Reading a foreign history, the locality of which I do not remember, I found the description of another punishment, called the _Embrace_;—which put an end to the criminal’s existence, by a machine constructed in the form of a beautiful woman, and so contrived, that the miserable victim was pressed to death by being folded in her arms. This crime, however detestable, has certainly spread itself, and tainted the whole face of the creation; and it is an erroneous notion entertained by the people of this country, that it is tolerated in Italy, and some parts of the continent; for the laws against it are pretty general in every country, though, perhaps, like ours, they relax in the necessary severity. The Arabs, indeed, make very light of the offence, especially when committed with a beast; the Mahometans, also, are much addicted to the crime, (at least by the testimony of some travellers); yet I cannot see how that agrees with the account they give of the Upas tree of Java, which they affirm sprung up as a punishment for that sin; as appears by the following passage in the new Alcoran. “The country round the tree was inhabited by people strongly addicted to the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah; when the great Prophet, Mahomet, determined not to suffer them to lead such detestable lives any longer, he applied to GOD to punish them; whereupon GOD caused this tree to grow out of the earth, which, destroyed them all, and rendered the country for ever uninhabitable.” From the best authority that can be gathered, this crime was first introduced into England about the year 1315, by a sect of heretics called Lollards; whose intent it was, among other most damnable doctrines to subvert the Christian faith; for from a note on the Parliamentary Rolls it is said, “_A Lollard has committed the sin not to be named among Christians_,” which seems to be the first authentic account of it in England. Many years previous to the reign of Geo. I. the sin was permitted without any exemplary punishment:—but about the 12th year of that reign a number of those wretches were apprehended, and convicted of the most abominable practices, some of whom were put to death; which gave a check to the evil for some time. We will now come to the prevalency of the crime in the present age. About five and twenty years ago, there existed a society of the same order with the Vere-street gang, in the City of Exeter, most of whom were men of rank and local situation; they were apprehended, and about fifteen of them tried; and, though they were acquitted by the letter of the law, the enraged multitude was so convinced of their guilt; that without any respect to their rank, they burnt them in effigy.