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HANGMAN's Letrfer

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HANGMAN's Letrfer THE HANGMAN'S LETrfER TO THE QUEENN; IN REPLY TO THE " GROANS OF THE GALLOWS," VINDICATING HIS LIFE, CHARACTER AND PROFESSION: WITH HIS PROPOSED NEW MACHINE, TO BE SUBSTITUTED FOR THE GALLOWS; CALLED CALCRAPT'S MAIDEN', COMBINING THE EFFECTU.A.L EXECUTION OF CRIMINALS, WITH A SURE PREVENTIVE OF ANOTHER BOUSFIELD TRACEDY. Including a. History of all the Different Modes of Hanging and Bcheading from the Earliest to the Present Times. ENTERED AT STATIONEl{S' HALL. ONE PENNY THE HANGMAN'S LETTER TO THE QUEEN. "\Vhen the first edition of the "Groans of the Gallows" was published in 1846, since issued with additional information, Mr. Calcraft, our indefatigable public servant (so we were informed by a close friend of his), thought he would send a memorial to the Queen, in reply to many of the observations contained therein. The late disgusting "Bousfield Tragedy'' having proved beyond doubt the truth of the revelations long before given in that work, of the agonised feelings he has endured in the performance of his horrible office, and in addition to the demoralization attending the exhibition of the gallows, that it is in its old age, as decrepit in the art of neatly strangling as the aged nervous hangman himself, we thought that now was the most propitious time for the lowest " officer of state" to make known to the highest his thoughts on the result of his twenty-seven years experience of public neck- stretching for terror and example sake, to men and women, and babes of both sexes. Especially when so serious a climax as shoot- ing him on the platform of the gibbet was threatened that he was compelled to run away, we did more than hope, wc felt positive Calcraft would discharge himself, demand a pension, and show good practical reasons why the gallows and its hideous parapher- nalia, and even black Newgate itself should give way to the ad- vanced civilization of the age. This course, we have heard, he was inclined to at first, but old habits were hard to shake off, therefore his motto for a little longer must be- " He that hangs and runs away, Lives to hang another day." f Besides, his half-formed resolution to drop the " DROP," and retire upon his dingy laurels, to moralize in obscurity upon the many arduous struggles he has been engaged in, and to let his country, from the Queen downwards, know the e:r:act number C!f murders his performance on the national platform has prevented, was totally reversed by the interview with closed doors which he had afterwards with the pure-minded and enlightened directors of " N u;wa ATE F Arn;" who doubtless thought that the old Hang· 4 man's tottering nerves could be propped up by the strength of a young Assistant for a little while, until he had served sufficient ap · prenticeship at the stretching business ; and thus prevent the failure of the museum they so delight in, and the necessity of the sheriffs soiling their hands with the dirty work of their deputy. To a brother snob Calcraft expressed a strong wish to memo- ralise the Queen against the " Groans of the Gallows,'' but he was sorry that he could not write well enough, or else, as there arc " sermons" even in '' stones," a Hangman could probably preach an eloquent sermon to a queen. To forego such an important and instructive intention, involving may be in the unseen future the safety of England's state- " Big with the fate of a Victoria and her throne,"- We thought it our duty to here proffer our services as amanuensis, and communicate what we think are, or ought to be, the thoughts of an executioner of more than a hundred persons, himself now tottering to the grave. This will be doing great honour to our hanging friend, and gnitc accordir:tg to precedent, for that there were literary execu- tioners we shall show, by quoting in the course of these pRges, the letter written by his brother executioner of France. But we do not wish to adopt the conclusions of our allies when they found the same difficulties in hanging as Calcraft did in the case of Bousfielcl, by substituting the guillotine ; rather we would set them the example of a system of punishment more befitting the Christianity and enlightenment of our country,-first, making a bonfire of the gallows and mingling its ashes with the ruins of N ewgate ; and, then in a better classified gaol adapted for instruc- tion, employment and punishment, confining for life (doomed to unrecompensed labour) every one who takes the life of a fellow creature. In 1792, the gallows being found to inflict prolonged torture, by the common mode of hanging, Duport, the Minister of Justice, writes the following letter respecting the substitution of some mode of beheading:- 3rd j}Jarch, 1792. "It appears from the communications made to me by the executioners themselves, that, without some precautions of t!ie nature of those wliich attracted for a moment the attention of tf<e Constitumt Assembly, the act of decollation will be horrible to the spectators. It will either prove the spectators to be monsters if they are able to bear such a spectacle ; or the executionei·, terri- fied /,imself, wi'll be exposed to the.fiery of tlie people, whose very hu~anity e~asperate may them, however crµelly and unjustly1 ug:.unst the execnt:oner," 5 "I must ·solicit from the National Assembly an immediate de- cision ; for a case at the moment presses for execution, which, however, is suspended by the humanity of the judges and the fright Cl' effi·oi] of the executioner." The representations of the Departement is to the same effect, and, making no allusion whatever to mechanism, implies that death was to be by the sword;- 3rd March, 1792. "The executioner represents to us that he cannot fulfill the in- tentions of the law, which is, that the criminal shall suffer nothing · beyond the simple privation of life. The executioner fears that from the want of experience he may make decollation a frightful torture, ana we entertain the same apprehensions." These letters, we see, refer to the opinion of the Executioner himself; and as that opinion has been preserved, our readers will not, we think, be sorry to see, as a literary curiosity, an essay by such a hand on such a subject. " Memorandum of Observations on the Execution of Criminals by Beheading; with the nature of the various objections which it presents, and to which it is really liable- " That is to say:- " In order that the execution may be performed according to the law (simple privation of life) it is necessary that, even with- out any obstacle on the part of the criminal, the executioner should be very expert, and the criminal very firm, without which one could never get through an execution by the sword without the certainty of dangerous accidents." " After one execution, the sword will no longer be in a condi- tion to perform another : being liable to get notched, it is abso- lutely necessary, if there are many persons to execute at the same time, that it should be ground and sharpened anew. It would be necessary then to have a sufficient number of swords all ready. That would lead to great and almost insurmountable difficulties." "It is also to be remarked that swords have been very often broken in executions of this kind." The executioner of Paris possesses only two, which were given him by the Ci-devant Parliament of Paris. They cost six hundred livres (£24) a piece. "It is to be considered that, when there shall be several crimi- nals to execute at the same time, the terror that such an execution presents by the immensity of blood which it produces, and which is scattered all about, will carry fright and weakness into the most intrepid hearts of those whose turn is to come. Such weakness would present an invincible obstacle to th@ execution. The patient 6 being no longer able to support himself, the execution, if persisted in, will become a struggle and a massacre. Even in executions of another class-HANGING--which do not need anything like the precision that this kind requires. We have seen criminals grow sick at the sight of the execution of their companions, at least they are liable to that weakness ; all that is against beheading with the sword. In fact, who could bear the sight of so bloody an ex- ecution without feeling and showing some such weakness? In the other kind of execution it is easy to conceal those weak- nesses from the public, because, in order to complete the opera- tion, there is no necessity that the patient should continue firm and without fear ; but in this, if the criminal falters, the execu- ion must fail also. How can the executioner have the necessary power over a man who will not, or cannot keep himself in a cor.venieut posture? It seems, however, that the National Assembly only devised this species of execution (beheading by the sword) for the purpose of preventing the length to which executions in the old way (by hanging) were protracted. " It is in furtherance of their humane views that I have the honour of giving this forewarning of the many accidents that these executions may produce, if attempted by the sword. " It is therefore indispensable that, in order to fulfill the humane intentions of the National Assembly, some means should '.:le found to avoid delays and assure certainty, by fixing the patient so that the success of the operation shall not be doubtful.
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