Page:On death punishments (Haughton).pdf/7

7 ground, that it would be unsafe to try the experiment in relation to the crime of murder.

It is true, our legislators have not permitted us to prove that, in the case of murder, as well as in that of all other crimes, it would be a surer guarantee of life to substitute other means than legalised life-taking for our protection. Yet we are not left without good evidence in support of the safety of the abolition of death punishment, even in the case of murderers.

Other countries have gone beyond England in the career of benevolent and wise because benevolent, legislation; and the result, with them, has fully sustained the principles I am contending for. Belgium abolished death punishment altogether; and the facts, in that country, are of a peculiar interest, as they prove the correctness of all the opinions held by the advocates of the abolition of death punishment in these countries. Belgium has returned to the gallows as a protection of life and property, and the result has been, as might have been predicted, increased danger to both. The following statistics are taken from official returns:—

During the five years ending with 1829, 22 persons were executed out of 34 convicted of murder; whilst during the five years ending with 1834, none were executed, and only 20 were convicted of the same offence. In 1835, death punishment was again resorted to, to allay the fears of some who, in defiance of plain proof to the contrary, alleged its necessity. In that year two criminals were executed, and between 1836 and 1839 two more were executed—and what followed? Capital condemnations, which in five years, from 1830 to 1834, when there were no executions, were 64 in number, rose in the five years from 1835 to 1839, when there were 4 executions, to 80; or, in other words, increased just 25 per cent. In this instance of mis-legislation—of a going back towards barbarism, instead of making progress towards a higher civilisation—we find that the revengeful feelings of our nature were stimulated into, dangerous activity.

In France and in Prussia, where a comparatively mild administration of this penal law prevails, the results anticipated are experienced. As the death punishment was relaxed in these countries, the committals for murder steadily decreased. The result, as exhibited by the returns, is, that while executions were diminished by two-thirds, the crime decreased one-third.

In Tuscany, too, where death punishment was for a length of time entirely discontinued, the reigning grand-duke declared, after an experience of twenty-three years, that the alteration, "instead of increasing the number of crimes, considerably diminished the smaller ones, and rendered those of an atrocious nature very rare." Under the ascendancy of Napoleon, who was a man of violence, and appears to have had no faith in any law except the law of violence, death punishments were re-enacted; and were followed by an increase in the number of atrocious crimes.

Again, let us view the effect of the principles I am now advocating, when carried into operation in India by Sir James