small pieces of barley bread, with no drink. On the third day he had as much water as he could drink, but no bread. And in this manner he was fed till he died.' Surely there can be no profaneness in asserting, that the law-makers, (for we must not dignify them with the title of legislators,) who could enact such a custom, and the judge, who could pass such a sentence, were creatures, more loathsome to the great JEHOVAH, than a crocodile, or a rattlesnake, is to a man. Grief shall leave them no repose. At morning's dawn, at ev'ning's close, Steals its sap, and blasts its leaves. VI. Edda:-Cottle. The ancient Germans had only two capital crimes2: treachery and cowardice. The former was punished by a halter, the latter by drowning. All other crimes might be compensated. Murder was venial. Even the French salique law made an essential difference, in regard to a Frank and Roman murderer. The former was fined two hundred sols3; the latter one hundred; and for a Roman tributary only forty-five. In Cyprus assassination is compromised by a few hundred piastres; according to the age of the deceased. If between 1 Fleta, 1. i. t. 34. s. 33. This sentence, the technical name of which is peine forte et dure, is supposed to have been introduced in the reign of Edward I. 2 Tacitus de Mor. Germ. 3 Montesquieu, b. xxviii. c. 3. thirty and thirty-five,' the penalty is five hundred piastres. The laws of the twelve tables were extremely severe; till they were silently abrogated by the Persian law. "At this period," says the greatest of all our legal authorities, "the Republic flourished. Under the emperors severe punishments were revived; and then the empire fell." In Ashantee, it is not only death to be convicted of cowardice; but even of picking up gold, dropped in the marketplace.3 How worthy a circumstance it is to live under the license of passion, and under the influence of a tyrant, we may learn from the practice of Sai Tootoo Quamima, king of that country. This prince, --if prince he may be called,-wrote to the governor of Cape Coast Castle, that so far from allowing the death of one man to retard the permanent union between the English and Ashantees, he should take no notice, if a thousand were flogged to death by the governor. For he well knew the insolent disposition of the Ashantees; which, he confessed, was as great a vexation to him, as it could be to the governor himself. In cases of treason, the laws of Macedon1 extended death to all the relations of the party convicted; and that such severity was not unfrequently practised in 1 Mariti, vol. i. p. 19. 2 In Pegu, creditors may sell their debtor, his wife, and all his children; but, by the laws of the twelve tables, they might even cut his body in pieces, and each creditor have his share. This construction has been, and may be, justly doubted. 3 Bowdich's Mission, p. 121, 4to. 4 Quint. Curt., lib. vi.` the times of the Roman emperors, is evident from a passage in the pandects of Justinian: whence1 one of the papal bulls derived the affectation of mercy, in ordaining a living punishment, in comparison with which death might be esteemed, not only a relief, but an honour. Burlamaqui has observed, that as all human institutions are founded on the laws of God, so no human laws should be permitted to contradict them. And yet torture was enacted upon the hypocritical pretence, that it arose out of a tenderness for the lives of men! In the reigns of Theodosius and Valentinian, it was a capital offence to endeavour to convert a Pagan to Judaism, Christianity, or any other religion.-A monstrous license in the exercise of legislative authority! But in St. Domingo, during its early possession by the Spaniards, so little respect was paid to human life and human error, that many of them3 made vows to destroy twelve Pagan Indians, every day, in honour of the twelve apostles. In Greece, several children were condemned, for pulling up a shrub in a sacred grove: and the Athe< nian judges even caused a child to be executed, for merely picking up a leaf of gold, which had fallen from the crown on the head of Diana's statue. The following instances of cruelty are parallels, vorthy of each other. The fanatic, Damien, having attempted the life of Louis XV., after undergoing many exquisite tortures, was condemned to die. At the place of execution he was stripped naked, and 1 Comment., b. iv. c. 29. 2 On the Law of Nature and Nations. 3 Raynal, Hist. E. and W. Indies, b. vi. fastened by iron gyves to a scaffold. His right hand was put into a liquid of burning sulphur: his legs, arms, and thighs, were torn with red-hot pincers: then boiling oil and melted resin, sulphur, and lead, were poured into the gashes: and, as a finale to this horrible tragedy, he was torn to pieces by four horses. The Dutch of Batavia1 punished the chief of a supposed conspiracy, with twenty of his companions, in the following manner.-They stretched them on a cross; tore the flesh from their arms, legs, and breasts, with hot pincers. They ripped up their bellies, and threw their hearts in their faces. Then they cut off their heads, and exposed them to the fowls of the air. After this they returned public thanks to heaven! The Turkish history furnishes many instances. The city of Famagusta having been bravely defended by a Venetian nobleman, named Bragadin, at length surren-. dered to the superior force of Mustapha. The conduct of Bragadin had been that of a valiant and skilful general; but Mustapha was so enraged at the ability he had displayed in the siege, that he caused him to be flayed alive. Then he stuffed his skin with straw, tore his body in pieces, and scattered his several members over the different parts of the fortifications. The head and skin were sent to Constantinople; where they were bought by his brother, who caused them: to be buried at Venice, in the church of St. Paul and St. John.-But this is an instance of clemency, when. compared with many Turkish practices. 1 Barrow, Cochin China, p. 222, 4to. VII. In the year 1813 torture was inflicted, in Algiers, upon the Bey of Oran.' He was brought out with his three children. These children were in his presence opened alive, and their hearts taken out. The hearts were afterwards roasted, and the father condemned to eat them. The Bey was then forced to impale two of his slaves: he was then made to sit upon a red hot iron: then a red hot iron was put upon his head, which was afterwards scalped. At last they opened his side, and took out his heart and intestines. The merciless Aga of the Janissaries, (afterwards the Dey of Algiers, so humbled by the Earl of Exmouth), then took the skin of the Bey's head; filled it with straw; and sent it to Tunis. To add to the depravity and horror of this scene, it was acted before the door of the house, in which the unfortunate Bey's wife then was. Lysimachus' is said to have shut up a friend, who had offended him, in a den, and cut off his ears and nose; where, naked and in filth, the unfortunate captive lost, as it were, the form and nature of man. Clotaire the first, of France, exercised a worse cruelty than this, even upon his own son. For having taken Chramnes prisoner, with his wife and children, he caused them to be put into a small cottage, thatched with reeds; when the cottage was fired, and the whole family perished. Cruelties have been exercised, also, towards animals, in a manner, scarcely to be credited. The Abyssinian ■ Salame's Narrative of the Expedition to Algiers, pp. 215, 216. • Seneca, de Ira. |