n
comparison with the nations that surround them; and have no intention to
place them in competition either with the antients or with the moderns
of this part of the world; yet they must be allowed to claim our notice
as a distinct and very singular race of men: as the inhabitants of a
region divided by its situation from all civilized countries, who have
formed their own manners, and invented their own arts, without the
assistance of example.' BOSWELL.

[591] The last execution at Tyburn was on Nov. 7, 1783, when one man was
hanged. The first at Newgate was on the following Dec. 9, when ten were
hanged. _Gent. Mag._ 1783, pp. 974, 1060.

[592] We may compare with this 'loose talk' Johnson's real opinion, as
set forth in _The Rambler_, No. 114, entitled:--_The necessity of
proportioning punishments to crimes_. He writes:--'The learned, the
judicious, the pious Boerhaave relates that he never saw a criminal
dragged to execution without asking himself, "Who knows whether this man
is not less culpable than me?" On the days when the prisons of this city
are emptied into the grave, let every spectator of this dreadful
procession put the same question to his own heart. Few among those that
crowd in thousands to the legal massacre, and look with carelessness,
perhaps with triumph, on the utmost exacerbations of human misery, would
then be able to return without horror and dejection.' He continues:--'It
may be observed that all but murderers have, at their last hour, the
common sensations of mankind pleading in their favour.... They who would
rejoice at the correction of a thief, are yet shocked at the thought of
destroying him. His crime shrinks to nothing compared with his misery,
and severity defeats itself by exciting pity.'

[593] Richardson, in his _Familiar Letters_, No. 160, makes a country
gentleman in town describe the procession of five criminals to Tyburn,
and their execution. He should have heard, he said, 'the exhortation
spoken by the bell-man from the wall of St. Sepulchre's church-yard;
but the noise of the officers and the mob was so great, and the silly
curiosity of people climbing into the cart to take leave of the
criminals made such a confused noise that I could not hear them. They
are as follow: "All good people pray heartily to God for these poor
sinners, who now are going to their deaths; for whom this great bell
doth toll. You that are condemned to die, repent with lamentable
tears.... Lord have mer