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letter to his brother, a respectable young man in the navy, requesting his company to sit up with him all night, which would be the last they would ever spend together; and his coming to him seemed to afford him much satisfaction. In the morning, when the farewell signal was given, a truly affecting scene took place between the two brothers; and, for

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the moment, Henry's spirit seemed to fail him; but when they were separated he soon resumed his former composure. He was dressed in mourning on the morning of execution; and underwent his dreadful fate in penitence, and with fortitude, before Newgate, on the 23d of June, 1802.

FRANCIS FINLAY, EXECUTED FOR FORGERY.

HERE shall we find verified the old proverbs, that Honesty is the best policy, and that Idleness is the root of all evil.' This unfortunate man, who possessed the most gentlemanly appearance and address, and was connected with several families of respectability and fortune, was a native of Boston, in Lincolnshire, where his father, being a man of credit and easy fortune, was enabled to gratify the strong ambition which he felt to give his son a polite and liberal education. Mr. Finlay passed through the rudiments of his education with eclat, and executed the tasks assigned him by his masters with a promptitude and accuracy that seemed to justify the most sanguine expectations of his delighted parents and friends. At a very early age he betrayed a strong attachment to a military life. The father, though with the greatest reluctance, was persuaded to indulge the ruling passion of his son, and procured him an ensign's commission in a marching regiment. This regiment was soon after ordered abroad, where his bravery and good conduct gained him the esteem and affection of his companions, and caused him to be promoted to the rank of lieutenant. When his regiment returned to England, Mr. Finlay was ordered upon the recruiting service; and from

this period may be dated the commencement of that career of vice which at last rendered him amenable to the laws of his country.

Idleness, that rock upon which so many have been wrecked, called forth his latent propensities with irresistible violence. Possessing an uncommon flow of animal spirits, he was extremely alive to the pleasures of society; and, having contracted an intimacy with several persons of a dissipated turn of mind, he entered into all their excesses with eagerness. It may be easily imagined that his lieutenant's pay was very inadequate to support a life of excess and libertinism. But the force of habit became unconquerable: his commission was disposed of to recruit his finances, and to enable him a little longer to indulge a violent propensity to gaming, which he had contracted in the society of his fellow-libertines. This could not hold out long, and he was at last hurried to the adoption of the most unjustifiable and desperate measures to maintain his credit with his associates.

About this period he married the daughter of a respectable shopkeeper; but his wife's fortune was inconsiderable, and therefore soon dissipated in his favorite pursuits. Deprived of every honest resource of supplying his ruined finauces, he

was at length, in a moment of desperation, driven to the commission of forgery; for which he was apprehended, and brought to trial at the Old Bailey, December 3, 1802, before Lord Alvanley. He was indicted for feloniously forging, and uttering the same, knowing it to be forged, a certain paper, purporting to be a bill of exchange, drawn by Captain W. Foote, of the royal navy, on James Sykes, navy-agent, of Arundel Street, and accepted by him.

It appeared in evidence that the prisoner went to a Mr. Earnshaw, a watch-maker in High Holborn, on the 26th of September, and bespoke a gold time-piece, which was to be got ready for him in the course of a week, and for which he agreed to pay sixty-five guineas: accordingly, on the 16th of October, he called again when, the time-piece, being ready, was delivered to him, and he paid for it with two bills, one of which was that laid in the indictdictment. Soon after Mr. Earnshaw sent the bill to Mr. Sykes, when it was instantly discovered to be a forgery. The next day (which was on the 17th of October) the prisoner offered the time-piece as a pledge to a pawnbroker, William Burkitt, who seeming to doubt its value, the prisoner produced Earnshaw's receipt; and in consequence of Burkitt intimating that he would advance the money, if upon inquiry hr_found it to be of that value, the prisoner agreed to call again in an hour. Burkitt sent to Earnshaw's in the mean time; the forgery was detected; and the prisoner, on his return, was taken into custody.

The prisoner, in his defeuce, set up the plea of insanity, and called one witness, the Chevalier Ruspini, who gave him a good character. There being no evidence in support of a deranged mind, the jury pro

nounced him Guilty; but, on account of his excellent character and meritorious services, recommended him to the mercy of the sovereign; there were, however, fourteen other similar indictments against him.

Finlay's demeanour, during his trial, was one of modest dignity, which bespoke a consciousness of his crime, without any appearance of being appalled at the fate to which he was consigned by the violated laws of his country. When his sentence was pronounced he listened with a degree of calm resignation, and the air of a man who was prepared to suffer deserved punishment for a crime of which he was conscious that he was guilty."!

This unhappy man was only thirtyseven years of age, and was both a husband and a father. After his death-warrant was signed by his majesty, the little time that intervened between that and his execution was employed in a manner the most exemplary, in preparing for that awful and ignominious crisis when he should be separated from every thing that was dear to him on this side eternity. He never attempted to palliate his crime, but displayed the deepest contrition for his guilt, and the most penitent resignation. He was attended almost constantly by the Rev. Mr. Crowther, rector of Christ Church, Newgate Street, and, in the absence of that gentleman, by one of his fellow-prisoners, of the name of John Manley, who humanely administered all the consolation his unfortunate situation admitted of, read to him, and joined him in prayer. A gentleman, who did not disdain to be considered as the friend of the unfortunate man, visited him daily, and assisted him with money, and other necessaries.

On the morning previous to his execution he was visited by his wife

and child in prison, along with the gentleman to whom we have just now alluded, and the prisoner, Manley. The scene that passed may be more easily imagined than described. The reader may picture to himself the anguish of a wife and mother, who had been nurtured in delicacy and tenderness, upon the eve of losing a beloved husband, by the hands of the common executioner. She was then about the age of thirty-two, of the most ele. gant manuers, and handsome form. The child was about eight months old. The sensatious of the unfortunate criminal were most agonizing when he reflected upon that infatuated course of life which had not only brought himself to an ignominious end, but had also left his beloved wife exposed to all the horrors of poverty and disgrace. Upon a promise from the gentleman before mentioned to protect his wife and child, and screen them from the miseries of want and the sneers of an unpitying world, he became more composed. She lingered with him till four o'clock, when it became absolutely necessary to separate, and

she was carried by two men to a hackney-coach in a state of insensibility. Even the turnkeys, albeit unused to the melting mood,' did not behold this scene unmoved.

On the morning of his execution, February 9, 1803, he seemed to look forward to his fate, not only with resignation, but satisfaction. He dressed with the same neatness as usual, and ate his breakfast with the utmost composure; after which Mr. Crowther passed an hour with him in fervent devotion. At half past eight o'clock he mounted the scaffold with his hat and gloves on, and was launched into eternity,

The body was cut down after it had hung the usual time, and at one o'clock a hearse attended to convey it away; but, upon being inspected by the sheriffs, it was found to be still warm, though it had been cut down three hours before. The sheriffs thought it their duty to keep it for some time longer, on account of this extraordinary circumstance, and ordered that it should be called for at four o'clock, which was accordingly done.

EDWARD POWELL,

EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF MR. FRAMPTON.

THE unhappy fate of Mr. Frampton serves to confirm the old saying,Never interfere between man and wife.'

Edward Powell's situation under government, at the Portsmouth Dock-yard, was very respectable, yielding an income of between four and five hundred pounds per an

num.

He married the daughter of Mr. Frampton, of Portsmouth, a gentleman much respected, and with her, for a short time only, were his prospects of happiness. The young wife, too inexperienced, perhaps, for

the marriage state, and too giddy for the sober and experienced years of her husband, had, it seems, been reproved by him on this head, of which she, still more unadvised, complained to her father, who taking her part, the husband sought revenge.

It appeared that he had long brooded on the destruction of the man, though her parent, who interfered between him and his wife; and meeting Mr. Frampton on the Common Hard, at Portsmouth, he pulled a pistol from his pocket, and fired at him, without effect. Finding his devoted subject unhurt, h

took out another, and shot him dead on the spot. For this horrid deed he was condemned at Winchester.

He was carried to the place of execution along with Gregory Bentham, quarter-master of the Scipio man of war, for shooting with a pistol, in a scuffle, William

Barnes, cockswain of the said ship.
The deceased, in this case, had
been sent after Bentham, who had
exceeded his leave of absence, and
refusing to return, on the cock-
swain's proceeding to enforce his
orders, was shot.

They were executed on a tempo-
rary gallows, near Winchester.

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JOSEPH WALL, ESQ.

EXECUTED FOR ORDERING A SOLDIER TO BE SO UNMERCIFULLY
FLOGGED, AS TO OCCASION HIS DEATH.

MR. WALL was descended from a good family in Ireland, and entered into the army at an early age. He was of a severe and rather unaccommodating temper; nor was he much liked among the officers.

Mr. Wall was Lieutenant-governor of Senegambia, but acted as chief, the first appointment being vacant. His emoluments were very considerable, as, besides his military ap

VOL. III.

pointments, he was superintendant of trade to the colony. It was an office he held but a short time-not more than two years; during which he committed the crime for which he suffered, by ordering Benjamin Armstrong to receive eight hundred lashes, on the 10th of July, 1782, of which he died in five days afterwards.

His family were Roman Catho

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lics; but of course he conformed to the Protestant Church, or he could not have beld his commission.

As soon as the account of the murder reached the board of admiralty, a reward was offered for his apprehension; but, having evaded justice in 1784, he lived on the Continent, sometimes in France, and sometimes in Italy, but mostly in France, under an assumed name, where he was admitted into good

company.

He particularly frequented the society of the officers of his own country, who served in the French army, and was well known at the Scotch and Irish Colleges in Paris. In 1797 he returned to this country, as if by a kind of fatality. He was frequently advised, by the friend who procured him the lodg ing, to leave the country again, and questioned as to the motive for remaining: he never attempted, however, to give any; but appeared, even at the time when he was so studiously concealing himself, to have a distant intention of making a surrender, in order to take his trial. It is very evident his mind was not at ease, and that he was incapable of taking any firm resolution either one way or another. And even the manner in which he did give himself up showed a singular want of determination, leaving it to chance whether the minister should send for him or not; for, rather than go to deliver himself up, he wrote to say he was ready to do so,' less becoming, but not a less dan gerous mode of encountering danger. He was allied, by marriage, to a noble family; and his wife visited him frequently when in his conceal ment at Lambeth; and since that time he lived in Upper Thornhaugh Street, Bedford Square, where he was apprehended. It is most probable that, had he not written to

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the secretary of state, the matter had been so long forgotten, that he would never have been any way molested.

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At the commencement of the trial, which took place January 20, 1802, the prisoner said he was very hard of hearing, and therefore requested that he might be allowed to sit by his counsel. The Chief Baron of the Exchequer, chief justice in the commission, with whom appeared Mr. Justice Rooke and Mr. Justice Lawrence, said to the prisoner, That is perfectly impossible; there is a regular place appointed by the law for persons in your situation; we can make no distinction of the sort you desire; that would be invidious.' It was proved by the witnesses that Armstrong was far from being undutiful in his behaviour; he was, however, tied to the gun-carriage; black men, brought there for the purposenot the drummers, who in the ordinary course of things would have had to flog this man, supposing him to have deserved flogging;-but black men were ordered to inflict on Armstrong the punishment ordered. Each man took his turn, and gave this unhappy sufferer twenty-five lashes, until he had received the number of eight hundred; and the instrument with which the punishment was inflicted was not a cat-o'-nine-tails, which is the usual instrument, but a piece of rope of a greater thickness, which was much more severe than the cat-o'-ninetails. The rope was exhibited in evidence. While this punishment was inflicting, the prisoner urged the black men to be severe; he said, among other things, Cut him to the heart and to the liver.' Armstrong, the subject of this punishment, applied to him for mercy; but the observation of the defendant on this occasion was, that the sick

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