Returning from the country, I found myself in the Old Bailey, shortly
after seven in the morning. I had some difficulty in making my way through
the crowd there assembled, which I instantly perceived, from the platform
erected in front of Newgate, had been brought together to witness one of
those mournful exhibitions which the administration of criminal justice so
frequently furnishes in this immense metropolis.
My first impulse was to retreat with all possible expedition, but the
impediments opposed to my doing so compelled a pause; and it then struck
me, that however reluctant to witness suffering, there was much in the
scene before me on which a reflecting mind might dwell with interest, if
not with advantage.
The decent gravity of some of the crowd formed a strong contrast to the
jocund vivacity of the majority; and this again with the important swagger
of the constables, who seemed fully to appreciate the consequence which
the modicum of authority dealt out to persons of their standing in society
cannot fail to impart. Then the anxiety to complete their task, which the
workmen who were still employed in preparing the scaffold evinced, gave
another feature perfectly distinct from what had before caught my
attention, while the eagerness of the inhabitant housekeepers to let
"excellent places for seeing," and of certain ambulatory pastrycooks to
accommodate the rapidly increasing multitude with such delicacies as they
had for sale, added to the variety, though not to the solemnity of the
scene.
Some undertaker's men were carrying coffins across the road to the prison,
for the reception of the sufferers after execution. They were much pushed
about, and this caused great mirth. I turned from the general display of
levity with disgust. "On no account," I mentally exclaimed, "will I remain
mixed up with such a herd of heartless beings. But who am I," I retorted
on myself in the next moment, "that I should thus condemn my fellows, and
'bite the chain of nature?'"--for what I saw was nature after all. A mob,
save when depressed by a sense of peril, can never long refrain from some
indications of merriment, however awful the subject of their meeting. The
unfortunate Hackman, in one of his letters to Miss Ray, described himself
to have been shocked by a spectacle of this sort. On the morning of the
day on which Dr. Dodd suffered, Hackman was at Tyburn. While the multitude
were expecting the approach of the culprit, an unfortunate pig ran among
them; and the writer remarks, with indignation, that the brutal populace
diverted themselves with the animal's distress, as if they had come there
to see "a sow baited," instead of attending to behold a fellow creature
sacrificed to justice.
But the pressure of the accumulating thousands was too much for me, and I
asked a female, who, with an infant in her arms, stood full in my way, to
let me pass. I was retiring, when the carriage of one of the sheriffs
drove up to the Sessions-house, and out stepped my friend Sir Thomas ----,
who, in the performance of his duty, came to superintend the last
arrangements within the prison, and to give the governor a _receipt_ for
the bodies of the unfortunates who were to die.
I was instantly recognised, and the sheriff kindly complimented me with
the offer of an introduction to the interior. Such politenesss was not to
be withstood, and I signified my assent with a bow.
We passed up a staircase and into a well furnished and carpeted apartment.
Here I was introduced to the under-sheriff, who, attended by half a dozen
gentlemen, brought in, like myself, as a matter of favour, was about
descending to the room in which the culprits are pinioned. Sir Thomas, who
had bestowed much humane attention on the prisoners, inquired, with real
solicitude, how they had passed the night. His colleague, who had just had
his person embellished with the insignia of office, replied, in a lively
tone. "O, very well, I understand." He added, with infinite coolness and
intelligence--"But you cannot expect men to sleep so well the night before
they are hanged as they are likely to do afterwards!"
He looked round in all our faces, as if to collect our suffrages in favour
of this pleasantry. His _high rank_ and importance _there_, prevented any
word or sign of displeasure. Most of us lifted our upper lip so as just to
show our teeth, thereby intimating that we knew he had said a very good
thing, at which, but for the painful business then in progress, we should
be ready to die with laughing.
We now followed the sheriffs through the Sessions-house, and thence, by a
covered passage on the eastern side of the yard of that building, to the
prison. I shuddered at beholding the numerous precautions which experience
and ingenuity had suggested to cut off hope and prevent escape, Spikes and
pallisades above, and doors of massy iron below, appeared in long and
terrible array against the wretch, who, having eluded the vigilance of the
officers of the gaol, should attempt, by flight, to save his life. At one
of the iron doors, we were severally inspected with as much suspicious
care as if we had been seeking to get out, instead of pressing forward to
be let in.
At length we reached a gloomy apartment, which, I believe, is called the
press-room. Here I found rather a fuller attendance than I had expected;
some eight or ten persons having been admitted by another entrance. These
had formed in two lines, and their eyes were incessantly turned towards
the door. I fancied, when I made my appearance, that they regarded me with
peculiar attention, as if for a moment they had mistaken me for a more
distinguished character than I really was. If I were right in this, they
certainly were soon undeceived. Mingling with them, I looked about me, as
I saw them look about. Silence generally prevailed. A few whispers were
exchanged; and now and then such sentences as, "The time grows short"--
"They will soon be here"--"What must their feelings be at this moment?"
were murmured along the ranks.
That amelioration of the culprit's destiny, which, by relieving him from
the galling fetters heretofore deemed necessary for the safe detention of
his person, now leaves his mind more perfect leisure for communication
with his Creator, had not then taken place. The approach of the prisoners
was signified first by a whisper, and then by the clanking of the irons
attached to the limbs of one of them. It was a dreary morning; and the
sombre aspect of the apartment well accorded with the dismal preparations
of which it was to be the theatre. A block with a small anvil was placed
near the entrance, by which a miserably attired individual was stationed
with a candle, for the purpose of lighting the workman who attended to
remove the irons. The flame of the candle was too small to afford a
general illumination of the room; but its limited power gave to the eye a
more distinct view of a little circle round the anvil, in which the main
objects were the smith, with his hammer already grasped; his assistant,
and two or three officers, were, in the absence of the more important
objects of curiosity, eagerly gazed on by some of the party, and by me for
one, as appendages of the picture not unworthy of notice.
The sound of the fetters was now close at hand, and the voice of the
minister who attended the wearer of them, could be heard. In the next
moment two or three persons entered, and these were followed by the
ordinary and one of the malefactors. The latter looked right and left, as
if he had calculated on recognising there some friend or relative. A
ghastly paleness sat on his cheek, and there was an air of disorder in the
upper part of his face, which his wild but sunken eye, and negligently
combed locks joined to furnish. The unhappy youth, for he was not more
than twenty, advanced with a steady step to where the smith expected him.
He was resigned and tractable. When about to place his foot on the block,
he untied a band, which had passed round his body to sustain the weight of
his irons; and as he disengaged it, he let it carelessly fall, with an
expression in his countenance which told, so I fancied, that, in this
moment, reflecting he should never want it again, the immediate cause and
consequence of the miserable relief flashed full on his imagination, with
all their concomitant horrors. But with calmness he attended to the
workman, who directed him how to stand. He manifested great presence of
mind, and, I thought, seemed to gaze with something of curiosity on the
operation, which he contributed all in his power to facilitate. The heavy
blows echoed through the room, and rudely broke in on the low murmurs and
whispers which had for some little time been the only sounds heard there.
A singularly irrational feeling came over me. I could have reproved the
striker for indecorously breaking silence, and even have questioned his
humanity for being capable of such vigorous exertion at a moment when, as
it struck me, everything ought to have presented the coldness and
motionless stillness of the grave.
The rivet was knocked out, the fetters fell to the floor, and the prisoner
was passed from the anvil to the further extremity of the room. A second
entered. This was a middle-aged man. Reflection seemed with him to have
well performed its duty. Calm and undismayed, he advanced to the anvil,
apparently unconscious of the presence of a single spectator, and wholly
occupied with meditations on eternity. Having already witnessed that part
of the preparatory ceremony which he was then to undergo, I withdrew from
the circle to observe the other sufferer. He had now been joined by the
ordinary, and was standing near a table, on which several ropes were
lying. He was directed to place his hands together, and he was then
pinioned. Here, again, I felt a disposition to criticise the conduct of
the officers, like that which I had previously experienced while
witnessing the labours of the smith. The adroitness and merciful despatch
which I noticed, I could hardly help regarding as meriting censure for the
insensibility which they marked. Those who have to perform a severe duty
cannot often properly fulfil their task, and at the same time conciliate
the admiration of the pitying spectator. Lest what I have said should be
misunderstood, it is right distinctly to say, no want of consideration for
the feelings of the criminals was evinced. The officers who pinioned them,
when their work was done, shook each by the hand with an appearance of
sincere commiseration. The matter-of-course way in which they acquitted
themselves offended me, but I had no right to expect that in performing
what to them were but common-place labours, they should study my
fastidious notions of fitness and effect. But a still greater contrast to
the awful character of the preparations presented itself. When I drew near
the table on which the ropes lay, and by which the miserable being who had
most engrossed my attention then stood, I perceived on that very table the
materials for gambling. Lines, passing across it, had been indented to
prepare it for a game, I believe the same as that which king Henry VIII.
took some trouble to put down, under the name of "Shove-groat." The
strange variety thus placed before me--the mingling symbols of dissipation
and misery, of pastime and of death, caused my mind, already sufficiently
excited, to experience a sudden emotion which I know not how to convey to
another.
The third criminal entered. This was a young man of prepossessing
exterior, who had recently moved in a higher sphere than either of his
companions in suffering. His cheek was flushed when he entered, and he
staggered forward, writhing in agony, and scarcely able to sustain
himself. He looked at those who surrounded him as if he feared to discover
some who had known him in the day of his pride. It was necessary to
support him while his irons were being removed. He was attended by a
benevolent person who commonly assists criminals in their last moments,
and who, though no ecclesiastic by profession, seemed equal to the duty of
imparting religious consolation. His voice now contributed to soothe his
unhappy charge, and in a few moments all that was necessary there to be
done had been performed. The hands of the culprits were secured, and the
halters by which they were to perish were thrown round their shoulders.
The fortitude of the young man first brought in had, till this moment,
enabled him, though not unmoved, to look with calmness on the appalling
scene. But now when he saw that but one more ceremony intervened between
him and the grave, his resolution suddenly failed him. He burst into
tears, and a wild shriek of "O my mother--my poor mother," embodied in
speech a portion of the agony which raged in his bosom. He was conducted
to a bench, on which his fellows had just been seated. A glass of water
was handed to him, with which he moistened his fevered lips, and the voice
of devotion again claimed attention, and commanded silence.
In that moment few, if any, of the spectators remembered the crimes of
those they looked upon. Every mind was solely occupied with the terrible
punishment about to be inflicted.
But distressing as the scene was, before it closed I was sufficiently
myself to recognise, with satisfaction, the majestic march of justice--the
resolute, but humane administration of the law. It was sad to behold the
ghastly pictures of despair then breathing, but destined so speedily to
cease to breathe. Such scenes are rendered familiar to us in romance, but
to gaze on the reality, and to feel that, pity as we may, no joyful
denouement can be furnished to avert the contemplated sacrifice, occasions
for the time excruciating sorrow. But while I felt this, and was persuaded
that each of all who were with me (however idle the curiosity which
brought him there) would have been glad for himself to have given them
life and freedom, I admired the serene determination which still urged on
the proceedings, and the sorrowful concurrence which attended them. It was
the triumph of civilization, to behold every effort made to soothe
calamity, without any abandonment of the forfeit justly claimed on behalf
of society.
The sheriffs inquired if the unfortunates had any thing to impart, or any
request to make. Answered in the negative--they added their voices to
those of their religious assistants, to assure them of their hopes--that
they would find that mercy in another world, which the laws and the
interests of their fellow creatures denied them in this.
This language, however suited to the occasion, had been so often addressed
to them, that the sufferers received it almost as a matter of course, and
made little or no reply, but looking up to heaven, they at least seemed to
feel that thither alone could their thoughts be advantageously directed.
They continued sitting on the bench or form to which they had been led.
From time to time the sheriffs referred to their watches. The under
sheriff, who had been doing the same, now exhibited his timepiece to his
superior. It wanted five minutes to eight. Sir Thomas, by a slight
inclination of the head, intimated that he comprehended what was intended
to be conveyed.
"Had we not better move?" he inquired, addressing himself, in a tone but
little above a whisper, to the ordinary.
"I think we had:" the functionary just mentioned rejoined--"the last time
you know, we were rather late."
The under sheriff waved his hand for the spectators to stand aside. His
gesture was promptly attended to. The sheriffs', holding their wands in
their hands, then presented themselves as ready to march in procession.
Immediately after them the minister appeared, with his open book; the
culprits were next brought forward, and placed immediately behind him. The
spectators, who had given way on the sides, prepared to bring up the rear,
were admonished by the under sheriff not to press on the sufferers; and
strange as it may seem, the intrusive curiosity of some of the party,
impressed upon me a belief that this hint was not altogether unnecessary.
(_To be concluded in our next_.)
* * * * *