Tyburn gallows was in full vigour when the claims of a “genteel” neighbourhood demanded its abolition. In the last year of its existence one hundred and eight persons were condemned to death at the Old Bailey sessions—fifty-eight in a single sessions. Most of the condemned were reprieved: the crimes of these must have been light, for John Kelly was actually hanged for robbing another of sixpence-farthing. Within view of the accursed spot Catholics have instituted an Oratory of the English Martyrs. It is well: the world cannot afford to forget the example of those who, whether at Tyburn or Smithfield, gladly faced the most horrible of deaths rather than be false to themselves. But in honouring them, let us not forget the thousands of martyrs for whom no one has claimed the crown of martyrdom—the martyrs to ferocious laws, not seldom put in force against the innocent, the martyrs to cruel injustice, to iniquitous social conditions. Thousands have had the life choked out of them at Tyburn on whom pity might well have dropped a pardoning tear: to whom compassion might well have stretched out a helping hand. If not a sparrow falls unheeded, these obscure martyrs may not have died in vain. FOOTNOTES [1] “My opinion is that we have gone too far in laying it [capital punishment] aside, and that it ought to be inflicted in many cases not at present capital. I think, for instance, that political offences should in some cases be punished with death. People should be made to understand that to attack the existing state of society is equivalent to risking their own lives” (“Hist. of the Criminal Law of England,” 1880, i. 478). [2] Spelman, “Glossarium” (_s.v._ Furca) gives a notable instance of the drowning of a woman about A.D. 1200. [3] Walsingham, Gesta Abbatum Monas. S. Albani, ed. Riley, i. 39-41. [4] Chron. of the Reigns of Stephen, &c., ed. Howlett, ii. Preface p. 1. [5] Matthew Paris, Chron. Maj., ed. Luard, v. 56-60, 369. The “Statute of Winchester,” 13 Edward I. (1285), enacted that trees and brushwood should be cut down for 200 feet in width on either side of highways between market towns. [6] “De Corona,” book iii. Second Treatise, chap. i. [7] “Subito enim et sine certa causa, quasi lymphatico metu correpti, de villa in villam cum cornuum strepitu, quod Anglice Uthes dicitur, fere per totam Angliam deduxerunt” (“Hist. Coll. of Walter of Coventry,” ed. Stubbs, ii. 206). [8] “Hist. of the Norman Conquest,” ii. 34. [9] “De sorte qu’on a long-temps douté si un ecclésiastique pouvoit, sans hazard d’irrégularité, faire exercer Justice de sang en sa terre; estant chose étrange qu’on puisse commettre à autruy, ce qu’on ne peut faire soi-mesme” (Loyseau, Œuvres, ed. 1701, p. 4). [10] Placita de Quo Waranto, p. 479. [11] Chron. William of Malmesbury, ed. Stubbs, i. 171.