CEIME. 83 



to hard labour for the term of his natural life, and the 

 receiver who bought some of the stolen silver, was sentenced 

 to pay 3679 rqr., or in default, to undergo twenty-eight 

 days bread-and-water, and after thafc to be kept to hard 

 labour for one year and six months. This bread-and-water 

 system, lam told, is no joke ; they say twenty-eight days is 

 almost equal to a death's doom. I believe the bread is 

 unfermented, and without salt. 



The solitary, silent system is strictly observed in the 

 jails. Flogging is, happily, now abolished, and when 

 an execution takes place, the axe is the instrument of 

 death. 



A Swedish flogging must have been terrible. The 

 executioner did not use a " cat," but three long hazel twigs, 

 which he cast away after every two strokes, and took three 

 fresh ones. About twenty-four pair of strokes was con- 

 sidered as much as a man could bear. How is it then, 

 that when the disgusting and brutal practice of flog- 

 ging in the British army was at its height, a soldier could 

 take 500 lashes from a nine-tailed cat ? 



Executions are rare. I read of one in Norway, in 

 March, 1864, when two fellows were beheaded for a murder. 

 The head executioner there, or fc skarp rattan " as he is 

 called, would be a very good mate for our old Calcraffc, as 

 he is sixty-nine years old, and has been in office above 

 thirty years ; during this time, however, he has only be- 

 headed fourteen men and one woman; he only works in 

 Norway, not in Sweden. The axe he uses is described as 

 being quite an interesting relict ; it did duty in Copenhagen 

 in 1772, and has, I believe, been an heirloom in the old 

 man's family ever since. It weighs seventeen pounds. How I 

 should like to steal it, to place in my collection of curiosities ! 

 In most parishes there is, I believe, a place set apart for 

 executions, generally a lone spot at a little distance from the 

 town. Formerly the heads of criminals were stuck on poles 

 and set up where they were beheaded. Now, I believe, 

 this is not the custom. 



In Stockholm, two men were lately beheaded for a 



