given against him, and in particular his confessions to Baldwin. He was, he further declared, to have been rewarded by a commission in the American army for setting fire to the dock-yard at Plymouth; and fully admitted the justice of his sentence for a crime so heinous. FRANCIS MERCIER, OTHERWISE LOUIS DE BUTTE, EXECUTED FOR MURDER. THIS malefactor was a Frenchman, and was convicted at the sessions held at the Old Bailey, on the 6th of December, 1777, of the murder of Mons. Jaques Mondroyte, his countryman, attended by singular circumstances of treachery and premeditated cruelty. The unfortunate Jaques Mondroyte was a jeweller and watch maker of Paris, and had made a journey to London, in order to find a market for different articles of his manufacture. His stock consisted of curious and costly trinkets, worth, as was computed, a few thousand pounds. He took lodgings in Prince's Street, and engaged Mercier, who had resided some time in London, as his interpreter, on liberal gratuity, and treated him as a friend. a It appeared that the ungrateful villain had long determined upon murdering his employer, in order effectually to possess himself of the whole of his valuable property. To this diabolical end, he gave orders for an instrument to be made of a singular construction, and which-so surely does the evil genius, after tempting mortals to sin, leave a clue for their detection-was a principal means of leading thereto. It was shaped somewhat like an Indian tomahawk, and this instrument of death he concealed until an opportunity offered to effect his detestable purpose. One day, his employer, Mondroyte, invited him to spend the evening: they played at cards, sang some French songs, and took a cheerful glass, but with that mode. ration from which Frenchmen sel dom depart. Thus the time passed until it grew late, when the interpreter was asked to stay the night, to which, after pretending to hesitate, he assented. As soon as the inhabitants were wrapped in sleep Mercier took from the lining of his coat, where he constantly carried it, the fatal weapon, with which he struck the unconscious victim repeatedly on the head until he killed him. He then thrust the body into one of the trunks in which the owner had brought over his merchandise, and, after plundering the apartments, locked the doors, and made his escape. On the next day he had the effrontery to return to the house, and to inquire whether Mons. Mondroyte had set off; pretending that he had proposed a journey into the country; and the people of the house, concluding that he had let himself out before they had risen, and which accounted for their find. ing the street door on the latch, replied that he must have departed, giving that circumstance as a reason for such belief. This audaci. ous farce was acted by the murderer for some days, during which time he frequently called to know whether his friend had returned. The family, however, beginning to entertain suspicions of some foul play, procured a ladder, entered the chamber window, and soon discovered the body crammed into the trunk, being only two feet four inches long, and beginning to pu trefy. There appeared on the head several deep wounds. A warrant was granted to appreBend Mercier, who was taken just as he was alighting from a postchaise, in which he had been jaunting with a woman of the town. In his lodgings, and on his person, were found sixteen gold watches, some of great value; a great num. ber of brilliant diamond and other rings; a variety of gold trinkets; and seventy-five guineas. On his examination he confessed the fact, which added to the proof that the manufactured articles had been the property of Mondroyte; and, after a patient trial, he was convicted, and sentenced to be hanged on the following Monday. He was carried to execution opposite the place where he committed the murder, and no man ever met death with more dread. He used every evasion to prolong the fate hour, repeatedly craving time for his devotions, until the sheriff, perceiving his motive, gave signal, and he was turned off, on the 8th of December, amidst the execrations of the surrounding spectators. 'This wretch, who, as we have observed, showed the utmost fear in meeting his deserved fate, was perhaps, of all criminals whom we have recorded, the least cautious in concealing himself from the hands of Justice. Could be, who had long lived in London, suppose that so horrid a crime could remain concealed? Did he suppose that, when the mangled body was found, no suspicion would attach to him? But, happily, as we have often shown, murder, under the most artful concealment, sooner or later, will bring down vengeance on the head of the perpetrator. THE REVEREND BENJAMIN RUSSEN, THIS man was master of the subscription charity-school at Bethnal Green, in which had been bred up a poor girl named Anne Mayne. At the sessions held at the Old Bailey in October, 1777, Benjamin Russen, clerk, was indicted for having committed a rape on the said Anne Mayne, on the 18th of June preceding. The girl deposed that, when Mrs. Russen lay in, the prisoner desired that she (Mayne) might stay below stairs with him, while he went to sleep after dinner, lest he should fall into the fire; and that he took this opportunity to perpetrate the fact with which he was charged; and, after it was committed, said that, if she told her mother, sister, or any body of it, he would flog her severely. She proved a second commission of a similar fact, during which he looked out at the door, in apprehension that somebody was coming; but this did not happen to be the case. It appeared, likewise, that the crime was committed a third time; but it would be indelicate in the highest degree to recount the particulars of a fact of this nature. A surgeon, who was present when Mr. Russen was carried before Justice Wilmot, deposed that, on examination of the girl, he did not discover that any absolute violence had been committed. There were three other indict ments against Russen of a similar nature, but he was acquitted of them all. He now proceeded to call several persons to his character, who spoke well of him as far as they knew. In his defence he denied the fact, and pleaded the malice of his ene mies, who, he said, had charged him with those offences to deprive him of his place. He urged the favorable representation of the surgeon, who had sworn that the child had not been materially injured; and insisted that, at the time the fact was charged to have been committed, he was so ill as to keep his chamber. By endeavoring to prove this he proved too much; for the witness swore that he kept his chamber two months successively, contrary to the tenor of all the other witnesses; so that the jury were in duced to think that he had not kept his chamber even one month. The counsel for the prisoner la bored hard to adduce some proofs of his innocence; but the jury brought in a verdict that the prisoner was guilty; in consequence of which he received sentence of death. After conviction the behaviour of Mr. Russen was exceedingly proper for a man in his unhappy situation. No very extraordinary exertions were made to obtain a pardon for him, because it was presumed it would not have been granted. On the morning of execution Mr. Russen was taken from Newgate to Tyburn in a mourning-coach. Just before he left the prison, seeing a number of people about him, he made use of this emphatical expression, Stand clear! look to your selves! I am the first hypocrite in Sion! The parting scene between himself and his son was extremely affecting. He was attended in the coach by the Ordinary of Newgate (the Reverend Mr. Hughes), a sheriff's of ficer, and an undertaker, who had engaged to conduct the funeral. At the place of execution Russen seemed to have a proper sense of his ast wicked life; but, in regard to de crime for which he suffered, he thought himself ill treated, as he always asserted that he had never been guilty of a rape, though he acknowledged, a day or two before his death, that he had taken liberties with the child which were highly unbecoming. Previous to the pray. ers commonly used at the place of execution he made a long extempore prayer, and earnestly exhorted the surrounding multitude to take warning by his fate. He likewise censured the indecency of the people, who stood near the gallows with their hats on, and with apparent unconcern, during the time of prayer; and observed that the place where unhappy victims are to suffer the sentence of the law should be held as sacred as a church. He therefore requested the spectators to be uncovered, and to join in their supplications for him to Almighty God, which accordingly several of them complied with; and, after having prayed for his wife and helpless children, he once more recommended his soul to the mercy of God, and was then launched into eternity. On the way to execution the mob insulted Russen: but the propriety of his behaviour at the fatal tree had an evident effect on the spectators; and, when his body was cut down, it was put into a hearse, and delivered to his friends for interment. Benjamin Russen was executed at Tyburn on the 12th of December, 1777. It is with pain that the pen of delicacy touches a subject of this nature; and this pain is increased when we consider that the object of our remarks was in a line of life that ought to have induced him to set the best example to others. A clergyman who is a schoolinaster is bound by a double tie to exhibit every mark of his attention to the duties of religion and morality; and, when he fails of this duty, his ex ample is presumed to have a worse influence than that of a man differ. ently situated. Mr. Russen had a wife and six children, which was no slight aggravation of his crime. JOHN HOLMES AND PETER WILLIAMS, THESE impious robbers are vulgarly termed, in London, resurrection men, but should rather be call ed sacrilegious robbers of our holy Church, not even confining the unnatural crime to men alone, for the gentler sex are connected in this horrid traffic, whose business it is to strip off the shroud, or whatever garments in which the body may have been wrapped, and to sell them, while the men, through the darkness of night, drag the naked bodies to be anatomized. Though it matters little where we return to our original dust, yet there is something offensive to the living to hear of graves being violated for this base purpose; and to know that the remains of a parent, a wife, or a child, have been thus removed, is shocking to our nature. When Hunter, the famous anatomist, was in full practice, he had a surgical theatre behind his house in Windmill Street, where he gave lectures to a very numerous class of pupils. To this place such numbers of dead bodies were brought, during the winter season, that the mob rose several times, and were upon the point of pulling down his house. He had a well dug in the back part of his premises, in which was thrown the putrid flesh, and with it alkalis, in order to hasten its consumption. Numberless are the instances of dead bodies being seized on their way to the surgeons. Hackney coachmen, for an extra fare, and porters with hampers, are often employed by these resurrection men for this purpose. A monthly publication, in March, 1776, says, The remains of more than twenty dead bodies were discovered in a shed in Tottenham Court Road, supposed to have been deposited there by traders to the surgeons; of whom there is one, it is said, in the Borough, who makes an open profession of dealing in dead bodies, and is well known by the name of the Resurrectionist.' Still more shocking is it to be told that men who are paid for protecting the sacred deposit of the mortal remains of their fellow-parishioners are often confederates, as the present case will demonstrate, Holmes, the principal villain in this case, was grave-digger of St. George's, Bloomsbury. Williams was his assistant; and a woman, named Esther Donaldson, an accomplice. They were all indicted for stealing the body of Mrs. Jane Sainsbury, who departed this life on the 9th of October then last past, and the corpse was interred in the buryingground of St. George's, above mentioned, on the Monday following. They were detected before they could secure their booty; and the widower, however unpleasant, determined to prosecute them. In order to their conviction, he had to undergo the mental pain of viewing and identifying the remains of his wife! The grave-digger and his deputy were convicted at the Middlesex court of quarter-sessions for December, 1777, on the fullest evidence; and the acquittal of the woman was much regretted, as no doubt remained of her equal guilt. She therefore was released, but Holmes and Williams were sentenced to six months' imprisonment, and to be whipped twice, on their bare backs, from the end of Kingsgate Street, Holborn, to Dyot Street, St. Giles', being half a mile, and which was inflicted, with the severity due to so detestable an offence, through crowds of approving spectators. Dr. Dodd composing his Thoughts in Prison.' THIS unfortunate man was the eldest son of a clergyman, who held the vicarage of Bourne, in the county of Lincoln, where he died in the year 1756, at the age of fifty-four. His son was born at Bourne on the 29th day of May, 1729, and, after finishing his school education was admitted a Sizer of Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1745, under the tuition of Mr. John Courtail, afterwards Archdeacon of Lewes. At the university he acquired the notice of his superiors by a close application to his studies, and in the year 1749-50 took his first degree of VOL. 111. Bachelor of Arts with considerable reputation, his name being in the list of Wranglers on that occasion. It was not, however, only in his academical pursuits that he was emulous of distinction. Having pleasing form, a genteel address and a lively imagination, he was equally celebrated for accomplishments which seldom accompany a life of learned retirement. In particular, he was fond of the elegancies of dress, and became, as he ludicrously expressed it, a zealous. votary of the God of Dancing, to. whose service he dedicated much of 69 |