Home / Albums / Keyword Punishment 62
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He is held securely by two men, in the service of a tribunal, who are
instructed to give pain, by a particular method of twisting the cartilages of the ears .
152 visits
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This is effected by placing small pieces of wood betwixt them, and then drawing them very forcibly together with cords. It is frequently
inflicted as a punishment upon disorderly women .
There are no people existing, who pay so sacred an attention to the laws of decency as the Chinese ; habituated in preserving the constant appearance of modesty and self -controul, nothing is more uncommon
amongst them, than deleterious examples of unblushing vice ; and if there be truth in the old maxim , that want of decency, either in action , or in word, betrays a deficiency of understanding, they certainly indicate more sense than some other nations , who affect to excel them in education and refinement. The general manners of people of every condition in China wear as modest a habit, as their persons. They discover no gratification in wresting their proper language into impure
meanings; and grossly offensive phrases are only to be heard amongst the very dregs of the community, and at the risk of immediate and
severe judicial correction .
106 visits
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This horrible engine of barbarity and error is not peculiar to Roman Catholic countries, it is used even in China , for the purpose of extorting confession . The method of employing it, in torturing the ankles, is exhibited in this Plate . The instrument is composed of a thick , strong plank, having a contrivance at one end to secure the hands, and at the other a sort of double wooden vice . The vice is formed of three stout uprights, two of which are moveable, but steadied by a block , that is fastened on each side. The ankles of the culprit being placed in the machine, a cord is passed round the uprights, and held fast by two men .
The chief tormentor then gradually introduces a wedge into the intervals , alternately changing sides . This method of forcing an expansion at the upper part, causes the lower ends to draw towards the central
upright , which is fixed into the plank , and thereby compresses the ankles of the wretched sufferer ; who, provided he be fortified by innocence, or by resolution, endures the advances of the wedge, until his bones are completely reduced to a jelly.
143 visits
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This sort of punishment, being deemed in the highest degree ignominious , is only inflicted for crimes, which are regarded by the Chinese
government, as the most prejudicial to society ; such as conspiracy,assassination , committing any offence against the person of the Emperor, or attempting the life of any of the imperial family ; revolting, insurrection , striking a parent, or any other unnatural sort of crime. The malefactor, who is condemned to be beheaded, is made to kneel upon the ground, the board of infamy is taken from his back, and the executioner, by a single blow of a two - handed sword, strikes off his head with great dexterity. These headsmen , and indeed, the generality of inferior officers of justice in China, are selected from the soldiery, according to the custom of primitive barbarians ; neither is this employment considered more ignominious, than the post of principal officer of executive justice in other countries . Decapitation is held, by the Chinese, as the most disgraceful kind of death ; because the head, which is the principal part of a man , is separated from the body, and that body is not consigned to the grave as entire as he received it from his parents ..
If a great mandarin be convicted of any atrocious offence, he is executed in this manner like the meanest person . After the head is severed , it is frequently suspended from a tree, by the side of a public road ; the body is thrown into a ditch , the law having deemed it unworthy the respect of regular funereal rites .
When a sentence is submitted to the Emperor for his approbation, if the crime be of the first degree of atrocity , he orders the malefactor to be executed without delay ; when it is only of an ordinary nature, he
directs, that the criminal shall be imprisoned until the autumn, and then executed ; a particular day of that season being allotted for such ceremonies.
The Emperor of China seldom orders a subject to be executed , until he has consulted with his first law officers, whether he can avoid it, with out infringing on the constitution of his realm . He fasts for a certain
period, previous to signing an order for an execution ; and his imperial
majesty esteems those years of his reign the most illustrious and most
fortunate , in which he has had the least occasion to let fall upon his
subjects the rigorous sword of justice.
172 visits
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The usual capital punishments in China are strangling, and beheading. The former is the most common , and is decreed against those, who are found guilty of crimes, which , however capital, are only held in the
second `rank` of atrocity. For instance, all acts of homicide, whether intentional or accidental; every species of fraud, committed upon government : the seduction of a woman, whether married or single; giving abusive language to a parent, plundering or defacing a burying place ; robbing with destructive weapons : and for wearing pearls. It
would not, perhaps, be possible to form any probable conjecture of the motive, which has induced the Chinese legislators to attach the pain of death to the wearing of a precious gem . The fact is, therefore, only stated from the information of various writers, and remains to be explained by some future commentator.
Criminals are sometimes strangled with a bow -string, but on general occasions, a cord is made use of, which fastens the person to a cross, and one turn being taken round his neck , it is drawn tight by an athletic executioner.
Men of distinction ,are usually strangled, as the more honourable death ; and where the Emperor is inclined to shew an extraordinary mark of attention towards a mandarin , condemned to die, he sends him a silken
cord, with permission to be his own executioner .
193 visits
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This punishment is deemed very disgraceful. The collar is formed of heavy pieces of wood, closed together, and having a hole in the
centre, which fits the neck of the offender, who, when this machine is upon him, can neither see his own feet, nor put his hands to his mouth . He is not permitted to reside in any habitation , nor even to
take rest for any considerable length of time, an inferior officer of justice constantly attending, to prevent him. By night and by day, he carries this load , which is heavier or lighter, according to the nature of the crime, and the strength of the wearer. The weight of the common sort of these wooden collars , is only fifty or sixty pounds, but there are those, which weigh two hundred, and which are so grievous to the bearers that sometimes , through shame, pain , want of proper nourishment, or of natural rest, they have been known to expire under them . The criminals find various methods, however, of mitigating this punishment: by walking in company with their relations and friends, who support the corners of the collar, and prevent it from pressing upon the shoulders ; by resting it upon a table , a bench , or against a tree; or, according to the representation in the accompanying Plate, by having chair constructed for the purpose, with four posts of equal heights to support the machine. When this ponderous incumbrance is fixed upon
an offender, it is always before the magistrate, who has decreed it ; and upon each side, over the places where the wood is joined , long slips of paper are pasted, upon which the name of the person , the crime, which he has committed, and the duration of his punishment, are written, in very distinct characters ; a seal is likewise stamped upon the paper, to prevent the instrument from being opened . Three months is the usual time appointed for those to bear about this collar, who have been convicted of robbery. For defamation, gambling, or breaches of the peace ,it is carried a few weeks ; and insolvent debtors are sometimes ordered to bear it, until they have satisfied their creditors . When the offender is to be liberated from the collar, it must be in
the presence of the magistrate, who has imposed it ; he then generally
orders him a few blows of the pan-tsee, and dismisses him, with an
exhortation to comport himself more regularly in future .
Near the figure in this Engraving, are represented the basin and the
sort of spoon , by which persons in that situation are supplied with
food.
120 visits
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This man is suspended by his shoulders and ankles, in a very painful situation : at intervals, two attending officers afford some trifling alleviation of his sufferings, by supporting him with a bamboo, passed under his breast. Pencil, ink, and paper, are ready, to note down whatever he may say. This punishment, together with the preceding one, is chiefly inflicted upon such merchants as have been detected in committing frauds, impositions, or any other unwarrantable tricks of trade.
107 visits
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A piece ofbamboo cane is provided, which nearly corresponds with
the height of the criminal, and is of considerable circumference. This
bamboo being perfectly hollow , admits the passage of a large iron chain, one end of which is rivetted round a stake, the other encircles his neck, and is confined there by a padlock. His legs are fettered by a few links of chain.
110 visits
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A large piece of bamboo cane is placed behind his knees; this is trampled on by two men, one standing on each end, and who convey more or less pain, as they approach to, or recee from, his person. A punishment, decreed against interpreters, detected of wilful misinterpretation.
116 visits
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A species of correction appointed for boatmen, or, as they are termed
in England, watermen . Having been convicted of some misbehaviour,
he is compelled to kneel : one of the officers of justice prevents him
from flinching, whilst another grasps his hair, and bestows a certain
number of blows upon each side of his face, with a sort of double
battledore, made of thick leather.
87 visits
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This punishment is reported to have been inflicted upon malefactors,
who have endeavoured to make their escape. A vessel containing
Chunam , a species of mortar, is at hand , to be applied, by way of styptic , to the wounds. It is said , that this punishment has been lately abolished , the legislature considering, that the natural inclination for liberty, merited not a chastisement of such severity.
97 visits
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A PERSON, sentenced to transportation, is thus led, by an officer of justice, into the country appointed for his future residence . He carries a mat to serve him as a bed, and a leaf of a palm tree, to protect him from the weather. Upon his back, his crime, his sentence, and his name, are displayed in conspicuous characters.
This punishment is inflicted upon those, who have struck an elder brother ; who have incurred debts by gaming, which they are unable to pay ; and for such other offences as appear to render the perpetrator unworthy to continue in his native country .
When offenders are thus conducted into some distant province, they are to be recalled, but, if into Tartary, their banishment is perpetual.
96 visits
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This criminal is fastened , at full length, upon a sort of bedstead, a
chump of wood serving for a pillow. His hands and his feet are loaded
with iron manacles and fetters ; his neck is chained to a post, and
fastened by two padlocks.
157 visits
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A small quantity of unslacked lime is put into pieces of cotton cloth, and closely applied to the organs of sight.
136 visits
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He is thrown flat upon his face, and held in that position by one, or
more, if necessary, of the magistrate's attendants kneeling upon his
back, whilst another applies the pan-tsee to his posteriors.
The pan-tsee is a thick piece of split bamboo cane, the lower end of
which is about four inches in width, and the upper end small and smooth , to render the instrument more convenient for the hand. Mandarins of
power have usually some persons in their train , who attend them with
these pan-tsees , whenever they travel, or go into public, and who are
ready, at the nod of their master, to exercise their office in the manner described .* After this ceremony, it is customary for the delinquent to return thanks to the Mandarin , for the good care he takes of his
education.
97 visits
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A strong ring of iron is passed through one corner of a short, heavy,
piece of timber. From this ring, a weighty chain is continued round
the neck of the man, and fastened, by a padlock, upon his breast.
112 visits
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This person is farther secured by a chain from his neck to his ankle,
from whence another chain proceeds, round one of the corner posts of
his wooden cage , the entrance to which is through two moveable bars ;
these bars are fastened by an iron bolt, that passes through some staples, and is prevented from sliding, by a padlock.
A plank serves this prisoner for a seat, and for a bed.
120 visits
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The convict is fettered, and, if he uses abusive or inflammatory language, gagged. His arms are pinioned behind his back, and he bears a board, on which are written his name, his crime, and his sentence. If he hesitates to proceed , he is driven to the place of execution by some inferior officers of justice.
147 visits
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His neck is encompassed with a very wide cape of iron , which is fitted to his shoulders ; his legs are fettered with iron shackles, and from these, as well as from the cape, a few links extend to the bar, which is
about half a yard higher than his head. The links, sliding upon the bar, accommodate themselves to the motions of the prisoner ; the small piece of plank, that is attached to the shackles , serves him for a seat.
From the top of the bar, there depends a little board, upon which the name and crime of the malefactor are inscribed.
90 visits
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An iron chain, fastened by a padlock, is put round his neck, and, if he
refuses to proceed , inferior officers of justice compel him, after the
manner described .
120 visits
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He is preceded by a man, who strikes upon a gong, in order to draw
upon the offender the notice of the public. Two others walk after him ,
one of whom is employed in keeping up his face with a bundle of cleft
A little red banner is fastened on each side of the culprit, to
render him more conspicuous ; and his hands are tied behind his back .
114 visits
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It is the custom in China , for a Mandarin of justice to administer it
daily , morning and evening , in his own house, where he is attended by
his secretary, or clerk, and by inferior officers, some of them bearing
iron shackles, and others, pan-tsees . Upon his right hand stands the
Prosecutor, or Informer ; and before him is a table with a covering of
silk , and the implements of writing for the secretary to take down the
depositions and defence . These having been written in black ink, the
magistrate signs them with red, and seals them with the same colour.
On the table there are, also, a number of small sticks, tipped with red ;
these are kept in open cases , and are used in the following manner : if
a culprit is convicted of a petty offence, the magistrate causes him to be
immediately chastised, and released . The usual punishment, upon such
occasions, is the pan -tsee, or bastinade, and the number of blows to be
inflicted is signified by the magistrate's casting some of the above men
tioned small sticks upon the floor : each stick denotes five blows.
The culprit, who, during the examination , has awaited the decree upon
his hands and knees , is then seized by the attendants, and punished as
will be seen in a subsequent Plate . After the magistrate has thrown the
sticks, he talks of other affairs, drinks his tea , or smokes his tobacco .
It is only for trivial breaches of the Chinese Laws , such as drunken
ness, cheating, squabbling, boxing, pilfering, insolence or inattention
towards a superior, or the like, that any magistrate is empowered to
administer punishment in a summary manner. Whenever the crime is
of such a description as to call for severer notice, it is generally exa
mined into by five or six tribunals, who not only require very particular
information concerning the charge, but scrutinize with minute exactness,
into the characters and manners of the accusers .
Their proceedings in capital accusations are thus protracted in China ,
lest any man should be unjustly deprived of the inestimable benefits of
honour or life : and no criminal can be executed , until his trial has been
sent to court, and his sentence has been confirmed by the Emperor.
113 visits
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Prisoner in Nchogo
412 visits
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From Joh. Wolfii Lect. Memorab. (Lavingæ, 1600.)
It will be seen by the curious woodcut from Baptista Mantuanus, that he consigned Pope Joan to the jaws of hell, notwithstanding her choice. The verses accompanying this picture are:—
“Hic pendebat adhuc sexum mentita virile
Fœmina, cui triplici Phrygiam diademate mitram
Extollebat apex: et pontificalis adulter.”
It need hardly be stated that the whole story of Pope Joan is fabulous, and rests on not the slightest historical foundation. It was probably a Greek invention to throw discredit on the papal hierarchy, first circulated more than two hundred years after the date of the supposed Pope. Even Martin Polonus (A. D. 1282), who is the first to give the details, does so merely on popular report.
849 visits
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The thumbs are put into this instrument through the two circular holes at the top of it. By turning a key, a bar rises up by means of a screw from C to D, and the pressure upon them becomes painful. By turning it further you may make the blood start from the ends of them. By taking the key away, as at E, you leave the tortured person in agony, without any means of extricating himself, or of being extricated by others. This screw, as I was then informed, was applied by way of punishment, in case of obstinacy in the slaves, or for any other reputed offence, at the discretion of the captain.
550 visits
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The woodcut represents the execution, in Paris, of a famous captain of robbers, Aymerigol Macel. The scaffold is enclosed by a hoarding; at the nearer corners are two friars, one in brown and one in black, probably a Franciscan and a Dominican; the official, who stands with his hands resting on his staff superintending the executioner, has a gown of red with sleeves lined with white fur, his bonnet is black turned up also with white fur. In the background are the timber houses on one side of the place, with the people looking out of their windows; a signboard will be seen standing forth from one of the houses. The groups of people in the distance and those in the foreground give the costumes of the ordinary dwellers in a fourteenth-century city.
827 visits
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A few years ago some Greek and Italian scoundrels “put up a job” to plunder one of the mosques at Constantinople. They were weeks at work, perfecting their plans, and managed to get their plunder safe on board a schooner which was waiting in the sea of Marmora, a mile or two from shore. They sailed away in triumph, but the electric telegraph, which has brought so many scoundrels to justice, caused them to be overhauled at the Dardanelles.
The schooner was captured and brought back to Constantinople; the property was returned to the mosque, and the enterprising gentlemen who removed it without authority received the polite attentions of a Turkish headsman. Not only they, but the entire crew of the schooner down to the cook and cabin boy—also a cat and two kittens—were decapitated, without fear or favor.
“Bismillah!” (in the name of God) shouted the executioner each time he swung his sword. “Inshallah!” (God is willing) responded the attendant, as he gathered up the heads one by one and stowed them away in a sack.
599 visits
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The punishment of the cangue may be compared to that of our pillory, with this difference, that in China a person convicted of petty crimes or misdemeanours is sometimes sentenced to carry the wooden clog about his neck for weeks, or even months; sometimes one hand, or even both hands, are inserted through holes, as well as the neck. The annexed representation is not a common one, and far less painful than the plain heavy tablet of wood, the whole weight of which must be supported on the shoulders; whereas in this it is mere confinement, without the person being compelled to carry a heavy load. The nature of the offence is always described in large characters, either on the edge of the cangue, or, as in the present instance, on a piece of board attached to it.
770 visits
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Piercing the ear with various sharp instruments is among the punishments of the Chinese. A man who had been insolent to one of the suite of Lord Macartney’s embassy, was sentenced to receive fifty strokes from the pant-zee or bamboo, in addition to having his hand pinned to his ear by an iron wire, which was said to have been inflicted immediately after the bastinade.
The middle figure is an inferior officer of the police, who holds a painted board on which the crime is exhibited to spectators; the other personage is a mandarin reproving the culprit.
727 visits
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In England, petty thieves, unruly servants, wife-beaters, hedge-tearers, vagrants, Sabbath-breakers, revilers, gamblers, drunkards, ballad-singers, fortune-tellers, traveling musicians and a variety of other offenders, were all punished by the stocks. Doubtless the most notable person ever set in the stocks for drinking too freely was that great man, Cardinal Wolsey. About the year 1500 he was the incumbent at Lymington, and getting drunk at a village feast, he was seen by Sir Amyas Poulett, a strict moralist, and local justice of the peace, who humiliated the embryo cardinal by thrusting him in the stocks.
323 visits
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Sinners were never spared (In puritan communities) , either in publicity or punishment. Keen justice made the magistrates rigid and exact in the exposition and publication of crime, hence the labelling of an offender.
Examples
“To wear two Capitall Letters, A. D. cut in cloth and sewed on their uppermost garment on the Arm and Back; and if any time they shall be founde without the letters so worne while in this government, they shall be forthwith taken and publickly whipt.”
“Robert Coles was fyned ten shillings and enjoyned to stand with a white sheet of paper on his back whereon Drunkard shalbe written in great lres & to stand therewith soe longe as the Court finde meete, for abuseing himself shamefully with drinke.”
The following year Robert Coles, still misbehaving, was again sentenced, and more severely, for his drunkard’s badge was made permanent.
265 visits
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It would be impossible to enumerate the offences for which Englishmen were pilloried: among them were treason, sedition, arson, blasphemy, witch-craft, perjury, wife-beating, cheating, forestalling, forging, coin-clipping, tree-polling, gaming, dice-cogging, quarrelling, lying, libelling, slandering, threatening, conjuring, fortune-telling, “prigging,” drunkenness, impudence. One man was set in the pillory for delivering false dinner invitations; another for a rough practical joke; another for selling an injurious quack medicine. All sharpers, beggars, impostors, vagabonds, were liable to be pilloried.
303 visits
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It was an engine of punishment specially assigned to scolding women; though sometimes kindred offenders, such as slanderers, “makebayts,” “chyderers,” brawlers, railers, and women of light carriage also suffered through it. Though gruff old Sam Johnson said to a gentle Quaker lady: “Madam, we have different modes of restraining evil—stocks for men, a ducking-stool for women, and a pound for beasts;” yet men as well as women-scolds were punished by being set in the ducking-stool, and quarrelsome married couples were ducked, tied back-to-back. The last person set in the Rugby ducking-stool was a brutal husband who had beaten his wife. Brewers of bad beer and bakers of bad bread were deemed of sufficiently degraded ethical standing to be ducked. Unruly paupers also were thus subdued.
327 visits
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This “barrel-shirt,” which was evidently so frequently used in our Civil War, was known as the Drunkard’s Cloak, and it was largely employed in past centuries on the Continent. Sir William Brereton, in his Travels in Holland, 1634, notes its use in Delft; so does Pepys in the year 1660. Evelyn writes in 1641 that in the Senate House in Delft he saw “a weighty vessel of wood not unlike a butter churn,” which was used to punish women, who were led about the town in it.
305 visits
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The punishments of authors deserve a separate chapter; for since the days of Greece and Rome their woes have been many. The burning of condemned books begun in those ancient states. In the days of Augustus no less than twenty thousand volumes were consumed; among them, all the works of Labienus, who, in despair thereat, refused food, pined and died.
298 visits
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The brank or scold’s bridle was unknown in America in its English shape: though from colonial records we learn that scolding women were far too plentiful, and were gagged for that annoying and irritating habit. The brank, sometimes called the gossip’s bridle, or dame’s bridle, or scold’s helm, was truly a “brydle for a curste queane.” It was a shocking instrument, a sort of iron cage, often of great weight; when worn, covering the entire head; with a spiked plate or flat tongue of iron to be placed in the mouth over the tongue. Hence if the offender spoke she was cruelly hurt.
353 visits
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Another common punishment for soldiers (usually for rioting or drinking) was the riding the wooden horse. In New Amsterdam the wooden horse stood between Paerel street and the Fort, and was a straight, narrow, horizontal pole, standing twelve feet high. Sometimes the upper edge of the board or pole was acutely sharpened to intensify the cruelty. The soldier was set astride this board, with his hands tied behind his back. Often a heavy weight was tied to each foot, as was jocularly said, “to keep his horse from throwing him.”
298 visits
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The custom of performing penance in public by humiliation in church either through significant action, position or confession has often been held to be peculiar to the Presbyterian and Puritan churches. It is, in fact, as old as the Church of Rome, and was a custom of the Church of England long before it became part of the Dissenters’ discipline. All ranks and conditions of men shared in this humiliation. An English king, Henry II, a German emperor, Henry IV, the famous Duchess of Gloucester, and Jane Shore are noted examples; humbler victims for minor sins or offenses against religious usages suffered in like manner.
304 visits
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Laying by the heels in the bilboes
There is no doubt that our far-away grandfathers, whether of English, French, Dutch, Scotch or Irish blood, were much more afraid of ridicule than they were even of sinning, and far more than we are of extreme derision or mockery to-day.
They were a simple but effective restraint; a long heavy bolt or bar of iron having two sliding shackles, something like handcuffs, and a lock. In these shackles were thrust the legs of offenders or criminals, who were then locked in with a padlock. Sometimes a chain at one end of the bilboes attached both bilboes and prisoner to the floor or wall; but this was superfluous, as the iron bar prevented locomotion
318 visits
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There is nothing more abhorrent to the general sentiment of humanity to-day than the universal custom of all civilized nations, until the present century, of branding and maiming criminals. In these barbarous methods of degrading criminals the colonists in America followed the customs and copied the laws of the fatherland. Our ancestors were not squeamish. The sight of a man lopped of his ears, or slit of his nostrils, or with a seared brand or great gash in his forehead or cheek could not affect the stout stomachs that cheerfully and eagerly gathered around the bloody whipping-post and the gallows.
269 visits
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The whipping-post was speedily in full force in Boston. At the session of the court held November 30, 1630, one man was [Pg 73]sentenced to be whipped for stealing a loaf of bread; another for shooting fowl on the Sabbath, another for swearing, another for leaving a boat “without a pylott.” Then we read of John Pease that for “stryking his mother and deryding her he shalbe whipt.”
308 visits
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On the death of Queen Elizabeth, James I. became king and, not favoring Raleigh, at length threw him into prison on a charge of treason. After an imprisonment of twelve years in the Tower of London, Sir Walter was beheaded.
462 visits
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Hanging to Music. (A Minstrel condemned to the Gallows obtained permission that one of his companions should accompany him to his execution, and play his favourite instrument on the ladder of the Gallows.)--Fac-simile of a Woodcut in Michault's "Doctrinal du Temps Présent:" small folio, goth., Bruges, about 1490.
1177 visits
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Empalement (Pal)
From a Woodcut in the "Cosmographie Universelle" of Munster
Mediæval punishments included more or less atrocious punishments, which were in use at various times and in various countries; such as the Pain of the Cross, specially employed against the Jews; the Arquebusade, which was well adapted for carrying out prompt justice on soldiers; the Chatouillement, which resulted in death after the most intense tortures; the Pal, flaying alive, and, lastly, drowning, a kind of death frequently employed in France
1491 visits
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Cat-o'-nine-tails.--From a Woodcut in the "Cosmographie Universelle" of Munster.
701 visits
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Beheading.From the "Cosmographie Universelle" of Munster: in folio, Basle, 1552.
1230 visits
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The amende honorable which was called simple or short, took place without the assistance of the executioner in the council chamber, where the condemned, bareheaded and kneeling, had to state that "he had falsely said or done something against the authority of the King or the honour of some person"
739 visits
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The Water Torture.
Fac-simile of a Woodcut in J. Damhoudère's "Praxis Rerum Criminalium:" in 4to, Antwerp, 1556.
In Paris, for a long time, the water torture was in use; this was the most easily borne, and the least dangerous. A person undergoing it was tied to a board which was supported horizontally on two trestles. By means of a horn, acting as a funnel, and whilst his nose was being pinched, so as to force him to swallow, they slowly poured four coquemars (about nine pints) of water into his mouth; this was for the ordinary torture. For the extraordinary, double that quantity was poured in. When the torture was ended, the victim was untied, "and taken to be warmed in the kitchen," says the old text.
1264 visits
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Demons applying the Torture of the Wheel.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the "Grand Kalendrier ou Compost des Bergers:" small folio, Troyes, Nicholas le Rouge, 1529.
1118 visits
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The subterranean cells of the Bastille did not differ much from those of the Châtelet. There were several, the bottoms of which were formed like a sugar-loaf upside down, thus neither allowing the prisoner to stand up, nor even to adopt a tolerable position sitting or lying down. It was in these that King Louis XI., who seemed to have a partiality for filthy dungeons, placed the two young sons of the Duke de Nemours (beheaded in 1477), ordering, besides, that they should be taken out twice a week and beaten with birch rods, and, as a supreme measure of atrocity, he had one of their teeth extracted every three months. It was Louis XI., too, who, in 1476, ordered the famous iron cage, to be erected in one of the towers of the Bastille, in which Guillaume, Bishop of Verdun, was incarcerated for fourteen years.
910 visits
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The executioner did not hold the same position in all countries. For whereas in France, Italy, and Spain, a certain amount of odium was attached to this terrible craft, in Germany, on the contrary, successfully carrying out a certain number of capital sentences was rewarded by titles and the privileges of nobility
1548 visits
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The Infant Richard crucified by the Jews, at PontoiseFrom a Woodcut, with Figures by Wohlgemuth, in the "Liber Chronicarum Mundi:" large folio, Nuremberg, 1493.
1079 visits
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Punishment by Fire
When a criminal had been condemned to be burnt, a stake was erected on the spot specially designed for the execution, and round it a pile was prepared, composed of alternate layers of straw and wood, and rising to about the height of a man. Care was taken to leave a free space round the stake for the victim, and also a passage by which to lead him to it. Having been stripped of his clothes, and dressed in a shirt smeared with sulphur, he had to walk to the centre of the pile through a narrow opening, and was then tightly bound to the stake with ropes and chains. After this, faggots and straw were thrown into the empty space through which he had passed to the stake, until he was entirely covered by them; the pile was then fired on all sides at once
1133 visits
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Originally, decapitation was indiscriminately inflicted on all criminals condemned to death; at a later period, however, it became the particular privilege of the nobility, who submitted to it without any feeling of degradation. The victim--unless the sentence prescribed that he should be blindfolded as an ignominious aggravation of the penalty--was allowed to choose whether he would have his eyes covered or not. He knelt down on the scaffold, placed his head on the block, and gave himself up to the executioner. The skill of the executioner was generally such that the head was almost invariably severed from the body at the first blow. Nevertheless, skill and practice at times failed, for cases are on record where as many as eleven blows were dealt, and at times it happened that the sword broke.
Public Executions.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the Latin Work of J. Millaeus, "Praxis Criminis Persequendi:" small folio, Parisis, Simon de Colines, 1541.
814 visits
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The Provost's Prison.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut in J. Damhoudère's "Praxis Rerum Civilium."
749 visits
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Movable Iron Cage.--From a Woodcut in the "Cosmographie Universelle" of Munster, in folio, Basle, 1552.
1145 visits
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Member of the Brotherhood of Death, whose duty it was to accompany those sentenced to death
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And his Confessor, at Bordeaux in 1377, by order of the King of England's Lieutenant. Froissart's Chronicles. No. 2644, Bibl. nat'le de Paris.
438 visits
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Convicts who have been sentenced to prison, but are released early under the ticket-to-leave experimental scheme.
2290 visits
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A meeting of ticket-of-leave men, convened by Mr. H. Mayhew, was held some time since at the National Hall, Holborn, with the view of affording to persons of this class, who are anxious to lead a reformed life, an opportunity of stating the difficulties they have to encounter in their endeavour to obtain a honest livelihood. About fifty members of the body responded to Mr. Mayhew’s invitation.
1419 visits
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Then the sentence is passed by the compound manager—ten, fifteen, or twenty strokes, according to the crime. The coolie, with a Chinese policeman on either side of him, is taken away about ten paces. Then he stops, and at the word of a policeman drops his pantaloons, and falls flat on his face and at full length on the floor. One policeman holds his feet together; another, with both hands pressed firmly on the back of his head, looks after that end of his body. Then the flagellator, with a strip of thick leather on the end of a three-foot wooden handle, lays on the punishment, severely or lightly, as instructed. Should the prisoner struggle after the first few strokes, another policeman plants a foot in the middle of his back until the full dose has been administered.
1006 visits
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In another form of flogging practised, a short bamboo was used. The coolie would strip to the waist and go down on his knees with his head on the floor. His castigator would then squat beside him, and strike him across the shoulders with lightning rapidity. The blows, though apparently light, always fell on the one spot, and raised a large red weal before cutting the flesh. During the first quarter of this year no fewer than fifty-six coolies were whipped, after 8 p.m. one evening, at the Witwatersrand Mine, the dose varying from five to fifteen strokes.
1224 visits
