SCANDALOUS SCENE AT A HERTFORD EXECUTION.
It is only charitable to suppose that the Ordinaries must needs have been shocked when first introduced to their morally and physically pestiferous charges, and gradually became used to their surroundings. Let us take a prisoner typical of those whom these divines attended:
Valentine Carrick is not so well-known a name as Maclaine, but he also formed a popular sight during the short interval between his conviction and execution. "James" Carrick, as he is also styled, was son of a retired jeweller, who was wealthy enough to set up for a gentleman, and to purchase his son an ensign's commission in the army. Like hundreds of others of his class, the young ensign gambled freely; like most, he lost, and like a large proportion of broken gamesters, he sought to replenish his pockets by emptying those of travellers on the King's highway by threats, and at the point of sword or muzzle of pistol. He was one of the most reckless blades that ever the Stone Jug had received. He applied the saying of the heedless folk mentioned in the Bible to his own situation: "Let us eat, drink, and be merry; for to-morrow we die." Others might laugh and tipple as they passed their few days in the condemned hold; he did more, for he shouted and sang, and was generally roaring drunk.
Hundreds came to see this edifying spectacle, and the Newgate turnkeys reaped a rich harvest in fees paid by eager sightseers. Such an extraordinary rush impressed even the prisoner, who appears to have thought it very stupid. "Good folks," he exclaimed, "you pay for seeing me now, but if you had suspended your curiosity till I went to Tyburn, you might have seen me for nothing." The company he kept—and was by the lax regulations of the prison readily allowed to keep—in gaol was of the most depraved type. At any rate, these dissolute companions served to keep up his spirits to the very last, and followed him to Tyburn itself, where he ended in the same vein: "When he came to the place of Execution, he smiled upon, and made his Bows to all he knew. Instead of praying with the rest of the Criminals, he employ'd that time in Giggling, taking Snuff, and making Apish Motions to divert himself and the Mob. When Prayers were over, he told them the Sheriffs had made an order that no Surgeons should touch his Body. The Ordinary advised him to consider whither he was going, to which he answered that, being a Roman Catholic, he had receiv'd no Sacrament, and prepar'd for Death in his own Way; and then, giving himself some pretty and genteel Airs (as he seem'd to think 'em) in adjusting the Halter about his Neck, the Cart was drawn away."
So far from contrition and repentance being found in Newgate, the prison was generally, as we have seen, the riotous finish of an ill-spent life. The interest with which they were regarded effectually prevented the prisoners from realising themselves the miserable sinners they were officially declared to be from the chapel pulpit on Sundays. The times were practically pagan.