[197] Fuller particulars of the trials and executions are given in the author’s “Who Killed Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey?” 1905.
[198] This is, I think, the first case recorded in which a criminal was allowed to make the journey to Tyburn in a coach. It became a common practice: “Il y a des Gentlemen qui obtiennent la permission de faire ce voyage en carosse” (Henri Misson, “Mémoires,” &c., 1698, p. 24).
[199] Mr. Pike, however, in his “History of Crime in England,” contends that “it is not by any means certain that there was any serious legal objection to the punishment inflicted on Oates, except, perhaps, so far as it related to his canonical habits.” He thinks the sentence was justified by law and precedent (ii. 232-3).
[200] Hist. MSS. Comm., Manuscripts of the Marquess of Ormonde. New series, vol. iv., 1907.
[201] “A Short History of the Life of Major John Bernardi,” written by himself in Newgate, 1729.
[202] Clarendon’s “History of the Rebellion,” ed. Oxford, 1849, vi. 105.
[203] On few subjects has there been so profuse an expenditure of insincere writing as on this. Thus Hallam writes: “That writ [of habeas corpus] rendered more actively remedial by the Statute of Charles II., but founded upon the broad basis of Magna Carta, is the principal bulwark of English liberty; and if ever temporary circumstances, or the doubtful plea of political necessity, shall lead men to look on its denial with apathy, the most distinguishing characteristic of our constitution will be effaced” (Hist. of Mid. Ages, ch. viii., pt. ii.). Hallam was, of course, perfectly well acquainted with the facts of repeated suspension.
[204] It is said that in 1818 a “Tyburn ticket” was sold (as a curiosity) for £280.
[205] Turnpike levelling was made a capital offence by 8 Geo. II. (1735) c. 20.
[206] Hanging on the triangular gallows at Tyburn was effected by placing the sufferer, with the rope round his neck, on a cart. This being drawn from under him, he was left hanging. Elsewhere the usual way was to make the sufferer mount a ladder, which was turned, so leaving him suspended. When several persons were executed in this way, they were hanged, not simultaneously, but one after the other.