[List-Cumbria] Carlisle Journal, 20 Jul 1811 - Letter - Pillory (2)

[Petra Mitchinson]

Saturday 20 Jul 1811   (p. 3, col. 1)

 

To the Editor of the CARLISLE JOURNAL. 

 

Mr. EDITOR.-It was not without pain and indignation that I perused a letter, signed "An Eye Witness," that you (I trust
inadvertently) suffered to creep into your last week's Journal; by which the administration of justice within this county and the
character of this town are indecently arraigned and calumniated.-From the tenor of that letter, it would appear, that the gentry and
populace of this place sympathised with a criminal undergoing the sentence of the law, for a gross and infamous misdemeanor, and
treated him with "Respect and esteem," either implying their countenance to the crime for which he suffered, or reflecting on the
justice of his conviction and consequent sentence. 

 

The "Eye Witness" would have you believe, Sir, that he witnessed the exhibition of a suffering Martyr, and not of an odious
criminal-permit me now, Mr. Editor, to wipe out this stigma cast upon my native town, and to inform the public by the same channel,
through which the poison flowed, that the views and description of the dim eyed witness were scandalous and false. No marks of
"Kindness and Respect" were shewn to the culprit by any one person of character and credit in this town or neighbourhood, or in the
remotest degree entitled to the rank of "Gentleman;" and the forbearance of the "populace" from the marked and odorous compliments
usual on similar occasions, should not be imputed to their "Esteem and Respect" to the exhibitor, but to the novelty of the scene,
habits of good order, and the controuling presence of a strong military and civil force, accompanied by a feeling that the degrading
situation occupied by him was of itself no slight punishment.-I must however admit, that a pelting thunder shower was partially
averted from the head of the Eye Witness's Hero, by an umbrella, held by a ragged fellow of no character of estimation, and unknown
to the town; but this solitary act of kindness was disapproved of by many of the spectators; besides, the pelting of the storm
formed no part of the sentence, and 

 

                                                        -- "My Enemy's Dog, 

                     "Tho' he had bit me, should have stood that time, 

                     Against my Fire." 

 

As to the expressed "disapprobation of his punishment," a few words shall suffice.-The verdict was found upon the clearest and most
unequivocal testimony, and the sentence seems, in my estimation, not more than commensurate to the rankness of the offence. 

 

The credit due to the statement of the Eye "Witness" will be better appreciated when I state this fact, viz. that it was transmitted
to you for insertion by the exalted Hero himself. I forbear to pursue this disgusting subject, or to press longer on a broken reed;
but let it be remembered that those strictures have been provoked by his own imprudence, and I should gladly have wholly abstained
from the discussion, had not the circumstances of the case, implicating the morality and honour of a large and respectable town
imperiously called for this vindication. 

 

                                                 A CLEAR AND IMPARTIAL EYE WITNESS. 

Penrith, 5th July, 1811. 

 

 

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