[xxiv] NOTE NN. 



The philosopher in his quiet retreat, shudders, as he hears 

 the sentence cried, and sitting down again to his desk, with a 

 heaving heart, and melting eye, discusses the subject of penal 

 laws, and the necessity of capital punishments inquiring at the 

 same time, whether government or laws are themselves totally 

 free, under this head, from all grounds of self-reproach ; and 

 while he, in his solitary apartment, is thus pleading the cause of 

 humanity, and anticipating in imagination, the prize of Berne, 

 the executioner is wielding his iron bar, crushes his wretched 

 victim, with eleven successive blows, doubles him upon a wheel, 

 not (as ordained in the sentence) with his face turned towards 

 heaven, but horribly hanging downward : his shattered bones 

 pierce through the flesh ; his hair, stiffened by anguish, drops 

 bloody sweat: throughout his protracted agony, the poor suf 

 ferer alternately begs for water, and death. The crowd, with 

 their eyes fixed on the dial- plate of the Hotel-de-Ville, count 

 the strokes of the clock, shudder in dismay at the dreadful 

 spectacle, and are silent. 



This is the punishment of which the learned civilian said , &quot; non 

 ex saevitia, sed ex bonitate talia faciunt homines &quot; 



The very same reasoning was, in the year 1811, adopted in 

 the English House of Commons for preventing the abolition 

 of the punishment of death for stealing from bleaching 

 grounds. 



In opposition to this motion of Sir 8amuel Romiliy s, the 

 opinion of the Recorder and Common Serjeant were thus cited 

 by Mr. Frankland, to show that injurious effects had resulted 

 from abolishing the punishment of death for stealing a pocket 

 handkerchief. 



Upon the causes and effects which have resulted from this 

 alteration, I beg to call the attention to the opinions which have, 

 been given to the magistrates in this great city to whom the 

 administration of criminal law is chiefly confided. 



Questions proposed to the Recorder and to the Common Serjeant oj 

 the City of London, together with their answers. 



Question I. What has been the effect of the act of parlia 

 ment which took away capital punishments from privately steal- 



