(Signed.) Napoleon.

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THE COLOUR—­BLUE.

(To the Editor of the Mirror.)

Observing in Number 323 of the mirror, an article respecting blue, as the appointed colour for the clothes of certain descriptions of persons, it may, perhaps, not be wholly irrelevant to observe that Bentley, in his “Dissertation on Phalaris,” page 258, mentions blue as the costume of his guards, and quotes Cicero’s “Tusculan Questions,” lib. 5, for his authority.  I cannot at present turn to the passage in Cicero, but Bentley’s quotation may surely be accepted as evidence of the existence of the passage.

Twickenham. H. H.

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EXTRAORDINARY CRIMINALS.

(For the Mirror.)

On the trial of Henry Marshall, Dec. 4, 1723, for murder and deer-stealing, a very remarkable circumstance took place.  Sentence of death had no sooner been pronounced on this offender, than he was immediately deprived of the use of his tongue; nor did he recover his speech till a few hours preceding his execution.

G. W. N.

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July, 1736—­Reynolds, condemned upon the Black Act, for going armed in disguise, in pulling down Lothbury turn-pike, with one Baylis, (reprieved, and transported for 14 years,) was carried to Tyburn, where, having prayed and sung psalms, he was turned off, and being thought dead, was cut down by the hangman as usual, who had procured a hole to be dug at some distance from the gallows, to bury him in; but just as they had put him into his coffin, and were about to fasten him up, he thrust back the lid, and to the astonishment of the spectators, placed his hands on the sides of the coffin in order to raise himself up.  Some of the people, in their first surprise, were for knocking him on the head; but the executioner insisted upon hanging him up again; when the mob, thinking otherwise, cried, “Save his life,” and fell upon the poor executioner, (who stickled hard for fulfilling the law,) and beat him in a miserable manner; they then carried the prisoner to a public-house at Bayswater, where he was put to bed; he vomited about three pints of blood, and it was thought he would recover; but he died soon after.  The sheriffs’ officers, believing the prisoner dead, had retired from the place of execution before he was cut down.

Sept. 3, 1736.—­Venham and Harding, two malefactors, were executed this day at Bristol.  After they were cut down, Venham was perceived to have life in him, when put in the coffin; and some lightermen and others, having carried him to a house, a surgeon, whom they sent for, immediately opened a vein, which so far recovered his senses, that he had the use of speech, sat upright, rubbed his knees, shook hands with divers persons he knew, and to all appearance a perfect recovery was expected.  But notwithstanding this, he died about eleven o’clock in great agony, his bowels being very much convulsed, as appeared by his rolling from one side to the other.