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Auction: 5011 - Stamps & Covers of the World
Lot: 652

Crime and Punishment Crimes Treason 1814 (27 July) printed Act of Parliament entitled "An Act to alter the Punishment in certain Cases of High Treason", the new law decreed that while the existing punishment was to continue (drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution, hanged until nearly dead, beheaded, and the body cut into four pieces), the practice of cutting out the traitor´s bowels and burning them in front of his face (performed between the hanging and the beheading parts of the process) was to be discontinued - a most generous concession which must have surely been welcomed by those subsequently found guilty of this offence!; some light creases though still fine and very fresh. An extraordinary historical document Estimate £ 300-400

Sold for
£200