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Punishment—See [Crime Exposed].
Punishment Escaped—See [Discipline Evaded].
Punishment Fitting Offense—See [Patriotism, Lack of].
PUNISHMENT, FORMER SEVERITY OF
In the reign of Henry VIII, 72,000 thieves were hanged, being at the rate of 2,000 a year. In the reign of George III, twenty persons were executed on the same morning in London for stealing. In 1785, ninety-seven persons were executed in London for stealing from a shop to the value of five shillings or more. If the amount were less than five shillings the punishment was not capital.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the punishment of death might be inflicted for more than two hundred crimes. These are some of the offenses that were punished with death: Picking a man’s pocket, taking a rabbit from a warren, stealing five shillings or more from a shop, cutting down a tree, catching and stealing a fish, personating a Greenwich pensioner, stealing a sheep or horse, harboring an offender against the revenue acts.
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Punishment in China—See [Crime Exposed].
Punishment of Sinners—See [Sinners and God].