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ATTEMPTS TO BURN THE DOCKYARDS.

cabinet minister sauntering up the floor in a shooting jacket.

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1777

better secu

yards.

A Bill was introduced this session to provide A Bill for for the better security of dockyards from incen- rity of dockdiary practices. This measure was suggested by alarming attempts which had been recently made to fire the royal arsenals at Portsmouth and Plymouth, together with the merchant shipping at Bristol. On the 5th of December, in the previous year, the rope-house in Portsmouth dock-yard had been burnt down, and combustibles were discovered in the hemp-house, where they had evidently been placed for an incendiary purpose. The attempt at Plymouth entirely failed, but some warehouses at Bristol were destroyed. These crimes were brought home to a young man named Aitken, commonly called John the painter, from having followed, at one time, the business of a journeyman painter. Three years before, Aitken had gone to seek his fortune in America; and, according to his own statement, had been employed by Silas Deane, a conspicuous member of Congress, and at this time engaged on a mission to France, to burn all the dockyards in England. It certainly appears difficult to understand what motive this man could have had for undertaking an enterprise of such enormity; but, if his story was true that he had been furnished with funds by the American patriot for the execution of his scheme, he could hardly have been driven to the necessity of committing petty acts of depredation for a livelihood immediately upon his arrival in England. How

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Arson in dockyards. Crimes against pro

perty.

INDISCRIMINATE INFLICTION

ever this may be, it is a notorious fact that criminals, even after conviction, frequently make statements with reference to their guilt wholly unfounded; and it would be too much to brand the memory of Deane, who appears to have been a decent man, with complicity in such a crime, on the unsupported testimony of a low felon. Aitken was executed; and, if no credit is to be attached to his assertion with regard to Deane, he appears to have had no accomplice.

The Bill which was introduced on this occasion to make the crime of burning private and commercial docks punishable by death did not pass, and is only remarkable for an interesting discussion to which it gave rise on the state of the criminal law. Sir William Meredith, who had distinguished himself by the liberality and moderation of his opinions on various questions connected with the amendment of the law, took this opportunity of exposing the inutility of increasing capital punishments for the repression of crimes against property. At this time. there were, according to Blackstone's computation, not less than one hundred and sixty offences, upon conviction of either of which the judge was bound to pronounce sentence of death. In this dreadful category are to be found, together with murder, rape, burglary, highway-robbery, such crimes as breaking down the head of a fishpond, cutting down trees in an avenue or garden, cutting hop-binds, perjury in cases of insolvency, and some others equally frivolous.

OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.

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the penal

The practical operation of a code so savage and undiscriminating was, that prisoners enjoyed an impunity, which has been diminished by more mild Severity of and equal laws. Juries deliberately foreswore code. themselves rather than subject minor offenders to the dreadful consequences of a verdict according to the evidence. Judges lent a willing ear to technical objections wholly beside the merits, and which would now be considered utterly frivolous. Even the graver crimes of housebreaking, forgery, and coining, which were almost invariably punished with death, so far from being checked by such severity, continued to increase. Sometimes felonies. of the higher class, though committed under circumstances which reduced them almost to venial offences, were treated on the same footing as the most aggravated crimes. Sir William Meredith mentioned two cases. One was that of a girl of fourteen who, at the bidding of her master, a forger, had concealed some counterfeit pieces in her clothes. She was convicted of treason, and sentenced to be burned alive; and would certainly have been executed, had not the facts been made known to Lord Weymouth, then Secretary of State, who obtained a commutation of the punishment. The other case referred to by Meredith has been frequently quoted. A young woman of nineteen had been deprived of her husband by impressment at the time when hasty preparations for naval warfare had been made in consequence of the dispute with France about the Falkland

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Dr. Dodd's

case.

MARY JONES EXECUTED.

Islands. By this act of cruel violence, which the law of the land and state policy justified, the girl, who with her two children had been hitherto maintained by the industry of her husband, was left destitute. For a time she begged about the streets. She was then, with her infants, received into the workhouse. But, having left this miserable asylum to seek a livelihood, she was tempted by hunger to snatch a piece of coarse linen from the counter of a shop. This commodity was immediately exchanged for bread to put into the mouths of her starving babes. The offence was shoplifting. The evidence was clear; she was convicted, and sentenced to be hanged. The circumstances of the case were made known to the authorities. But, on the other hand, it was represented that tradesmen had suffered very much from this species of depredation; and, consequently, it was decided that an example must be made. Accordingly this poor creature, who had been wrongfully and cruelly deprived of her livelihood by that law which she had violated for the sole purpose of obtaining temporary relief, was dragged, a raving maniac, to the gallows, and put to death.

This was no doubt an extreme case; but it was not a case likely to attract much sympathy in that coarse and unfeeling age. The tradesmen of London would think the execution of Mary Jones was no more than a just vindication of the law, and a measure no more than necessary for

CASE OF DR. DODD.

the protection of their property. And the fine ladies and gentlemen would feel much more compassion for the fate of a gentleman highwayman than for that of a workhouse girl. There was, however, another case likewise alluded to by Meredith, which at that moment excited the greatest interest in the metropolis, and, indeed, throughout the country. This was the case of Dr. Dodd; a case which can bear no comparison with that of Mary Jones, but is, nevertheless, one of great cruelty. Dodd was a man of superior talents and attainments, a dignitary of the Church, and one of His Majesty's chaplains in ordinary. He had long been followed as one of the most popular preachers in London. His manners and accomplishments had procured him ready admission into the best society; his tastes were refined, and his habits were expensive beyond his means. In an evil hour, to relieve himself from the pressure of immediate difficulty, he had placed the name of his friend and former pupil, Lord Chesterfield, to a bond for five thousand pounds. Like many other unhappy persons who have committed similar acts, Dodd deluded himself with the belief that he should be able to replace the funds which he was enabled to raise by means of this instrument, before the forgery was discovered. In this hope he was disappointed. A few days after the date of the bond, Martin, an attorney, waited upon Dodd, and informed him that the signature was not in

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