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CO^nilSSIONER PHILLIPS eAPIT.HPUNISHMENT...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
'Judgements'—And Want Of Judg-¦ ¦¦: ; ¦ ...
tikt ^^ - ^^ v ^ - aviewto ' his 6 wn £ < fc & ae & h < $ nt' ifr that line '" of ; business , and th ' ut he is master o £ the Asian mastery , arid ik ofr oftier' aspects the ; « Cbttring matt . ' Jtetattps ; these' facts explain the allusion to ^ ebnaul ' ajs'vsri ' sdom ?** . "tvV do not ifonxfe * , however ; at tile disftesY of the clerical order s ^ sine ; e their' sfcoclk isMicrtt at TtfeSettt rising . Witness tlieir f "' £ ni £ ve * catls ; for : ' additional ' cutfates ^ items' i ? r . Shoeti ' s avowal that tliey liuild cauTciies " as fast as gin-palaces ; .-T ^ t . leave tBefii'ttnteiiddtfed . In * feet , t 1 i < e religion of tlie cbtLn ^ cy , as" all present ; administered , is # ctf ' self-sup-gor ^ g . *
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© OliDiSBEEEItS JN < ENGLAND ; - W $ possess , an yet , only some passages fi * bih $ && autobiography of EdwXrd A & ab . "fror can it'be boped ? that tHe most rigorous erossexfa * fexi-6 ipn will elicit tlie entire' story . "What ¦ tfritf ne doing " several times " ' in America $ "WTfen' did he > "begin to share the profits of emi ^ ezzleTtteiit and forgery ? tVbuld lie "have Btebrtted' to ; turn highwayman P * " Would tne sa ^ e" passion ; for money wEick made liini a p ^ feSsibiinl thief , have sufficed -to render Him , ttiicfetf otKer circiimstances , a poisoner ? Connected ? with questions of this sort , are not a fex ^ cfrcum ^ iances which curiously illustrate of
ih ^ iJhebrjr diverse talent ' s and divided labour dtf ^ p fied to crime . One man hungers for a purse of sovereigns , and dashes out your bra & s ^ on tie highway , to obtain it , or breaks tErbugh your shutters , arid' filcXies yoiir plate at tife risk of a pistol-sHot , or perpetual exile . Another pursues a loftier aim by a more gentle method , and robs— -transfer , the wise itJ 5 c 34—^ ipon a magnificent scale , giving from his abundance to- the poor , but relentlessly prosecuting a burglar , amd transporting : hint for ten jrears , For a- far inferior dbjecfc the Ifcugeley surgeon , poisons his Mend ? . Tlie © ublin murderer makes one
gash in the throat of a cashier , and stakes his game on . that . But Aoar adopts for life this business of fraud ; and when' persuasively interrogated by Mr . Bodkin , discloses the companionships of his profession—the agents , middlemen , and retail-dealers of larceny . He has his account at private banks ; lie keeijs part of his money , for safety , at the Baiik of England ; lie invests it in tlie public securities ; but he does not care to become an
ornament of the "West End . No ; he has his little suburban villa , and seems to live for embezzlement , as well as by it . So far as tlie facts of his career have "been stated , it appears that he generally kept to the forger's level , , never condescending to petty abstractiona ^& fi watches anad coin , and never daring to- deal with human life , as- with property , eith « r in the GtaEEisrAnaE or Palmer fashion .
K " or ^ was he ^ like many criminals , of an improvident disposition , devouring the fruits of oner adventure before plotting another . On the- contrary , before his 1 last visit to America , laving some information concerning the transit of bullion on the South-Eastern IKailway he observed to PtEitcE , in the ticket' printing-office , that a gold robbery ¦ would be an advantageous undertaking . ! N " ow , what had ho previously known of ^ w « cb ? "Why did he trust him with this
iwggefcfttont ? They must have been confederate * before ; or , at least , their confidences 55 '* T' ^ e mutual . "Upon returning to JtoBlawd , he revived the topic , and held Beveral interviews with the official . Then , atte * bowks coquetry , he consented to act as pmcipol in , the affair . Bukgess , the railway guard , was introduced , and the plan was organizedw We must ag ^ Tfcmark upon fche mkimate knowledge iJhese men seem to have ad wesp « ctmg one anotheir ' s character . Aoar
moreoveipi reposed unlimitedconfidence in liis accomplices . B ! e left 2002 . of his own property with Pre & Ofc , arid , ; aftei ? coming t ' d grief himself , trusted that indivMudl with tlie lorturie lie n ' a ; dbeqiieatlied ,, at his civil death , ; o poor \ $ & KT < tt Say . . But it isanotdstorf how justice comes by her owii because there is Tipt honour among tuieVes . These were not inipatLent rbUbers . They
prepared a policy , and kept to it . They took more paina to reconnoitre the bullion chest , before attacking it , than tlie British Q-overnnient took to reconnoitre the Crimea . They spent a fortnighb or three weeks at Folkestone mastering all the details about tlie arrival of the treasure , the locks , the keys , the methods , and tlie personal" character of tlie individuals whose duty it was to
guard the golden ark . They lived in private apartments at the hotel , played billiards , separated when the police seemed suspicious , and secured the alliance of Testeb , the check-eferk , who liad- charge of the key . Oh © impression hr wax was then obtained ; but for the other they waited upon chance . Chance , with the aid of some adroitness ^ favoured' their scheme , and though their attempt to obtain the key by hiring the safe to convey money of their" own was a failure ^
Ag ^ b , always pronded with wax , was enabled ' , during the momentary absence of a clerK , to possess himself of the lockmaker's secret . From what took place afterwards , it might be supposed 1 that A \ gar had been accustomed to housebreaking . It was lie who manufactured the keys , who secreted himself in the van to fit them who provided the box-wood wedges and the wooden mallet , to avoid the sound that would be made by iron tools , who unlocked the snfe , and drew the nails out of
the iron-bound boxes . All this proved a burglarious proficiency in the ' opening' art . Piebce proposed the purchase of the shot ; but it is' not stated who devised that ingenious variety of bags , the carpet-bags stuffed with hay , the black wig and whiskers , and broad-brimmed liat of Piebce , the dramatic arrangement by which Btjrgess was to raise his cap and wipe his face as a signal that " the gold was there . " Perhaps , however , the most remarkable
of the prudence with which these alchemists conducted their operations was exhibited within the railway van , when . Burgess and Ao-A-it were loading themselves with bullion . After emptying one chest , and refilling it with shot , they opened another and found a bright mass " of Californian gold in bars of a different colouf . " But , instead of appropriating the whole , they only took " as much as they had brought shot to make up the weight—and swept the floor . "
Then came the process of removal , the melting , tlie division of the spoil , Fanny Kay being kept carefully ignorant of the whole transaction . 3 ? rom first to last , from the reconnoissatice at Folkestone to the disposal of the gold in London , the conspirators acted with perfect coolness , unanimity , and foresight , forgetting nothing , hurrying nothing , never once shrinking from the perils
of their position , and ultimately distributing the proceeds with apparent fairness , and even generosity . Agab himself , when convicted of forgery , and sentenced to transportation for life , could scarcely have been tina-ware that , by offering to disclose the facts of the great gold robbery of May , \&& 5 , he must have secured for himself the favourable consideration of the Home
Office ; yet ho paid the price of one felony without breathing a syllable of the other , and was only induced to offer his evidence when stung by the treachery of "WrrxiAM Pomcm , and by the wrongs of Fawny Kay . He may hope to be rowarded for his
testimony / , should' iti result in tfhte conviction- of the' prisoners—that ir , supposing" it to ^ lS corroborated ' , as * far as corrobdraiiion . is' timJ sibte ; "but there iB not iflie slightest « mS 5 for believing that he has -been' t ^ mptedT accuse Hb fatftiners by any feehng : l ' e gg' ^ s ^ ectablb than that of revenge'for the dp *^ " tion of " Faottst and' the cBifi . " '
^ Meanwhile , tlie . public has" learned some thing from the convict Aq aU ; as' it fe learned ' many other things ' from' tne ctimi ndls ^ ofi 856 . itfoV to speak of wHat yo ^ physician or' yotir banked may ' "be dbing witli your life or your property , you ' nave received a liint about your'neighbours' . Don't be too anxious to secure' the KUdpat ^ of your neighbourhood as a ; director of your nev
company . If you send' gold by rail to Folkestone don't be t oo sure tliat it will e ? er arrive ; Wlienj'Ou see ; a gentleman with'a particularly heavy carpet-bag , fancy , if you please , that it has been filled by felony with bullion . "When a person with small : visible means of existence lives at an extravagant rate , be slow to Believe that he is running iiito debt ; but thin of your scrip and your banker ' s account . These are among the lessons of the year . You may escape "WiiiiiAii PAiMER ; jou may even avoid Robert Marmy ; but you must look to it , seeing how professionally persevering is Edwabd Aoab . who is all his
hfe a felon , who crosses the Atlantic repeatedly in the pursuit of his' calling , who has 2007 . to spare for an experiment ( "Idon't recollect where . : I- got this gold from" ) , and who , when lie is transported , leaves 7000 ? . in the hands of a partner " for FanKy . "
Co^Nilssioner Phillips Eapit.Hpunishment...
CO ^ nilSSIONER PHILLIPS eAPIT . HPUNISHMENT . We have never counted Mr . ChakI / E 8 PitrLLiPS among Soi / Oiro-ys . If the late Lord Mayor was the parallel of LYCTJitaTi 3 , as lie tons , according to Ba . niel O'Cornell ' s ' relative , ' Mr .- Commissioner PniLxrps ce ^ tainly is not . The dim litigious light of the Insolvent Debtors' Court is admirably suited fco him . He is licensed there to rebuke all
extravagance except that of the orator , and all immorality except that of the advocate . And it is his undeniable privilege to ' enjoy a vacation , and to turn ., ifc to what use he pleases , remembering always , however , that ho , Mr . Chahles Phillips , A . B ., is a
Gom-. Mr . Commissioner Phillips , then , has devoted his vacation to the writing of » pa . mphlet against Capital Punishmeat . The discussion is , in one souse , timely . There have been heard , within the last few months ; certain mutterings againBt the mercy of the law . Indignation against garotters has tato the form of a cry that such ruffians should
be hanged out of the way . If the garotfcew were the only persons concerned , few tvoiiM be inclined to plead on the other side of the question the strangler ' s objection to being strangled . But the best reason urged against increasing the scope of capital -punishment lfl contained broadly in the bankers' petition pi'evious to the act of 1832 . In that docu > monL seven hundred and sevontv-oue baiilaafB
declared that the infliction of death , or the possibility of its infliction , in cases of forg ^ J acted as a prevention of punishment , and tm " endangered tho property which the law « intended to protect . " This is the strong ^ o-f the argument , and its soundness is demonstrated by a series of unanswerable facts . "When stealing from ft dwelling-hous < J to the amount of forty shillings was a capw ofifence , judges and juroi ' B conspired to oeRM * fche law . . Turiea , on thoir oath a , _ Jj ronuo * Vacation Thoughts on Capital Punishment . BJ Charles Phillips ' , A . B . Longnian and' Co .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 22, 1856, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22111856/page/14/
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