286 Notes for the Month. [Szerr. 
vail upon such melancholy occasions. The number of females, and those of 
the most respectable appearance, usually greatly exceeds that of the men, and 
one would rather imagine the ceremony to be intended to celebrate some joy- 
ful circumstance, than for the purpose of witnessing the last sad struggle of a 
wretched criminal. All the wine shops in the neighbourhood are crowded 
with labourers, who usually leave their work to carouse upon such occasions. 
Cakes, lemonade, and refreshments of various kinds, are hawked about the 
crowd, who amuse themselves with every species of badinage without one 
single reflection upon the suffering about to be inflicted upon a fellow-crea- 
ture. 
At an execution which took place a year or two ago, a hearty laugh broke 
from the assembled crowd at the moment the axe fell upon the neck of the 
criminal, which was caused by the shrill cry of a woman, who vociferated 
© Gateaux de Nanterre!’ just at the fatal period, without paying the least 
attention to what was going forward, and solely intent upon selling her hot 
cakes.” 
The error of this theory lies in the supposing, that, because people 
are indifferent about seeing their neighbours hanged, they are, therefore, 
at all the less disposed to avoid being hanged themselves. It is in the 
very necessary course of things, that the spectacle of a public execution 
should be looked at (unless under very rare and peculiar circumstances) 
with little other than feelings of vulgar curiosity. Mankind in general 
—we may choose to overlook the fact, but we cannot alter it—feel 
almost solely for themselves. Any portion of danger or suffering, that 
we see pressing upon a third party, affects, or fails to affect us, almost 
entirely, as there seems a possibility that the same malady may arise, 
immediately or remotely, to ourselves. We shrink from the narrative 
of a “fire,” or of the overturning of a mail-coach, or the foundering of 
a steam boat, because these are casualties to which we may to-morrow 
be personally subject: but we feel very little sympathy at seeing a man 
hanged, because hanging is out of our way; it is not a risk that we 
believe we shall ever be called upon to encounter. As far as the reason- 
ing faculties are concerned therefore, men can hardly be expected to 
take any deep interest in the execution of a criminal; and, for all 
beyond this, the spectacle is not of a character to produce any very 
active impression upon the senses. To excite the feelings strongly, there 
must be a display of actual, unequivocal suffering ; few men ever witness 
a military punishment, though for the fiftieth time, without sensations of 
acute pain. Here the suffering stands forward, and is made clearly apparent 
tous. We hear the lashes fall, and witness the writhings or supplica- 
tions of the offender: and, moreover, we are sensible, probably, that the 
fault for which, the punishment is inflicted is but slight. But we feel 
little compassion (on reflection) for a culprit condemned to the scaffold, 
who we know has amply deserved his sentence, or he never would have 
received it; and the forms ofan execution, both in France and England, 
are purposely so arranged, as to give as little offence to the feelings of ~ 
decorum or humanity as possible. Were the thing otherwise, however, it is 
nonsense to contend, that the apathy which we exhibit for the fate of 
ethers, has any thing to do with the regardlessness of similar infliction 
upon ourselves; it would be just as reasonable to assume, that 
because men see funerals pass them every day, without comment, or 
even notice, they are, therefore, less careful to avoid all that seems likely 
to produce death in their own persons.. “ Mister Corder,” the gentle- 
man who has just been hanged in Suffolk ; who murdered the woman 
