During the course of the ensuing
week, the chief mourners receive their several relatives and friends at
tea. The assembly is sorrowful and dull. It has been asserted, though
not corroborated, that such is the poverty and disregard of decorum on
the part of the Portuguese government, that when a person dies without
leaving behind sufficient to defray the expenses of his funeral, the
dead body is laid on the pavement of the most public street, with a box
upon the breast, into which passers-by drop copper or silver coin, until
sufficient has thus been obtained to defray the expense of interment;
and that a soldier stands at the head of the body to see that no money
is abstracted; for, in Portugal, even the sacred purpose for which it is
intended would not secure it without his protection.
There is no pardoning _soi-disant liberaux_, who prove, by their acts,
the greatest enemies of the sacred dignity of liberty.
* * * * *
PUNISHMENT OF DEATH.
_Decollatio_, or beheading, was a military punishment among the Romans.
In early times it was performed with an axe, and afterwards with a
sword. It is worthy of remark, that in all countries where beheading and
hanging are used as capital punishments, the former is always considered
less ignominious.
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