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Read Ebook: Notes and Queries Number 47 September 21 1850 by Various
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"The Recorder of London made his report to His Majesty of the prisoners under sentence of death in Newgate, convicted in the Sessions of September, October, November, and January , fourteen of whom were ordered for execution; five of whom were afterwards reprieved."
The recorder's report in regard to these unfortunate persons had been delayed during the incapacity of the king; thus the report for four sessions had been made at once. To have decided at one sitting of council upon such a number of cases, must have almost been enough to overset the strongest mind. Fortunately, these reports are now abolished.
This is the execution at which I was present; the number of those who suffered, and the burning of the female, attracted a very great crowd. Eight of the malefactors suffered on the scaffold, then known as "the new drop." After they were suspended, the woman, in a white dress, was brought out of Newgate alone; and after some time spent in devotion, was hung on the projecting arm of a low gibbet, fixed at a little distance from the scaffold. After the lapse of a sufficient time to extinguish life, faggots were piled around her, and over her head, so that her person was completely covered: fire was then set to the pile, and the woman was consumed to ashes.
In the following year, 1790, I heard sentence passed in the Criminal Court, in the Old Bailey, upon other persons convicted of coining: one of them was a female. The sentence upon her was, that she should be "drawn to the place of execution, and there burnt with fire till she was dead."
The case of this unfortunate woman, and the cruel state of the law in regard to females, then attracted attention. On the 10th of May, 1790, Sir Benjamin Hammett, in his place in the House of Commons, called the attention of that House to the then state of the law. He mentioned that it had been his official duty to attend on the melancholy occasion of the burning of the female in the preceding year , he moved for leave to bring in a bill to alter the law, which he characterised as--
"One of the savage remains of Norman policy, disgracing our statute book, as the practice did the common law."
"For discontinuing the judgment which has been required by law to be given against women convicted of certain crimes, and substituting another judgment in lieu thereof."
A debt of gratitude is due to the memory of Sir Benjamin Hammett, for his exertions, at that period, in the cause of humanity. Thank God, we now live in times when the law is less cruel, and more chary of human life.
OCTOGENARIUS.
A NOTE ON MORGANATIC MARRIAGES.
The case now stands thus:
It was the custom to give money to the wife's relations on the marriage-day.
It was not the custom with respect to unequal marriage : this took place "ohne Brautgabe und Mitgift," which was also of later origin.
"Tamen ipsum Morgengabe volumus, ut non sit amplius nisi quarta pars ejus substantia, qui ipsum Morgengabe dedit."
Upon this extract from a charter,--
Cancianus thus comments:--
Its actual signification, I think, means left-handed; but to think is not to resolve, and the question is open to the charitable contributions of your learned and able supporters.
"Lurline hung her head, Turned pale, and then red; And declared his abruptness in popping the question So soon after dinner had spoilt her digestion."
This lady's marriage resembled the other in all respects, and I leave you to decide, and no man is more competent, from your extensive knowledge of the mythology of Medieval Europe, whether Morgana, beyond the mere accident of her name, was more likely than Lurline to have added a word with a puzzling etymology to the languages of Europe. The word will, I think, be found of Eastern origin, clothed in a Teutonic form.
After all, Jacob Grimm and Cancianus may interest your readers, and so I send the Note.
S.H.
Athenaeum, Sept. 6. 1850
MINOR NOTES.
"ISAAC REED.
L.S.
J.S.
Salisbury.
"Sisto viator Tot ibi trophaea, quot ossa Quot martyres, tot triumphi. Antra quae subis, multa quae cernis marmora, Vel dum silent, Palam Romae gloriam loquuntur. Audi quid Echo resonet Subterraneae Romae! Obscura licet Urbis Coemetria Totius patens Orbis Theatrium! Supplex Loci Sanetitatem venerare, Et post hac sub luto aurum Coelum sub coeno Sub Rom? Romam quaerito!"
Stay, wayfarer--behold In ev'ry mould'ring bone a trophy here. In all these hosts of martyrs, So many triumphs. These vaults--these countless tombs, E'en in their very silence Proclaim aloud Rome's glory: The echo'd fame Of subterranean Rome Rings on the ear. The city's sepulchres, albeit hidden, Present a spectacle To the wide world patent. In lowly rev'rence hail this hallow'd spot, And henceforth learn Gold beneath dross Heav'n below earth, Rome under Rome to find!
F.T.J.B.
Brookthorpe.
M.W. Oxon.
Coleridge says--
"In a stitch in the side, every one must have heaved a sigh that hurts by easing."
Dr. Johnson saw its true meaning:
"It is," he says, "a notion very prevalent, that sighs impair the strength, and wear out the animal powers."
In allusion to this popular notion, by no means yet extinct, Herbert says, p. 71.:
"Or if some years with it escape The sigh then only is A gale to bring me sooner to my bliss."
D.S.
"Quod nuper dixisti De corpore Christi Crede quod edis et edis; Sic tibi rescribo De tuo palfrido Crede quod habes et habes."
"Tu dixisti de corpore Christi, crede et habes De palefrido sic tibi scribo, crede et habes."
J.C. ROBERTSON.
Bekesbourne.
"Fourthly, that the woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to top him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him; but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved."
IOTA.
QUERIES.
GRAY'S ELEGY AND DODSLEY POEMS.
"Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight."
THE HERMIT OF HOLYPORT.
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