Page 77 - All About History - Issue 11-14

here wasn’t much in the way of mercy “ Britain […] simply looked to a vast
for a common criminal in 18th-century
Britain. You could be branded or whipped wilderness brimming with opportunity
for a relatively minor offence and for repeat
Toffenders, the hangman’s noose awaited. The on the far side of the world: Australia”
infrastructure of the criminal justice system was as
outdated as the punishments it dished out, a relic Unsurprisingly, a high number of crimes simply criminals couldn’t read, by rehearsing this verse
of medieval times and unable to keep up with the went unreported. they could easily avoid a brutal punishment
burgeoning population and an exponential crime The courts themselves were also poorly altogether and walk away with their freedom and
rate. A rudimentary police force was still over a equipped, with archaic legislation that allowed reputation intact.
century away, so with some help from the night’s those cunning criminals that arrived at the court As a result, the crime rate rose in Britain while
watch, victims of crime were expected to obtain an dock to easily slip through the fingers of the law. death sentences became an everyday tool in
arrest warrant, gather a mob and then apprehend The biggest thorn in a magistrate’s side was ‘Benefit a judge’s arsenal, used as a draconian way of
the criminal themselves. Once the accused was of Clergy’, a provision by which first-time offenders reducing the number of criminals on the street as
handed over to the authorities they were expected could simply quote the first verse of Psalm 51, much as a deterrent. Even so, a state-sanctioned
to pay the cost of prosecution, which was often beginning: “Have mercy upon me, O God…” to blood bath of hangings for the dozens of crimes
beyond the means of the working class. As if effectively get themselves off the hook. This was a that a criminal could receive capital punishment
that wasn’t incentive enough to simply take it throwback to a time when it was deemed that only for was something the British government wanted
on the proverbial chin, if the victim pursued the those of the cloth could read and know the Bible, to avoid. So, in 1718 and with the New World of
criminal through court, they could face retaliation and thus were beyond the jurisdiction of anything America firmly in sight, the Transportation Act was
from members of the gang they belonged to. but a church court. Although many 18th-century put in effect.
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