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TO THE PUBLIC. |
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This History was first published in 1749, soon after the execution of Jackson, Carter, and other Smugglers, upon the Broyle, near Chichester. The writer in his Preface, says: " I do assure the Public that I took down the facts in writing from the mouths of the witnesses, that I frequently conversed with the prisoners, both before and after condemnation; by which I had an opportunity of procuring those letters which are hereinafter inserted, and other intelligence of some secret transactions among them, which were never communicated to any other person." Its authenticity thus shewn, he further says: " Of all the monstrous wickedness with which the age abounds, nothing, I will be bound to say, can parallel the scenes of villainy that are here laid open. In all the Histories I have ever read, of all the barbarous stories I have heard related, never did I meet with an instance where cruelty was carried to such an excess as here. We have an instance of two men Buffering the most cruel torments that malice itself could invent, without any provocation given, and for no other crime but a duty to serve their king and country.
He also says : " When the facts were proved by undeniable evidence in the face of the Court, what horror and detestation appeared in the countenance of every- |
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