Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

We have had occasion to mention, that by order of the emperor, afflictive pains have been substituted to that of death in certain crimes. This mitigation is only so in appearance, but in fact worse than the loss of life. For instance, three or four malefactors are fastened together with the same chain, each bears an iron collar, and those three or four collars are joined by an iron bar. Thus equipped, those wretches are employed, instead of the usual cattle, in hauling the boats and barges. These bars are so tight and strong, that the sharpest file alone can divide them: if one of the four dies in the course of the morning, the corpse is dragged along by the survivors till noon, when it is removed and buried. This is often the case, being well assured by a gentleman of veracity, who was an eye witness, that out of a very considerable number of malefactors thus sent into Hungary, during the course of last year, all but nine had been relieved by death from a state equally torturing for the body and the mind.