THE CONDEMNED 'SERMON' AS IT , WAS ACTED: PUBLIC execution
Of capital dhsh odemed necessary for the completeness of the example : the public flocked to see the Mannings hanged on Tueadayi and, With the expression'of 'dfsgust at such an exhibition of taste, the clerical officer of Horsemonger Lane Gaol invoked the assistance.of the Police in checking 'the public,aesetublage, by demolishing the temporary accommodation which private persons had built for spectators that Could,: Pay'. Thus the Gaol. Chaplain did his best to keep away-theefilrespeOW able" potion of the audience from that shocking dramatemonre of them, be may have driven down among the crowdesbittlinsanyi specnlatprs miwindews!and seats contrived to evadeeoridai,othe authorities. The performance, therefore, was attendedallidseu usual andienc1,-,-in the street or pit, the felonry of litricion' a great ooncounse:of women • and in the boxes of privatedsausesp respectable„poreone who delight, -in iasiratirrsal crowd a4§e!le:Aged, over night; and we .haveleartininifore than one' ch am ps gneisuppe,r. i :5fil 03 ail ,S," Strange. and, ,jarring was the parallettteursecAifilreparations within sOkivathout the gaol. -The fewawitlimtiseichiPelAvere,edi- fied by the" condemned sermon?? oniSnuriaArand mostiot them were affected. .to :tears : "the vicinity,qfc4lievpiascatJp7esented4he appearance of .a fair, and the housekeepers-in thenveighbourhook netted a large sum by letting seats; busineestinotirlaapartieulser; not being suspended on the Sabbath," On blunblay,,Jashe 49041 fold for the execution lifted its black beams: abovelthelWaltsyraten scaffold for the audience arose without : the whole placerresoundedi$ with hammers.: At night, while the criminals ateitheir,dreadID seasoned supperivitItin,, without_ the jovial bottle- whittlediatiotindtii the condemned; tried,:in, vaini,to court aktiarting' sluMberd° the mgrmur of .the;monti,Paidruti Went onflurd)reken Autriaiott a se41pAx,pf wiokalh wattues,anticipation:. Whim slit ARAtIliiiki0 we oeureony,,atilestaubtheadkithd icceijwq Aquimita4fuLcertai sty cfaretzibutioniEuastiiriPiitiotr- to jawith their memories,—the me!) out- IA rti wif14. impatience to see blood for blood, or ili, Airiling, in the chorus of some vulgar dog- ffil Merit or the catcall and the thieves' whistle. e eantleti41,01, Os Walked to their fate in decent staidness: Mill ulIndVIA, , moWYelled with vindictive rage, or mere animal excitemenl.,'" „and' the eyes swollen with the wine and the vigil aloaten,b the convulsed agonies of human extremity. v Friglitful incongruities these! But when we enter upon false courses,--as in the case of capital punishment,—we often find the most startling and revolting incongruities at the further end of the course. , Iryou exhibit this "example," on what pretext do you keep the public away ? if the public is to come, why may not persons provide their own place's? if they are to preoccupy those places betimea,'}vby not make themselves comfortable ? and then the comfort, perbaps the luxury, jarring with the shocking occa- sion, suggests Ate inverted melancholy of a ghastly levity and an indecentivAit But the neefir, is, whether an example thus presented and thus receive 'Was terred a single man, or woman, or child—for there were C ildren`o rthere in plenty—from crime? Has it excited feelings of awe, or reverence for authority, or religious fidelity to the laws of God ? To judge, we may take the feelings as they flow freely forth at their very source ; and we find animal passion of the grossest kinds, obscene levity, and bravado. It was a spectacle to make atheists and bigots by the gross out of the fools that flocked to tickle their dull senses with the rare excite- ment. Those who administer the example see practically how it works; and as the shrewd nurse throws away the physic sent in by the heedless quack, so the prison functionaries try to keep away the public from the example prescribed by the Legislature. The sale influence that the exhibition was Calculated to have on the ignorant and animal class to which the unhappy couple be longed, was to aggravate the dastard instinct that made Man- ning the follower and tool of his wife—to exasperate, as it did, the perverse passions of the master-woman. Yet even in that last day bath showed the one spark of "inextinguishable human goodness." Both were so ignorant as to imagine that if they could shift from their own hand the actual death-stroke, they should stand acquitted of the murder: but beneath that igno- rance, Maria Manning evinced a faculty of planning, a resolution or purpose, and at the last a power of self-command, most un- usual: amid all, that was trivial, mean, and depraved, there was in her nature some element of greatness. Manning was an ani- mal,"hut not without docility. both showed the instinct of affec- tion,—he, the love of the dog .returning to his master; she, a kindness greater than the love of revenge upon the craven who had "peached." Atheist professedly, she asked the weeping women to "pray" for her. Even in that strong form, standing beneath the gallows "like a Marble statue," there was the spark of intelligence, human affection, 'and heavenly instinct. Here was the true appeal ;. but the excellent Chaplain had no time : the " marble'7 had begun to yield to his kindly coercion ; but there was no time for him to melt it with the stream of penitence to be drawn from itself, even as it is related that water was struck from a rock;, had already made her know what was wise and pious kindlinss—possibly for the first time in an ill-trained life ; kir she had not before been held down to undergo the alien pro- cess of 'conviction. That process Should have been continued : its advancement mid•consummation„. the trials enforced under a true correctional discipline, Would be farimore edifying to the depraved many, far more eloquent or Aliellailguage- of truth and Divine monition, than the base and ,brutal, spectacle which. diverted the mob on Tuesday with a hideous burlesque on the circus of Nero.
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