ed by
Parliament for an example. On the 31st of October, 1856, a large
committee was appointed on his case; and on the 5th of December,
Nayler and others having been brought prisoners to London meanwhile,
the report of the Committee was made, and there began a debate on the
case, which was protracted through ten sittings, Nayler himself
brought once or twice to the bar. It was easily resolved that he had
been "guilty of horrid blasphemy" and was a "grand impostor and great
seducer of the people": the difficult question was as to his
punishment. On the 16th of December it was carried but by ninety-six
votes to eighty-two that it should _not_ be death, and, after
some faint farther argument on the side of mercy, this was the
sentence: "That James Nayler be set on the pillory, with his head in
the pillory, in the New Palace, Westminster, during the space of two
hours, on Thursday next, and shall be whipped by the hangman through
the streets from Westminster to the Old Exchange, London, there
likewise to be set on the pillory, with his head in the pillory, for
the space of two hours, between the hours of eleven and one on
Saturday next--in each of the said places wearing a paper containing
an inscription of his crimes: and that at the Old Exchange his tongue
shall be bored through with a hot iron; and that he be there also
stigmatized in the forehead with the letter B: And that he be
afterwards sent to Bristol, and conveyed into and through the said
city on a horse bare-ridged, with his face backwards, and there also
publicly whipped the next market-day after he comes thither: And that
from thence he be committed to prison in Bridewell, London, and there
restrained from the society of all people, and kept to hard labour,
till he be released by Parliament, and during that time be debarred
from the use of pen, ink, and paper, and have no relief but what he
earns by his daily labour." Though petitions for clemency had already
been presented to Parliament by some very orthodox people, the first
part of this atrocious sentence was duly executed Dec. 18. Then came
more earnest petitions both to Parliament and the Protector, with the
effect of a respite of the next part from the 20th to the 27th;
between which dates this letter from the Protector was read in the
House: "O.P. Right Trusty and Well-beloved, We greet you well. Having
taken notice of a judgment lately given by yourselves against one
James Nayler, Although we detest an