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of criminals was not attempted, and the administration of
justice was not rendered more satisfactory by the encouragement
of common informers. Little regard was given to the
sanctity of human life; duelling was universally practised;
hundreds of lives were sacrificed in useless wars; magistrates
were openly engaged in kidnapping persons at the seaports to
supply the demand for labour in Virginia and New England;
and even Christian people felt no shame in being identified
with the holding of slaves, in spite of the horrors inseparable
from the traffic in human beings. Human life being thus lightly
esteemed, it is not surprising to find that the penal code was
not merciful, although it must be added that during the
following century the number of crimes punishable with death
was largely increased.
London Bridge was used for the exhibition of traitor's heads
as late as the time of Charles II, the last head so exposed being
that of Vennor, a fifth monarchy zealot, and the following
entry in Evelyn's diary seems to show that the spectacle he
refers to, was regarded by the writer as a commonplace
event:—
"1652. May 10. Passing by Smitbfield, I saw a miserable creature
burning who had murdered her husband."
A few years later, the execution of a cartload of unhappy
wretches at Tyburn was almost a weekly sight, but the
spectacle so far from acting as a deterrent, was, in the opinion
of many, a direct incentive to crime. There is, at least, no
doubt that juvenile pickpockets increased their dexterity, and
reaped a rich harvest in the crowds gathered at the execution
of notorious criminals. For certain offences, the stocks, the
pillory, and the whipping post were brought into requisition.
The pillory was retained as a means of punishment until the
year 1831, and the following extract from Fogg's Weekly
Journal of May 1, 1731, gives one account of its use—