On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    and is of nowhere , the chance of impunity would have been increased to a high degree of probability . Around the unknown Hying there stand no guards with guns to shoot dead him who shall lay a hostile finger on them . They are not missed ; or if they be , nobody is the wiser . They may be found in the neighbourhood where they are wanted , and thus the perils be avoided of book-keepers' noses , and excisemen ' s

    fingers . No ground is broken ; no alarm is given ; there is no chase , no handcuffs , no peltings , no treadmill . It is only keeping the laudanum and the well in readiness ; snaring the prey at intervals ; pocketing the price , which the public excitement keeps at the highest ; and eat , drink , and be merry . True , there is the gallows at the end of the

    vista ; but every thief takes his chance of that ; and its terrors are wonderfully diminished by the increased length of the perspective . The body-snatcher is , on the one hand , drawn towards burking by its greater ease , security , and profit ; and if that be not enough to reconcile him to crime , he is , on the other , all but driven to it in selfdefence .

    Something must be done ; and the object of Mr . Wakefield ' s Appendix is , to show that nothing efficient can be done until the common prejudice is abated . He therefore says , and very justly , no longer allow dissection to be connected with punishment . Cease to tell the people that there are crimes which deserve something worse than hanging , and that that something worse is dissection . * Sentence of dissection wafe passed on Bishop and Williams , for the express purpose ,

    one might almost think , of strengthening the vulgar prejudice against dissection . ' The proposal to send all unclaimed bodies to the anatomical schools would , he contends , be objectionable , on account of a similar influence . If the law now makes it the worst punishment of the criminal , it would then represent it as the worst calamity of the friendless . * There appears but one way in which to deprive dead bodies of a murderous value , viz . by the removal of the vulgar prejudice against dissection . '

    * At present , ^ t classes which affect superior sense liberality of opinion , are , with some few honourable exceptions , quite as much prejudiced on this point , as the most ignorant and stupid of the populace . In vain does the wise , benevolent , and illustrious Bentham talk with the utmost cheerfulness of having left his body for dissection ; in . vain do a few generous men direct that their remains shall be made of service ta the public ; in vain do we preach to the poor of the

    unreasonableness of caring for mere flesh , which the worms will dissect at all events ; in vain is it to strive against this prejudice amongst the poor , so long as the prejudice shall be cherished by the rich . Wealth always was , and always will be , respected . Let the wealthy set an example of rational conduct to the poor , and in the course of a very short time , the murderous value of dead bodies will be at an end .

    But the wealthy , who run little or no risk of being burked , are without the motive for setting such an example . JLet a law , then , create the motive . This might be done in various ways ; such as , for example , by directing that the bodies of all who receive above a certain amount of public money shall be liable to be claimed for the public good ; and ( what would clash less with our system of government ) , by excusing from payment of legacy duty the representatives

    Untitled Article

    Critical Notices . —Political Edonomy and Legislation * 149

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1832, page 148, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1806/page/71/