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    THE HANGMAN'S LESSON.

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    782 The Saturday Analyst and Leader . [ Sb . pt . 8 , 1860

    Untitled Article

    thfeir very nature are mischievous , because productive of human detriment , . from those which in themselves are innocent or indifferent , but become productive of harm by . reason of the false beliefs arid absurd . prejudices , by which they are condemned and proscribed . These latter may be termed sins of estimation and opinion—being merely considered wrong by foolish and mistaken people ; For example •—stabbing a man is an act that must necessarily be productive of injury , notwithstanding any opinion or belief to the contrary . And eating bullock ' s flesh is a thing perfectly harmless in itself , notwithstanding any absurd superstition against it . Yet by reason of the absurd belief existent in

    India , to eat beef there might be attended Avith very prejudicial consequences . Fanaticism—if it did not hunt the ^ sinneiagainst popular prejudice to death , Avould at least bring to bear upon him all the terrors of that moral assassination , which makes itself felt in public odium and disrepute . And much nearer home than India , things quite as innocent , nay , as positively beneficial to health as eating and drinking , are proscribed by false beliefs , and bad institutions , usages , and laws . Now a test of universal application for distinguishing at once those acts—those sorts of human conduct : —which are intrinsically and of their very ¦ nature innocent or indiffere nt . from those which are

    inherently and unalterably pernicious , is of more vital significance , more transcendant importance , in its direct application to human well-being than anything that can engage the attention of the human mind . For though in such matters as murder , robbery , lying , cheating , drunkenness pa the one hand ; and sobriety , truthfulness , benevolence on the other;——the very lowest degree of experience and observation is sufficient to distinguish those things , the essence of which is their riaischievousness , from things

    Avhich are beneficial ; yet in tlie higher and more delicate questions of moral and legislative science , the problem is the most coimplicated and difficult that is presented to us in any department of science whatever , The mischief produced in consequence of the proscription of things harmless or indifferent In themselves , by prejudices , bad laws , and bad institutions , is manifold . For one thing , it makes artificial criminais-r—punishes people like real criminals for things which are perfectly innocent— -punishes them for the mischievous folly of society in holding these absurd beliefs , maintaining these wicked and cruel laws and institutions . But it not only makes artificial criminals , and immolates the innocent on the

    altars of national insanity , but it tends to make real criminals too . When a person is treated as a criminal for doing what he feels and knows to be perfectly harmless , he is not only stultified and degraded in public opinion , but loses his own self i espect ; and from a mere factitious criminal at first , the chances are he finishes his career as criminal a in seriou * s earnest . Another consideration is , that it brings the whole rule of conduct into contempt , confounds right with wrong , vice and virtue , good and evil ; $ nd breaks down all distinctions and barriers between them . The rule of conduct- ^ -be it law , public opinion , one ' s moral code , &c . —is the regulator which restrains men from crime . They have been taught to regard it with respect , as the obligation which compels them todo what is right and avoid what is wrong . Their reason

    for considering some things right and others wrong is that this rule tells them so ; their reason for doing some aots and avoiding others is that the former is enjoined , the latter for " bidden by this rule . All of a sudden they find by bitter experience , that this very rule , the object of their deepest veneration , proscribes and punishes things which they cannot but feel and know are perfectly harmless . At once the rule falls into contempt with them ; jund they have always regarded things as being wrong because prohibited by it , or right because it coinxnajnds tfiena to be done ! The consequence is that , the rule losing its binding force upon their minds , thoy come to look upon things really vicious as no worse than , the reall y innocent tilings 'which their rule confounds together in one category , and punishes witU equal severity .

    Now the beginning of a social regeneration must resolve itself into the abolition of those laws , customs , institutions , prejudices , beliefs , which punish or proscribe the doing of things intrinsiqqlly harmless or indifferent , The first ( steps ofi / his branch of- enquiry , like the axioms of n ^ theamties , sound like self-evident truisms ; but a very few propositions further on > e g <) t into , the thick of problems , compared xvith winch those of Euoi . ip are simple and obvious . And the pi-oof" is that mathematics has for ages been reduced to a tsoicsaajoo , while morals are in the crude and chaotic state indicated ahove . Wo s . hull vosuiuo the subject on a fiituro ooouflion .

    Untitled Article

    T HE hangman has h&A another opportunity of reading the pub - lie a lesson oil the crime of murder . The practical moral in this instance was conveyed by the execution on Tuesday morning- of WiLxrAM GoDFKEY Yovxom . vx , for the murder , of his mother , his sweetheart , aud his two brothers . C vlcii vft read his lesson to 20 , 000 attentive scholars .. Since the law recognises Cat . cka . ft as a teacher , and maintains capital punishment on the ground of its deterrent infhienee , the law may be congratulated upon the fact of so lar ° -e an attendance . Let us see how the lesson was received .

    As early as eight o'clock on the previous evening crowds oi persons began to take up their position within sight of the drop . Most of these persons were young , ranging- for the most part between twelve and twenty . The boys Svere provided with short pipes , which they smoked all through the night . By three o ' clock in the morning the greater portion of the standing space outside the barriers was fully occupied by the impatient scholars . The majority consisted of young men and their sweethearts , whom they had brought to share in the instruction about to be gratuitously

    offered by Calckaft . for the good of the public in general . They sat side by side in pairs on the pavement , and whiled away the time until davlight in retailing to each other their recollection of former executions . It was the pride of some to remember that they were taken , when mere children , by their parents , to see the Mannings hung . While the darkness continued the young girls relieved the story-telling with snatches c > f songs ; a public-house , close to the drop , and a coffee-stand , being frequently patronised between whiles . As the time wears on , scholars of a more

    respectable class arrive on the scene , and oiler large prices for the best places in windoyvs opposite the gallows , which now begins to standout in horrid relief against the moon . The boys , tired of waiting , are beginning to play at leap frog . The squalid brutal mob , who have been spending their time in the public-house , are reeling- about the pavement , thieves , in hundreds , are mingling in the motley throng , and when the dawn lifts up the curtain of night , the cold eye of niorning rests upon a dense mass of human beings , staggering about in drunken besotted confusion , c o ursing and swearirigfsinging ribald songs , larking , laughing , chaffing , and iu eveiy ¦ conceivable' manner giving way to the lowest , the most reckless , and most abandoned conduct . The chaplain arrives , and the mob begin to speculate as to whether the culprit is likely to to tch 1

    confess . Then they watch anxiously ca a ghinpse <> CalceAft , aiid propose various modes of treatment for that functionary , if they could only lay hands on him . At length , as the hour approaches , the all-absorbing enquiry is , " will YousGSUN die game ?¦ " Hopes are expressed that he will , "' for the honour of old England . " The interesting and anxiously awaited ceremony is now about to be enacted , and the drunken riot is hushed . A sea of dull , bloodshot eyes are cast upon the drop as the procession appears on the roof of the gtiol . Squalid women rush frantically into the crowd and hoist up young children on their shouldprs ' to see . the sight . The boys , who aye not tall enough to see , content themselves with larlcing outside , and the thieves , utterly regardless of the last penalty of the law now being exhibited for their edification , are busy robbing' the besotted staring mob who are now absorbed on the ghastly spectacle before them . It is to such scholars that the hangman reads his lesson , and it is in such n

    spirit that it is received . Will he die . gumo ? That is still . tlu anxious enquiry . The culprit walks up with a firm step , he shakes hands with the ' Chaplain and with Calcrakt , ho stands unmoved on the drop , he turns his face towards heavon , tho drop falls , and ho has ( lied game I Listen to tho remarks of tho . scholars : " v > oil , if evqv I coxno to be hung , I only hopo 1 may dio as game as him . That is the moral they derive from the lesson . If there were any pretence that the institution of the gallows is maintained in obedience to a divine law , there might be somo ¦ <• jxcu . se tor its continuance . But there is nouc The Legislature at any rate does not uphold hanging on that plea . It is maintained simply as a warning , as a practical example of the penalty which the murderer will have to pay . It certainly is notahttlo curious , the question being " , narrowed to this issue , thut tho Legislature lias not oi'o this been convinced of tho uusovmdneas ot tho nrinciDle urion which it oroceeds . No ono who has witnessed u

    Imblie exhibition , and watched its influence upon tho minds of tho ower classes can doubt for a moment that its oftbet is exactly tho revorao of that which it is intended to prodttco . Wo will say nothing of tho gross idea inculcated by the spectacle of a murderer . being proposed for heaven in a , few hours by tho chaplain . That in but one of many othor startling inconsistencies which bewet ciipitiu punishment . Tho chief question is as to tho influence of a public execution in deterring others from committing tho crime ot murder . Tho review of a few well-known facts ouft-lifc to be nufnoientlyconvincing 1 . Every murdorer in tho « o tliiyn of extensive publicity becomes for the time boixigv , and often for long after ho pays the ponnlty of his evimoa sort of hero . No individual in tho country

    , waa inoro thought about at tho beginning of thin weok tlmn William Younqman . Twenty thousand pooplo woro pvesont to hcq hixii hangod , rvnd TicriiapH a himdvcd thonsnn ( l mom woulfl havo boon pvtisent , if thoy conld have made it convenient ; HundwlH of thousand * iinpdtiently waited ipr tho newspapers to know if ho had inado a eonleHHion , und iu what mann ' ev Jut had died . For trooku , xintil the culminating point of I iih wlubrity on the roof of Horsoinon ^ i ' -lano gaol , thiw , mu . vdover w » w ojjo of tho loading' topta * of oonvovHwtion . Ho wiw tho tnlk <> l family ( urel (> p , tho mubjout of enquiry iu Oouvt « of Luw . ' theme of dincuiHsion in ovovy nowHpapei 1 . an obioot oi molioitiuiD

    The Hangman's Lesson.

    THE HANGMAN'S LESSON .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 8, 1860, page 782, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2364/page/6/