Guillotine

ïhis machine, wliicli was brouglit in to use in the early period of the French Revolution, is not altogether a modern invention. Similar contrivances were in use in seventl parta of Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, if not before. According to Cruahifl, in his "Anuales Suevici" (1595), such au instrument of deoapitation existed in early times in Germany, but was superseded by tlie sword: it was styled Fallbeil, falling hatchet. A representation of it may be seen in two old engravings, - the one by Getirge Peno, wiio died in 1550; the othtT by Ileinrich Aldegrever, bearing the date of 1553, - and also in an old picture, which, according to lieiffenberg, is still preserved in the city hall of Augsburg. .lean d' Autnn, the historiograplier of I. ii lis XII. of Trance, narrating cin execution wliich lie witnessed at Genoa, May 13, 1507, describes a machine exact iy like the guillotine. ïhis is the mannaia, which wasused in all parts of [taly for the execution of men of rank, and is fully described by Pere Labat in his "Voyage en Espagne eten Italië en 1730." The same liad been introduced into Southern Franee; and Puysegur, in liis makes allusion to it on the occasion of the execution of Montmorency in 1632. A similar eontrivance existed ín the Netherlands. The "maiden"of Scotland, which was used in Ihe decapitation of the regent Morton in 1581, and is still preserved in the museum ot' the Antiquarian Society at Edinburg, was an instrument akin to those above mentioned; and eitlier it, or at least the patteni of it, lias been brought from abroad by the very man who suffered by it. The de ca] i Lating machine, therefore, was far fioni lieing a novelty when Dr. Guillotine suggested its appli catión in 1789. itis a remarkable instance of the vitality of popular error, that Thackeiay, who was evidently well acquainted wit h French history and French affairs generalij', should, in his "Philip," chapter sixteen, have fallen into the comïnon mistake of supposing that Dr. Guillotine perished by ineans of the instrument that bears his name, but which he did not, as Thackeray says, invent. Thaekeray does not actually asseit that Guillotine died on the guillotine; but he puts it in tha form of a quesüoii, the answer to which is, of course, intended to be yes: "Was not good Dr. Guillotine executed by his own neat invention?" Now, nothing, F appose, is move certain than th.it Guillotine survived the great revolut ion niaiiy years, and died a natural death in 1814. I feav, however, that for many a year yet, the real humane French physician is dooined to "point a moral, and adorn a tale," along with Perillas and others wiio have fallen into their own trap.