York Castle in the Nineteenth Century; Being an Account of All the Principal Offences Committed in Yorkshire from the Year 1800 to the Present Period, with the Lives of the Capital Offenders (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1831. Excerpt: ....ARSON And SACRILEGE THE LIFE AND TRIAL JONATHAN MARTIN 'Tii morning hlusliing o'er the 0.y, Bat Dot its light that flares on high j Swift desolation rocks yon spires, And rain rides apon those Ores. 1 He crime of arson is of the greatest enormity, because its effect is illimitable. A murderer, who even sacrifices twenty lives for the sake of rapine or revenge, endangers the community less than he who wilfully fires an out house--the destruction of property in such a case is certain, which renders the crime morally, though not actually, coeval with robbery: the destruction of human existence too often attends it, which is legally murder. The incendiary, too, commits his crime invariably in the dent night; to gratify his spleen against an individual, he endangers a city, for ere the flames that he has set in motion are quenched, hundreds of slumberers may fall victims to the destruction that was aimed but at one. The careless drunkard who caused the great fire of London, laughed at the flame when he saw it arise--he dreamed not that his folly would lay the greatest city in the world in ruins. Fire is so destructive an engine, fflat in war, the last and greatest resource of an invading irmy has been to fire the towns through which they passed. The Russians employed it as a means of at once appalling and disappointing their enemies, when they destroyed Moscow. Fireships, which at one period 'Notwithstanding the prevalent of the opinion that a popish party augmented 'Mt disastrous event, there is little Houht of the fact that it originated in tht 'i"i-isn-s- of a drunkard, who was cooking at a kitchen fire. B of our naval history were frequently resorted to, have fallen nearly into disuse; for they have too often proved fatal to the very fleet t...