"But for my daughter Julian, I would she were well bolted with a Bridle, That leaves her work to play the clack, And lets her wheel stand idle; For it serves not for she-ministers, Farriers nor Furriers, Cobblers nor Button-makers, To descant on the Bible." Mr. Andrews has confined his account of curious punishments mainly to England and Scotland. Our Puritan ancestors must, we think, have seen some of the instruments of torture here described, and perhaps some of our great-great, etc., grandmothers may have been "ducked" or "silenced by a brank" many years before the sailing of the "Mayflower" or the "Lyon" or the "Angel Gabriel." ------------------------- It was once the custom in New England for a sermon to be preached before the prisoner upon the day of his execution. In the "Massachusetts Gazette," Dec. 26, 1786, is the following notice:-- SALEM, _Dec._ 23. Thursday last, being the day appointed for the execution of Isaac Coombs, an Indian, with whose crime and sentence the publick have before been made acquainted, the unfortunate criminal was in the forenoon conducted to the Tabernacle, where a Sermon, which we are told was well adapted to the melancholy occasion, was preached by the Rev. Mr. Spalding, from Luke xviii. 13,--"God be merciful to me a sinner!" After which he was returned to the prison. Between the hours of 2 and 3 in the afternoon, he was guarded to the place of execution by a company of 40 volunteers (consisting principally of the members of the Artillery Company lately formed in this town, and commanded by Captain Zadock Buffinton) under the direction of the proper civil officers. The Rev. Mr. Hopkins prayed at the gallows; and at 3 o'clock the cart was led off, and the unhappy sufferer made the expiation which the law required for his horrid and unnatural crime. His behaviour, through the whole, was firm, but decent, penitent and devotional. This is the only execution which has taken place in the county of Essex for near 15 years, and but the second since about the close of the last century. The concourse of people was consequently great; and the general decorum which was observed, evinced their sympathy for a suffering individual of the species. The conduct of the military corps was highly applauded. On the way to execution the following paper was delivered to the Rev. Mr. BENTLEY, by one of the officers, with a request from _Isaac_, that he would read it publickly at the place of execution, at the time he should signify to him; accordingly, when the sheriff told the criminal his time was expired, as the last thing, he made the motion, and it was read to the people. As it is so contradictory to the declaration he made before of himself, we have printed it _verbatim_ as it is written, to avoid the charge of any alteration.