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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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progress of time , makes crimes capital , that scarce deserve k whipping . ' For instance , the shpp lifting act was to prevent bankers ' and silversmiths ' , and other shops , where there are comrnonly ' goods
of great va 211 e ^ from being robibed ; but it goes so far as to make it death to * lift any thing off a counter " " witii intent to steal . Under this act , one Mary Jones was executed , wliose case I shall just men .
tion ; it was at the time when presswarrants were issued , on the alarm about Falkland ' s Islands . The woman ' s husband was' pressed , their goods seized for sorne debt of bis , and she , with two small children , turned into the streets a begging . It is a circumstance not to be forgotten , that she was
very young ( under nineteen ) and most remarkably handsome . She went to a linen draper ' s shop , took some coarse linen off the counter , and slipped it under her cloak ; the shopman saw her ^ and she laid it down' : * for this she was banged .
Her defence was ( I have the trial in my pocket ) that she had lived in credit , and wanted for nothing , till a press-gang came and $ toJe her husband from her ; bu , t since then , she fykd no bed to ( lie on ; nothing to give Ther children to eat ; and they were almost nakqd ; and perhaps slje ' nijght h ^ ve done something wrong , for she hardly knew what she did f' The parish bffi . cers itest | fied the truth of this stfiry ; but it seeoas , . there h ^ d bee ^ n , a
good de ^ l of . shop . luting about Ludigate * -an example was thought necessary ^ slxi A thi s woman was hangeii ^ fer , tj { e cofijfprt ^ nd satis , factipn . of . 3 ome ^ hopkejepejs in Lud ^ a te Street * W hje n bro ught to fecei've sentence , she bebaved in such a frantic manner , as
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proved her raind to be in a distracted and -desponding state : and the child was sucking at Tier " breast when she set out for Tyl burn . Let us reflect a little on this woman ' s fate .
" The poet says , c An honest man ' s the noblest work of God / He might haye said with equal trutb that a beauteous woman ' s the noblest work of God . " But for what cause was God * s
creation robbed of this its noblest work ? It was for no injury ; but for a mere attempt to clothe two naked children by unlawful means . Compare this with what the State did- and what the Law did . The
State bereaved the woman of her husband , and the childrenofafatller , who was all their support t the Law deprived the woman of her life ^ and the children of their remaining
parent , exposing them to every dan - ger , insult and merciless treatment , that destitute and helpless orphans suffer . Take all the circumstances together , I do not believe that a fouler murder was ever
committed against law than the murder of this woman by law . Some who hear me are perhaps blaming the judges , the jury , the hangman ; but neither judge , jury ,
nor hangman , are to blame ; they are ministerial agents ; the true hangman is the member of parliament he who frames the bloody law is answerable for the blood that is
shed under it . " Si ? W » Merediths Speech in the House of Commons . Quoted in Montagu ' s Opinions , ii . 3 £ 3- ^ - 400 / ,
Proposition V » The punishment ' of decCthfor offences less than murder , often incites offenders to commit murdcf ? hoping thereby to escapey and
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86 A Collection of Facts relating to Criminal' LtiwS
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1812, page 86, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1745/page/22/
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