that he is capable for a short time of resisting pain to an astonishing degree, whatever be its intenseness, so that the people around have little idea what he suffers. For man can wind himself up so as to suffer death as he would the amputation of a finger. We have seen three boys, none of whom were above 18, walk with a foot so firm and countenance so little changed to death, that we asked ourselves, is this the dread of all? And upon turning round it was not horror, it was not disgust, it was either indifference or compassion that we saw depicted on every face. Indeed we make no doubt that the ennui, the repining at imprisonment in a solitary cell, prove torture more exquisite than all the deaths invented by a Dionysius, a Perillus, a Domitian, or a Nero. Moreover, there is another point of view, under which we must examine the effect of this spectacle upon the gazer. He passes, sees an execution, asks the question natural upon such an occasion, why does he hang? He stole some goods. But do they hang him for that alone? No; there were some aggravating circumstances. What does he argue from this conversation with his neighbour?—that it is not for stealing this man was hung—but for what he neither knows nor is likely to know. And by this means the punishment is without avail, as the cause cannot be avoided, being unknown, and as the comparative value of the object gained by the crime and life cannot be impressed upon the mob. For such is the present state of our laws, that all are ashamed to put them in execution; and unless the jurors see some circumstances which render the crime of a more deadly hue, they generally return their verdicts in such a manner, that the pain is commuted; and though they even chose to inflict the highest punishment, still the circumstances that induced them so to do, not being mentioned in the registry, it is impossible for others to know, what they are to avoid in order to avoid the penalty of death.
