows long, and a neat perfumed, frizled, pouldered bush hangs
+    but as a token,--_vini non vendibilis_, of much wine, little wit,
+    of men weary of manhood, of civility, of christianity, which
+    would faine turn (as the least doe imitate) American salvages,
+    infidels, barbarians, or women at the least and best."
+
+Prynne, who wrote in 1632, considers men who nourish their hair like
+women, as an abomination to the Lord, and says--
+
+    "No wonder that the wearing of long haire should make men
+    abominable unto God himselfe, since it was an abomination even
+    among heathen men. Witnesse the examples of Heliogabalus,
+    Sardanapalus, Nero, Sporus, Caius Caligula, and others."
+
+He refers to the opinions of the fathers and the decrees of the Old
+Councils to prove that--
+
+    "Long hair and love locks are bushes of vanity whereby the Devil
+    leads and holds men captive."
+
+          -------------------------
+
+In a Boston paper, Aug. 11, 1789, we find the following ludicrous
+account of the unfaithfulness of an officer in the duty of whipping
+a culprit:--
+
+    On Thursday, 11 culprits received the discipline of the
+    post in this town. The person obtained by the High Sheriff to
+    inflict the punishment, from sympathetick feeling for his
+    brother culprits, was very tender in dealing out his strokes,
+    and not adding weight to them, although repeatedly ordered; the
+    Sheriff, to his honour, took the whip from his hand, by an
+    application of it to his shoulders drove him from the stage,
+    and with the assistance of his Deputies inflicted the
+    punishment of the law on all the culprits. The citizens who
+    were assembled, complimented the Sheriff with three cheers for
+    the manly, determined manner in which he executed his duty.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+In the "Boston Courier," September, 1825, is an account of the
+conviction of a common drunkard at the age of 103! It seems hardly
+possible that such a case could have occurred, and in New England,
+too. This item is copied from the "Salem Observer." If it is true, it
+can hardly be said that the man shortened his days by the use of
+liquor. They had, however, good, pure rum in those days.
+
+    POLICE COURT. Donald McDonald, a Scotchman reported to be _one
+    hundred and three years of age_, was brought before the court
+    yesterday charged with being a common drunkard, of which he had
+    been convicted once before. Donald stated that he had been in
+    various battles of the Revolution, had sailed with Paul Jones,
+    and was at the taking of Quebec. He was found guilty and
+    sentenced to the House of Correction for three months.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+    Donald M'Donald, the Scotchman, who has numbered upwards of 110
+    years, was sent to the House of Industry on Saturday of last
+    week, in a state of intoxication. He had been suffered to go at
+    large but four days previous, and during two of them was seen
+    about our streets a drunken brawler.--_Boston Patriot_, 1829.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+NEW ENGLAND IN 1686.
+
+John Dunton, writing from Boston in 1686 to his friends in England,
+quotes some of the Province laws then in force. He says:--
+
+    For being drunk they either Whip or impose a Fine of Five
+    shillings; And yet, notwithstanding this Law, there are several
+    of them so addicted to it that they begin to doubt whether it be
+    a Sin or no, and seldom go to Bed without Muddy Brains.
+
+    For Cursing and Swearing they bore through the Tongue with a hot
+    Iron.
+
+    For kissing a woman in the Street, though but in way of Civil
+    Salute, Whipping or a Fine (Their way of Whipping Criminals is by
+    Tying them to a Gun at the Town House, and when so Ty'd whipping
+    them at the pleasure of the Magistrate and according to the
+    Nature of the Offence).
+
+    For Adultery they are put to Death, and so for Witchcraft, For
+    that, there are a great many Witches in this Country &c.
+
+    Scolds they gag and set them at their own Doors, for certain
+    hours together for all comers and goers to gaze at. Were this a
+    Law in England and well Executed it wou'd in a little Time prove
+    an Effectual Remedy to cure the Noise that is in many Women's
+    heads.
+
+    Stealing is punished with Restoring four-fold if able; if not,
+    they are sold for some years, and so are poor Debtors. I have not
+    heard of many Criminals of this sort. But for Lying and Cheating
+    they out-vye Judas and all the false other cheats in Hell. Nay,
+    they make a Sport of it: Looking upon Cheating as a commendable
+    Piece of Ingenuity, commending him that has the most skill to
+    commit a piece of Roguery; which in their Dialect (like those of
+    our Yea-and-Nay-Friends in England) they call by the genteel Name
+    of Out-Witting a Man and won't own it to be cheating.
+
+After mentioning the case of a man in Boston who bought a horse of a
+countryman who could not read and gave him a note payable at the "Day
+of the Resurrection," etc. Dunton goes on to say: "In short, These
+Bostonians enrich themselves by the ruine of Strangers, etc.... But
+all these things pass under the Notion of Self-Preservation and
+Christian Policy."
+
+It would hardly be fair to quote all this from Dunton's letters unless
+we added what he says of Boston in another place; namely, "And though
+the Generality are what I have described them, yet is there as sincere
+a Pious and truly Religious People among them as is any where in the
+Whole World to be found."
+
+          -------------------------
+
+It seems to have been quite common at one time to sell prisoners. At
+the Supreme Judicial Court in Salem, in November, 1787, "Elizabeth
+Leathe of Lynn, for harbouring thieves and receiving stolen goods, was
+convicted and sentenced to be whipped twenty stripes and to be sold
+for six months." Also at a session of the same Court, held in Boston
+in September, 1791, six persons were convicted of theft and sentenced
+to be whipped and pay costs, or to be sold for periods of from six
+months to four years. At this same Court one Seth Johnson appears to
+have received what seems to us a rather severe sentence, although of
+course we do not know all the circumstances of the case. He was
+convicted of theft on three indictments and was sentenced to be "whipt
+65 stripes and confined to hard labor for nine years." The Court at
+Salem, before referred to, passed on one Catharine Derby a very heavy
+sentence for stealing from Captain Hathorne's shop. It was, "To sit
+upon the gallows one hour with a rope about her neck, to be whipped 20
+stripes, pay L14 to Capt. Hathorne, and costs of prosecution." This is
+almost as bad as the old saying, "being hung and paying forty
+shillings."
+
+This practice of selling convicts was nothing more or less than making
+slaves of them,--for a limited period, of course; but perhaps it was
+in many instances a punishment more to be desired by the victims than
+being confined in prison, especially if they were well treated. The
+prisons in those days had not "modern conveniences," and probably in
+some cases were hardly decent. The condition of the jail in Portsmouth,
+N.H., in February, 1789, is thus described by a prisoner who made his
+escape from there by digging through the chimney. His account is
+interesting in this connection. The paper from which we take it says:
+"But for fear his quitting his lodgings in so abrupt a manner might
+lay him open to censure, he wrote the following on the wall:--
+
+    "The reason of my going is because I have _no fire_ to comfort
+    myself with, and very _little_ provision. So I am sure, if I was
+    to _stay_ any longer I should perish to death. Look at that bed
+    there! Do you think it fit for any person to lie on?
+
+      "If you are well, I am well;
+      Mend the chimney, and all's well!
+
+    "To the gentlemen and officers of Portsmouth from your humble
+    servant,
+
+    "WILLIAM FALL.
+
+    "N.B. I am very sorry that I did not think of this before, for if
+    I had, your people should not have had the pleasure of seeing me
+    take the lashes."
+
+The whipping-post and stocks were discontinued in Massachusetts early
+in the present century. On the 15th of January, 1801, one Hawkins
+stood an hour in the pillory in Court Street (now Washington Street),
+Salem, and had his ear cropped for the crime of forgery, pursuant to
+the sentence of the Supreme Court.
+
+It would be easy to multiply cases showing the old methods of dealing
+with criminals; but we think we have cited enough for our readers to
+be able to form some judgment as to the desirability of reviving the
+old and degrading systems, even if it could be done. It does seem
+sometimes that there are brutes in the shape of men whose cruelty,
+especially in the case of crimes against women, makes them deserving
+of the worst punishment that could be inflicted for the protection of
+society; but for the general run of such comparatively light offences
+as petty larceny, etc., beating and branding with hot irons must be
+considered barbarous in the extreme, and more after the manner of
+savages than Christians. We always thought that the beating of
+scholars--a practice once very common in schools--for such trifling
+offences as whispering and looking off the book, was a gross outrage,
+and the parent knowing and allowing it was in our opinion as guilty
+as the schoolmaster. Of course we will not deny that teachers
+did, then as now, have a great deal to put up with from saucy,
+"good-for-nothing" boys, to whom the rod could not well be spared;
+but we do not allude to such cases. We knew a master whose delight,
+apparently, was pounding and beating _little_ boys,--he did not touch
+the large ones. And yet he was generally considered a first-rate
+teacher. Parents upheld him in anything he chose to do with the boys,
+and if they complained at home, they were told that it must have been
+their fault to be punished at all. This man every morning took the
+Bible in one hand and his rattan in the other and walked backward and
+forward on the floor in front of the desks while the boys read aloud,
+each boy reading two or three verses; and woe be to any boy who made a
+mistake, such as mispronouncing a word! Although he might never have
+been instructed as to its pronunciation, he was at once pounded on the
+head or rapped over the knuckles. Of course he never forgot that
+particular word. And this teacher was called only "strict"! If ever a
+man deserved the pillory, it was that teacher.
+
+Possibly some of our readers may think that there is another side to
+this story; for the benefit of such we give some lines from the "Salem
+Gazette," Feb. 6, 1824.
+
+    _From the Connecticut Centinel._
+
+    THE SCHOOLMASTER'S SOLILOQUY.
+
+      To whip, or not to whip?--that is the question.
+    Whether 'tis easier in the mind to suffer
+    The deaf'ning clamor of some fifty urchins,
+    Or take birch and ferule 'gainst the rebels,
+    And by opposing end it? To whip--to flog--
+    Each day, and by a whip to say we end
+    The whispering, shuffling, and ceaseless buzzing
+    Which a school is heir to--'tis a consummation
+    Devoutly to be wished. To whip, to flog,
+    To whip, and not reform--aye, there's the rub.
+    For by severity what ills may come,
+    When we've dismissed and to our lodging gone,
+    Must give us pain. There's the respect
+    That makes the patience of a teacher's life.
+    For who would bear the thousand plagues of a school,--
+    The girlish giggle, the tyro's awkwardness,
+    The pigmy pedant's vanity, the mischief,
+    The sneer, the laugh, the pouting insolence,
+    With all the hum-drum clatter of a school,
+    When he himself might his quietus make
+    With a bare hickory? Who would willing bear
+    To groan and sweat under a noisy life,
+    But that the dread of something after school
+    (That hour of rumor, from whose slanderous tongue
+    Few Tutors e'er are free) puzzles the will,
+    And makes us rather bear _these_ lesser ills,
+    Than fly to _those_ of greater magnitude.
+    Thus error does make cowards of us all;
+    And thus the native hue of resolution
+    Is sicklied over with undue clemency,
+    And pedagogues of great pith and spirit,
+    With this regard their _firmness_ turn away,
+    And lose the name of _government_.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+We here record a curious affair which took place in the State of
+Georgia in the year 1811. At the Superior Court at Milledgeville a
+Mrs. Palmer, who, the account states, "seems to have been rather glib
+of the tongue, was indicted, tried, convicted, and, in pursuance of
+the sentence of the Court, was punished by being publicly ducked in
+the Oconee River for--_scolding_." This, we are told, was the first
+instance of the kind that had ever occurred in that State, and
+"numerous spectators attended the execution of the sentence." A paper
+copying this account says that the "crime is old, but the punishment
+is new," and that "in the good old days of our Ancestors, when an
+unfortunate woman was accused of Witchcraft she was tied neck and
+heels and thrown into a pond of Water: if she drowned, it was agreed
+that she was no witch; if she swam, she was immediately tied to a
+stake and burnt alive. But who ever heard that our _pious_ ancestors
+_ducked_ women for scolding?" This writer is much mistaken; for it is
+well known that in England (and perhaps in this country in early
+times) the "ducking-stool" was resorted to for punishing "scolds."
+This was before the days of "women's rights," for there is no record
+of any man having been punished in this way.
+
+It is said that the ducking-stool was used in Virginia at one time.
+Thomas Hartley writes from there to Governor Endicott of Massachusetts
+in 1634, giving an account of the punishing a woman "who by the
+violence of her tongue had made her house and neighborhood
+uncomfortable." She was ducked five times before she repented; "then
+cried piteously, 'Let me go! let me go! by God's help I'll sin so no
+more.' They then drew back y^e Machine, untied y^e Ropes, and let her
+walk home in her wetted Clothes a hopefully penitent woman." In the
+"American Historical Record," vol. i., will be found a very
+interesting account of this singular affair, with an engraving of the
+"ducking-stool." Bishop Meade, in his "Old Churches," etc., says there
+was a law in Virginia against scolds and slanderers, and gives an
+instance of a woman ordered to be ducked three times from a vessel
+lying in James River. There must have been very severe practices in
+Virginia in the early days, according to Bishop Meade. We refer
+persons especially interested in this subject to Hone's "Day Book and
+Table Book," or Chambers's "Book of Days," both English publications,
+for a full account of the ducking-stool and scold's bridle, formerly
+used in England for the punishment of scolding women. It is not
+pleasant to think that such a shameful practice was ever resorted to,
+but it appears to be well authenticated. We cannot, however, read
+English history, or any other history, without finding a vast number
+of disagreeable facts which we are obliged to believe. Some things,
+too, have occurred in our own country that we should like to forget.
+
+All over the country we are nowadays troubled with "strikes." Such
+"irregularities" must have been treated in a different spirit half a
+century ago from what they are now. In these days the "strikers"
+attempt to dictate terms, and in some cases succeed; although as a
+general thing they get the worst of the struggle. The method of
+dealing with such matters fifty years ago is briefly set forth in the
+"Salem Observer," March 29, 1829. It says: "_Turn-out in New York._
+There has been a turn-out for higher wages among the laborers in the
+city of New York. _Several of the ring-leaders have been arrested and
+ordered to give heavy bonds for their appearance at Court._" In
+September, 1827, some sailors struck in Boston for higher wages,
+formed a procession, and marched through the city, making considerable
+noise with their cheers, etc. They issued the following proclamation,
+which was read by the leader now and then, and responded to with loud
+cheers: "Attention! We, the blue Jackets now in the city of Boston,
+agree that we will not ship for less than $15 a month, and that we
+will punish any one who shall ship for less in such way as we think
+proper, and strip the vessel [which he ships in]. What say you?" At
+the Common they were met by a militia company, who charged upon them;
+some men of both sides were knocked down, but no lives were lost or
+blood shed. In the afternoon the sailors were out again with drum and
+fife. The paper from which we obtain this information says that they
+probably would not get any advance, as it is assured by a shipper that
+he found no difficulty in procuring crews at the customary wages.
+Probably it was not intended that the military should do more than
+endeavor to keep order.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+It is rather surprising that there should have been no conviction for
+felony in the County of Essex from 1692, when the witches were tried,
+until 1771,--a period of seventy-nine years. It would so appear,
+however, from the following extract from the "Essex Gazette," Nov. 12,
+1771:--
+
+    Last Wednesday Morning the Trial of Bryan Sheehen for committing
+    a Rape on the Body of Mrs. Abial Hollowell, Wife of Mr. Benjamin
+    Hollowell, of Marblehead, in September last, came on before the
+    Superior Court of Judicature, at the Court-House in this Town.
+    The Trial lasted from between nine and ten o'Clock A.M. till
+    three in the Afternoon, when the Jury withdrew, and in about one
+    Hour brought in their Verdict, GUILTY. Mrs. Hollowell's Testimony
+    against the Prisoner was fully corroborated by the Physician who
+    attended her, and by the People who were in the House, at and
+    after the Perpetration of the Crime; by which the Guilt and
+    Barbarity of the Prisoner was so fully demonstrated, that the
+    Verdict of the Jury has given universal Satisfaction.
+
+    This Bryan Sheehen (who has not yet received his Sentence) is the
+    first Person, as far as we can learn, that has been convicted of
+    Felony, in this large County, since the memorable Year 1692,
+    commonly called _Witch-Time_.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+From the "Boston Post-Boy," February, 1763.
+
+    BOSTON, JANUARY 31.
+
+    At the Superiour Court held at Charlestown last Week, Samuel
+    Bacon of Bedford, and Meriam Fitch, Wife of Benjamin Fitch of
+    said Bedford, were convicted of being notorious Cheats, and of
+    having by Fraud, Craft and Deceit, possess'd themselves of
+    Fifteen Hundred Johannes, the property of a third Person; were
+    Sentenced to be each of them set in the Pillory one Hour, with a
+    Paper on each of their Breasts with the Words a CHEAT wrote in
+    Capitals thereon, to suffer three Months Imprisonment, and to be
+    bound to their good Behaviour for one Year, and to pay Costs.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+From the "Massachusetts Gazette," May 1, 1786.
+
+    On Saturday evening the 22d ult. eight of the prisoners, confined
+    at the Castle, broke from their confinement, and made their
+    escape to the main. The day following five of them were taken in
+    a barn at Dorchester, and immediately re-conducted to the Castle.
+    The ensuing night the three others were apprehended at Sharon,
+    near Stoughton, and were also sent back to their place of
+    confinement.
+
+    Richard Squire and John Matthews, the pirates, and Stephen
+    Burroughs, a _noted_ clerical character, were among the prisoners
+    who made their escape from the Castle, as mentioned above. And on
+    Saturday last, we are informed, the eight culprits shared among
+    them the benefit of a distribution of 700 lashes.
+
+    On Monday evening last, a person, in passing from the Long-Wharf
+    to Dock-Square, was assaulted and knocked down, by a single
+    villain, who robbed him of a box, containing a coat, two
+    waistcoats, a pair of corduroy breeches, a piece of calico, in
+    which was wrapped up three watches, and a letter containing
+    money.
+
+    On Thursday last, at noon, seven fellows received the discipline
+    of the post, in this town.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+Curious list of punishments in the early days of New England. From
+"Salem Gazette," May 4, 1784.
+
+    _The following (taken from a Boston paper of last week) is a
+    collection of a few of the many curious punishments, inflicted
+    for a variety of offences, among the old records of this
+    Commonwealth._
+
+        Between 1630 and 1650.
+
+    Sir _Richard Saltonstale_ fined four bushels of malt for his
+    absence from court.
+
+    _William Almy_ fined for taking away Mr. Glover's canoe without
+    leave.
+
+    _Josias Plastoree_ shall (for stealing four baskets of corn from
+    the Indians) return them eight baskets again, be fined 5l. and
+    hereafter to be called by the name of _Josias_, and not _Mr._ as
+    formerly he used to be.
+
+    _Joyce Bradwick_ shall give unto Alexander Beeks, 20s. for
+    promising him marriage without her friends' consent, and now
+    refusing to perform the same.
+
+    _William James_, for incontinency, was sentenced to be set in the
+    bilboes at Boston and Salem, and bound in 20l.
+
+    _Thomas Petet, for suspicion_ of slander, idleness and
+    stubbornness, is to be severely whipt and kept in hold.
+
+    _John Smith_, of Medford, for swearing, _being penitent_, was set
+    in bilboes.
+
+    _Richard Turner_, for being notoriously drunk, was fined 2l.
+
+    _John Hoggs_, for swearing _God's foot_, cursing his servant,
+    wishing "a pox of God take you," was fined 5l.
+
+    _Richard Ibrook_, for tempting two or more maids to uncleanness,
+    was fined 5l. to the country, and 20s. a piece to the two maids.
+
+    _Thomas Makepeace_, because of his novel disposition, was
+    informed we were weary of him, unless he reformed.
+
+    _Edward Palmer_, for his extortion, taking 33s. 7d. for the plank
+    and woodwork of Boston stocks, is fined 5l. and censured to be
+    set an hour in the stocks.
+
+    _John White_ is bound in 10l. to be of good behaviour, and not to
+    come into the company of Bull's wife alone.
+
+    _Thomas Lechford_ acknowledging he had _overset_ himself and is
+    sorry for it, promising to attend his calling, and not to meddle
+    with controversies, was dismissed.
+
+    _Sarah Hales_ was censured _for her miscarriage_ to be carried to
+    the gallows with a rope about her neck, and to sit upon the
+    ladder, the rope end flung over the gallows, and after to be
+    banished.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+Wholesale sentences of death in London, in 1820.
+
+    At the October session of the Old Bailey, London, sentence of
+    death was passed on thirty-seven persons, four of whom were
+    females. Four were condemned for passing counterfeit notes,
+    eleven for highway robberies, two for burglary, 11 for stealing
+    in dwelling houses, 1 for horse-stealing, 2 for sacrilege, &c.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+From the "Salem Mercury," July 28, 1788.
+
+    _The following_ EXTRAORDINARY OCCURRENCE _is extracted from the_
+    EUROPEAN MAGAZINE _for_ 1787.
+
+    SAMUEL BURT, convicted of forgery a few sessions since, was put
+    to the bar, and informed that his Majesty, in his royal clemency,
+    had been graciously pleased to extend his mercy to him on
+    condition that he should be transported during his natural life.
+    The prisoner bowed respectfully to the Court, and immediately
+    addressed the Recorder with his "most humble and unfeigned
+    thanks, for the kindness and humanity of the Recorder, the
+    Sheriffs, and other gentlemen who had interested themselves in
+    his favour, and who had so effectually represented his unhappy
+    case to the throne, that his Majesty, whose humanity could only
+    be equalled by his love of virtue, had extended his mercy; but
+    however flattering the prospect of preserving life might be to a
+    man in a different situation; yet that he, now he was sunk and
+    degraded in society, was totally insensible of the blessing. Life
+    was no longer an object with him, as it was utterly impossible
+    that he could be joined in union with the person who was dearer
+    to him than life itself. Under such circumstances, although he
+    was truly sensible of his Majesty's goodness and clemency, yet he
+    must positively decline the terms offered him; preferring death
+    to the prolongation of a life which could not be otherwise than
+    truly miserable." The whole Court was astonished at his address;
+    and after consultation, Mr. Recorder remanded the prisoner back
+    to the jail, to be brought up again the first day of next
+    session.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+The pillory appears to have been in use in Boston as lately as 1803;
+for we find in the "Chronicle" of that city that in March of that year
+Robert Pierpont, owner, and H.R. Story, master, of the brigantine
+"Hannah," for the crime of sinking the vessel at sea, and thus
+defrauding the underwriters (among whom were Joseph Taylor, Peter C.
+Brooks, Thomas Amory, David Greene, and Benjamin Bussey), were
+convicted before the Supreme Judicial Court, and the following
+sentence imposed: "That they should stand one hour in the Pillory in
+State Street on two several days, be confined in Prison for the term
+of two years, and pay Costs of Prosecution." Considering the magnitude
+of the crime, this was a light sentence. An underwriter in the
+"Chronicle" says: "It is a transaction exceeding in infamy all that
+has hitherto appeared in the commerce of our country."
+
+          -------------------------
+
+Wholesale execution of pirates in Newport, R.I., in July, 1723.
+
+    CAPTURE OF PIRATES.
+
+    This year (1723) two Pirate sloops, called the Ranger and the
+    Fortune, committed many piracies on the American Coast, having
+    captured and sunk several vessels.--On the 6th of June, they
+    captured a Virginia sloop, which they plundered and let go, who
+    soon after fell in with his Majesty's Ship Grey Hound, Capt.
+    Solgard, of 20 guns, who on being informed of the piracy,
+    immediately went in pursuit of the Pirates, and on the 10th came
+    up with them about 14 leagues south from the east end of Long
+    Island. They mistaking her for a Merchant ship, immediately gave
+    chase and commenced firing under the black flag.--The Grey Hound
+    succeeded in capturing the Ranger, one of the sloops, after
+    having 7 men wounded, but the other Pirate escaped. The Grey
+    Hound and her prize arrived in the harbor of Newport, and the
+    Pirates, 36 in number, were committed for trial.
+
+    _Trial of the Pirates._
+
+    A Court of Admiralty, for the trial of Pirates, was held at
+    Newport on the 10th, 11th and 12th of July. The Hon. William
+    Dummer, Lt. Governor and Commander in Chief of the Province of
+    Massachusetts Bay, President of the Court.
+
+    The thirty-six Pirates taken by Capt. Solgard, were tried, when
+    Charles Harris, who acted as captain, and 25 of his men, were
+    found guilty, and sentenced to suffer death, and 10 men were
+    acquitted on the ground of having been forced into their service.
+
+    _Execution of the Pirates._
+
+    On Friday the 19th of July, the 26 Pirates were taken to a place
+    in Newport, called Bull's Point, (now Gravelly Point,) within the
+    flux and reflux of the sea, and there hanged. The following are
+    their names:--Charles Harris, Thomas Linnicar, Daniel Hyde,
+    Stephen Mundon, Abraham Lacy, Edward Lawson, John Tomkins,
+    Francis Laughton, John Fisgerald, Wm. Studfield, Owen Rice, Wm.
+    Read, Wm. Blades, Tho's Hagget, Peter Cues, Wm. Jones, Edward
+    Eaton, John Brown, James Sprinkly, Joseph Sound, Charles Church,
+    John Waters, Tho's Powell, Joseph Libbey, Thomas Hazel, John
+    Bright.
+
+    The Pirates were all young men, most of them were natives of
+    England, Wm. Blades was from Rhode Island and Thomas Powell from
+    Wethersfield, (Conn.); after the execution, their bodies were
+    taken to the north end of Goat Island, and buried on the shore,
+    between high and low water mark.
+
+    As this was the most extensive execution of Pirates that ever
+    took place at one time in the Colonies, it was attended by a vast
+    multitude from every part of New England.
+
+    From the _Salem Observer_, Nov. 11, 1843.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+Description of "Villains" in the "Boston Post-Boy," Dec. 12, 1763.
+
+    Tuesday last a Gang of Villains were apprehended at a House in
+    Roxbury, and brought to Town & committed to Goal, they have been
+    concerned in the late Robberies here, and 'tis suspected in some
+    of those towards Pennsylvania, for which Reason it will be proper
+    to advertise their Names, with some Description of them, which
+    are as follows, viz.
+
+    _William Robinson_, a tall slim fellow, about 5 Feet 7 inches
+    high, wears a blue Surtout Coat with metal Buttons, and his Hat
+    commonly flopt before, and an old laced Waistcoat, has short
+    curled black Hair; when he speaks he seems jaw-fallen and very
+    effeminate, is about 35 Years of Age, walks much like a
+    Foot-pad, and has a comely Woman with him whom he calls his
+    Wife.----_John Cassady_, a middling siz'd Fellow much
+    pock-broken, square-shoulder'd, wears a Wig upon the yellow
+    cast, and has a very guilty Countenance, is about 40 Years of
+    Age, and calls himself a Shoe-maker.--_John Willson_, a short
+    young Fellow, about 21 Years of Age, wears a blue Surtout Coat,
+    and short black Hair, of a pale Countenance, and calls himself a
+    Sail-maker.--_George Sears_, a well-set Fellow, with a comely
+    Face, black Hair twisted with a black Ribbon, and says he serv'd
+    3 Years to an Attorney in England.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+In the "Essex Gazette," Nov. 12, 1771, is the following news from
+England:--
+
+    A Correspondent expresses great Surprise and indignation at the
+    Disproportion of Punishments in this Country. He says he read in
+    a News paper that two Men were hanged together last Month in
+    Kent, one of whom had committed a barbarous Murder on his Wife,
+    and the other had stolen three Shillings and Sixpence. In the
+    same Paper there followed immediately another Paragraph, that a
+    Woman had been only whipped for stealing little Children and
+    burning their Eyes out.
+
+At this day we believe it is the custom of the English authorities to
+treat all prisoners alike, whatever the charges against them may be.
+It seems as if they were desirous of degrading men as much as
+possible. Mr. John Boyle O'Reilly, a poet and gentleman of culture,
+who was unfortunately a political prisoner, was chained to a
+wife-murderer. And this the English call "justice,"--as if there could
+be no difference in offences!
+
+          -------------------------
+
+Severe punishment used to be inflicted for the crime of passing
+counterfeit coin. The "Essex Gazette," April 23, 1771, under news from
+Newport, April 15, says,--
+
+    William Carlisle was convicted of passing counterfeit Dollars,
+    and sentenced to stand One Hour in the Pillory, on Little-Rest
+    Hill, next Friday, to have _both Ears_ cropped, to be branded on
+    _both Cheeks_ with the Letter R, to pay a Fine of One hundred
+    Dollars and Cost of Prosecution, and to stand committed till
+    Sentence performed.
+
+The letter R probably meant "rogue." The same account states that--
+
+    "Last Wednesday Evening one Mr. ----, of this Town (Newport), was
+    catched by a Number of Persons in Disguise, placed on an old
+    Horse, and paraded through the principal Streets for about an
+    Hour as a _Warning_ to all bad Husbands."
+
+          -------------------------
+
+In the "Massachusetts Gazette," Sept. 8, 1786, we find an account of
+the Dutch mode of executions.
+
+    NEW-JERSEY.
+
+    ELIZABETH-TOWN, _Aug. 16_. The little influence which our present
+    mode of executing criminals has in deterring others from the
+    commission of the same crimes, arises from a want of solemnity
+    and terrifick circumstances on such occasions. It is not the mere
+    loss of life which has so much a tendency to affect the
+    spectator, as the dreadful apparatus, the awful preliminaries,
+    which ought to attend publick executions; whose justifiable
+    purposes is the prevention of crimes, and not the inflicting
+    torment on the criminal. A variety of particulars might be
+    adopted respecting the dress of the condemned, the solemnity of
+    the procession to the place of execution, and the apparatus
+    there, to throw horrour on the scene without in reality giving
+    the unhappy victim a more painful exit. The Dutch have a mode of
+    execution which is well calculated to inspire terror, without
+    putting the sufferer to extraordinary pain. The criminal is
+    placed on a scaffold, opposite to the gigantick figure of a
+    woman, with arms extended, filled with spikes, or long sharpened
+    nails, and a dagger pointed from her breast, she is gradually
+    moved towards him by machinery for the purpose, till he gets
+    within her embrace, when her arms encircle him, and the dagger is
+    pressed through his heart. This is vulgarly called among them,
+    kissing the Yssrow, or woman, and excites more terror in the
+    breasts of the populace than any other mode of punishment.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+Inhabitants of Boston severely punished (on paper) in April, 1774, for
+_destruction of the tea_.
+
+    A CURIOUS HISTORICAL ITEM. In a recent English Chronological
+    work, under the article of "Tea," we found the following brief
+    notice of the American Revolution: "Tea destroyed at Boston by
+    the inhabitants, 1773, in abhorrence of English Taxes; for which
+    they were severely punished by the English Parliament, in April,
+    1774."
+
+    _Salem Observer_, April 28, 1827.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+Sentences of death for robbery, May 6, 1788.
+
+    The Mulatto who, some time since, robbed Mr. Bacon, on the
+    Cambridge road, was, at the late term of the Supreme Court at
+    Concord, convicted of the crime, and had sentence of death
+    pronounced against him.
+
+    Thursday next is the day appointed for the execution of the two
+    Taylors, for the robbery of Mr. Cunningham, on Boston-Neck.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+Captain Phillips, of the British army, whipped in New York in 1784.
+
+    PHILADELPHIA, February 4, 1784.
+
+    On Saturday last, was whipped at the cart's tail, for robbery,
+    one of George the Third's pretty subjects. This fellow, who now
+    goes by the name of Captain Phillips, under his good friend Sir
+    Harry Clinton, learned such a knack of thieving while he
+    commanded a whale-boat along this coast, under his good master,
+    that now, having lost his protection, he and a number more of
+    those lads called Loyalists are swarming amongst us, and have set
+    up business in a small way; and though many of them may not
+    choose to steal themselves, yet, by harbouring and encouraging
+    others, may do much mischief to the good inhabitants of these
+    states.
+
+    _Salem Gazette._
+
+          -------------------------
+
+Sentences at the Supreme Court.
+
+    BOSTON, March 22, 1784.
+
+    At the Supreme Judicial Court, lately held here, the following
+    persons were arraigned, viz.
+
+    _Thomas Hastings_, indicted for selling corrupt swine's flesh,
+    was found guilty.--He was sentenced to pay a fine of twelve
+    pounds for the use of the Commonwealth, recognize himself as
+    principal in the sum of thirty pounds, with sufficient surety or
+    sureties in the like sum, for his keeping the peace and being of
+    good behaviour for the term of one year, pay costs of
+    prosecution, and stand committed till sentence be performed.
+
+    _John Boyd_, for stealing, pled guilty:--sentenced to pay to the
+    person injured, treble the value of the goods stolen, receive 20
+    stripes at the public whipping post, sit on the gallows one hour
+    with a rope about his neck, pay costs of prosecution, and stand
+    committed till sentence be performed.--He was, upon another
+    indictment for theft, sentenced to pay treble damages, whipped 15
+    stripes, and pay costs of prosecution.--Upon declaring himself
+    unable to pay damages, he was for the first offence sentenced to
+    be sold for 9 months, and for the second, 2 months.
+
+    _Lewis Humphries_, for stealing, pled guilty:--sentenced to pay
+    treble damages, receive 20 stripes, sit on the gallows one hour
+    with a rope about his neck, pay costs of prosecution, and stand
+    committed till sentence be performed.--Upon declaring himself
+    unable to pay damages, was sentenced to be sold for the term of 5
+    years.
+
+    _William Padley_, for an assault upon his wife, with an intent to
+    kill her, was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to sit on the
+    gallows one hour, there to receive 30 stripes, pay costs of
+    prosecution, and stand committed till sentence be performed.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+Sentences by the Supreme Judicial Court at Salem, Nov. 18, 1786.
+
+    At the Supreme Judicial Court, holden in this town, for the
+    county of Essex, which adjourned on Thursday last, several
+    persons, criminally indicted, were convicted and severally
+    sentenced. Isaac Coombs, an Indian, was found guilty, at last
+    June term, at Ipswich, of murdering his wife; at which time a
+    motion was made to the Court, in arrest of judgment, on which the
+    Court suspended giving judgment thereon until this term; but the
+    said motion being overruled, the Court gave judgment of death
+    against him.
+
+    Besides the sentence of the Indian, as above, _Thomas Kendry_,
+    for breaking into the store of Israel Bartlet, and stealing
+    sundry goods, was sentenced, on his confession, to pay said
+    Bartlet L33-9-6, to sit on the gallows one hour with a rope about
+    his neck, to be whipped 30 stripes, and confined to hard labour
+    on Castle-island two years.
+
+    _Thomas Atwood_ & _John Ransum_, for breaking open the store of
+    Knott Pedrick, and stealing dry fish, were each sentenced to pay
+    said Pedrick L40-5-0, to sit one hour on the gallows, be whipped
+    36 stripes, and confined to labour on Castle-island 3 years.
+
+    _John Smith_, for stealing goods from Abner Perkins, was
+    sentenced to pay said Perkins L18-4-0, and be whipped 25 stripes.
+
+    The same _John Smith_, for breaking open a sloop, and stealing
+    goods of John Brooks, was sentenced to pay said Brooks L16-8-0,
+    to sit one hour on the gallows, be whipped 30 stripes, and
+    confined 18 months on Castle-island.
+
+    _John Scudder_, for stealing from Eli Gale, was sentenced to pay
+    said Gale L5-2-0, or if unable to pay, to be disposed of by him,
+    in service, to any person, for 2 months.
+
+    _Joseph Ballard_, for stealing a horse from Thomas Dodge, was
+    sentenced to pay L30, be whipped 20 stripes, pay costs, &c. and,
+    if unable to pay, that said Dodge may dispose of him in service
+    to any person for two years.
+
+    _Calvin Newhall_ was indicted for assaulting Deborah Sarker, a
+    negro woman, with intent to commit a rape upon her. He pleaded
+    not guilty; and the jury found him guilty of the assault, but
+    whether with an intent to ravish they could not agree; whereupon
+    the Attorney General would no further prosecute for said intent
+    to ravish; and the Court ordered that said Calvin should be
+    whipped 10 stripes, and recognize in L60, with sufficient surety
+    in a like sum, to be of good behaviour for 3 months, and pay
+    costs.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+Punishment in 1644 for criticising the preacher and the music, and for
+sleeping in "meeting."
+
+The Hon. Wm. D. Northend, in a very interesting and valuable address
+before the Essex Bar Association, Dec. 8, 1885, mentions the following
+among other cases taken from the Essex County Court Records:--
+
+    "In 1644 William Hewes and John his son, for terming such as sing
+    in the congregation fools, and William Hewes also for charging
+    Reverend Mr. Corbitt with falsehood in his doctrine, were ordered
+    to pay a fine of fifty shillings each, and to make humble
+    confession in a public meeting at Lynn."
+
+William Hewes and his son were probably only criticising the music and
+the preaching in the "meeting-house." If people nowadays were fined
+for similar offences, the county would grow so rich that there would
+be no necessity for the present heavy tax.
+
+    "In 1643 Roger Scott, for repeated sleeping in meeting on the
+    Lord's Day, and for striking the person who waked him, was, at
+    Salem, sentenced to be severely whipped."
+
+It must be borne in mind that people in those days were not allowed to
+stay at home on the Lord's Day and do their sleeping there. Staying at
+home on Sunday is a modern innovation.
+
+From the Massachusetts Colony Records, quoted by Mr. Northend, we
+learn that in March, 1761, Sir Christopher Gardner, who had passed
+much of his time "with roystering Morton of Merry Mount," and who was
+living with a lady he called his cousin, upon receipt by the Governor
+of information of two wives in England "whom he has carelessly left
+behind," after a long pursuit was captured and sent back to England.
+
+It would seem, then, that there must have been, judging from this
+example, in "high places" some "indiscretions" and "unpleasant"
+gossip early in our history.
+
+Mr. Northend finds that at "the same date one Nich. Knopp, for
+pretending to cure scurvy by water of no value, which he sold at a
+very dear rate, was ordered to pay a fine of five pounds or be
+whipped, and made liable to an action by any person to whom he had
+sold the water."
+
+How would such a decree work in our day, if applied to the makers or
+venders of all the "water of no value" which is advertised on the
+fences and barns alongside of our railroads and highways?
+
+Mr. Northend, speaking of the severity of the early laws, says:--
+
+    "The criminal laws were taken principally from the Mosaic code;
+    and although many of them at the present day seem harsh and
+    cruel, yet as a whole they were very much milder than the
+    criminal laws of England at the time, and the number of capital
+    offences was greatly reduced."
+
+          -------------------------
+
+CURIOUS PUNISHMENTS IN SCHOOLS.
+
+In some of the old schools in Salem (no doubt it was the same in other
+places) the teachers whose business it was to teach youths the "three
+R's,"--Reading, 'Riting, and 'Rithmetic,--were too apt to be occupied,
+as we have been told, in scolding, devising or practising some mode of
+punishment. We remember hearing of a school where the master kept a
+long cane pole (something like a fishing-rod) which he used for the
+purpose of reaching boys who needed correction; on account of the
+length of the pole he was enabled to do business without leaving his
+seat. It was never suspected at the time how lazy this master was.
+
+Another teacher kept for use as a punishment a common walnut, which
+when occasion required he first put into the mouth of a colored boy,
+and after it had remained there for five minutes or so, it was taken
+out and put into the mouth of the white boy, who was thus to be
+punished by holding it in _his_ mouth for a certain length of time.
+This same teacher had a round smooth stone, weighing perhaps ten or
+fifteen pounds, which very small boys were required to hold in their
+arms for some time, and stand up straight before the whole school.
+These with a good rattan and a cowhide furnished this master's
+equipment for teaching.
+
+There was another master who had what he called "the mansion of
+misery," which was simply a line drawn with chalk on the floor in
+front of his desk, where for trifling offences such as whispering,
+etc., scholars were required to "toe the mark," standing perfectly
+still and upright for a long time. This was often to a little boy
+painful enough. This master had a stock of cowhides and rattans
+besides.
+
+Another teacher, a woman, had the floor of the school-room kept very
+clean; consequently no boys were allowed to come in at all with heavy
+boots, and the other children in wet weather were compelled to remove
+their boots and shoes and put on slippers before entrance. If any of
+the scholars were too small to take off and put on their own boots
+they were punished by being "blindfolded" and stood upon a cricket in
+the middle of the floor. Apparently the worst offence scholars could
+be guilty of was to bring in mud or wet upon the polished floor of the
+school-room. At this school one very small boy who wore high boots,
+but who was unable to take them off without assistance, having been
+punished for his "stubbornness," was taken away from the school by his
+parents, who resented such an act of injustice and oppression. The
+"school-marm," however, said she would rather lose all her scholars
+than have any mud or wet upon her floor.
+
+These cases are simply curious. It may be doubted whether we can in
+this country show anything so bad as the record furnished by Dickens
+in describing some of the schools of England.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+THE BRANK.
+
+An instrument of punishment formerly much used in England, but never,
+we think, introduced into this country, called the "brank," or "scold's
+bridle," or "gossip's bridle," is thus described by Mr. L. Jewitt,
+F.S.A., in Mr. William Andrews's "Book of Oddities,"--a very
+interesting and instructive book recently published in London:--
+
+    "It consisted of a kind of crown or framework of iron, which was
+    locked upon the head, and was armed in front with a gag, a plate,
+    or a sharp cutting knife or point, which was placed in the poor
+    woman's mouth so as to prevent her moving her tongue, or it was
+    so placed that if she moved it or attempted to speak, the tongue
+    was cut in a most frightful manner. With this cage upon her head,
+    and with the gag firmly pressed and locked against her tongue,
+    the miserable creature, whose sole offence, perhaps, was that she
+    had raised her voice in defence of her social rights against a
+    brutal and besotted husband, or had spoken honest truth of some
+    one high in office in the town, was paraded through the streets,
+    led by a chain held in the hand of the bellman, the beadle, or
+    the constable, or, chained to the pillory, the whipping-post, or
+    market-cross, was subjected to every conceivable insult and
+    degradation, without even the power left her of asking for mercy
+    or of promising amendment for the future; and when the punishment
+    was over, she was turned out from the town hall (or other place
+    where the brutal punishment had been inflicted), maimed,
+    disfigured, faint, and degraded, to be the subject of comment and
+    jeering amongst her neighbors, and to be reviled by her
+    persecutors."
+
+Mr. Andrews adds that the use of the brank was not sanctioned by law,
+but was altogether illegal; and he concludes his remarks on the
+subject by saying that "to everybody it must be a matter of deep
+regret that the instrument should ever have been used at all."
+
+Dr. Henry Heginbotham, of Stockport, England, says in speaking of the
+brank preserved in that town: "There is no evidence of its having been
+actually used for many years; but there is testimony to the fact that
+within the last forty years the brank was brought to a termagant
+market-woman, who was effectually silenced by its threatened
+application."
+
+It is hard for those of us who live in New England to-day to believe
+that such cruelties were ever practised in a Christian land; but the
+evidence is too conclusive to admit of doubt. Mr. Andrews, in the book
+referred to, gives engravings of a dozen or more different kinds of
+branks and bridles which can now be seen in England and Scotland. At
+Congleton, Cheshire, a woman for scolding and abusing the town
+officers had the "town bridle" put upon her, and was led through every
+street in the town, as lately as the year 1824.
+
+It is said that Chaucer wrote these lines:
+
+  "But for my daughter Julian,
+  I would she were well bolted with a Bridle,
+  That leaves her work to play the clack,
+  And lets her wheel stand idle;
+  For it serves not for she-ministers,
+  Farriers nor Furriers,
+  Cobblers nor Button-makers,
+  To descant on the Bible."
+
+Mr. Andrews has confined his account of curious punishments mainly to
+England and Scotland. Our Puritan ancestors must, we think, have seen
+some of the instruments of torture here described, and perhaps some of
+our great-great, etc., grandmothers may have been "ducked" or
+"silenced by a brank" many years before the sailing of the "Mayflower"
+or the "Lyon" or the "Angel Gabriel."
+
+          -------------------------
+
+It was once the custom in New England for a sermon to be preached
+before the prisoner upon the day of his execution. In the
+"Massachusetts Gazette," Dec. 26, 1786, is the following notice:--
+
+    SALEM, _Dec._ 23. Thursday last, being the day appointed for the
+    execution of Isaac Coombs, an Indian, with whose crime and
+    sentence the publick have before been made acquainted, the
+    unfortunate criminal was in the forenoon conducted to the
+    Tabernacle, where a Sermon, which we are told was well adapted to
+    the melancholy occasion, was preached by the Rev. Mr. Spalding,
+    from Luke xviii. 13,--"God be merciful to me a sinner!" After
+    which he was returned to the prison. Between the hours of 2 and 3
+    in the afternoon, he was guarded to the place of execution by a
+    company of 40 volunteers (consisting principally of the members
+    of the Artillery Company lately formed in this town, and
+    commanded by Captain Zadock Buffinton) under the direction of the
+    proper civil officers. The Rev. Mr. Hopkins prayed at the
+    gallows; and at 3 o'clock the cart was led off, and the unhappy
+    sufferer made the expiation which the law required for his horrid
+    and unnatural crime.
+
+    His behaviour, through the whole, was firm, but decent, penitent
+    and devotional.
+
+    This is the only execution which has taken place in the county of
+    Essex for near 15 years, and but the second since about the close
+    of the last century. The concourse of people was consequently
+    great; and the general decorum which was observed, evinced their
+    sympathy for a suffering individual of the species.
+
+    The conduct of the military corps was highly applauded.
+
+    On the way to execution the following paper was delivered to
+    the Rev. Mr. BENTLEY, by one of the officers, with a request
+    from _Isaac_, that he would read it publickly at the place of
+    execution, at the time he should signify to him; accordingly,
+    when the sheriff told the criminal his time was expired, as the
+    last thing, he made the motion, and it was read to the people.
+    As it is so contradictory to the declaration he made before of
+    himself, we have printed it _verbatim_ as it is written, to avoid
+    the charge of any alteration.
+
+      "I Who has ben Called by the name of Isaac Cumbs Being Now
+      Called to the place of Execution in the 39th year of my age, I
+      Declare I was born at South hampton Long Island and am a Native
+      of the said South hampton and my Right Name is John Peters and
+      Leaving the said South hampton about 14 years ago, and comeing
+      to St. Mertains Vineyard am Ben a traveller Eversince till I
+      have Now arrived to this unhappy Place of Execution My advice
+      is to all Spectators to Refrain from lying Stealing and all
+      suchlike things But in particular Not to Break the Sabbath of
+      the Lord or Game at Cerds or get Drunk as I have Don. this is
+      My advice and more in particular to mixt coulard people and
+      youths of Every Kind. May the Blessing of god Desend upon you
+      all Amen."
+
+In the "Essex Gazette," Jan. 15, 1771, is an advertisement of a poem
+upon an execution.
+
+    _To be sold at the Printing-Office_, Salem.
+
+    A POEM on the Execution of
+
+    _William Shaw_, at _Springfield_, December 13, 1770, for the
+    Murder of _Edward East_, in _Springfield_ Gaol.
+
+We have seen an account of an execution where a sermon was preached at
+the prisoner's request.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+BOSTON COMMON AS A PLACE OF EXECUTION.
+
+Boston Common was formerly often used for such a purpose. Quakers were
+hanged there in the middle of the seventeenth century, and we find in
+the "Salem Mercury" for Tuesday, Nov. 27, 1787, that the previous
+Thursday one John Sheehan was executed for burglary in this noted
+locality. Sheehan was a native of Cork in Ireland. With its cows and
+its executions, the Common must have presented a somewhat different
+appearance in those days from what it does at this time.
+
+    British convicts shipped to America in 1788.
+
+    Last week arrived at Fisher's Island, the brig Nancy, belonging
+    to this port, Capt. Robert W---- (a half-pay British officer)
+    master, and landed his cargo, consisting of 140 convicts, taken
+    out of the British jails. Capt. W. it is said, received 5l.
+    sterling a head from government for this job; and, we hear, he is
+    distributing them about the country. Stand to it, houses, stores,
+    &c., these gentry are acquainted with the business. Quere,
+    whether a suit of T---- and F---- should not be provided for
+    Capt. W. as a suitable compliment for this piece of service done
+    his country?
+
+    _Salem Mercury_, July 15, 1788.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+From the "Salem Gazette," 1784.
+
+    _July_ 30. During the long reign of Queen Elizabeth, it does not
+    appear on record, that forty persons suffered death for crimes
+    against the community, treason only excepted.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+    BOSTON, September 16, 1784.
+
+    At the Supreme Court held here on Thursday last, Direck Grout was
+    tried for Burglary, and found guilty: sentence has not yet been
+    passed upon him.
+
+    The following prisoners were also tried last week for various
+    thefts, found guilty, and received sentence, viz.
+
+    Cornelius Arie, to be whipt 25 stripes, and set one hour on the
+    gallows.
+
+    Thomas Joice, to be whipt 25 stripes, and branded.
+
+    William Scott, to be whipt 25 stripes, and set one hour on the
+    gallows.
+
+    John Goodbread, and Edward Cooper, 15 stripes each.
+
+    James Campbell, to be whipt 30 stripes, and set one hour on the
+    gallows.
+
+    Michael Tool, to be whipt 20 stripes.
+
+    Three notorious villains yet remain to be tried for burglary, and
+    several others for theft.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+    BOSTON, September 27.
+
+    Thursday last ten notorious villains received publick whipping,
+    after which three of them were escorted, with halters round their
+    necks, to the gallows, on which they sat one hour. They are again
+    committed for costs, &c.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+"Massachusetts Gazette," 1786.
+
+    Johnson Green was executed, on Thursday last, at Worcester, for
+    burglary. A greater thief and burglar was perhaps never hanged in
+    this country.
+
+From "Massachusetts Centinel," Oct. 6, 1786.
+
+BACKS "DRESS'D."
+
+    HARTFORD, October 2.
+
+    On Wednesday last, David Stillman, John Hawley and Thomas Gibbs
+    were committed to jail in this city, for counterfeiting and
+    passing publick securities; and on Thursday last, Jonathan
+    Densmore, of East-Hartford, was committed for stealing a horse.
+    Stillman and Hawley belong to the county of Hampshire, state of
+    Massachusetts. They are now in a fair way to have their
+    grievances (and backs) dress'd and re-dress'd.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+From "Massachusetts Gazette," May 15, 1786.
+
+    NEW-YORK, May 6.
+
+    _Extract of a letter from Washington_ (North-Carolina), _March_
+    27.
+
+      "On Thursday last made his appearance in this town, a certain
+      John Hamlen, who, in the late war, left the state of Maryland,
+      and joined the enemies of America. After joining them, he
+      fitted out a galley, and cruised in the Delaware and Chesapeak,
+      where he was very successful in capturing a number of American
+      vessels. He was very fond of exercising every species of
+      cruelty on those unhappy people who fell into his hands; among
+      other things, he took great delight in cutting off the ears of
+      some, and noses of others. Unluckily for him he was known by
+      some honest Jack Tars, belonging to vessels in this harbour,
+      who, in the time of the war, had been made prisoners by him;
+      these honest fellows very kindly furnished him with a coat of
+      _Tar_ and _Feathers_; and that he might not in a short time
+      forget them, they took off one of his _ears_; they then kindly
+      shewed him the way out of town, without doing him any further
+      injury.--It is supposed he will bend his course for Newbern,
+      and endeavour to take a passage in some vessel bound to the
+      northern states."
+
+          -------------------------
+
+FROM THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE.
+
+    _A GEORGIA SHREW._
+
+      "Why, sirs, I trust I may have leave to speak,
+      And speak I will; I am no child, no babe:
+      Your betters have endur'd me say my mind;
+      And if you cannot, best you stop your ears."
+
+    The Grand Jury of Burke have presented Mary Cammell as a common
+    scold and disturber of the peaceable inhabitants of that
+    county.[1] We do not know the _penalty_, or if there be any
+    attached to the offence of _scolding:_ but for the information of
+    our Burke neighbours, we would inform them that the late lamented
+    and distinguished Judge Early decided, some years since, when a
+    modern _Xantippe_ was brought before him, that she should undergo
+    the _punishment_ of _lustration_, by immersion three several
+    times in the _Oconee_. Accordingly she was confined to the tail
+    of a cart, and, accompanied by the hooting of the mob, conducted
+    to the river, where she was publickly ducked, in conformity with
+    the sentence of the court. Should this punishment be awarded Mary
+    Cammell, we hope, however, it may be attended with a more
+    salutary effect than in the case we have just alluded to--the
+    unruly subject of which, each time as she arose from the watery
+    element, impiously exclaimed, with a ludicrous gravity of
+    countenance, "glory to G--d."
+
+    _Boston Palladium_, 1819.
+
+      [1] She must have been an extraordinary scold to have disturbed
+          a large county, where the houses are perhaps a half mile
+          apart.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+Criminals after a whipping sent to the Castle to make nails. From
+"Salem Mercury," Nov. 25, 1786.
+
+    Four convicts, doomed by the Superiour Court, at their late
+    session here, to the useful branch of nail making at the Castle,
+    yesterday morning took their departure hence, to enter on their
+    new employment, having, with others, previously received the
+    discipline of the post.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+A REVEREND FORGER.
+
+The "Providence Gazette" is our authority for the following obituary
+notice:--
+
+    Died in March, 1805, in Wayne County, N.C., Rev. Thomas Hines, an
+    itinerant preacher. A Newbern paper says: "In the saddle-bags of
+    this servant of God and Mammon were found his Bible and a
+    complete apparatus for the stamping and milling of Dollars."
+
+          -------------------------
+
+_THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT_
+
+    Was held at Ipswich on Tuesday last. At this Court the noted
+    Josiah Abbot was found guilty of knowingly passing a forged and
+    altered State Note, and was sentenced to pay a fine of 40l. in 20
+    days; if not then paid, to be set in the pillory.--[_The penalty
+    of such an offence against the United States is_ DEATH.]
+
+    The same person was found guilty of a fraud, in stealing a
+    summons, after it had been left by an officer, by reason of which
+    he recovered a judgment by default, and was sentenced to pay a
+    fine of 15l. in 20 days; if not then paid, to be whipped.
+
+    _Salem Gazette_, June 25, 1793.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+In a paper of 1819 is mentioned the singular case of a man literally
+condemned "to eat his own words."
+
+    _INCREDIBLE PUNISHMENT._
+
+    "A great book is a great evil," said an ancient writer,--an axiom
+    which an unfortunate Russian author felt to his cost. "Whilst I
+    was at Moscow," says a pleasant traveller, "a quarto volume was
+    published in favor of the liberties of the people,--a singular
+    subject when we consider the place where the book was printed. In
+    this work the iniquitous venality of the public functionaries,
+    and even the conduct of the sovereign, was scrutinized and
+    censured with great freedom. Such a book, and in such a country,
+    naturally attracted general notice, and the offender was taken
+    into custody. After being tried in a very summary way, his
+    production was determined to be a libel, and the writer was
+    condemned to _eat his own words_. The singularity of such a
+    sentence induced me to see it put into execution. A scaffold was
+    erected in one of the most public streets of the city; the
+    imperial provost, the magistrates, the physicians and surgeons of
+    the Czar attended; the book was separated from its binding, the
+    margin cut off, and every leaf rolled up like a lottery ticket
+    when taken out of the wheel at Guildhall. The author was then
+    served with them leaf by leaf by the provost, who put them into
+    his mouth, to the no small diversion of the spectators; he was
+    obliged to swallow this unpalatable food on pain of the
+    knout,--in Russia more dreadful than death. As soon as the
+    medical gentlemen were of opinion that he had received into his
+    stomach as much at the time as was consistent with his safety,
+    the transgressor was sent back to prison, and the business
+    resumed the two following days. After three very hearty but
+    unpleasant meals, I am convinced by ocular proof that every leaf
+    of the book was actually swallowed."    _Lon. Pa._ _Boston
+    Palladium._
+
+          -------------------------
+
+Here is a clever mode of punishing a wife-beater without the aid of
+counsel:--
+
+    A woman in New-York, who had been beaten by her husband, finding
+    him fast asleep, sewed him up in the bed-clothes, and in that
+    situation thrashed him soundly.
+
+    _Salem Observer_, April 24, 1827.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+Conviction of a common scold, Sept. 11, 1821; sentence not reported.
+
+    _Common Scold_.--Catharine Fields was indicted and convicted for
+    being a common scold. The trial was excessively amusing, from the
+    variety of testimony and the diversified manner in which this
+    Xantippe pursued her virulent propensities. "Ruder than March
+    wind, she blew a hurricane;" and it was given in evidence that
+    after having scolded the family individually, the bipeds and
+    quadrupeds, the neighbours, hogs, poultry, and geese, she would
+    throw the window open at night to scold the watchmen. Her
+    countenance was an index to her temper,--sharp, peaked, sallow,
+    and small eyes. To be sentenced on Saturday week.--_Nat. Adv._
+
+          -------------------------
+
+_Women Gossips_.--Among the many ordinances promulgated at St. Helena
+in 1709, we find the following:--
+
+    Whereas several idle, gossiping women make it their business to
+    go from house [to house] about the island, inventing and
+    spreading false and scandalous reports of the good people
+    thereof, and thereby sow discord and debate among neighbors, and
+    often between men and their wives, to the great grief and trouble
+    of all good and quiet people, and to the utter extinguishing of
+    all friendship, amity, and good neighborhood: for the punishment
+    and suppression whereof, and to the intent that all strife may be
+    ended, charity revived, and friendship continued,--we do order
+    that, if any woman, from henceforward, shall be convicted of tale
+    bearing, mischief making, scolding, drunkenness, or any other
+    notorious vice, that they shall be punished by ducking, or
+    whipping, or such other punishment as their crimes or
+    transgressions shall deserve, or as the Governor and Council
+    shall think fit.
+
+    _Essex Register_, 1820.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT.
+
+The following scrap from a Boston paper of 1819 has reference to an
+old method which creditors frequently resorted to in dealing with
+troublesome, and no doubt oftentimes unfortunate, debtors.
+
+    _CHRISTMAS DAY._
+
+    On this most glorious "Day of Days" there are in gaol for debt,
+    in this town, the following persons, viz.:
+
+      1 Head of a Family for          9 94
+      1   -- do.    --       --       8 12-1/2
+      1   -- do.    --       --      14 00
+      1   -- do.    --       --       9 61
+      1   -- do.    --       --      11 68
+      1   -- do.    --       --      27 00
+      1   -- do.    --       --       7 75
+      1   -- do.    for schooling }  11 25
+                    his children, }
+      1   -- do.    discharged        1 88!!!
+                                     -----
+
+    Who among the opulent is willing to restore a _Father_ to his
+    Family and Christmas Fire Side?
+
+          -------------------------
+
+Sometimes debtors were not actually imprisoned, but were confined to
+what was called the "limits of the jail;" that is, certain streets
+within a specified distance of the jail. The writer distinctly
+remembers, when a boy, of having a man pointed out to him, of whom it
+was said he had refused to pay his debts, and so was only allowed to
+go at large "within the limits of the jail."
+
+The law under which persons were imprisoned for debt was abolished in
+Massachusetts many years ago.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+Somewhere about the year 1822 the tread-mill was introduced into
+England. It was recommended by the "Society for the Improvement of
+Prison Discipline." It was the invention of Mr. Cubitt, of Ipswich, in
+England, and probably at that time or soon after it was used in this
+country. Some years since there was one, as we are informed, at the
+Massachusetts State prison at Charlestown.
+
+    _The Tread-Mill_.--We publish to-day an interesting description
+    of the Tread-Mill, (a new invented Machine to enforce industry in
+    Prisons,) accompanied by a Plate representing the same, for the
+    use of which we are indebted to the politeness of the editor of
+    the Gazette. The introduction of these Mills into the English
+    prisons is said to have produced much good, and the experiment is
+    about to be tried in this country. The corporation of the city of
+    New-York are building one in the yard of their Penitentiary. One
+    of the late London papers announces the singular fact that on the
+    12th of September, at the Town-hall, Southwark, there was no
+    charge, either of felony, misdemeanor, or assault, within the
+    extensive district, of five parishes, from the night before.
+    Crimes of all descriptions had lessened very much; and this
+    decrease, it is said, is owing entirely to the heavy and tedious
+    labor upon the prisoners at the mill. Orders had been given for
+    the erection of several more in England.
+
+    _Salem Register_, 1822.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+    Description of the Tread Mill
+
+    _Recommended by the Society for the Improvement of Prison
+    Discipline._
+
+    The annexed engraving exhibits a party of prisoners in the act of
+    working one of the tread wheels of the Discipline Mill invented
+    by Mr. Cubitt, of Ipswich, and recently erected at the House of
+    Correction for the county of Surrey, situated at Brixton. The
+    view is taken from a corner of one of the ten airing yards of the
+    prison, all of which radiate from the Governor's house in the
+    centre, so that from the window of his room _he commands a
+    complete view into all the yards_. A building behind the tread
+    wheel shed is the mill house, containing the necessary machinery
+    for grinding corn and dressing the flour, also rooms for storing
+    it, &c. On the right side of this building a pipe passes up to
+    the roof, on which is a large cast iron reservoir, capable of
+    holding some thousand gallons of water, for the use of the
+    prison. This reservoir is filled by means of forcing pump
+    machinery below, connected with the principal axis which works
+    the machinery of the mill; this axis or shaft passes under the
+    pavement of the several yards, and working by means of universal
+    joints, at every turn communicates with the tread wheel of each
+    class.
+
+    The wheel, which is represented in the centre of the engraving,
+    is exactly similar to a common water wheel; the treadboards upon
+    its circumference are, however, of considerable length, so as to
+    allow sufficient standing room for a row of from ten to twenty
+    persons upon the wheel. Their weight, the first moving power of
+    the machine, produces the greatest effect when applied upon the
+    circumference of the wheel at or near the level of its axle; to
+    secure therefore this mechanical advantage, a screen of boards is
+    fixed up in an inclined position above the wood, in order to
+    prevent the prisoners from climbing or stepping up higher than
+    the level required. A hand rail is fixed upon this screen, by
+    holding which they retain their upright position upon the
+    revolving wheel, the nearest side of which is exposed to view in
+    the plate, in order to represent its cylindrical form much more
+    distinctly than could otherwise have been done. In the original,
+    however, both sides are closely boarded up, so that the prisoners
+    have no access to the interior of the wheel, and all risk of
+    injury whatever is prevented.
+
+    By means of steps the gang of prisoners ascend at one end, and
+    when the requisite number range themselves upon the wheel, it
+    commences its revolutions. The effort, then, to every individual
+    is simply that of ascending an endless flight of steps, their
+    combined weight acting upon every successive stepping board
+    precisely as a stream of water upon the float boards of a water
+    wheel.
+
+    During this operation each prisoner gradually advances from the
+    end at which he mounted towards the opposite end of the wheel,
+    from whence the last man taking his turn descends for rest,
+    another prisoner immediately mounting as before to fill up the
+    number required, without stopping the machine. The interval of
+    rest may then be portioned to each man by regulating the number
+    of those required to work the wheel with the whole number of the
+    gang; thus if twenty-four are obliged to be upon the wheel, it
+    will give to each man intervals of rest amounting to twelve
+    minutes in every hour of labor. Again, by varying the number of
+    men upon the wheel, or the work inside the mill, so as to
+    increase or diminish its velocity, the degree of hard labor or
+    exercise for the prisoners may also be regulated. At Brixton, the
+    diameter of the wheel being five feet, and revolving twice in a
+    minute, the space stepped over by each man is 2193 feet.
+
+    From the _Salem Register_.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+    TRAVELLING ON SUNDAY. At the session of the U. States Circuit
+    Court at New-Haven (Conn.) last week came on the trial of _Foster
+    vs. Huntington_. This was a prosecution instituted by _Dr.
+    Foster_, of New-York, against _Deacon Eliphalet Huntington_, a
+    Constable of Lebanon (Conn.), for arresting plaintiff's wife on
+    Sunday, the 10th of July, 1831, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon,
+    and detained her at an inn until sun-down, and then released
+    her on condition of appearing the next morning to answer for
+    violating the Sabbath. Mrs. Foster was travelling from New York
+    City to her father's in Lebanon for her health, and had arrived
+    at East Haddam on the morning of Sunday, and took the regular
+    conveyance connected with the steamboat, and had arrived near the
+    meeting-house in Lebanon at the time she was stopped, and was in
+    sight of her father's (Dr. Sweet) house, when arrested.
+
+    The action was for false imprisonment, and it was contended by
+    the plaintiffs,--1st, That Mrs. Foster was travelling from
+    necessity and charity, and so within the exception of the
+    statute. 2d, That the defendant could not justify himself as
+    Constable unless he carried the person apprehended under the
+    Sabbath law before a Justice. 3d, That as Constable he had no
+    power to detain, and that he did not disclose his authority as
+    Constable to arrest. And 4th, that the Sabbath law and its
+    provisions are unconstitutional.
+
+    Judge Thompson charged the jury that the words "necessity and
+    charity" in our statute mean not physical necessity, but moral
+    fitness and propriety, and that it was incumbent on Mrs. Foster
+    to show that there was some necessity of this kind operating on
+    her when she left New York--she knowing that her regular route
+    would require travelling on Sunday; but that a Constable when he
+    arrests, must carry the prisoner, under the law, before a
+    Justice, and then he has done his duty; and as the defendant had
+    not done it in this case, he was liable. The Judge further
+    expressed a decided opinion that the law was constitutional, and
+    that before he could say a law was otherwise which had been
+    acquiesced in so long, he should require the strongest reasons to
+    be shown. As to what constituted an arrest, the Judge remarked
+    that force was not required, or a touching, but it must be a
+    detention professed to be done by authority and an exercise of
+    authority; which, he observed, was clearly proved in the present
+    case. The damages should give at least the actual injury and
+    something as smart money, if there was any bad motive. This the
+    Judge said did not appear, but the officer seemed to be impressed
+    with a desire to discharge his duty.
+
+    The jury returned a verdict of 125 dollars damages and costs for
+    the plaintiffs.--_New-Haven Reg._
+
+    [This was a case tried under the statute of Connecticut against
+    the right of unnecessary travelling on the Sabbath. The result
+    appears to be very remarkable. In the first place, we consider
+    the Law itself to be clearly unconstitutional, and we have never
+    had the slightest doubt that if the question ever goes to
+    Washington, the Supreme Court will declare it unconstitutional,
+    and reverse the decision of the Connecticut Court.--_Boston
+    Centinel._]
+
+    _Salem Observer_, May 4, 1833.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+The ridiculous practice here recorded does not appear to have gained a
+foothold in America. It would have been, to say the least, less
+harmful in its effects than the hanging of witches or the whipping of
+Quakers.
+
+    PROSECUTIONS AGAINST ANIMALS. The second number of the American
+    Jurist, just published, contains a curious article relating to
+    the prosecutions formerly instituted against animals, and for
+    whom counsel was sometimes assigned by the Court, in the same
+    manner as is now done in cases of capital felony. The first case
+    mentioned is a prosecution of some rats in the Bishopric of
+    Autun, in France. They had become so mischievous that a bill in
+    due form was filed against the rats, and a summons issued for
+    their appearance before the Court. The Judge, unwilling to take
+    advantage of their default, appointed an advocate to plead for
+    them, and he managed their cause so adroitly that by means of
+    this prosecution he obtained an elevation to the highest honor of
+    his profession. In another case counsel was appointed to defend
+    some caterpillars who had drawn upon themselves the vengeance of
+    the law; but the ingenious arguments of their advocate availed
+    nothing, and the caterpillars fell under the censure of a
+    spiritual Court, who ordered adjuration, prayers, and sprinkling
+    of holy water.
+
+    _Salem Observer_, May 9, 1829.
+
+A very full and interesting account of this subject can be found in a
+recent number of the "Popular Science Monthly."
+
+          -------------------------
+
+Arrest in Connecticut for teaching colored children.
+
+    CONNECTICUT BARBARISM. We have been permitted to read a letter
+    from Miss Prudence Crandall, who is actually confined in jail in
+    the town of Brooklyn, Conn., for teaching colored misses to read
+    and write!
+
+    The letter from Miss Crandall is dated "BROOKLYN JAIL, CLOSE
+    CONFINEMENT, June 28, 1833." Miss Crandall simply relates that
+    she was arrested on the 27th, with her sister, by Mr. Cady, the
+    Sheriff of the County, and examined before Justice Rufus Adams.
+    Miss Crandall was found _guilty_ of teaching blacks to read, and
+    was thereupon bound over, in the sum of $150, to appear at the
+    Superior Court holden at Brooklyn on the second Tuesday of August
+    next.
+
+    Miss Crandall was sent to the county jail and put into the cell
+    which had been occupied by Watkins the murderer. At the close of
+    her letter she says, "If all the prisoners are as happy as I am,
+    I can assure you they do not bear much mental suffering."
+
+    The friends of Miss Crandall were preparing to give the bond
+    necessary for her release.
+
+    _Salem Observer_, July 6, 1833.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+Innholders prosecuted as lately as 1824 for the crime of entertaining
+on the Lord's Day.
+
+    _John F. Trueman_ and _Almoran Holmes_, licensed Innholders,
+    convicted on several indictments for entertaining two inhabitants
+    of Boston on the Lord's Day, they not being travellers,
+    strangers, or lodgers, were sentenced according to the act of
+    1796, each to pay a fine of $6 66 and costs of prosecution.
+
+    _Boston Telegraph._
+
+          -------------------------
+
+    LUDICROUS PUNISHMENT. In the first volume of the "Library of
+    American Biography, conducted by Jared Sparks," the following
+    incident in the life of Ethan Allen shows the character of the
+    government in Vermont in 1774, when the inhabitants were
+    resisting the claims of New-York to jurisdiction over their
+    territory. A Committee of Safety was the highest judicatory, and
+    Allen was Col. Commandant of the territory. If any person
+    presumed to act under the authority of the State of N. York, he
+    was immediately arraigned and judgement pronounced against him,
+    in the presence of many persons, by which he was sentenced to be
+    tied to a tree and chastised "with the twigs of the wilderness"
+    on his naked back, to the number of two hundred stripes, and
+    immediately expelled from the district, and threatened with death
+    if he should return, unless specially permitted by the
+    convention.
+
+    "In the midst of these signs, the mode of punishment was
+    sometimes rather ludicrous than severe. In the town of Arlington
+    lived a doctor who openly professed himself a partizan of
+    New-York, and was accustomed to speak disrespectfully of the
+    Convention and Committees, espousing the cause of the New-York
+    Claimants, and advising people to purchase lands under their
+    title. He was admonished by his neighbors, and made to understand
+    that this tone of conversation was not acceptable, and was
+    requested to change it, or at least to show his prudence by
+    remaining silent. Far from operating any reform--these hints only
+    stirred up the ire of the courageous doctor, who forthwith armed
+    himself with pistols and other weapons of defence, proclaiming
+    his sentiments more boldly than ever, setting opposition at
+    defiance, and threatening to try the full effects of his personal
+    powers and implements of warfare on any man who should have the
+    temerity to approach him with an unfriendly design. Such a boast
+    was likely to call up the martial spirits of his opponents, who
+    accordingly came upon the doctor at an unguarded moment and
+    obliged him to surrender at discretion. He was then transferred
+    to the Green Mountain Tavern, in Bennington, where he was
+    arraigned before the Committee, who, not satisfied with his
+    defence, sentenced him to a novel punishment, which they ordered
+    to be put in immediate execution.
+
+    "Before the door of this tavern, which served the double purpose
+    of a court-house and an inn, stood a sign-post twenty-five feet
+    high, the top of which was adorned with the skin of a Catamount,
+    stuffed to the size of life, with its head turned towards
+    New-York, and its jaws distended, showing large naked teeth, and
+    grinning terror to all who should approach from that quarter. It
+    was the judgment of the court that the contumacious doctor should
+    be tied in a chair and drawn up by a rope to the Catamount, where
+    he was to remain suspended two hours--which punishment was
+    inflicted in the presence of a numerous assemblage of people,
+    much to their satisfaction and merriment. The doctor was then let
+    down and permitted to depart to his own house."
+
+    _Salem Observer_, April 12, 1834.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+From the "Essex Register," Feb. 19, 1820.
+
+    Burning of a Negro in Georgia.
+
+    From the Augusta (Geo.) Chronicle, Feb. 1.
+
+      _Execution_.--On Friday last two negro men, named Ephraim and
+      Sam, were executed in conformity to their sentence for the
+      murder of their master, Mr. Thomas Hancock, of Edgefield
+      District, South Carolina; Sam was burnt, and Ephraim hung, and
+      his head severed from his body and publicly exposed. The
+      circumstances attending the crime for which these miserable
+      beings have suffered, were of a nature so aggravated as
+      imperiously demanded the terrible punishment which has been
+      inflicted upon them.
+
+      The burning of malefactors is a punishment only resorted to
+      when absolute necessity demands a signal example. It must be a
+      horrid and appalling sight to see a human being consigned to
+      the flames. Let even Fancy picture the scene,--the pile, the
+      stake, the victim! The mind sickens, and sinks under the
+      oppression of its own feelings. What then must be the dread
+      reality! From some of the spectators we learn that it was a
+      scene which transfixed in breathless horror almost every one
+      who witnessed it. As the flames approached him, the piercing
+      shrieks of the unfortunate victim struck upon the heart with a
+      fearful, painful vibration; but when the devouring element
+      seized upon his body, all was hushed. Yet the cry of agony
+      still thrilled in the ear, and an involuntary and sympathetic
+      shudder ran thro' the crowd. We hope that this awful
+      dispensation of justice may be attended with such salutary
+      effects as to forever preclude the necessity of its repetition.
+
+    COMMUNICATION.
+
+    If any Massachusetts man can read the above without shuddering,
+    and experiencing alternate emotions of horror and indignation,
+    his heart must be harder than a millstone and colder than the ice
+    of the poles. We know not the particular circumstances of the
+    crime for which this poor wretch suffered, but as far as we can
+    learn from the public prints, it was for the murder of his
+    Master. The probability is there was some provocation; for such
+    dire deeds are not perpetrated without a strong and powerful
+    impulse. It is however of no consequence; no matter what was his
+    crime, such a punishment was abominable, and could not be
+    inflicted, even if the laws permitted it, in our State. If that
+    monster who committed the Stoneham murder in cold blood, impelled
+    solely by avarice, had not put an end to his own life, but had
+    awaited his conviction, had been sentenced to such a punishment,
+    although he would have merited, perhaps more than any other
+    offender who has appeared in our times, the greatest sufferings,
+    yet such a sentence could not be carried into effect. The people
+    would have risen at once, animated by one sentiment, and without
+    the least previous concert have prevented it. Every man in the
+    Commonwealth, waiving all distinctions of condition or age, would
+    have been seen, without consulting his neighbour or considering
+    consequences, putting a new flint in his musket and girding on
+    his sword. Thank God! our feelings and love of order and
+    obedience to proper authority can never be put to such a trial;
+    for the moment we became free, and created our own political
+    institutions, we made it a fundamental article of our Constitution
+    of Government that "no magistrate or court of law shall inflict
+    cruel or unusual punishment." In Georgia such a punishment would
+    not be inflicted upon a white man for any crime; and in the name
+    of Heaven, who deserves the greatest punishment for offences,--the
+    white man, who is instructed in the principles of religion and
+    morality, and is therefore justly accountable for his actions, or
+    the negro, who is kept by the policy of the laws and the power of
+    public opinion in a state of absolute ignorance of his duties,
+    lest he should obtain a knowledge of his rights?       D.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+Singular account from the "Salem Gazette," April 13, 1824.
+
+ARREST OF THE DEAD.
+
+    The United States Gazette says:--
+
+    "While the papers from the south and the west are bringing back
+    to us the report from Mr. Degrand's paper of the attachment of a
+    dead body in Boston, the Eastern papers are bringing us
+    assurances of the total illegality of any such act, and a
+    contradiction of some of the important parts of Mr. Degrand's
+    tale of horror. At the time of the first appearance of this story
+    in our city, a gentleman of information assured the public
+    through the medium of our columns that any such act was unlawful.
+    The Salem Gazette appears to think that no act of the kind was
+    ever lawful in Massachusetts. The Boston Courier states that in
+    Feb., 1812, the legislature of Massachusetts passed a law making
+    it highly penal for any civil officer to take the body of any
+    deceased person, and the writer who furnishes this information
+    says that 'he never heard that any such act of barbarism was ever
+    attempted in that Commonwealth,' but that the law was enacted to
+    guard against the possibility of such an occurrence, by a mistake
+    in the application of the terms, 'we command you to take the body
+    of A.B.' &c.
+
+    "This writer undoubtedly knows better than we both the laws and
+    customs of his own state. But we have some recollections of an
+    event of this nature transpiring in the southeastern part of
+    Massachusetts. If we have not forgotten the events (or remembered
+    some that never took place), a Sheriff in Barnstable county, we
+    think in Brewster or Dennis, attached the body of a deceased
+    debtor on its way to the grave, about the year 1811. A
+    circumstance that fixes this event the more firmly in our mind is
+    that it transpired about _this_ season of the year, the time of
+    the gubernatorial election in that State, and was used as a
+    subject of reproach to one of the political parties; and we
+    incline to believe that this act, or, if it never took place, the
+    report of it (for it _was_ talked of), gave rise to the law
+    mentioned in the Courier.
+
+    "It is proper, in concluding these remarks, to state that to
+    attach a dead body in Massachusetts is now _against_ the law; and
+    if the act ever took place which is detailed by Mr. Degrand, it
+    was done by the advice of an _ignorant_ attorney."
+
+    We are enabled to give an accurate statement of the event to which
+    the editor of the U.S. Gazette above alludes; we copy it from a
+    publication made at the time:--
+
+      "On the 20th October, 1811, Capt. Chillingsworth Foster, jun.,
+      AEt. about 41 years, departed this life; on the same day
+      Benjamin Bangs, Esq., of Harwich, with one Mr. Scotto Berry, of
+      the same place, called at the house of the deceased for payment
+      of a sum of about one hundred and thirty dollars, due said
+      Bangs, and requested the father of the deceased to give him his
+      security, said Bangs well knowing the parent to be in low
+      circumstances, and about seventy-five years old, and the mother
+      about the same age. The father refused to comply, stating
+      his inability to answer so great a demand without suffering
+      immediate distress. The said Bangs then declared that if he did
+      not comply, it was in his power to arrest the body of the
+      deceased. The father still refused, and Bangs left the house;
+      and a most distressed one it was, this being the last son out
+      of three, left these aged parents, the other two being lost at
+      sea, or died.
+
+      "The Monday following was appointed to have the deceased
+      buried, when Col. Jonathan Snow appeared as Sheriff, with a
+      writ to serve on the body. Here the melancholy scene commenced,
+      a part of the relations being assembled, with the aged parents
+      convulsed in sorrow; no one can paint their feelings but those
+      who have children and are denied them the right of Christian
+      burial. The usual ceremonies on such occasions were however
+      performed, and an appropriate prayer was delivered by the Rev.
+      John Simpkins, and the funeral procession formed and proceeded
+      with the corpse about one and a half mile, and very near to the
+      spot of the grave, when the said Sheriff arrested the coffin,
+      without any service on the body, and it was set down in the
+      middle of the highway nearly abreast of said Bangs' dwelling
+      house, and forbid proceeding any further. A large company who
+      followed, with the mourners, soon after retired, and left the
+      officer in charge of the body. After lying in this situation
+      for some time, one of the Grand Jurors ordered it out of the
+      high road; this was complied with by the Sheriff, by placing it
+      under the window of the said Bangs, and about sunset still
+      further removed it into Bangs' dwelling-house. By this inhuman
+      proceeding the aged parents were deprived of seeing their last
+      and only son buried, as were the widow of the deceased and five
+      children. So distressing a scene never was witnessed in this
+      place, and perhaps not in the most barbarous nations. Between
+      seven and eight of the clock, the same evening, the body was
+      buried by a few individuals, and by the consent of said
+      Benjamin Bangs, Esq., after he had inflicted all the wounds he
+      could on the feelings of the poor grey-headed parents and their
+      relations."
+
+    The barbarity and illegality of this conduct of B. Bangs, Esq.
+    (an influential democrat of that day), were viewed with
+    indignation from all quarters. The statute of Feb., 1812, on this
+    subject was not passed to render _illegal_ the arrest of a dead
+    body of a debtor, for that was _always_ illegal, but its object
+    was to fix the punishment, instead of leaving it to the
+    discretion of the Courts. Many undoubtedly recollect the instance
+    at Portland several years before, in which a debtor who was on
+    the limits was suddenly taken sick and carried out of the limits,
+    where he died. It was then decided to be the law that the
+    debtor's bond was not broken unless his body was out of the
+    limits by his own agency and will.
+
+    So disinterring dead bodies of men was always a misdemeanor, but
+    in 1815 a law was passed by our General Court to fix the
+    penalties.
+
+          -------------------------
+
+The case of Stephen Merrill Clark is remembered by many people in Salem
+and its vicinity.
+
+    _Supreme Judicial Court._
+
+    At the present term of this Court in Salem, Andrew Dunlap,
+    John Foster, and Solomon Whipple, Esqrs. were admitted
+    Counsellors, and Asa W. Wildes, Esq. an attorney of said Court.
+
+    _Capital Trial_.--On Tuesday Stephen Merrill Clark, a lad about
+    15 years of age, was indicted for the crime of ARSON alleged to
+    have been committed in Newburyport, was arraigned the same day,
+    and pleaded _not guilty_. The day for his trial is not yet
+    fixed.--The Court assigned him Leverett Saltonstall and John G.
+    King, Esquires, for his counsel on his trial.
+
+    _Salem Observer_, Nov. 4, 1820.
+
+Clark was subsequently convicted of the crime for which he was tried,
+and executed upon Salem Neck in 1821. He had made a confession of his
+guilt; but considering his youth, and the circumstances of his having
+been instigated by others, as was believed, to the commission of the
+crime, many humane people thought there should have been some
+mitigation of the punishment.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some
+Strange and Curious Punishments, by Henry M. Brooks
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