of juries; though her effeminacy indeed was remarked by most. At Christmas, 1765, Mrs. Bentley sent again with the same demand for 10l., and with the like threatening obtained it; flushed with success, and not yet contented, she within a fortnight after sent again for the like sum, which James at that time happened not to have in the house; however, still fearful and cautious of a discovery, she sent her 57. The supposed wife of James How died, and the same unconscionable Mrs. Bentley now thought of some scheme to enlarge her demand: for this purpose she got two fellows to execute her plan, the one a mulatto, who was to pass for one of justice Fielding's gang, the other to be equipped with a short pocket staff, and to act as constable. In these characters they came to the White Horse, and inquired for Mr. How, who answered to the name; they told her that they came from justice Fielding to take her into custody for a robbery committed by her forty-four years ago, and moreover, that she was a woman. Terrified to the greatest degree on account of her sex, though conscious of her innocence in regard to the robbery, an intimate acquaintance, one Mr. Williams a pawnbroker, happening to be passing by, she called to him, and told him the business these two men came about, and withal, added this declaration to Mr. Williams, I am really a woman, but innocent of their charge.

On this sincere confession he told her she should not be carried to Fielding, but go before her own bench of justices; that he would just step home, put on a clean shirt, and be back in five minutes. At his departure, the two fellows threatened James How, but at the same time told her, that if she would give them 1007. they would trouble her no more: if not, she should be hanged in sixteen days, and they should have 40l. a piece, each, for hanging her. Notwithstanding these threatenings she would not give them the money, waiting with impatience till the return of Mr. Williams: on her denial, they immediately forced her out, and took her near the fields, still using the same threats; adding with imprecations, had you not better give us the 1007. than be hanged? after a while they got her through the fields, and brought her to Garlick hill, to the house of the identical Mrs. Bentley, where with threats they got her to

give a draft on Mr. Williams to Bentley, payable in a short time; which when they had obtained, they sent her about her business. Williams came back punctual to his promise, and was surprised to find her gone he immediately went to the bench of justices to see if she was there, and not finding her, went to Sir John Fielding's, and not succeeding, came back, when James soon after returned; when she related to him all that had passed. The discovery was now public. On Monday, July 14, 1766, Mrs. Bentley came to Mr. Williams with the draft, to know if he would pay it, being due the Wednesday after: he told her if she came with it when due, he should know better what to say; in the mean time, he applied to the bench of justices for advice, and Wednesday being come, they sent a constable with others to be in the house. Mrs. Bentley punctually came for the payment of the draft, bringing with her the mulatto man, both of whom were taken into custody, and carried to the bench of justices sitting at the Angel in White-chapel, where Mr. Williams, attended with James How, dressed in the proper habit of her sex, now again under her real name of Mary East. The alteration of her dress from that of a man to that of a woman, appeared so great, that together with her awkward behavior in her new assumed habit, it caused great diversion.

In the course of their examination Mrs. Bentley denied sending for the 1007.; the mulatto declared likewise, if she had not sent him for it he should never have gone. In short, they so contradicted each other, that they discovered the whole villany of their designs. In regard to the ten pounds which Bentley had before obtained, she in her defence urged that Mary East had sent it to her. After the strongest proof of their extortion and assault, they were denied any bail, and both committed to Clerkenwell Bridewell to be tried for the offence: the other man made off, and was not afterwards heard of. At the following session the mulatto, whose name was William Barwick, was tried for defrauding the female husband of money, and was convicted; when he was sentenced to four years imprisonment, and to stand four times in the pillory.

During the whole of their cohabiting together as man and wife, which was thirty-four years, they lived in good

credit and esteem, having during this time traded for many thousand pounds, and been to a day punctual to their payments: they had also by honest means saved up between 4000l. and 5000l. between them. It is remarkable that it has never been observed that they ever dressed a joint of meat in their whole lives, nor ever had any meetings or the like at their house. They never kept either maid or boy; but Mary East, the late James How, always used to draw beer, serve, fetch in and carry out pots always herself, so peculiar were they in each particular.

PRESSING TO DEATH.

A MOST barbarous law formerly prevailed in this country which imposed the punishment of pressing an individual to death if he refused to plead on his trial. Several instances of its being put into execution have occurred in the history of the English criminal code.

The Yorkshire Tragedy, a play, which some critics attribute to Shakspeare, is founded on the tragical tale of Mr. Calverly, a gentleman of good family in the north of England, who in a fit of jealousy killed his wife, and refused to plead that he might preserve his estate to his child; he was pressed to death.

At the Nottingham Assizes, in 1735, a person commonly reputed deaf and dumb from his infancy, committed a murder. When brought to trial, two persons swore positively that he had been heard to speak. He was desired to plead, but pleaded not. He was taken into an adjoining room and actually pressed to death, without uttering a word, which there is reason to believe he never could do.

At the Kilkenny Assizes, in 1740, one Matthew Ryan was tried for highway robbery. When he was apprehended he pretended to be a lunatic, stripped himself in the jail, threw away his clothes, and could not be prevailed on to put them on again, but went as he was to the court to take his trial. He then affected to be dumb, and would not plead; on which the judges ordered a jury to be impannelled, to inquire and give their opinion whether he was

mute and lunatic by the hand of God, or wilfully so. The jury returned in a short time, and brought in a verdict of "Wilful and affected dumbness and lunacy." The judges on this desired the prisoner to plead; but he still pretended to be insensible to all that was said to him. The law now called for the peine forte et dure; but the judges compassionately deferred awarding it until a future day, in the hope, that he might in the mean time acquire a juster sense of his situation. When again brought up, however, the criminal persisted in his refusal to plead : and the court at last pronounced the dreadful sentence, that he should be pressed to death. This sentence was accordingly executed upon him two days after, in the public market place of Kilkenny. As the weights were heaping on the wretched man, he earnestly supplicated to be hanged; but it being beyond the power of the sheriff to deviate from the mode of punishment prescribed in the sentence, even this was an indulgence which could no longer be granted to him.

Another instance is related in the annals of Newgate, of one William Spiggot, who suffered in the same manner.

Before he was put into the press, the ordinary of Newgate endeavored to dissuade him from hastening his own death in such a manner, and thereby depriving himself of that time which the law allowed him to repent in: to which he only answered, if you come to take care of my soul, I shall regard you; but if you come about my body, I must desire to be excused, for I cannot hear one word. At the next visit the chaplain found him lying in the vault, upon the bare ground, with three hundred and fifty pounds weight upon his breast, and then prayed by him, and several times asked him, why he would hazard his soul by such obstinate kind of self-murder. But all the answer that he made was pray for me, pray for me. He sometimes lay silent under the pressure, as if insensible of pain, and then again would fetch his breath very quick and short. Several times he complained that they had laid a cruel weight upon his face, though it was covered with nothing but a thin cloth, which was afterwards removed, and laid more light and hollow; yet he still complained of the prodigious weight upon his face, which might be caused by the blood being forced up

thither, and pressing the veins as violently as if the force had been externally on his face.

When he had remained half an hour under this load, and fifty pounds weight more laid on him, being in all four hundred, he told those that attended him he would plead.

Immediately the weights were at once taken off, the cords cut asunder, he was raised up by two men, some brandy was put into his mouth to revive him, and he was carried to take his trial.

The reasons he gave for enduring the press were, that his effects might be preserved for the good of his family, that none might reproach his children by telling them their father was hanged, and that Joseph Lindsey might not triumph in saying, he had sent him to Tyburn. He seemed to be much incensed against this Lindsey; for, says he, I was once wounded, in danger of my life, by rescuing him when he was near being taken, and yet he afterwards made himself an evidence against me.

The press yard in Newgate was so named because it was the place for inflicting this punishment.

TRUE HEROISM, OR THE PHYSICIAN OF MARSEILLES.

WHILST the plague raged violently at Marseilles, every link of affection was broken, the father turned from the child, the child from the father; cowardice and ingratitude no longer excited indignation. Misery is at its height when it thus destroys every generous feeling, thus dissolves every tie of humanity! the city became a desert, grass grew in the streets; a funeral met you at every step.

The physicians assembled in a body at the Hotel de Ville, to hold a consultation on the fearful disease, for which no remedy had yet been discovered. After a long deliberation, they decided unanimously, that the malady had a peculiar and mysterious character, which opening a corpse alone might develope—an operation it was impossible to attempt, since the operator must infallibly become a victim in a few hours, beyond the power of human art to save him, as the violence of the attack would