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of their guilt could be adduced , at the close of the 18 th century had relapsed so deeply into barbarism as to erect military tribunals , hi extensive districts of their dominions , wi , th power to restore the practice of the torture in both those cases by such
inhuman excruciating inflictions as are much more worthy fcf . , the _ history of the holy Office , than of the reign of George the third . When I consider , my Lord , the general unskilful ness of
the members of such tribunals in the essential principles of juris ,, prudence ; that they must often pronounce sentence under an h % ritation of their passions by a sense of their personal danger , perhaps of injury actually received , stimulated also ^ itii tlie hopes of recommending themselves to the favour of those upon whom their professional advancement depends , by the display of an active zeal , in apprehending and bringiug to punishment as great a nutn *
ber of culprits as possible : when I reflect upon the many false accusations they must inevitably receive from officious , erroneous er malicious informers , and how greatly the morals both of the officers who preside at , and the soldiers who inflict such barbarous cruelties must be depraved by an inhuman hardness of heart , before they can behold such savage scenes with so much
unconcern , as by nicknaming them to make to themselves a kind of amusement out of the most agonizing pangs of the unhappy sufferers : I tarn with horror from the cpntempIaMon and exclaim , how much have all they to answer for before God and men , who advise or promote the institution of martial law in any country , fox any cause whatever ! Surely , my Lord , the forfeiture of life , " % hich is the ne , plus ultra of all punishments , is an ample expiation Of the guilt of the most atrocious crimes ! To endeavour
therefore by any kind of torments to render the few last houi * s of a condemned criminal painful ^ is mere ferocious wanton cruelty , which can be of no service respecting the wretched sufferer himself , and by instigating his partizans to retaliation whenever they may have it in their power , and tending to deprave the dispositions of both parties by examples of such inhuman barbarity , cannot fail of producing the most baneful effects upon the survivors . So unjustifiable is the infliction of any cruel tortures either before or after the conviction of the really guilty culprit . But where they have been inflicted as in Mr . O'JNfeil ' s
case , upon a person not convicted of any crime , what proper satisfaction can be made to the innocent sufferer , or to the sacred cause of public justice ? Your Lordship indeed is pleased to persist still in accusing Mr . O'Neil as guilty of the crimes alleged against him before the military tribunal . Rut the style of his aflfecting narrative exhibits so many marks of conscious integrity , candour and veracity ^ strongly confirmed \ py the endeavours of one Lord Lieutenant to prevent , and by his successor to recal him from transportation , that unless your Lordship can clearJy estab-
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364 Letter of Mr . Evari ^ on s to Lord Redesdale .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1807, page 364, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2382/page/24/
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