18 State of Grammar Schools,—Capital Punishments, [Aug. I, 
payment, witliout efiect; afterwards an 
attorney was employed, and after two 
•/ i V ' ^ 
letters and a month’s notice, the man 
was arrested, and the money was im¬ 
mediately paid. Previous to these pro¬ 
ceedings my friend !iad ordered goods 
to the amount of about 40s. which iie 
had been disappointed iii not receiving 
for six months ; but the following Sa¬ 
turday after the arrest they were de¬ 
livered, and my friend demanded tiie 
bill and offered irrjmediate payment, 
instead of wlncii (no bill having been 
delivered or demand n\ade,) wiihm a 
week an attorney’s clerk called and 
served a writ from the court of King’s 
Bench for the money, wliich my friend 
directly offered the clerk, but neither 
of them knew the amount. My friend 
then consulted liis own attorney, vvi)en 
he found to his astonishment the pro¬ 
ceedings were perfectly legal, th.at he 
must himself make application for the 
amount of the bill and pay it, witli all 
the expences incurred by tliis proceed¬ 
ing. My friend remonstrated, as he 
thought It impossible the law could 
countenance such rascality, and begged 
he would carry it into court; but the 
attorney replied, it would only be pick¬ 
ing his pocket by increasing the ex¬ 
pences; as he could not disprove the debt, 
he would inevitably be non-suited ; 
therefore recommended him to pay the 
hill forty shillings,expences three guineas, 
his own attorney not making any charge. 
The remedy here is very plain, let the 
jaw oblige a man to make a demand, 
and acquaint his debtor what is the sum 
due, before it permits him to take these 
harsh, unreasonable, and expensive, mea¬ 
sures ; and equally easy I have no doubt 
it would be for the legislature to enact 
regulations of the same beneficial ten¬ 
dency, with respect to those points 
which have filled Amicus witli so much 
disgust, but which his proposed society 
could no more relieve than tlie case re¬ 
cited. Alfred. 
Chelmsford, June 27, 1811. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
BEG that you will hllow me to call 
the attention of the readers of the 
Monthly Magazine to the state of cur en¬ 
dowed Grammar-schools, and to solicit 
information on many points, which in a 
future letter I will state, for the purpose 
of collecting materials for a concise his¬ 
tory of the various schools of that de- 
scription in England. At a time whea 
the benevolent of .ill parties are exerting 
themselves to procure instruction for the 
lower orders of society, it cannot be im¬ 
proper to enquire, hew the funds which 
our ancestors have left for the promotion 
of public instruction, are applied ; w'he- 
ther all the good, whjch they expected, 
and we have a right to receive, is pro¬ 
duced; 01 ’, whether neglect and abuse 
have not, in some instances, defeated 
their intentions, and disappointed our 
hopes. As this is a subject of great im¬ 
portance, it is hoped that it will excite 
general attention, that those who have 
done well, in such arduous situations,may 
be held up to the world as objects of ho¬ 
nor and veneration; whilst those who 
have neglected their duties may, by the 
dread of public censure, be stimulated to 
greater exertions. D. E, 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, 
SIR, 
Y the noble efforts of Sir Samuel 
Romiliy, and his humane supportersj 
we shall, no doubt, soon find tlie rigours 
of our penal code relax ; but the people 
themselves should not be backward in de¬ 
claring their abhorrence of the frequency 
of public executions. I have often men¬ 
tioned with horror and disgust the shock, 
ing spectacle which, in the early part of 
my life, I witnessed, when three beams 
of the new-drop, or gibbet, in the Old 
Bailey, were filled w'ith the unfortunate 
victims of the laws of severity, wiiile'a 
poor woman, for coining, was burning 
alive on the same spot, with her face to¬ 
ward the fatal place where the partner 
of her crime and the object of her affec¬ 
tions was making his last struggles. That 
the frequency of public executions has 
only tended to harden and brutalize the 
feelings is evident to every observer; 
laughing, jesting, and robbery, is now 
common among the crowd assembled on 
those occasions, which were intended to 
deter by example: let our legislature 
abandon such disgraceful and frequent 
practices, and rather make an error in 
mercy, than one in severity. 
Seneca oltserves, that the origin of cru¬ 
elty was anger, which, by frequent exer¬ 
cise, lias (n^jt all sen-je of humanity and 
mercy ; “ For,” says he, “ we see that 
me:;, thus affected, will laugh, rejoice, 
and entertain themselves wi h the most 
horrid spectacles, as racks, gaols, gibbets, 
&c.” There still may be advocates for 
the axe, and the gibbet, vvliere custom, 
1 cruelty^ 
