t treason, although the practice of later times,
certainly, was to the contrary.[9] However, after the repeal in 1790,
of the law for burning women, for which drawing and hanging were then
substituted, women as well as men were sentenced to be drawn to the
place of execution.

[Footnote 9: The law was uncertain; but Hale appears to be the safest
authority. Wood, in his Institutes,--at the time of this trial the
most recent and popular treatise upon the laws of England,--states
that women were to be drawn, in petit treason; as, indeed, do most, if
not all, succeeding writers. They follow Coke, 3 Inst. 211; but
neither the statutes referred to, nor the case cited from 12 Ass. 30,
by the latter, support his statement. The report runs thus: "Alice _de
W, qui fuit de l'age de xiij ans, fuit arse per judgment, pur ceo que
el'avoit tue sa Maistres, & pur tant ceo fuit adjudge treason, &c._;"
and it appears that the case turned upon the question of
accountability, by reason of the tender age of the culprit. No mention
of drawing is made in the judgment. Compare H.P.C., i. p. 382, and
note, with Hawk. P.C., b. 2, ch. 48, Sec. 6, and authorities there
referred to, and Coke, _ut supra_. Also, see 4 Black. Comm. 204. It
will have been noticed that though the judgment against Phillis was
that she _go_ to the place of execution, the warrant required that she
be drawn thither. The practice of drawing, in such cases, would have
been challenged, probably, if the cruelties anciently incident thereto
had not become obsolete.]

Another incident to this punishment, though not peculiar to it, since
it applied to all atrocious felonies, was the gibbeting, or hanging in
chains. This was no part of the sentence, but was performed in
accordance with a special order or direction of the court, given,
probably, in most cases, verbally to the sheriff. After execution,
the body of the felon was taken from the gallows and hung upon a
gibbet conveniently near the place where the fact was committed, there
to remain, until, from the action of the elements, or the ravages of
birds of prey, it disappeared. Of the object of this ghastly feature
of capital punishment it is alleged, "besides the terror of the
example," "that it is a comfortable sight to the friends and relations
of the deceased"; but the obviousness of this reason is somewhat
lessened by the doubt in which we are left as to which deceased
person, the criminal or his victim, is referred to.