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texts of scripture, and concerning the intermediate state of the soul. The horrors of his guilt rushed upon his conscience with such force that reflection became intolerable; and, instead of repenting of his

enormous crimes, he employed the last of his moments that were enlightened by reason (the distinguished characteristic of humanity) in meditating the means of self-destruction.

VINCENT DAVIS,

EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF HIS WIFE. WHENEVER a man ill treats a woman, who by every action of her life shows herself his friend, the partner of his toil, and the consoler of his mind under worldly misfortunes, it is abominable; but what punishment awaits the execrable wretch who sheds the blood of such a wife? Such, however, shocking to relate, befell this abhorred murderer's wife, who appears to have possessed qualities deserving the protection of a good man. We have already, in the duty we owe the reader, had occasion to present too many instances of the flagitious conduct of females; but to the good we would repeat after the excellent poet Otway, and say,

There's in you all that we believe of

Heaven;

Amazing goodness, purity and truth,
Eternal joy, and everlasting love.

This shocking sinner, who followed the trade of a butcher in Smithfield, behaved with cruelty to his wife; and, though he had been married some years, accustomed himself to keep company with women of ill fame.

Going out one Sunday morning, he staid till noon; and, coming home to dinner, went out again soon afterwards, and was directly followed by his wife, who found him drinking with some bad women at a house in Pye Corner; and, coming home, mentioned this cir. cumstance to her neighbours.

Soon afterwards the husband returned, and, using some threatening expressions, the wife desired a lodger in the same house to go down stairs with her, lest he should beat her. The woman accordingly attended her, and was witness to Davis's beating her in a barbarous manner, and threatening to murder her, because she had interrupted him while in the company of the other women. Hereupon the wife ran away, and secreted herself for a time; but, returning to his lodgings, begged admission into her landlady's room, who hid her behind the bed. In the interim the husband had been out; but, returning, went to bed; and, when his wife thought he was asleep, she went into the room to search his pockets, in which she found only a few halfpence, and, coming down stairs, said that her husband had laid a knife by the bed-side, from which she concluded that he had an intention of murdering her.

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wife and landlady finding him at the before-mentioned house in Pye Corner, he beat his wife most severely; on which the landlady advised Mrs. Davis to swear the peace against him, and have him impri soned, as she had done on a similar occasion. About an hour after this he went home, and said to his wife, "What business have you here, or any where in my company?-You shall follow me no more, for I am married to little Jenny.'

The wife, who seems to have had more love for him than such a miscreant deserved, said she could not help it, but she would drink with him and be friends; and, on his taking his supper to an alehouse, she followed him; but soon returned, with her hands bloody, saying he had cut her fingers.

On his return he directed his wife to light him to his room, which she did, and earnestly entreated him to be reconciled to her; but, instead of making any kind of reply, he drew his knife, and, following her into the landlady's room, he there stabbed her in the breast.

Thus wounded, the poor wretch ran down stairs, and was followed by the murderer. She was sheltered in a neighboring house, where, sitting down, and pulling off her stomacher, she bled to death in about half an hour.

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and I would as soon suffer for her as another.'

Being committed to the care of a peace-officer, he was conveyed to prison, in his way to which he said, I have killed the best wife in the world, and I am certain of being hanged; but, for God's sake, don't let me be anatomized.'

When he was brought to his trial the above-recited facts were proved by the testimony of several witnesses; and, on the jury pronouncing a verdict of guilty, he execrated the Court with the most profane imprecations.

While he lay under sentence of death he affected a false bravery; but, when orders were given for his execution, his assumed courage left him, and he appeared greatly terrified, as well indeed he might, at his approaching fate. He had such a dread of falling into the hands of the surgeons, that he sent letters to several of his acquaintance, begging they would rescue his body, if any attempt should be made to take it away.

He was hanged at Tyburn on the 30th of April, 1725, behaving in the most gloomy and reserved manner at the place of execution.

The anxiety this miserable wretch expressed for the care of his body, after having perpetrated such an unprovoked murder as he might well suppose would hazard the salvation of his soul, affords a melancholy picture how much concerned we can be for smaller matters, to the neglect of the more important. It should teach us how superior the value of the soul is to that of a poor frail carcass; since the former must exist to all eternity, while the latter, in a few years at the most, will moulder into dust!

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Catherine Hayes and her Accomplices cutting off her Husband's Head,

CATHERINE HAYES,

BURNT ALIVE FOR THE MURDER OF HER HUSBAND.

We give the history of the enormous sins and dreadful sufferings of this abominable woman just as they came to our hands-altogether too shocking for a single comment.

Catherine Hayes was the daughter of a poor man of the name of Hall, who lived near Birmingham. She remained with her parents till she was about fifteen years old, and then, having a dispute with her mother, left her home, and set out with a view of going to London. Her person being rather engaging, some officers in the army, who met with her on the road, prevailed on her to accompany them to their quarters at Great Ombersley, in Worcestershire, where she remained with them a considerable time.-On being dismissed by these officers, she strolled

VOL. I.

about the country, till, arriving at the house of Mr. Hayes, a farmer in Warwickshire, the farmer's wife hired her as a servant. When she had continued a short time in this service, Mr. Hayes's son fell violently in love with her, and a private marriage took place, which was managed in the following man. ner: Catherine left the house early in the morning, and the younger Hayes, being a carpenter, prevailed on his mother to let him have some money to buy tools; but as soon as he had got it he set out, and, meeting his sweetheart at a place they had agreed on, they went to Worcester, where the nuptial rites were celebrated. At this time it happened that the officers by whom she had been seduced were at W orces

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ter; and, hearing of her marriage, they caused young Hayes to be taken out of bed from his wife, under pretence that he had enlisted in the army. Thus situated, he was compelled to send an account of the whole transaction to his father, who, though offended with his son for the rash step he had taken, went to a magistrate, who attended him to Worcester, and demanded by what authority the young man was detained. The officers endeavoured to excuse their conduct; but the magistrate threatening to commit them to prison if they did not release him, the young fellow immediately obtained his liberty. The father, irritated at the imprudent conduct of his son, severely censured his proceedings; but, considering that what was passed could not be recalled, had good sense enough not to persevere in his opposition to an unavoidable event.-Mr. Hayes now furnished his son with money to begin business for himself; and the young couple were in a thriving way, and appeared to live in harmony; but Mrs. Hayes, being naturally of a restless disposition, prevailed on her husband to enlist for a soldier. The regiment in which he served being ordered to the Isle of Wight, Catherine followed him thither. He had not been long there before his father procured his discharge, which, as it happened in the time of war, was attended with an expense of 60%. On the return young Hayes and his wife, the father gave them an estate of 101. per annum, to which he afterwards added another of 167. which, with the profit of their trade, would have been amply sufficient for their support. The husband bore the character of an honest well-disposed man; he treated his wife very in. dulgently, yet she constantly complained of the covetousness of his

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disposition; but he had much more reason to complain of her disposition, for she was turbulent, quarrelsome, and perpetually exciting disputes among her neighbours. The elder Mr. H. observing with concern how unfortunately his son was matched, advised him to leave her, and settle in some place where she might not find him. Such, however, was his attachment to her, that he could not comply with this advice; and she had the power of persuading him to come to London, after they had been married about six years. On their arrival in the metropolis, Mr. Hayes took a house, part of which he let in lodgings, and opened a shop in the chandlery and coal trade, in which he was as successful as he could have wished. Exclusive of his profit by shopkeeping, he acquired a great deal of money by lending small sums on pledges, for at this time the trade of pawnbroking was followed by any one at pleasure, it having been then subjected to no regulation. Mrs. Hayes's conduct in London was still more reprehensible than it had been in the country. The chief pleasure of her life consisted in creating and encouraging quarrels among her neighbours; and, indeed, her unhappy temper discovered itself on every occasion. Sometimes she would speak of her husband, to his acquaintance, in terms of great tenderness and respect; and at other times she would represent him to her female associates as a compound of every thing that was contemptible in human nature. On a particular occasion, she told a woman of her acquaintance that she should think it no more sin to murder him than to kill a dog. At length her husband, finding she made perpetual disturbances in the neighbourhood, thought it prudent to remove to Tottenham Court Road, where he

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carried on his former business; but not being as successful here as he could have wished, he took another house in Tyburn Road, since called Oxford Road. Here he continued his practice of lending small sums of money on pledges, till, having acquired a decent competency, he left off housekeeping, and hired lodgings near the same spot. Thomas Billings, a journeyman tailor, and a supposed son of Mrs. Hayes by her former connexions, lodged in the house with Mrs. Hayes; and the husband having gone into the country on business, his wife and this man indulged themselves in every species of extrava gance. On Hayes's return some of his neighbours told him how his wife had been wasting his substance, on which he severely censured her conduct, and, a quarrel arising be tween them, they proceeded from words to blows. It was commonly thought that she formed the resolution of murdering him at this time, as the quarrel happened only six weeks before his fatal exit. She now began to sound the disposition of Billings, to whom she said it was impossible for her to live longer with her husband; and she urged all possible arguments to prevail on him to aid her in the commission of the murder, which Billings resisted for some time, but at length complied. At this period Thomas Wood, an acquaintance of Mr. Hayes, arrived from the country; and, as he was apprehensive of being impressed, Hayes kindly took him into his house, and promised to use his interest in procuring him some employment. After a few days' residence Mrs. Hayes proposed to him the murder of her husband: but the man was shocked at the thought of destroying his friend and benefactor, and told her he would have no concern in so atrocious a deed. However, she artfully urged that he was an

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atheist, and it could be no crime to destroy a person who had no religion or goodness-that he was himself a murderer, having killed a man in the country, and likewise two of his own children; one of whom he buried under a pear-tree, and the other under an apple-tree.' She likewise said that her husband's death would put her in possession of 1500l., of the whole of which Wood should have the disposal, if he would assist her and Billings in the perpetration of the murder. Wood went out of town a few days after this, and on his return found Mr. and Mrs. Hayes and Billings in company together, having drank till they had put themselves into the utmost apparent good humour. Wood sitting down at Hayes's request, the latter said they had drank a

guinea's worth of liquor, but, notwithstanding this, he was not drunk. A proposal was now made by Bit. lings, that, if Hayes could drink síx bottles of mountain without being drunk,' he would pay for it; but that Hayes should be the paymaster, if the liquor made him drunk, or if he failed of drinking the quantity. This proposal being agreed to, Wood, Billings, and Mrs. Hayes, went to a wine-vault to buy the wine, and, on their way, this wicked woman reminded the men that the present would be a good opportunity of committing the murder, as her husband would be perfectly intoxicated. The mind of Wood was not yet wrought up to a proper pitch for the commission of a crime so atrocious as the murder of a man who had sheltered and protected him, and this too at a time when his mind must necessarily be unprepared for his being launched into eternity. Mrs. H. had therefore recourse to her former arguments, urging that it would be no sin to kill him; and Billings seconded all she said, and, declaring he was ready

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