Book Description

Excerpt from The American Book of Beauty, or Token of Friendship, for 1847 Upon the restoration of legitimate government in Hanover, civil and criminal jurisprudence resumed its former course. The old Ro man and Caroline codes, which had been abrogated during the French occupation of Westphalia, at least as regards their application in some points, were revived. Among these the necessity of confession to enable summary punishment to be in icted upon criminals, where di rect testimony was wanting to establish guilt. It is necessary to mention this to account for what follows. Being seated one day at table near a councillor of the Supreme Court, our conversation chanced to fall upon music, and thence led to the malefactor, whose musical talents I criticised with some warmth. After moralizing upon the contrasts that oftentimes occur between the bounteous gifts of nature to man, and the devilish purposes to which he converts them, my learned neighbor continued: It will be my painful duty this night to put that man's daring courage to the test. If he succumbs, death will be his doom; if he resists, his punishment will be perpetual imprisonment; but he is so marvellously expert, strong, and enduring, his accomplices, both male and female, are so numerous, that I know of no prison that can retain him. Bars, chains, and stone walls, have hitherto yielded to his touch as though they were cobwebs. He passes for having a charmed life. In truth, his escapes and adventures might warrant one in supposing that the darker powers had taken him under their protection. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."