The British nation a history / by George MWrong . nce betweenXewgate and Ty-burn, and noisyand ribald crowdsflocked to see thelast grim spectacleas an the ex-ecutions were hor-rible. The dropwas not inventeduntil late in thecentury, and thefriends of the manwho was hangingby the neck some-times clung to hisfeet in order tohasten 1790 the law required that the execution of femalecriminals should be by burning. By selling convicts fora limited period, and sometimes for life, to work on theplantations in America, a punishment hardly less terriblethan death was
The British nation a history / by George MWrong . nce betweenXewgate and Ty-burn, and noisyand ribald crowdsflocked to see thelast grim spectacleas an the ex-ecutions were hor-rible. The dropwas not inventeduntil late in thecentury, and thefriends of the manwho was hangingby the neck some-times clung to hisfeet in order tohasten 1790 the law required that the execution of femalecriminals should be by burning. By selling convicts fora limited period, and sometimes for life, to work on theplantations in America, a punishment hardly less terriblethan death was inflicted. The price was about £20 foreach convict, and the slavery was as real as that of thenegro. After the American Eevolution criminals weretransported to Australia. The old method of discouraging crime by exposing theremains of criminals was still in vogue. Travellers enter-ing London by the Edgeware Eoad passed rows of rottingcorpses hung on gibbets, and often arrayed in full dressand wig. Grinning skulls of executed offenders lined the. Man whipped at the Carts Tail for PettyLarceny, from Charing Cross to the HorseGuards. 484 THE BRITISH NATION top of Temple Bar. In other ways crime was made toseem odious. Men and women were flogged through tlieLondon streets, or fastened helpless in theepnaons. pui^iic pillory, to be pelted sometimes todeath by cruel and mischievous idlers. In the centres ofpopulation the prisons were crowded, and many of thoseconfined were not criminals, but debtors held for debt;often the debtors family remained with him in prison,and children were thus reared in the tainted atmosphereof the jail. To be sent to prison even to await trial wasitself a terrible punishment. Trial was delayed sometimesfor months, in remoter places for even two or three years;and meanwliile the unhapj^y wretch was herded withcompanions from the most depraved classes, was unableto observe the usual decencies of life, and was perhapsdependent even for food upon charity, fo
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