The Criminal Recorder: Or, Biographical Sketches of Notorious Public Characters, Volume 3

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J. Cundee, 1804 - Crime

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Page 288 - Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As, to be hated, needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
Page 376 - King, . . . and until the end of the next session of parliament after a demise of the crown, shall, within the realm or without, compass, imagine, invent, devise, or intend death or destruction, or any bodily harm tending to death or destruction, maim or wounding, imprisonment or restraint...
Page 66 - So dreadful a list, instead of diminishing, increases the number of offenders. The injured, through compassion, will often forbear to prosecute: juries, through compassion, will sometimes forget their oaths, and either acquit the guilty or mitigate the nature of the offence : and judges, through compassion, will respite one half of the convicts, and recommend them to the royal mercy.
Page 310 - And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church : but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.
Page 25 - ... if any person shall enter into the mansion •• or dwelling house of another by day or by night, without " breaking the same, with an intent to commit felony, or " being in such house shall commit any felony, and shall in " the night time break the said house to get out of the same...
Page 218 - ... has the writings of my houses; but I hope in God, when they are sold and all other matters collected, there will be nearly enough to settle our account. May Almighty God bless you and yours with comfort and happiness ; and may you ever be a stranger to the pangs I now feel ! May Heaven protect my beloved woman, and forgive this act, which alone could relieve me from a world of misery I have long endured ! Oh ! if it should ever be in your power to do her an act of friendship, remember your faithful...
Page 247 - As punishments become more mild, clemency and pardon are less necessary. Happy the nation in which they will be considered as dangerous ! Clemency, which has often been deemed a sufficient substitute for every other virtue in sovereigns, should be excluded in a perfect legislation where punishments are mild, and the proceedings in criminal cases regular and expeditious.
Page 216 - ... to the playhouse, where he waited till the play was over. Seeing Miss Reay ready to step into the coach, he took a pistol in each hand, one of which he discharged against her, which killed her on the spot, and the other at himself, which, however, did not take effect. He then beat himself with...
Page 247 - To show mankind, that crimes are sometimes pardoned, and that punishment is not the necessary consequence, is to nourish the flattering hope of impunity, and is the cause of their considering every punishment inflicted as an act of injustice and oppression.
Page 3 - They rifled his portmanteau undisturbed, and settled the plan of putting him to death. — The gentleman hearing all this, and not knowing by what means he was to be rescued, it may naturally be supposed, was under great perturbation of mind during such an awful interval of suspense; -when, at the moment the villains...

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