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 Executions and Executioners. ing executions. George Sel wyn never miss ed attending, and, while quite a young man, he journeyed to France to see the execution of Lally Tollendal. Boswell had a passion for executions and often obtained permission to ride from the jail to the place of death with the condemned. He told Johnson how he rode to Tyburn with Hackman, a murderer, and of the enjoyment it gave him. On one occasion he was so excited that Johnson asked him what good thing had befallen him, " I saw fif teen men hanged this morning," was his reply. The night preceding the early morning execution was spent in de bauchery. Thieves and the lowest cri minals looked forward to an execution with considerable pleasure, and were encouraged to acts of violence and de bauchery by the rich men who were at the windows. So far from being a deterrent, it was found that out of one hundred and sixty-seven capital convicts who were ministered to by the Rev. Mr. Rob erts, oí Bristol, England, one hundred and sixty-four had been present at executions, and some frequently. At one time the body after death was surrounded by fagots of wood, which reached over the head of the corpse, and were then lighted, the corpse being burned to ashes. At a later period the criminal was hung in chains, so that the gradual decay might be seen by passers-by and act as a warning to evil doers. The practice of gibbeting was restored by Parliament in 1831, and in 1832 two men were hung in chains, one at Yarrowon-Tyne and the other at Leicester. Thousands of persons flocked day after day to these gibbets, tents were erected on the ground for drinking, dancing and card playing, and on Sundays the spectacles

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were so bad that Parliament quickly re pealed the act, and the bodies were ordered to be removed and buried in quick lime. At one time the bodies of murderers were given to professors of anatomy for dissec tion; and it would appear that in some in-

BURNING OF JEANNE D'ARC. (From painting by Lencpseu).

stances the mangled corpse was made a kind of public show. Such an exhibition took place on the execution of Earl Ferrers in 1760. The body having been conveyed from Tyburn, in his lordship's landau, drawn by six horses, to Surgeon's Hall, was, after being disembowelled and laid open in the neck and breast, exposed to view in a first