On the contrary, as Sir James Stephen observes, though English people, as a rule, have been singularly reckless about taking life, they have usually been averse to the infliction of death by torture.[151] In various parts of the Continent we find such punishments as breaking on the wheel, quartering alive, and tearing with red-hot pincers, in use down to the end of the eighteenth century. [Footnote 139: Pollock and Maitland, _op. cit._ ii. 511.] [Footnote 140: May, _Constitutional History of England_, ii. 595. Mackenzie, _Studies in Roman Law_, p. 424 _sq._] [Footnote 141: Pike, _History of Crime in England_, ii. 450.] [Footnote 142: _Ibid._ ii. 451. Stephen, _History of the Criminal Law of England_, i. 474.] [Footnote 143: Pike, _op. cit._ ii. 451. Stephen, _op. cit._ i. 474.] [Footnote 144: Stephen, _op. cit._ i. 475.] [Footnote 145: _Ibid._ i. 475.] [Footnote 146: For the manner in which this torture was inflicted, see Andrews, _Old-Time Punishments_, p. 203 _sq._] [Footnote 147: _Ibid._ p. 198. Stephen, _op. cit._ i. 477.] [Footnote 148: Andrews, _op. cit._ p. 192.] [Footnote 149: Holinshed, _Chronicles of England, &c._ i. 310. Thomas Smith, _Commonwealth of England_, p. 198.] [Footnote 150: Andrews, _op. cit._ p. 203. An earlier method of punishing traitors was boiling to death, which was adopted by Henry VIII. as a punishment for poisoners as well (Holinshed, _op. cit._ i. 311).] [Footnote 151: Stephen, _op. cit._ i. 478. _Cf._ Thomas Smith, _op. cit._ p. 193 _sq._] It is interesting to compare these punishments with those practised among savages. Wanton cruelty is not a general characteristic of their public justice.