t was in the
present case. Merciless flogging soon became an ordinary punishment for
political misdemeanours of no very aggravated kind. Men were sentenced,
for words spoken against the government, to pains so excruciating that
they, with unfeigned earnestness, begged to be brought to trial on
capital charges, and sent to the gallows. Happily the progress of this
great evil was speedily stopped by the Revolution, and by that article
of the Bill of Rights which condemns all cruel and unusual punishments.

The villany of Dangerfield had not, like that of Oates, destroyed
many innocent victims; for Dangerfield had not taken up the trade of
a witness till the plot had been blown upon and till juries had become
incredulous. [277] He was brought to trial, not for perjury, but for the
less heinous offense of libel. He had, during the agitation caused by
the Exclusion Bill, put forth a narrative containing some false and
odious imputations on the late and on the present King. For this
publication he was now, after the lapse of five years, suddenly taken
up, brought before the Privy Council, committed, tried, convicted, and
sentenced to be whipped from Aldgate to Newgate and from Newgate to
Tyburn. The wretched man behaved with great effrontery during the trial;
but, when he heard his doom, he went into agonies of despair, gave
himself up for dead, and chose a text for his funeral sermon. His
forebodings were just. He was not, indeed, scourged quite so severely as
Oates had been; but he had not Oates's iron strength of body and mind.
After the execution Dangerfield was put into a hackney coach and was
taken back to prison. As he passed the corner of Hatton Garden, a Tory
gentleman of Gray's Inn, named Francis, stopped the carriage, and cried
out with brutal levity, "Well, friend, have you had your heat this
morning?" The bleeding prisoner, maddened by this insult, answered with
a curse. Francis instantly struck him in the face with a cane which
injured the eye. Dangerfield was carried dying into Newgate. This
dastardly outrage roused the indignation of the bystanders. They seized
Francis, and were with difficulty restrained from tearing him to
pieces. The appearance of Dangerfield's body, which had been frightfully
lacerated by the whip, inclined many to believe that his death was
chiefly, if not wholly, caused by the stripes which he had received. The
government and the Chief Justice thought it convenient to lay the whole
blame