TOPICS OF TIIE DAY.

and between these two events, '.Mr. FITZROY 1:Amu's

T,„,, week began with the infliction of the punishment of debantil1ativ. of bullets in the pistols, and their belief in the insanity of ot • Count-L-4mm; : but for the scepticism of' the Jury as to the present; cul prit, it would have ended with the sentencing of Ox men to deat abolishing death- punishments in the cases of twelve ells crimes, was allowed to be read a second time by Ministers,-4 would have opposed the second reading had it not been for the'n convIction, that by opposing it toey would have added another% ; I the long list of minorities in which this session has prescnted thea I to the public. The intervention of the attempt at merciful 1e4 Winn between one man's sulibring on the gallows and anothen rubbing shoulders with it, furans a rather startling epigrammaje expression of the stage at which the public mind has arrived lain struggles to attain more clear and humane notions in penal mu!. prudence.

In words at least, our legislators seem generally to have dal. dotted the untenable ground that the criminal 'mist necessatih undergo punishment in order to atone for his crime. This specion, mystification of the Nindictive motive to punish has been relir, quished (or the more rational plea-" that the sentence of the law is not an act of vengeance, but recourse should be had to it merel) for the purpose of deterring others." And yet we find the veil men who use this argument, telling us in the same breath the they oppose the abolition of death•punishment in cases of murder, because the feeling oldie public would be outraged by such a step, The feeling which would be outraged-or more properly. di,. appointed-is that very vindictive feeling which they had just befall declared ought to be allowed no voice in deciding whether punish. /mot is to be inflicted and what is to be its amount. Besides,te disappoint or baulk a wish or feeling is one thing, and to outrage fbeling is another. By inflicting too severe a punishment, we outrage public feeling,-/. e. we inlist sympathy on the side of the criminal ; we make the law at tyrant, at thing that ought to be put down ; we confuse the notions (already perplexed enough) entertained by the mass regarding right and wrong ; we loosea the bonds that hold society together. By merely disappointing a revengeful wish, we incur no such hnzard : we on the con. trary rather increase than diminish the hatred of the crime. Those who use this argument exaggerate to themselves the degree to which the populace will be disappointed. The demand "blood for blood " has its origin in at vague fear entertained by all who heat of murder, that their turn may come next. Substitute a punishment that is seen to be equally or more efficacious, and there will be no disappointment. And here we may remark by the way, that an intolerable abuse of the appeal to popular sentiment prevailsin " Honourable House." The duty of' legislators is to legislate to the best of their knowledge and judgment. Popular sentiment has (or would have, were our elective system better) all flue scope allowed to it, in sending members to the Legislature or in keeping them there, . which it ought to have. The legislator who, instead of seeking to discover the wisest policy is always thinlaing what will conciliate / most votes, is unfit for the task, and may depend upon it that the public he so servilely fawns upon will soon find him out. That the public feeling is at present in favour of inflicting the punishment of death upon murderers, no man who has entered a coffee-house, a club-room, an omnibus, or the House of Commons, during the last few weeks, can doubt. The public is a great coward : the rapid succession of the critninal acts of Gori.o, Coos- vorenEte, and OxFoaLL, had struck a panic into its breast, which was heightened by the resuscitation of all the murders committed for some ,years back, of which the perpetrators had escaped detection. Before one of the three individuals we have mentioned had been tried, the verdict of the palpitating public was-" Hang them all." But the existence of so inteuse and widely,•-dithised IL feeling does not prove it to be an enlightened one, or one by eltcri:iling which the comfort anti happiness of' society will be increased. The time has been when to rescue heretics and witches from the stake Nvould have disappointed-or, to use the phraseology of sentiment' mongers, outraged public feeling. If this or any feeling prompt to cruel or imprudent conduct, it is the part of wise legislators to clear up the misconception which produces it, and to check its activity. The cause of the abolition of death-punishment is frequently injured by the use of untenable arguments on the part of well- meaning but injudicious iiiends. Great stress is laid, after every execution, upon the circumstance of boys being apprehended pick- ing pockets at the foot of the gallows. *This only proves that these boys are no philosophers-that they are unable to trace the steps by which the commission of small crimes leads to greater, and that, knowing pocket-picking and murder to have no necessary con- nexion, they are unable to see any connexion between what is going forward on the scaffold and their own occupation. In like manner, the brutalizing effects of capital punishments have been much exaggerated. The brutalizing tendency will be found on re- flection to exist not so much in simple as in what llexurAm calls f t afflictive capital punishment"-when death is inflicted by a pro- cess of torture. To habituate a people to witness their fellow creatures expiring under exeruciating sufferings-more especially when fanaticism (of any kind) is invoked to make them take plea-

pectaele—is to demoralize them in the worst manner. sure in the s But M the simple infliction of death-punishment there need be

nothing of all this. " The people," says BENTHAM, " tittek iii

crowds to an execution ; but this eagerness, which at first might appear so disgyaceffil to humanity, does not proceed from the plea- sure expected from the sight of men in the agonies of death, it arisea from the pleasure of having the passions Ftrongly excited by a tragic seene."Ihe crowds who buffetted each other round the foot of the scafibld for a good sight of Coutvolsiant's last moments, am not a uhit more likely to learn the art of murder from the apectache than Mr. KEAN 3111)101', W110 got iuside of the gaol to wit- the sufferer's emotion—because his father had clone so betbre

him on a similar occasion; or than Lord ALFRED PAGET, who hired a window, to enact the part of a " speciel reporter " for his gossips in attendance at the Palace ; or than divers other lords and gen-

tlemen, %vim were callous enough to endure the spectacle. We admit that there are little thoughtless blackguards in abundance in London, and that "gentlemen" as well as coatheavers and dustmen can display bad taste on occasions: but what has that to do with the queation of capital punishment ?

The most plausible argtunents in favour of death-punishment are—

first, that it ia popular; second, that it ia in the highest degree diem:lima in preventing further mischief from murderers ; third,

that it is exemplary, producing a more lively impression than nny other mode of punishment. Of the first of these we have dis-

posed already, and need therethre only direct our remarks to the other two. The allegation that there is no other method of averting the danger to society from murderers but by putting them to death, will not stand the test of examination. To any man who reflects upon the many line gradations of motive which render it difficult to say whether an act should be classed as simple or culpable homicide, or murder, it must be evident that the assertion is too much generalixed if all murderers are included in it. But let us look to the ease of the most dangerous species of homicide—as- sassination for hire : it is well and briefly disposed of by Ileaernaat, " Assassination for lucre is a crime proceeding from a disposition which puts indiscriminately the 11th of every man into jeopardy. Even these malethetors are not so dangerous, not so difficult to manage, as madmen ; because the rormer will commit homicide only at the time there is something to be gained by it, and that it can be perpetrated v;ith a probability of safety. The mischief to be apprehended from madmen is not narrowed by either of these cir- cumstances. Yet it is never thought necessary that madmen should be put to death. They are not put to death; they are only

kept in confinement, and that confinement is found effectually to answer the purpose." Another class of criminals have been pointed out by Beecanet as lit subjects for capital punishment—

and even Basnatat at the outset of his career acquiesced in the decision—the leaders of a rebellion, when discontent has spread so widely that imprisonment cannot insure safe custudv. This case, however, is even less conclusive than the former. " The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church." A story is told of an execu- tioner who said to an aged Irishman, showing hint the bleeding head of a man just executed for rebellion, " Look it the head of your son." " My son," said the old man, " has more than one head." The more extensive the discontent, the more unwise the bloodshed in such a case ; for the greater the probability that there is something in the cause of the malecontents cnlculated to all the sympathies of the young, the generous, mild the brave. The argument that death-punishment produces the most lively impression, would be the strongest of all were it based upon diet: but this is questionable. Death seems the greatest of evils to men of innocent and industrious habits ; but it has not equal terrors for that class of persons upon whom it is most desirable to produce an impression. Their proleasion habituates then' to risk their livea ; their habits of intemperance give them a brutal, unealculating

courage ; their esprit de corps makes them seek for the applause of their associates in guilt, by " d ing game." The contemplation of perpetual impriaonment, accompanied with hard labour and occa-

sional solitary confinement, seems better calculated to produce an impression upon these men. " All the ciacumstances that render

death less formidable to them, render laborious restraint propor- tionably more irksome. The more their heh:tual state of existence IS independent, wandering, and hostile t,r "Kendv and laborioea

industry, the more they will be terrified 'ov a state of passive sub- mission and of laborious conlinement,—a nrode of life in the highest degree repugnant to their natural inclinations."

But our objections to death-punishment do not rest solely upon the untenable nature of the ail-aliments adduced in its behelf. There are considerations which "go directly to prove its inexpe- diency. From fear of exhausting the patience of our readers, we

will content ourselves with suggesting two. In the first place, the punishment of death is irrevocable. Should it turn out that the conviction of the condemned has been based on error, no amends can be made to the innocent sufferer. No system of penal proce- dure can be devised which can insure the judge faont being misled by false evidence or the fallibility of his own jedgment. The more heinous the crime laid to the charge of' the accused, the greater is

the probability of an erroneous conviction. It is eloquently said by the great master of the science of jurisprudence whom we have already so often quoted in the course of these remarks—" When the pretended crime is among the number of those that produce antipathy towards the offender, or which excite against him a party- feeling, the witnesses almost unconsciously act as accusers. They are the echoesqf the public clamour. The fermentation goes on increasing, and all doubt is laid aside. It was a concurrence of sueh circumstances which seduced first the people and then the judges in the melancholy affair of Cities." The second considera- tion to Nchiel1 we proposed to advert is, that the employment of death-puniahment destroys one source of testimonial proof. The death of one erinffiial is in a great measure :In act of' amnesty in fitvour of all his accomplices. The honour :neong thieves" feel-

ing can nerve a men to die like the wolf, in (.-nce. Bet amid the tedium or drudgery of n prison, heunted by falaa 'a picturea of the liberty his equally culpable colleegues nre eaj(■yi eae his determina- tion may relax, and inthrmation enlculated to preeet... the ends of justice be obtained from him.

Within our limits it is impossilde to treat such a subject ex- haustively ; and yet. it seeme to tee upon a can fel retrospect of what we have written!, that enough has been advenced to show the expediency of entirely aboli:bing dcet h-punishmants. Entertain- ing this opinion. we cannot but congratulate the public upon the proef of' its difffisicel throuliout society, shown by the chain of emuraating incidents to which we alluded in the out set, as having prompted the train of thought in which we have been indulging; and we cherish the hope that the fellacioua notion that induces so manv to regard murder, and the highest grade of political offences, as exceptional crimes which ought still to be visited with the pain of death, will in a few years be dispelled.