Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/245

Rh of the chain of facts adduced against murderers, brought up for no other purpose under heaven than to have "a finger in the pye," and to come in for a share of "the reward,"—that bane and antidote of great offences. We have witnessed executions of several men, who were convicted "according to the evidence," to be sure; but what sort of evidence? Were there any officers in it? And if there were, what is the conclusion?

N.B. Whoever has occasion to prosecute a criminal, let him above all things turn a deaf ear to the advice of an officer, as to modelling his evidence;—more especially if the charge amounts to a capital one, or is likely to do so by such modelling. The unknowing reader can scarcely imagine what arts and finesse are used in this way: at times the directions given what to say, are at once pointed, rude, and cruel.

But it remained to these times for us to contemplate the officers immediately employed in detection of offenders, actually subornating others, and assisting them in the commission of crime, with no other view on earth, than through conviction to receive the reward, which by statute they are entitled to, who bring capitals to justice. Here we maintain, that they are not