necessary. He is confined in a cell (or dungeon) at night, but is allowed to be in an upper room in the day. Executions are rare. A great number for child-murder are condemned to work in spin-houses for life, and to be whipped annually on the day when, and the spot where, the crime was committed. This mode of punishment is dreaded more than death, and since it has been adopted has greatly prevented the frequency of the crime. The punishment for grand larceny has been since 1771, whipping and slavery for life. FRANCKFORT. The prison called Là Tour de St. Catharine was empty. Here is a lightsome room, to which criminals are generally brought from the great guard prison, just before their execution. The men are hanged and the women beheaded; but executions are very rare in this city. SWEDEN. Women are The general mode of execution is by the axe. beheaded on a scaffold, which is afterwards set on fire at the four corners, and consumed with the body. The present king has humanely abolished all torture, and ordered a dark cellar applied to this purpose in the great prison, to be bricked up*. RUSSIA. There is no capital punishment for any crime but treason; but the common punishment of the knoot is often dreaded more than death, and sometimes a criminal has endeavoured to bribe the * The gaoler told me, that agreeably to the king's order, the door-way had been bricked up. On my insisting to see the wall, that I might be assured of the fact, I found the cellar still open. executioner to kill him. This punishment seldom causes immediate death, but death is often the consequence of it. The governor of the police at PETERSBURG was so kind as to fix a time for shewing me all the instruments commonly used for punishment-the axe and block-the machine (now out of use) for breaking the arms and legs-the instrument for slitting or lacerating the nostrils—and that for marking criminals, (which is done by punctuation, and then rubbing a black powder on the wounds)—the knoot whip-and another called the cat, which consists of a number of thongs from two to ten. The knoot whip is fixed to a wooden handle, a foot long, and consists of several thongs, about two feet in length, twisted together, to the end of which is fastened a single tough thong of a foot and a half, tapering towards a point, and capable of being changed by the executioner, when too much softened by the blood of the criminal. August 10, 1781, I saw two criminals, a man and a woman, suffer the punishment of the knoot. They were conducted from prison by about fifteen hussars and ten soldiers. When they arrived at the place of punishment, the hussars formed themselves into a ring round the whipping post, the drum beat a minute or two, and then some prayers were repeated, the populace taking off their hats. The woman was taken first; and after being roughly stripped to the waste, her hands and feet were bound with cords to a post, made for the purpose, a man standing before the post to keep the cords tight. A servant attended the executioner, and both were stout men. The servant first. marked his ground, and struck the woman five times on the back. Every stroke seemed to penetrate deep into her flesh. But his master thinking him too gentle, pushed him aside, took his place, and gave all the remaining strokes himself, which were evidently more severe. The woman received twenty-five, and the man sixty. I pressed through the hussars, and counted the number as they were chalked on a board. Both seemed but just alive, especially the man, who yet had strength enough to receive a small donation, with some signs of gratitude. They were conducted back to prison in a little waggon. I saw the woman in a very weak condition some days after, but could not find the man any more. FLORENCE. In the great prison, In FLORENCE are two prisons*. Palazzo degl' Otto, were only twenty prisoners. Six of them were in the secrete chambers, which are twenty-one strong rooms. None of the prisoners were in irons. They had mattresses to lie on. Their bread was good. In the torture chamber, there was a machine for decollation, which prevents that repetition of the stroke, which too often happens when the axe is used. ROME. In this city, as in most parts of Italy, is a Confraternita della misericordia, called S. Giovanni di Fiorentini: as many of Florentine extraction were the founders. This institution is ancient, for the church of S. Gio Battista Decollato belonged to them in 1450. It consists of about seventy, chiefly nobles of the best families. After a prisoner is condemned, one or two of them come to him the midnight before his execution, inform him of the sentence, and continue with him till his death. They, with the confessor, exhort and comfort him, and give him his choice of the most delicious food. All the fraternity attend the execution, dressed in white. When the prisoner is dead, they leave him hanging till the evening; then one of the fraternity, generally * Dr. Targioni, who had an order from his Royal Highness to inspect the hospitals, and report what beneficial improvements might be made in them, accompanied me in visiting these prisons. a noble, cuts him down, and orders him to be conveyed to the burying-place which they have appropriated to malefactors. I was there the twenty-ninth of August, the only day in the year when this burying-place is opened to the public. Adjoining to an elegant church is a chapel, which makes one side of a court, and on each of the other three sides, is a portico, supported by doric pillars. In the middle of the pavement* of the front portico the women, and in one of the side porticos the men, are buried. The latter are interred in the same dress in which they were hanged; for in Italy, coffins are not in general use. GENEVA. Here, as in the Swiss cantons, men and women are kept separate. For some years past, no capital punishment. If a criminal flies from justice, they call him in form three days: and after that execute him in effigy. ANTWERP. In the prison at ANTWERP there are two rooms for citizens and up stairs there is a cage, about six feet and a half square, into which criminals are put before the torture. A criminal, while he suffers the torture, is clothed in a long shirt, has his eyes bound, and a physician and surgeon attend him: and when a confession is forced from him, and wine has been given him, he is required to sign his confession; and about forty-eight hours afterwards he is executed. * Here are marble stones, in which are circular apertures for the interment. of those that are executed. Round these stones is inscribed: "Domine, cum veneris judicare, "Noli nos condemnare." O Lord, when thou shalt come to judge, In a small dungeon is a stone seat, like some I have seen in old prison towers, in which it is said that, formerly, prisoners were suffocated by brimstone, when their families wished to avoid the disgrace of a public execution. No person here remembers an instance of this kind; but about thirty years ago there was a private execution in the prison. In this prison in 1778 there were only two prisoners.In November, 1781, there were three prisoners for debt; their allowance was three halfpence a day. BRADFORD. PUBLISHED IN 1795. THIS interesting tract may be divided into two parts. neral observations upon the punishment of death. American law. 1. Ge 2. Of the 1. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON THE PUNISHMENT OF DEATH. One would think, that, in a nation jealous of its liberty, these important truths would never be overlooked; and, that the infliction of death, the highest act of power that man- exercises over man, would seldom be prescribed, where its necessity was doubtful. But on no subject has government, in different parts of the world, discovered more indolence and inattention, than in the construction or reform of the penal code. Legislators feel themselves elevated above the commission of crimes which the laws |