SECT. III.

Judgment in High Treafon.

TH

HE Judgment in High Treafon is fuch as one cannot tranfcribe without horror; it is, that the offender shall be drawn upon a hurdle to the gallows, and there hung by the neck, and cut down alive; his entrails taken out, and burnt ; his head cut off, his body quartered; and his head and quarters to be at the King's difpofal: but beheading being part of the Judgment, the King may pardon all the rest, under the Great Seal, as is ufually done in case of nobility.

The Judgment for counterfeiting the coin is by the common law, and is only to be drawn upon a hurdle and hanged. But clipping being made High Treafon by fubfequent ftatutes, the Judgment, as some contend, is to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, though the practice is otherwise.

The

The Judgment for a woman in all cafes of High Treason, is to be drawn upon a hurdle, and burned.

SECT. IV.

Reflections on the Judgment in High Treafon.

WIT

ITH refpect to the foregoing Judg ment, it difgraces humanity, with→ out answering the ends of policy. Nature fhudders at the thought of imbruing our hands in blood, and mangling the fmoking entrails of our fellow-creatures. This is more than cruelty. It is fuch favage butchery as might even stain a Hottentot.

It feems difficult to conceive that fuch a Judgment could have been devised by a human being; or having been established in the days of ignorance, bigotry, and barba rity, that it should be fuffered to continue at the prefent civilized and enlightened pe riod.

Το

To imagine that the horrid feverity of it will deter criminals from the crime, is a vain fuppofition, To men who engage in defperate and criminal undertakings, with a profpect of death before their eyes, the mode of dying is an addition of terror too inconfiderable to restrain them from perpetrating the intended crime.

Such brutal execution feems as abfurd as it is unnatural; for it shocks the fpectators, and pains the imagination of all who reflect on the criminal's fate, without adding to his punishment: for it is well known, that before the work of butchery begins, the delinquent is generally paft the fense of feeling.

Befides, as few can diftinguifh fo nicely as to be fenfible that a crime against the peace and order of fociety neceffarily includes the highest degree of moral turpitude, fo there are many zealots fo blinded with party-prejudice, that they impose upon themselves fo far, as to think the heinous crime of High Treafon to be no reproach to their moral character. Perhaps

Perhaps the very frame of the Law may, in fome measure, contribute to leffen the fenfe of the moral turpitude of High Treafon for by Law Treafon can only be committed against the King de facto; and a King de jure is not within the meaning of

the act.

Nay, it is faid, that if Treafon be committed against the King de facto; and not de jure, and the King de jure afterwards comes to the crown, he fhall punish the Treafon done against the King de facto; and a pardon granted by a King de jure, that is not alfo a King de facto, is void.

Men, who can abstract their ideas, know that the peace and order of fociety requires this diftinction, and that individuals fhould not be allowed to decide concerning the fovereign title, But it nevertheless seems to militate against the moral rules of right and wrong, to doom an offender to the feverest of all punishments, for fupporting what he conceives to be a just title.

They,

They, who have not capacity to discover with precision the true grounds of this political principle, and to perceive that in the end it fquares with moral rectitude, are misled by its feeming incompatibility with moral juftice, and think it meritorious to yield affiftance for the recovery of a juft title.,

Under the influence of this opinion, the rigour of the fentence rather ferves to inflame their zeal. The more they risk, the greater they deem their merit.

They confider themselves as so many political martyrs; they glory in perishing in their traiterous principles, with the fame fortitude that the prelates of old adhered to their religious tenets, and rebels triumph on the fcaffold, like Ridley at the ftake.

Their refolute and determined behaviour often leaves bad impreffions on inconfiderate minds. Many pity the fufferer who braves his fate, and often filently reproach the hand which doomed him a facrifice to: juftice.

They