overcame me, and induced me to commit the deed I now deplore. The letter which I meant for my brother-in-law after my decease will have it's due weight as to this point with good men.

Before this dreadful act, I trust nothing will be found in the tenor of my life which the common charity of mankind will not excuse. I have no wish to avoid the punishment which the laws of my country appoint for my crime; but, being already too unhappy to feel a punishment in death or a satisfaction in life, I submit myself with penitence and patience to the disposal and judgment of almighty God, and to the consequences of this enquiry into my conduct and intention."

Having been found guilty upon the clearest evidence, he heard the dreadful sentence pronounced with more fortitude than could have been expected, and being conducted back to Newgate, behaved with a becoming decency under his unhappy cireumstances. On the morning of his execution, he got up a little after five, dressed himself, and spent some time in private meditation. About seven, he was visited by Mr. Boswell and some other friends, with whom he went to the chapel and received the sacrament. When he came out of the chapel and was haltered, he seemed to be much shocked. The Rev. Dr. Porter, and Mr. Villette, the ordinary, went into the coach along with him, accompanied by Mr. Brent, the sheriff's officer.

During the whole of the procession, he seemed much affected, and said but little; and when he arrived at Tyburn, and got out of the coach, and mounted the cart, he took leave of Dr. Porter and the ordinary. After some time spent in prayer, he was turned off, and having hung the usual time, his body was carried to Surgeon's-Hall.

Such

Such was the end of a young gentleman who might have been an ornament to his country, the delight of his friends, and a comfort to his relations, had he not been led away by the influence of an unhappy passion! He suffered on the 19th of April, 1779.

CHRISTOPHER SLAUGHTERFORD (MURDERER) was the son of a miller at Westbury-Green, in Surry, who apprenticed him at Godalming. When his time was expired, he lived in several situations, and afterwards took a malthouse at Shalford, when his aunt became his housekeeper, and he acquired a moderate sum of money by his industry.

He now paid his addresses to Jane Young, and it was generally supposed he intended to marry her. The last time he was seen in her company was on the evening of the 5th of October, 1708; from which day she was not heard of for a considerable time, on which, suspicions arose that Slaughterford had murdered her.

About a month afterwards, the body of the unfortunate girl was found in a pond, with several marks of violence on it; and the public suspicion being still fixed on Slaughterford, he voluntarily surrendered himself to two justices of the peace, who directed that he should be discharged; but as he was still accused by his neighbours, he went to a third magistrate, who, agreeable to his own solicitations, committed him to the Marshalsea Prison; and he was tried at the next assizes at Kingston, and acquitted.

The majority of his neighbours, however, still insisted that he was guilty, and prevailed on the relations of the deceased to bring an appeal for a new trial; towards the expence of which many persons subscribed, as the father of Jane Young was in indigent circumstances.

During

During the next term, he was tried, by a Surry jury, in the court of Queen's Bench, before Lord Chief Justice Holt, the appeal being lodged in the name of Henry Young, brother and heir to the deceased.

The evidence given on this second trial was in substance the same as on the first; yet so different were the sentiments of the two juries, that Slaughterford was now found guilty, and received sentence of death. It may be proper to mention the heads of some of the depositions, that the reader may judge of the propriety of the verdict.

Elizabeth Chapman, the mistress of Jane Young, deposed, that when the young woman left her service, she said she was going to be married to the prisoner, that she had purchased new clothes on the occasion, and declared she was to meet him on the Sunday following. That the deponent sometime afterwards enquired after Jane Young, and, asking if she was married, was informed that she had been seen in the company of Slaughterford, but no one could tell what was become of her since, and that he himself pretended he knew nothing of her, but thought she had been at home with Mrs. Chapman ; which induced this witness to believe that some mischief had befallen her.

Other witnesses proved that Jane Young was in Company with the prisoner on the night that the murder was committed; and one man swore that, at three in the morning, he met a man and a woman on a common, about a quarter of a mile from the place where the body was found; that the man wore, light-coloured clothes, as it was proved the prisoner had done the preceding day; and that soon after he passed them he heard a shrieking, like the voice of a woman.

It was sworn by a woman, that, after the deceased was missing, she asked Slaughterford what was become of his lady: to which he replied, "I have put her off; do you know of any girl that has any money I have got the way of putting them

off now."

?

It was deposed by another woman, that, before the discovery of the murder, she said to Mr. Slaugh. terford, "What if Jane Young should lay such a child to you as mine is here!" at which he sighed, and said, "It is now impossible;" and cried till the tears ran down his cheeks.

In contradiction to this, the aunt of Mr. Slaugh. terford and a young lad who lived in the house deposed that the prisoner lay at home on the night that the murder was committed.

Slaughterford, from the time of conviction to the very hour of his death, solemnly declared his innocence; and, though visited by several divines, who urged him, by all possible arguments, to confess the fact, yet he still persisted that he was not guilty. He was respited from the Wednesday till Saturday, in which interim he desired to see Mr. Woodroff, a minister of Guildford: from which it was thought he would make a confession; but what he said to him tended only to confirm his former declarations.

This unfortuate man was hanged at Guildford, an the 9th of July, 1709. As soon as the executioner had tied him up, he threw himself off, hav- A ing previously delivered to the sheriff a paper, containing the following solemn declaration:

"Guildford, July 9, 1709.

"Being brought here to die, according to the sentence passed upon me at the Queen's Bench bar,

for

for a crime of which I am wholly innocent, I thought myself obliged to let the world know, that they may not reflect on my friends and relations, whom I have left behind me much troubled for my fatal end, that I know nothing of the death of Mrs. Jane Young, nor how she came by her death, directly or indirectly, though some have been pleased to cast reflections on my aunt. However, I freely forgive all my enemies, and pray to God to give them a due sense of their errors, and in his due time to bring the truth to light. In the mean time, I beg every one to forbear reflecting on my dear mother or any of my relations for my unjust and unhappy fall, since what I have here set down is truth, and nothing but the truth, as I expect salvation at the hands of almighty God; but I am heartily sorry that I should be the cause of persuading her to leave her dame, which is all that troubles me. As witness my hand, this 9th day of July."

The case of Slaughterford is undoubtedly very extraordinary. We see that he surrendered himself to the justices when he might have ran away; and common sense tells us that a murderer would endeavour to make his escape; and we find him a second time surrendering himself, as if anxious to wipe away the stain on his character. We find him tried by a jury of his countrymen, and acquitted; then again tried, on an appeal, by another jury of his neighbours, found guilty, condemned, and executed. Here it should be observed, that after conviction on an appeal, which rarely happens, the king has no power to pardon; probably, had Slaughterford been found guilty by the first jury, as his case was dubious, he would have received royal mercy. Some of the depositions against him seem very striking;