Wesley Corpus

To the Printer Date: LIVERPOOL, April 8, 1790. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1790) Author: John Wesley --- SIR, -- It is a melancholy consideration that there is no country in Europe, or perhaps in the habitable world, where the horrid crime of self-murder is so common as it is in England! One reason of this may be that the English in general are more ungodly and more impatient than other nations. Indeed, we have laws against it, and officers with juries are appointed to inquire into every fact of the kind. And these are to give in their verdict upon oath whether the self-murderer was sane or insane. If he is brought in insane, he is excused, and the law does not affect him. By this means it is totally eluded; for the juries constantly bring him in insane. So the law is not of the least effect, though the farce of a trial still continues. This morning I asked a coroner, 'Sir, did you ever know a jury bring in the deceased felo-de-se' He answered, 'No, sir; and it is a pity they should.' What, then, is the law good for If all self-murderers are mad, what need of any trial concerning them But it is plain our ancestors did not think so, or those laws had never been made. It is true every self-murderer is mad in some sense, but not in that sense which the law intends. This fact does not prove him mad in the eye of the law. The question is, Was he mad in other respects If not, every juror is perjured who does not bring him infelo-de-se. But how can this vile abuse of the law be prevented and this execrable crime effectually discouraged By a very easy method. We read in ancient history that at a certain period many of the women in Sparta murdered themselves. This fury increasing, a law was made that the body of every woman that killed herself should be exposed naked in the streets. The fury ceased at once. Only let a law be made and rigorously executed that the body of every self-murderer, lord or peasant, shall be hanged in chains, and the English fury will cease at once. [The letter appeared in a London paper.]