SOUTHERN AFRICA. 139 
an application for a pension in lieu of the emoluments he 
used to receive for the breakino; of less and arms. The fate 
of the other hangman was singular enough : On hearing that 
the abolition of the rack and torture was likely to take place, 
he waited upon the chief magistrate to know ironi him 
whether it was the fashion among the English to break on the 
wheel. A few days after this lie was found hanging in his 
room. It was thought that the fear of starving, for want of 
en)ploymcnt, on account of his having held such an odious 
office, had operated so powerfully on his mind as to have led 
him to the perpetration of self-murder. Under the idea of 
conveying terror into the minds of the multitude, the place 
of execution is erected close to the side bf the great avenue 
leading into the town. The first object that presents itself to 
a stranger, after passing the Castle, is a large gallows flanked 
by Avheels and engines of death — objects not well adapted 
for impressing any very favorable opinion either of the hu- 
manity of the people or the lenity of their laws. Though the 
custom of most European nations may have sanctioned public 
punishments, as warnings against the commission of crimes, 
the constant exposure of the instruments of death can have 
little share in producing this effect. The human mind, by 
long habit, becomes reconciled to objects that, for a time, 
misrbt have created disgust and dismay ; and nothino; is moi e 
likely to happen than that the unreflecting part of the multi- 
tude should turn into a source of ridicule, when made too 
familiar to them, what was intended to convey the sensation 
of terror. 
