up from a boy, and treated him with much kindness and
confidence. Yet he headed the murderers; and when they broke into the
captain's cabin, and that officer, perceiving their intention, called
for his coxswain to protect him, he replied with an opprobrious epithet,
"Here I am to despatch you!" He had been entrusted with the captain's
keys; and when the work of blood was over, the officers, even to
unoffending midshipmen, being slaughtered, and the murderers were
regaling themselves with wine, he told them that he knew where to get
them better than what they were drinking. His crime was fully proved;
and the court being cleared, Sir Edward proposed that sentence should be
executed immediately. The circumstances of the case demanded, in his
opinion, unusual severity, which might be expected to have a good effect
upon the fleet; while there was every reason to conclude, from the
prisoner's demeanour before them, that if delay were allowed, he would
meet his fate with a hardihood which would destroy the value of the
example. The court at first questioned their power to execute without
the warrant of the Admiralty; but this was quickly settled by reference
to the Act of Parliament. The President then declared that he could not
make the order. "Look here!" said he, giving to Sir Edward his hand,
trembling violently, and bathed in a cold perspiration. "I see it, and I
respect your feelings," replied Sir Edward, "but I am sure that such an
example is wanted, and I must press the point." "Well," he replied, "if
it be the _unanimous_ opinion of the court, it shall be done." It was
agreed to, and the prisoner was called. Though, sure that he must be
condemned, he entered with a bold front; but when informed that he would
be executed in one hour, he rolled on the cabin-deck in an agony. "What!
gentlemen," he exclaimed, "hang me directly? Will you not allow me a few
days--a little time, to make my peace with God?" The whole fleet was
appalled when the close of the court-martial was announced to them by
the signal for execution; and at the end of the allotted hour, the
wretched criminal was brought up to undergo his sentence.

A similar stern decision quelled in a few hours the spirit of resistance
during the special commission for trying the Luddites at York, when the
county was almost in a state of rebellion; and it was found necessary to
protect the court with cannon. Six of the ringleaders having been
convicted on the first day,