Page:The English Peasant.djvu/49

 crime under the old régime, a régime which was in operation between four and five hundred years.

The same policy that made the English people gin-drinkers turned them into a race of smugglers. During the great struggle which William III. carried on with France all trade with that country was prohibited. The natural result was that an immense impetus was given to smuggling all along the Southern coast. The trade was so profitable that large capitalists took it up, and the people in the southern and eastern districts gave themselves up to its seductions.

Law after law was enacted to suppress this traffic, but it was found impossible to carry them out. The smugglers terrorised the people by murdering those who gave evidence against them; the Government sought to terrorise the smugglers by hanging in chains such as were convicted of these crimes. Many a dreary common or lonely spot by the sea-shore thus became invested with mysterious horror.

But men in these days were not hanged only for crimes of this sort. Blackstone refers to 168 offences in England punishable with death, four-fifths of which were made so during the reigns of the first three kings of the House of Hanover. But as late as 1812 a woman was hanged at Manchester for assisting to seize a man's potatoes, and compelling him to sell them for a lower price than he asked for them. The offences other than murder for which the agricultural labourers suffered death would be: Sheep, Cattle, and Horse stealing, and Highway robbery. Mandeville has given a picture of an execution in his day, which, with much abridgment, and an additional touch or two from other sources, will serve to show how many a wretched English labourer passed out of this life.

Debauched by the alehouse, corrupted by poaching or smuggling, he has joined on some fatal night in sheep-stealing. Some weeks have elapsed, the fear of detection has passed away, when suddenly before it is light two constables are in the village; they make their way to Robin's cottage, and, instead of going to work that morning, he is handcuffed and marched off in the cold grey dawn to the county gaol. A true bill is found, and during the assize, pale, haggard, and speechless, Robin stands in the dock.