The murderer Pranzini was executed on Wednesday morning at 5
o'clock, in the public square in front of the prison of La Roquette. For nearly a week before, immense crowds had gathered every night, in the hopes of catching a sight of the execution. As day after day passed without the expected sight, the condact of these crowds became more and more disgraceful, till at last a positive blood-frenzy such as only a Parisian mob can exhibit, seems to have seized them. In the end, however, they were baulked of their desire, for the police on the day of the execution drove back the ordinary spectators into the side-streets, and allowed only some two thousand privileged ticket.holders to approach within view of the guillotine. It is extraordinary that in a country like France, where public opinion is so much averse to capital punishment that juries find extenuating circumstances in the clearest cases of wilful murder, executions, when they do take place, should be carried out with every possible aggravation of horror. After Pranzini's body had been removed, the crowd broke through the police, and rushed to wet their handkerchiefs, hats, and hands in " the crimson mud ;" while a youth with blood- stained fingers daubed the faces of the women of bad character in the crowd. It is to be hoped that the scandals attending Pranzini'e execution will ensure the passage of the Bill for holding executions in private already introduced in the Senate. It would be well to abolish at the same time the hideous custom, meant to be merciful, by which the prisoner never knows whether he will not be reprieved until he is awakened one morning by the officials of the prison, who instantly hurry him off to his death.
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