Said a writer in the _Quarterly Review_, "a mere
accident saved the nation from this crime and this national disgrace."

In Harrison's _Derby and Nottingham Journal_, for September 23rd, 1779,
is an account of two persons who were several days previously tried and
convicted for high treason, the indictment being for coining shillings
in Cold Bath Field, and for coining shillings in Nag's Head Yard,
Bishopsgate Street. The culprit in the latter case was a man named John
Fields, and in the former a woman called Isabella Condon. They were
sentenced to be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution, the man to
be hanged and the woman burnt.

Phoebe Harris, in 1786, was burnt in front of Newgate. The _Chelmsford
Chronicle_ of June 23rd, 1786, gives an account of her execution. After
furnishing particulars of six men being hanged for various crimes, the
report says:

"About a quarter of an hour after the platform had dropped, the female
convicted" (Phoebe Harris, convicted of counterfeiting the coin called
shillings) "was led by two officers of justice from Newgate to a stake
fixed in the ground about midway between the scaffold and the pump. The
stake was about eleven feet high, and, near the top of it was inserted a
curved piece of iron, to which the end of the halter was tied. The
prisoner stood on a low stool, which, after the ordinary had prayed with
her a short time, being taken away, she was suspended by the neck (her
feet being scarcely more than twelve or fourteen inches from the
pavement). Soon after the signs of life had ceased, two cart-loads of
fagots were placed round her and set on fire; the flames presently
burning the halter, the convict fell a few inches, and was then
sustained by an iron chain passed over her chest and affixed to the
stake. Some scattered remains of the body were perceptible in the fire
at half-past ten o'clock. The fire had not completely burnt out at
twelve o'clock."

The latest instance on record is that of Christian Murphy, _alias_
Bowman, who was burnt on March 18th, 1789, for coining.

The barbarous laws which permitted such repugnant exhibitions were
repealed by the 30th George III., cap. 48, which provided that, after
the 5th of June, 1790, women were to suffer hanging, as in the case of
men.

FOOTNOTES:

[23] Glyde's "New Suffolk Garland," 1866.

Boiling to Death.

In the year 1531, when Henry VIII. was king, an act was passed for
boiling poisoners to death.