a heads-up

Coming out in August - and pricey - get thee to a library:

*Witnesses to the Gallows*: English Literary Figures as Observers of
Public Executions: Pierce Egan, Thackeray, Dickens, Alexander Smith,
G.A. Sala, Orwell.
Edited, with interpretive and introductory essays by Antony E.
Simpson.

Synopsis from publisher, The True Bill Press:

"England in the first half of the 19th century is frequently
characterized as a society supporting quite dramatic reforms in the
penal law. Between the beginning of the century and the accession of
Queen Victoria in 1837, the number of capital crimes was reduced from
several hundred to no more than a handful.

The penal law in place during the Victorian period was very close in
substance to that which exists today. Some offenses did, of course,
remain capital, although only murderers were hanged with any
regularity. From the late 18th century there was a strong movement for
the total abolition of capital punishment and bills to outlaw the
death penalty were regularly, although unsuccessfully, brought before
Parliament during the 1840s and 1850s.

With all this, executions were public spectacles as late as 1868. They
were also commonly regarded as scenes of disorder, crime, and
drunkenness. The crowds in attendance were immense, especially from
the 1840s when a sophisticated railway system allowed people to be
shipped to the site of the gallows on special trains. Advertising the
venues of executions days in advance encouraged such arrangements.
Control of these crowds was very problematic as, although a modern
police force had been established in London in 1829, such forces were
not established throughout the provinces until well into the 1860s.

Things did not have to be this way. In France, for example (where
public executions were held until 1939!), large crowds were prevented
by the simple expedient of only announcing executions a few hours in
advance. Those who defended this public spectacle generally invoked
the need to demonstrate the majesty and power of the law. In France,
this was done pretty effectively through the use of the guillotine. In
England, the process of hanging someone was commonly botched and there
are many examples of scenes on the gallows which are truly horrific.

How could this barbaric system of punishment have coexisted with the
rapid emergence of a system of penal law and the strength of popular,
though minority, opinion which was against the whole concept of
capital punishment? This question is addressed in the authors lengthy
introduction. His conclusion is that the judiciary, which implemented
the law, had a more punitive and pre-modern attitude toward crime than
the legislature, which created the law. Evidence is presented showing
that while the penal law was modernized, the law relating to criminal
procedure and prisoners rights remained primitive and undeveloped.
There was no right to an appeal from a criminal conviction (other than
on purely technical grounds) and no access to a public defender to
until the 20th century. Prisoners were not allowed to testify in their
own defenses until the late 19th century. Until 1836, those accused of
a felony were not allowed to be represented by a lawyer in court. (The
change in the law in this year probably had little immediate effect as
most of those so accused after this date had no lawyers because they
could not afford them).

Perhaps the most cruel aspect of the 19th century system was the
process through which a reprieve could be sought. Mercy was the
prerogative of the Home Office. It was exercised in a fashion
perceived as being quite arbitrary and the process allowed little time
for reflection. A condemned felon was typically executed five days or
less after conviction. This allowed very little time for the convicts
friends or relatives to prepare a case for reprieve. Those whose
connections were in distant parts of the country or elsewhere had even
less chance of a happy outcome. The fact remains that the judiciary
and the legislature were largely peopled by men of the same privileged
class. Why was there such a difference between them on the matter of
capital punishment and its means of implementation? Why did the public
execution end when it did?

Some possible answers to these questions are suggested in the essay.
The main purpose of this discussion is, however, to introduce a series
of accounts by British authors of their personal experiences in
witnessing public executions. The rationale for presenting these is
that the general debate cannot help but be informed by the
observations of those who were arguably the best and brightest of
their time. Most of the accounts are presented here for the first time
since their original publication. Five of the six accounts are from
the 19th century. Four document public executions in England, one in
Scotland and one in Burma. At least three of them address the
punishment of murderers whose crimes were popular causes celèbres.
Each account is prefaced by an essay documenting the nature and
circumstances of the particular crime being punished and the authors
general attitude toward crime and punishment, as shown in his writing
and in his life. Other accounts of the same execution are used to show
the accuracy of the authors description.

As public executions were such formal and stylized events, it might be
supposed that the perceptions of thinking people to very similar
events would be repetitive. In fact, there are a number of important
differences between them. These range from Thackeray's disgust and
permanent disenchantment with this kind of punishment to George
Augustus Salas cynical manipulation of an execution for journalistic
copy and his exaggeration of the horrors of the event.

The six accounts are arranged by date. They include:

Pierce Egans Sr. account of the execution of John Thurtell in 1824
William Makepeace Thackeray on the execution of Courvoisier in 1840
Alexander Smith who witnessed the hanging of Doolan and Hickie outside
Glasgow in 1841
Charles Dickens who saw the hanging of the Mannings in 1849 and also
Courvoisier in 1840
George Augustus Sala on the execution of Sarah French in Sussex in
1852
George Orwell who witnessed a military execution in Burma in the early
1920s.


It is expected that the book will be available in August 2007 at a
price of $75."

B.