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Transcript
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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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< 436 )
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MR , WRI ^ HT S REPLY TO GOGMAGOG QN ** A HOUUID < Ti . ERICit ^ FAItCE- " AT WiSBEACH .
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To the Editor of the Monthly Repository .
Wisheach i SIR , August 5 1 SOS . I well remember the case of
the unhappy youth who was convicted of wilful murder , and executed in this town , in July , 1807 . He was an awful instance of early depravity , and discovered a very
high degree of ignorance and stu-, pidity . It is certainly much to be lamented that our laws , and the ( decisions of our courts , do not consign such wretched beings to a different fate than a violent
and almost immediate death , which * 4 hey certainly might do without "fthy injury to tire public . The " Clerical Farce" mentioned by lyoiir sensible and entertaining > correspondent Gogmagog , as -acted to bring the miserable lad to penitence , I believe to be a mere fiction : I think it morally certain , had such a farce been
ticted , I must have heard of it ; &biit I'have'riot the slightest recollection of ever hearing any thing of the kind mentioned by any inhabitant of this town or neighbourhood , though his case excited hiucli attention , and occasioned much conversation ntjthe time : nor did I ever un-¦ det'startd that he was -supposed to die a ' trite ' penitent * A num -
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ber of illiterate people from the town where the murder was com * mitted 15 miles distant from Wisbeach , came to see the
cxecution : they might misconceive some things they heard , and re * peat them from one to another , the story constantly accumulating , until it found its way into some
newspaper , from which it might be copied into the New Annual Register . It is but just for me to say that I believe the clergy of this town are incapable of acting such a farce as your correspondent describes , and I believe the unhappy culprit was not visited by ministers of any other deno *
mination . I am , Sir , Your ' s , &c . R . WRIGHT . P . S . Since writing the above , I have conversed with one of the clergymen who visited the unhappy criminal after his
condemnation , and he assured me that not the least thing was done that could give the slightest ground for such a representation as your corn ' spondent quotes from the ] Scw Annual Register : anil ho expressed his abhorrence of such a mode of acting .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1808, page 436, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2395/page/36/
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