--Certainly not, whilst we have a gallows. There is, however,
one difficulty which seems to interfere with a liberal exercise of the
rope and the beam. Where are we to find executioners? for if "whoso
sheddeth man's blood" be amenable to man, surely Jack Ketch is not to be
exempted.
The _Times_ condemns the late Lord Chamberlain for allowing the
representation of "Jack Sheppard" and "Madame Laffarge" at the Adelphi; so
do we. The _Times_ intimates, that "the newspapers teem with details about
everything which such criminals 'as Dick Turpin and Jack Sheppard' say or
do; that complete biographies of them are presented to the public; that
report after report expatiates upon every refinement and peculiarity in
their wickedness," for "the good purpose" of warning the embryo
highwayman. We are something more than _duberous_ of this. We can see no
difference between the exhibition of the stage and the gloating of the
broadsheet; they are both "the agents by which the exploits of the gay
highwayman are realised before his eyes, amid a brilliant and evidently
sympathising" public. We deprecate both, as tending to excite the
weak-minded to gratify "the ambition of this kind of notoriety;"--and yet
we say, with the _Times_, there should be "no sympathy for criminals."
* * * * *
THE MALE DALILAH.
Sir Peter Laurie's aversion to long locks is accounted for by his change
of political opinions, he having some time since _cut the W(h)igs_.
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