184 ENGLAND. 



and goods are forfeited, his wife loses her dowry, and his children 

 both their estates and nobility. 



But though coining of money is adjudged high treason, the cri- 

 minal is only drawn upon a sledge to the place of execution, and 

 there hanged. 



Though the sentence passed upon all traitors is the same, yet, 

 with respect to persons of quality, the punishment is generally al- 

 tered to beheading : a scaffold is erected for that purpose, on which 

 the criminal placing his head upon a block, it is struck off with an 

 axe.* 



The punishment for misprision of high treason ; that is, for neglect- 

 ing or concealing it ; is imprisonment for life; the forfeiture of all 

 the offender's goods, and the profits arising from his lands. 



Petty treason is when a child kills his father, a wife her husband, 

 a clergyman his bishop, or a servant his master or mistress. This 

 crime is punished by the offender's being drawn on a sledge to the 

 place of execution, and there hanged upon a gallows till dead. Wo- 

 men guilty of this crime, or of high treason, were sentenced to be 

 burnt alive ; but this law has been lately repealed^ and the punishment 

 of burning abolished. 



Felony includes murders, robberies, forging notes, bonds, deeds, Sec. 

 These are all punished by hanging : only murderers! are to be ex- 

 ecuted soon after sentence is passed, and then delivered to the sur- 

 geons in order to be publicly dissected. Persons guilty of robberyj 

 when there are some alleviating circumstances, are generally con- 

 demned to hard labour upon the river, or transported for a term of 

 years, or for life, to Botany Bay. I 



Other crimes punished by the laws are, 



Manslaughter, which is the unlawful killing of a person without pre- 

 meditated malice, but with a present intent to kill ; as when two, who 

 formerly meant no harm to each other, quarrel, and the one kills the 

 other ; in this case the criminal is allowed the benefit of his clergy, 

 for the first time, and only burnt in the hand. 



Chance-medley is the accidental killing of a man without an evil in- 

 tent ; for which the offender is also to be burnt in the hand, unless the 

 offender was doing an unlawful act ; which last circumstance makes 

 the punishment death. 



Shofi-lifting, and receiving goods knowing them to be stolen, are 

 punished with hard labour for a number of years, or burning in the 

 hand. 



Perjury is punished with the pillory and imprisonment. 



Petty -larceny, or small theft, under the value of twelve-pence, is 

 punished by whipping. 



Libelling, using false weights and measures, and forestalling the 

 market, are commonly punished with standing on the pillory. 



For striking, so as to draw blood, in a king's court, the criminal is 

 punished with losing his right hand. 



For striking in Westminster-hall while the courts of justice are sit- 

 ting, the punishment is imprisonment for life, and forfeiture of all the 

 offenders estate. 



* This is not to be considered as a different punishment, but as a remission of 

 all the parts of the sentence mentioned before, excepting the article of beheading. 



| By a late act, murderers are to be executed within twenty-four hours after 

 sentence is pronounced ; but as Sunday is not reckoned a day, they are generally 

 tried on a Saturday, so that they obtain a, respite till Monday. 



