第49章 LETTER XIX(1)

Business having obliged me to go a few miles out of town this morning I was surprised at meeting a crowd of people of every description,and inquiring the cause of a servant,who spoke French,I was informed that a man had been executed two hours before,and the body afterwards burnt.I could not help looking with horror around--the fields lost their verdure--and I turned with disgust from the well-dressed women who were returning with their children from this sight.What a spectacle for humanity!The seeing such a flock of idle gazers plunged me into a train of reflections on the pernicious effects produced by false notions of justice.And I am persuaded that till capital punishments are entirely abolished executions ought to have every appearance of horror given to them,instead of being,as they are now,a scene of amusement for the gaping crowd,where sympathy is quickly effaced by curiosity.

I have always been of opinion that the allowing actors to die in the presence of the audience has an immoral tendency,but trifling when compared with the ferocity acquired by viewing the reality as a show;for it seems to me that in all countries the common people go to executions to see how the poor wretch plays his part,rather than to commiserate his fate,much less to think of the breach of morality which has brought him to such a deplorable end.

Consequently executions,far from being useful examples to the survivors,have,I am persuaded,a quite contrary effect,by hardening the heart they ought to terrify.Besides the fear of an ignominious death,I believe,never deferred anyone from the commission of a crime,because,in committing it,the mind is roused to activity about present circumstances.It is a game at hazard,at which all expect the turn of the die in their own favour,never reflecting on the chance of ruin till it comes.In fact,from what I saw in the fortresses of Norway,I am more and more convinced that the same energy of character which renders a man a daring villain would have rendered him useful to society,had that society been well organised.When a strong mind is not disciplined by cultivation it is a sense of injustice that renders it unjust.

Executions,however,occur very rarely at Copenhagen;for timidity,rather than clemency,palsies all the operations of the present Government.The malefactor who died this morning would not,probably,have been punished with death at any other period;but an incendiary excites universal execration;and as the greater part of the inhabitants are still distressed by the late conflagration,an example was thought absolutely necessary;though,from what I can gather,the fire was accidental.

Not,but that I have very seriously been informed,that combustible materials were placed at proper distance,by the emissaries of Mr.

Pitt;and,to corroborate the fact,many people insist that the flames burst out at once in different parts of the city;not allowing the wind to have any hand in it.So much for the plot.

But the fabricators of plots in all countries build their conjectures on the "baseless fabric of a vision;"and it seems even a sort of poetical justice,that whilst this Minister is crushing at home plots of his own conjuring up,on the Continent,and in the north,he should,with as little foundation,be accused of wishing to set the world on fire.

I forgot to mention to you,that I was informed,by a man of veracity,that two persons came to the stake to drink a glass of the criminal's blood,as an infallible remedy for the apoplexy.And when I animadverted in the company,where it was mentioned,on such a horrible violation of nature,a Danish lady reproved me very severely,asking how I knew that it was not a cure for the disease?

adding,that every attempt was justifiable in search of health.Idid not,you may imagine,enter into an argument with a person the slave of such a gross prejudice.And I allude to it not only as a trait of the ignorance of the people,but to censure the Government for not preventing scenes that throw an odium on the human race.

Empiricism is not peculiar to Denmark;and I know no way of rooting it out,though it be a remnant of exploded witchcraft,till the acquiring a general knowledge of the component parts of the human frame becomes a part of public education.

Since the fire,the inhabitants have been very assiduously employed in searching for property secreted during the confusion;and it is astonishing how many people,formerly termed reputable,had availed themselves of the common calamity to purloin what the flames spared.

Others,expert at making a distinction without a difference,concealed what they found,not troubling themselves to inquire for the owners,though they scrupled to search for plunder anywhere,but amongst the ruins.

To be honester than the laws require is by most people thought a work of supererogation;and to slip through the grate of the law has ever exercised the abilities of adventurers,who wish to get rich the shortest way.Knavery without personal danger is an art brought to great perfection by the statesman and swindler;and meaner knaves are not tardy in following their footsteps.