burning their Eyes out.

At this day we believe it is the custom of the English authorities to
treat all prisoners alike, whatever the charges against them may be.
It seems as if they were desirous of degrading men as much as
possible. Mr. John Boyle O'Reilly, a poet and gentleman of culture,
who was unfortunately a political prisoner, was chained to a
wife-murderer. And this the English call "justice,"--as if there could
be no difference in offences!

-------------------------

Severe punishment used to be inflicted for the crime of passing
counterfeit coin. The "Essex Gazette," April 23, 1771, under news from
Newport, April 15, says,--

William Carlisle was convicted of passing counterfeit Dollars,
and sentenced to stand One Hour in the Pillory, on Little-Rest
Hill, next Friday, to have _both Ears_ cropped, to be branded on
_both Cheeks_ with the Letter R, to pay a Fine of One hundred
Dollars and Cost of Prosecution, and to stand committed till
Sentence performed.

The letter R probably meant "rogue." The same account states that--

"Last Wednesday Evening one Mr. ----, of this Town (Newport), was
catched by a Number of Persons in Disguise, placed on an old
Horse, and paraded through the principal Streets for about an
Hour as a _Warning_ to all bad Husbands."

-------------------------

In the "Massachusetts Gazette," Sept. 8, 1786, we find an account of
the Dutch mode of executions.

NEW-JERSEY.

ELIZABETH-TOWN, _Aug. 16_. The little influence which our present
mode of executing criminals has in deterring others from the
commission of the same crimes, arises from a want of solemnity
and terrifick circumstances on such occasions. It is not the mere
loss of life which has so much a tendency to affect the
spectator, as the dreadful apparatus, the awful preliminaries,
which ought to attend publick executions; whose justifiable
purposes is the prevention of crimes, and not the inflicting
torment on the criminal. A variety of particulars might be
adopted respecting the dress of the condemned, the solemnity of
the procession to the place of execution, and the apparatus
there, to throw horrour on the scene without in reality giving
the unhappy victim a more painful exit. The Dutch have a mode of
execution which is well calculated to inspire terror, without
putting the sufferer to extraor