readily. These are afterwards "spread upon mats and exposed to the sun's rays until perfectly dry, when the nusk is broken with large heavy rollers made either of wood or of stone. The coffee thus cleared of its husk is again dried thoroughly in the sun, that it may not be liable to heat when packed for shipment. The method employed in the West-Indies differs from this. Negroes are set to gather such of the berries as are sufficiently ripe, and for this purpose are provided each with a canvas bag having an iron ring or hoop at its mouth to keep it always distended, and this bag is slung round the neck so as to leave both hands at liberty. As often as this bag is filled, the contents are transferred to a large basket placed conveniently for the purpose. It is the usual calculation, that each bushel of ripe berries will yield ten pounds weight merchantable coffee. In curing coffee it is sometimes usual to expose the berries to the sun's rays in layers, five or six inches deep, on a platform. By this means the pulp ferments in a few days, and having thus thrown off a strong acidulous moisture, dries gradually during about three weeks: the husks are afterwards separated from the seeds in a mill. Other planters remove the pulp from the seeds as soon as the berries are gathered. The pulping mill used for this purpose consists of a horizontal fluted roller, turned by a crank and acting against a moveable breast-board, so placed as to prevent the passage of whole berries between itself and the roller. The pulp is then separated from the seeds by washing them, and the latter are spread out in the sun to dry them. It is then necessary to remove the membranous skin or parchment, which is effected by means of heavy rollers running in a trough wherein the seeds are put. This mill is worked by cattle. The seeds are afterwards winnowed to separate the chaff, and if any among them appear to have escaped the action of the roller, they are again passed through the mill. The roasting of coffee for use is a process which requires some nicety; if burned, much of the fine aromatic flavour will be destroyed, and a disagreeable bitter taste substituted. The roasting is now usually performed in a cylindrical vessel which is continually turned upon its axis over the fire-place, in order to prevent the too great heating of any one part, and to accomplish the continual shifting of the contents. Coffee should never be kept for any length of time after it has been roasted, and should never be ground until it is required for infusion, or some portion of its fine flavour will be dissipated. The quantity of coffee consumed in Europe is very great. Humboldt estimates it at nearly one hundred and twenty millions of pounds, about one-fourth of which is consumed in France. Since the time when this estimate was made, a vast increase has been experienced in the use of coffee in England. This was at first occasioned by the very considerable abatement made in the rate of duty, and the public taste has since been continually growing more and more favourable to its consumption. POPULATION OF FRANCE. THE Annuaire (or Almanac) for 1832, published by the Board of Longitude in France, contains, as usual, a mass of information on the subject of the population of that country. The tables and observations which are given under this head occupy about forty-five pages of the present volume. The first table presents us with a view of the law of mortality in France; that is, of the rate at which it has been ascertained that the inhabitants of that country die in any given number of years. From this table it ap- | pears, that of a million of children born in any particular year, 232,475, or not many fewer than one-fourth of the whole number, will probably die before they are a year old. The next nineteen years carry off very nearly another fourth, there being only 502,216, or a few more than the half of the whole, who reach the age of twenty. At the end of forty-five years, there will remain only 334,072, or not many more than one-third of the whole million. Not quite so many as one in ten will reach the age of seventy-two, nor will one in a hundred reach that of eighty-six. Rather more than one in a thousand will live to be ninety-five years old, and rather more than one in five thousand may reach the age of a hundred. After the lapse of a hundred and ten years, the probability is, that the whole million will be in their graves. It is proper, however, to observe, that this table is calculated from facts collected a considerable number of years ago, and that there can be no doubt the results are not so favourable as would be derived from observations made at present. Indeed, it is ascertained that, owing partly to the introduction of vaccination, and partly to the increased comforts and improved mode of living of the people, the mean or average duration of human life in France is fully three years greater now than it was before the Revolution, the date for which this table is constructed. Instead of twenty-eight years and three quarters, which the mean duration was then, it is now about thirty-two years and one-tenth. Another table furnishes us with the actual number of births, marriages, and deaths, that took place in France during the year 1829, the last for which the returns have been made up. The whole population of the country in 1820, when the last census was taken, was 30,451,187; and, in 1829, it was, probably, fully thirtytwo millions. The number of marriages, then, which took place that year among this population, was 250,342, so that rather more than one person out of every sixty-four was married in the course of the year. The total number of deaths was 806,723, or somewhat more than one for every forty of the whole inhabitants. But to supply this waste, the number of births, in the course of the year, was 964,343, or 157,620 more than the deaths. In several preceding years the excess had been still larger. Indeed, it had only been so small twice during the preceding twelve years; namely, in 1826 and 1828. In 1821, the excess had been so high as 212,144; and both in 1823 and 1824, it was more than 220,000. Taking the average of thirteen years, the annual increase of the population thus occasioned had amounted to about 186,000 souls. At this rate the population of France will not double itself in less than 116 years. The number of persons of the age of one hundred and upwards, who died in France in 1829, was 158. Of the 964,343 children who were born this year, 69,416, or nearly one in every fourteen, were illegitimate. Of the legitimate children 460,549 were males; 434,378 females. Of the natural children, 35,365 were males; 34,051 females. Upon the whole number of births in France, the males appear to be to the females nearly as 17 to 16; a proportion considerably different from that which has been usually assumed. It has been commonly reckoned that 22 boys were born for every 21 girls The Annuaire also contains an account of the progress of the population of Paris for the year 1830. The number of marriages which took place this year in the French capital was 7324; the number of births 28,587; and the number of deaths 27,466. Of the children born 10,007 were illegitimate; and of these, 7749 were abandoned by their parents. Of the deaths 524 were occasioned by small-pox. 1069 persons, namely 395 men, and 674 women, are enumerated as having attained to the age of between eighty and a hundred years. On the other hand, of the whole number of children born, 2615 males and 2184 females, making 4799 in all, are stated to have died before they were a year old. Of these, only 54 were cut off by small-pox. AN EMIGRANTS STRUGGLES. every eye was at work, and every glass in requisition, to Hermitage, on the Shannon, Van Dieman's Land, examine the favorite spot of our adoption. At first its 30th September, 1823. aspect was steep and wild, presenting little to the view LET not those "who go down to the sea in ships" flatter but hills on hills, covered with trees of a dusky brown themselves that they are about to leave the load of life-colour, the naked white stems of which gave them their cares, their sorrows, and their vanities-behind them, and to embark only their hopes, their pleasures, and their gentler affections. The Greek and Roman poets, who wrote some two thousand years ago, when human nature was pretty much the same as now, instruct us that our passions and opinions cling to us through every change of place and clime-that we cannot by crossing the high seas shake off our proper selves; and Horace, in particular, describes care boarding the galley, and mingling in the race-as fleeter even than the deer or the wind. But to quote Horace in this unclassic soil would be highly penal. If, therefore, you have not the original at hand, you must be content with a few staves from my expatriated muse, composed in the short intervals of labour, between the strokes of the axe, and the gratings of the saw: We urge in vain the courser's pace, The stag's device in vain we learn But misery finds a cabin there, And freight her with corroding care. And many a tender cord is broke. From canvas wing, and breezes fair? as It is im an uninviting appearance. But the sail up the Derwent With joy we set our foot on shore; and as walked along the wharf, which led us up to the town, I examined the ground with eagerness, thinking to find a marked distinction in even the earth of so newly discovered, and so distant a world. But the general appearance of nature is everywhere the same; and though I have not found to those in England, yet there is sufficient to remind me one indigenous vegetable or animal of a similar species that I am an inhabitant of the same ball of earth. Ho Hobart Town barren, and admits of no farming operations. A two We arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in the beginning of November. As we entered the bay, the Table Mountain, with the clouds resting and rolling on its surface, like a table-cloth, produced an effect somewhat bart Town is situated in a nook of the Derwent, at the sublime. We ascended it with great labour, but the foot of a Table Mountain, which is three quarters of view from these very high hills is not always so fine as a mile high. A rivulet flows from it, and waters the view of them. Cape Town is surrounded by high the town, turning several flour mills in its passage. romantic hills of an arid barren appearance. The inha-The land in the immediate vicinity is therefore steep and bitants are a mixture of Dutch, English, Malays, and Negro slaves. The town is built in the Dutch style, and has some fine streets and houses, but the climate is very stormy, and clouds of dust continually blow. No slave is allowed to go out after dark without a lantern, which has a curious effect on the parade at eight o'clock when the band plays. The Malays, like the French, are particularly neat in decorating their church-yards, in which they have gardeners always at work, converting the loathsome dreary sepulchre into an inviting place of religious instruction. I think Stoke church-yard, with its umbrageous yew tree, so eulogized by Gray, is the only one I was ever pleased with in England. There is a daily market at day-break, where the country people bring all their produce for sale. I was amused at seeing the waggon-loads of tigers' and lions' skins, bitter aloes, walnuts, oranges, &c. The waggons are built light, and drawn by twelve or twenty oxen, or sometimes horses. The mutton has no fat but on the tail, which has sometimes twenty-five pounds of it. Constantia, ten miles from the town, is the grand place for beauty of scenery and luxuriant trees, but I had not time to visit it. About six weeks after leaving the Cape of Good Hope we discovered land. As we approached the shore, "And since 'tis vain to combat, learn to fly." pieces of wood, split in the form of slates, and was but which, though in summer, sometimes roused us shiveran imperfect defence against the keen air at day-break, ing from our beds. Provisions, and every kind of labour, were very expensive; and as I was therefore desirous to get my family into the country as quickly as possible, I lost no time in waiting on the Lieutenant Governor, who received me very courteously, and I found my letters of introduction of the greatest service. The Governor is a man of polite easy manners, and has sation discovers at once how much he has the good of a strong claim to be considered a scholar; his converthe colony at heart. Indeed its prosperity seems to be his constant and only study. The usual way is to give in a list of the property you have to embark on the land, when an order is immediately sent to the surveyor to measure the quantity to which it entitles you, as soon as you have chosen the spot. Four of us set off together attended by a guide to look for land. There is but one road from Hobart Town, on which there is considerable traffic for a few miles. In the vicinity of the town the trees are nearly all cut down and consumed for fire-wood. As we proceeded, however, the landscape became more wooded, and hills on hills arose constantly to our view. The prevailing tree is a species of the Eucalyptus, which the prisoners have called the white gum, from the dead appearance of its bark. It is not a picturesque feature, owing to its total want of under branches, the foliage being entirely confined to the top, and its denuded trunk and limbs exhibiting a blasted and melancholy aspect. In some parts, however, the view is much more warm and pleasing, where another species of the same genus abounds, called the blue or black gum tree, which very much resembles the English elm, excepting that its leaves are less verdant, and, like all the trees in the island, evergreen. When the eye, therefore, ranges over the tops of the trees, the view is rich and pleasing, so far as fine woods, and sloping hills, destitute of buildings and of cultivation, can make it. The natives have a custom of burning the land in the dry season, in order to hunt the kangaroos, opossums, and other animals, on which they subsist. This practice has had the effect of thinning the woods, and totally eradicating the underwood; but while it deprives the trees of those fine hanging spreading branches, so beautiful in our English parks, it has yet covered the whole surface of the island with grass and pasturage. The natives, who are truly a wandering race, have also the custom of stripping the bark off the largest trees as high as they can reach, in order to build their huts. This of course kills the tree, which the next fire burns down. Their huts they also burn after a few days, having exhausted the game around them; they then decamp to a little distance, and repeat the process. Thus, you may form an idea of the general face of the country, everywhere clothed with grass of a dry withered appearance, and presenting at every step, trunks and branches of trees, either dead and half-consumed, or, if still alive, robbed of their under-foliage, and partially burnt; yet in some parts, where the valleys and plains are clear of wood, the landscape is very beautiful, and the mind cannot for a while be reconciled to the idea that it has never yet been the settled abode of man. At nine miles from Hobart Town we crossed the Derwent by a ferry-boat, and took the Launceston road. The river Jordan, a small stream, like the Brent above Brentford, winds and meanders among the valleys, watering many fine farms in its progress. Obeying, I know not what impulse, I pursued my way towards the Clyde, distant about forty-five miles from Hobart Town, -a river which, though twice the size of the Jordan, was hardly sufficient to satisfy my passion for water. I, therefore, pushed onward to a larger river, ten miles further up the country, beyond every settler, and at last determined to spend the remainder of my days on its banks. It is called the Shannon, and its banks are regarded as the classical ground of Van Dieman's Land, having been the resort of all the noted bushrangers for many years, and the scene of the death of their leader, Michael Howe, which occurred within a mile of my nouse. I remember when I used to look at Evans' Map of this island, and see the fine square measurement, I thought the land was level and fertile, but it is of a very different character. My land presents a very uneven surface, being composed throughout of hill and vale. The Shannon is a mountain stream, with more of the character of a torrent, than of a river. Where it runs placid, and "gentle, yet not dull," it is of the size of the Thames a little above Windsor; in other parts, it dashes with impetuosity over rocks, forming cascades and rapids of the most romantic kind. It is said to take its rise from a large lake in the interior of the island. The water is so pure that you can everywhere see the bottom, and so soft that it may be used in washing without soap. I have chosen my land close to its banks, at the mouth of a fine valley, which slopes for half a mile down from the hills; the opposite banks are high and rocky, forming a kind of barrier. Within half a mile of my western boundary flows another river, as large as the Shannon, called the Ouse or Big River, so that I am seated on a peninsula, for these rivers meet about two or three miles below; and if the hypothesis be correct, which derives both rivers from the same great lake, I am situated on an internal island, about thirty miles long, and from two to five broad. As soon as the hurry and bustle of settling are abated I propose an exploratory expedition, making a circuit of this island. I have already been twenty miles up, on a small three-day tour, with Mr. Scott, the surveyor, and we then found ourselves on the highest land of the whole island. As it may amuse you, I will briefly relate the particulars of our journey. Mr. Scott was furnished with a Scotch cloak bundled on his back, and I with a rug or blanket, formed of about twenty or thirty kangaroo skins, sewed neatly together with the dried sinews of the tail. You must here allow me to introduce, by way of episode, a short description of this interesting animal-the kangaroo. [Kangaroos.] I have a tame one now before me, lapping tea out of a saucer, and picking a bone like a monkey. They are about the size of a large sheep; their head and fore-quarters small; their ears in constant motion, like those of a hare or rabbit; the fore-legs are short; the paws furnished with five fingers, and used as hands, for they are never employed in walking. The hind foot terminates in one large hoof. By means of the hind legs, which are as long as the body, assisted by the tail, they proceed by leaps, so fast as frequently to outstrip the hounds. Thus, except when grazing, they are always upright, and, as a country convict, whom I have in the house, says, "they stand up like a mon." There is something so agile and buoyant in this animal's mode of leaping and standing, that it is in my opinion a very handsome creature. The flesh is not fat, but very savoury, and easily digested. They are very numerous in the country, and their paths and trails are of great assistance in travelling through the woods. The female, in common with the other quadrupeds of this region, has a pouch in which she carries the young, and within which the udder and teats are. I am now busy in fencing a lawn of about two acres before my door, in which I propose keeping several of these interesting creatures. [To be concluded in our next.] THE WEEK. MAY 8.-The birthday of Dr. Beilby Porteous, Bishop of London. This learned and pious prelate was born in the city of York, in 1731. He entered the university of Cambridge as one of the humblest order of students, or what is there called a sizer. His industry and talents, however, soon brought him distinction; and especially after the production of his English poem on 'Death,' which gained the Seatonian prize in 1759, he took his place in public estimation as one of the chief ornaments of the university. Having thus honourably made his way by his own merits to one of the fellowships in his college, he soon after obtained the patronage of Archbishop Secker, who in the first instance made him his chaplain, and eventually conferred upon him, among other appointments, the rectory of Lambeth and a prebend in the cathedral of Peterborough. In 1776 he was promoted to the bishopric of Chester, and in 1787 was translated to that of London, which he held till his death in 1808. The printed works of Bishop Porteous, besides his poem already mentioned, consist chiefly of Sermons, Charges, and other compositions on theological subjects. May 9.-The birthday of the celebrated modern musician Giovanni Paesiello, who was born at Tarento, in Italy, in the year 1740. Paesiello, who passed his life principally in his native country, with the exception of a residence of nine years in Russia, in the service of Catherine II., and another period of three years which he spent in Paris, and who died at Naples in 1816, was a composer of great elegance and sweetness, and his works have attained extensive popularity. He is the author of above seventy operas, besides a very great number of shorter pieces. SUPERSTITION OF GREEK SAILORS IN THE BLACK SEA. My old friend Mr. Z, some twenty years ago, took a passage from Odessa to Constantinople on board a Greek brig. It was winter. They had not been long at sea when a favourable wind sprung up, but it was unfortunately extremely violent, and accompanied by those thick fogs which prevail in the Black Sea during the bad season. The vessel flew on, but not a yard before them could they see clearly. They were at length, according to the Captain's calculation, near the dangerous Boghaz, or mouth of the narrow channel of the Bosphorus (not twenty miles from Constantinople), but how to hit that narrow opening was the difficulty! Every minute might throw them on a rocky shore. Whether they were on the Asiatic or European coast they knew not. The dense vapours, worse than a fog in the British channel, hung over them and around them-they could see nothing! Their situation would have been critical even to the most scientific seamen; but it was not by science and skill, but by the following charm that they attempted to extricate themselves. votes, that the Easter light should be lighted. This being done, the candle was placed in the lower part of a large hollowed pumpkin; a few holes were then made in the upper part of the pumpkin, which was put on and fastened to the lower part, enclosing the candle as in a lantern. For my sensible old friend Z- to laugh at this clumsy incantation would have been dangerous at such a moment: in the madness of their terror and from superstition they might have thrown him into the Black that it and it alone had dissipated the dangerous gloom, and that there was nothing like the charm of an Easter candle! ANCIENT USE OF TORTURE. C. M. F. THE frequent interference of the prerogative of the Crown with the undoubted principles of the common law, especially in state prosecutions, is a remarkable feature in the history of the administration of justice in this country in ancient times. This may be well illustrated by the instance of Torture. The practice of obtaining confessions or evidence by means of torture-a practice as absurd as it is cruel and unjust-has been always considered by writers on jurisprudence, both ancient and modern, as totally repugnant to the fundamental laws of England. Fortescue, who wrote his book on the laws of England so early as the reign of Henry VI., mentions the absence of torture as one of the advantages of the English law over the civil law, and the laws of most other nations. Lord Coke refers to this passage of Fortescue, and declares that the infliction of torture is against Magna Charta, and the principles of the constitution; and says, that "there is no one opinion in our books or judicial records for the maintenance of it." Sir Thomas Smith, who was a philosopher and a man of literature, as well as a statesman and lawyer, in his book on the English Govern. ment, written in the early part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, says, "It is against the law of England to torture, for the purpose of eliciting a confession of guilt; the practice savours too much of slavery for a free people. It is natural to an Englishman to despise death, but he They lighted additional lamps before the picture of cannot endure torture; hence the lightest kind of their patron, Saint Nicholas, which occupied the post of torture is more abhorrent to our people than death itself, honour in the cabin; they next produced two famous for in no country do malefactors go to execution more wax candles that had been duly blessed and sanctified in intrepidly than in England." It is quite clear, upon their church at home; and here arose a long and noisy these and many other authorities which might be mendispute, animated with oaths and curses, about which of tioned, that by law the application of torture was unithe two candles should be employed; the one conse-versally admitted to be unjustifiable; but what has been crated at Christmas, the period of our Saviour's birth, or that consecrated at Easter, the period of his suffering and resurrection. At last it was settled by a majority of the practice? There is no period of the history of England anterior to the Commonwealth (before 1648), in which torture has not been used as a matter of course in all state prosecutions, at the mere discretion of the Privy Council, and uncontrolled by any law besides the will of the Sovereign. With the strong language of the authorities above cited in his mind, the reader may possibly be startled at this assertion; it will, therefore, be proper to adduce some evidence to prove its truth. In 1468, not many years after Fortescue wrote, Sir Thomas Coke, Lord-Mayor of London, was tried for high treason, and found guilty of misprision of treason, upon the single testimony of one Hawkins, given under torture. Hawkins himself was convicted of treason upon his own confession on the rack, and executed. In 1571, the Duke of Norfolk was found guilty of high treason, chiefly upon the evidence of his servants, who were examined under torture. There were many other instances of torture in the reign of Elizabeth, sometimes applied on very slight occasions. Lord Bacon relates of her, that once, when she could not be persuaded that a book, containing treasonable matter, was really written by the person whose name it bore, she said, with great indignation, that "she would have him racked, to produce his author." Bacon replied, Bacon replied, "Nay, madam, he is a doctor, never rack his person, rack his style; let him have pen, ink, and paper, and help of books, and be enjoined to continue his story, and I will undertake, by collating his style, to judge whether he were the author." In the reign of James I. the practice was still continued. Two warrants from the Privy Council, dated the 19th and 20th April, 1603, before the King's arrival in London, for applying the torture to one Philip May, are to be found in the State-Paper-Office; one of which is directed to the Lord Chief Justice (Popham), the Attorney-General (Coke), and the Solicitor-General (Fleming); and is signed by several members of the Privy Council, and amongst others, by Lord-Chancellor Ellesmere, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is not certain that Guy Fawkes was actually placed upon the rack, though it is very probable that he was; for the King's warrant for the torture is still preserved, which concludes in these remarkable words: using the gentler torture first, et sic per gradus ad ima tenditur, (and thus by degrees we may proceed to extremities), and so God speed you in your good work." The original depositions of Fawkes at the State-Paper Office furnish a very strong argument that he actually suffered the torture. The signature "Guido Fawkes" to the earlier depositions, in which he confesses nothing material, is written boldly and firmly; but the name subscribed to the last and fullest statement, in which he declares his accomplices, is written in so faint and trembling a hand as scarcely to be legible. On inspecting the signature, the impression is almost irresistible that it was made by a man in great bodily agony. In 1614, Peachum, who was accused of high treason for certain passages in a sermon written by him, and found in his study, but never preached or published, was examined upon interrogatories "before torture, in torture, between torture, and after torture." There is a warrant from the Privy Council in 1620, still extant, by which Sir Allen Apsley, the Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir Henry Mountague, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and Sir Thomas Coventry, the King's Solicitor-General, are authorized to examine one Peacock, and to put him to the torture "either of the manacles or the rack." This warrant is signed both by Lord Chancellor Bacon and Sir Edward Coke. So soon after this transaction as the year 1628, the Judges delivered an unanimous opinion against the legality of torture, in the case of Felton, who had stabbed the Duke of Buckingham. The following are related as the circumstances under which this opinion was given :-" Afterwards Felton was called before the Council, where he confessed much concerning his inducement to the murder. The Council much pressed him to confess who set him on to do such a bloody act, and if the Puritans had no hand therein. He denied they had, and so he did to the last, that no person whatsoever knew anything of his intention or purpose to kill the Duke; that he revealed it to none living." Doctor Laud, Bishop of London, being then at the Council table, told him, if he would not confess he must go to the rack. Felton replied, "If it must be so, he could not tell whom he might nominate in the extremity of torture; and if what he should say then must go for truth, he could not tell whether his Lordship (meaning the Bishop of London), or which of their Lordships he might name, for torture might draw unexpected things from him.'After this he was asked no more questions, but sent back to prison." Notwithstanding the formal opinion of the Judges, in the case of Felton, there is no doubt that the practice continued during the whole reign of Charles I. as a warrant for applying the torture to one Archer, in 1640, is to be seen at the State-Paper-Office This, however, appears to have been the last occasion on which this odious practice was resorted to. There is no trace of it during the Commonwealth; and in the reign of Charles II., where we might have expected to find it, there is not a single well-authenticated instance of the application of the torture. The following account of the kinds of torture chiefly employed in the Tower is taken from a note to the eighth volume of Dr. Lingard's History. 1st. The rack was a large open frame of oak, raised three feet from the ground. The prisoner was laid under it on his back on the floor; his wrists and ancles were attached by cords to two collars at the ends of the frame; these were moved by levers in opposite directions, till the body rose to a level with the frame. Questions were then put, and, if the answers did not prove satisfactory, the sufferer was stretched more and more till the bones started from their sockets. 2d. The scavenger's daughter was a broad hoop of iron, so called, consisting of two parts, fastened to each other by a hinge. The prisoner was made to kneel on the pavement, and to contract himself into as small a compass as he could. Then the executioner, kneeling on his shoulders, and having introduced the hoop under his legs, compressed the victim close together, till he was able to fasten the extremities over the small of the back. The time allotted to this kind of torture was an hour and a half, during which time it commonly hap pened that from excess of compression the blood started from the nostrils; sometimes, it was believed, from the extremities of the hands and feet. 3d. Iron gauntlets, which could be contracted by the aid of a screw. These were also called Manacles. They served to compress the wrists, and to suspend the prisoner in the air, from two distant points of a beam. He was placed on three pieces of wood piled one on the other, which, when his hands had been made fast, were successively withdrawn from under his feet. “I felt," said F. Gerard, one of the sufferers, "the chief pain in my breast, belly, arms, and hands. I thought that all the blood in my body had run into my arms, and began to burst out of my finger ends. This was a mistake; but the arms swelled, till the gauntlets were buried within the flesh. After being thus suspended an hour, I fainted, and when I came to myself, I found the executioners supporting me in their arms; they replaced the pieces of wood under my feet: but as soon as I was recovered, removed them again. Thus I continued hanging for |