Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 07.pdf/493

 454

THE FAILURE OF PUNISHMENT. EVERY now and then the conscience of the community is horrified by some abominable crime. Public interest becomes violently excited, and all the details are read with avidity. Should the criminal be dis covered, his trial is watched by the eyes of the nation, and if his crime be murder, the public conscience of the majority is appeased when he is sentenced to death. Formerly the execution was a festive occasion for all but the prisoner. People went to view it as they go to see a horse-race, a circus per formance, or any other pleasant show. Seats were paid for, and places taken early. Rude jokes were cracked, and ribald songs sung. Refreshments were devoured at the foot of the gallows, and the Bill Sykes of the hour was cheered by his friends, and exhorted to die " game." If he showed signs of fear, the mob cursed and howled. Bravado, inso lence, and impudence were expected from him for their approval, and he seldom dis appointed them. We find that punishments after the Chris tian era were little, if any, less cruel than those under Paganism. Virginity was the su preme theoretical virtue of the early Church, the foundation of her wealth and strength. Thus the first Christian emperors issued edicts by which panderers were condemned to have molten lead poured down their throats, and not only was the ravisher put to death, but the ravished also if she con sented to his act. Nevertheless, nowhere are fouler records of immorality to be found than among those who were the most stren uous upholders of chastity. The compara tive immunity of monks and priests made them the most debauched and most de bauching classes of the community. They were not slack, however, in imposing pains and penalties upon others. The punish

ments inflicted by the Church exceeded the civil manyfold, both in number and severity, but they did not succeed in checking eccles iastical offenses. For instance, when witches were punished with most cruelty was pre cisely the time when witches most abounded. Each auto-da-fe was followed by an abundant crop of fresh victims. We look on these fol lies of our predecessors with scorn and pit)', and perhaps, in the future, our errors, to which we so fondly cling to-day, will be similarly regarded. It has been found by ages of experience that the most horrible punishments or suf ferings were least deterrent. In many cases they seem to have had a strange fascination for weak minds that boldly courted them, just as the Circumcelliones, in the fourth century, courted suicide. These insulted the Pagan customs to provoke martyrdom — killed each other for the glory of God — and, as St. Augustine informs us, assembled by thousands at a time, and " leaped with paroxysms of frantic joy from the brows of overhanging cliffs till the rocks below were reddened with their blood." Healthy minds regard horrors with wholesome abhorrence, but not so the unhealthy. And we are still so ignorant of the extent to which these lat ter exist, and of the peculiarities of mental and moral weaknesses, and the influence upon them of current events, that it becomes doubtful whether severe punishments do not incite to new crimes, and, indeed, whether all forms of punishment, except restrictive ones, may not be mistakes. It has been proved over and over that crime is in its nature epidemic, and from this it would appear to be the outcome of dis ease. Lunatics in this country were regularly whipped in former times, and those who had infectious complaints, such as smallpox,