PUNISHMENT OF DEATH BY BURNING

Judging from the astonishment with which I learned from an eye-witness the circumstance, I think that some of your readers will be surprised to learn that, within the memory of witnesses still alive, a woman was burnt to death under sentence of the judge of assize, for the murder of her husband. This crime—petty treason—was formerly punished with fire and faggot; and the repeal of the law is mentioned by Lord Campbell in a note to his life of one of our recent chancellors, but I have not his work to refer to. The post to which this woman was bound stood, till recently, in a field adjoining Win…