The National Register.
London, England, 1819-02-07 00:00:00

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M exciting popular commieeration . piifferer, and
horror of the bloody law to which . fells a victim.
Now admitting Dr. Paley's principles, it appears, that
his very object--example---is defeated by punishing a
man for stealing a sheep, iu the same.fate us if he bad
murdered a fellow creature. The Doetor's justification,
therefore, in this respect, of the indictiun of death by
the law of England on so many minor offecces, falls
short of its object. lie advances, however, another
defence, namely, that death, though denounced against
an many crimes, it; inflicted on only a few criminals.
Tills he mays, is systematically the intention of the law
of England. ' It is founded on the oonsideretion, that
' the selection of proper objects thr Capital punishment
' principally depends upon drain:unlaces ; v‘•lic:i haw-
' ever easy to perceive, in each panietiler case, after
' the crime. 15 committee, it is impondhle to enu-reritte
' or define before hand, or to ascertain, however, w Al:
' that exactness, which is requisite in legal descriptions.
' Hence, although it be necessary to. fix by precise
' rules of law the boundary on one side, that is, the
' limit to which the punishment may be extended; and
' also, that nothing has than the wither; cy of the whole
' legislature be soared to determine that boundary,
' and assign these rules ; yet the mitigation of purish •
' merit the exerciee of lenity, may without danger be
' entrusted to the executive magistrate, whose fits-
' ctetion will operate upon thou: nunicreus, unforeseen,
' mutable, and indefinite circumstances both of the
' crime 'visa the criminal, which constitute or quality
' the mateignity of each otlence. Without the power
' of relaxation lodged in a living authority, either
' some cileiders wou:d -escepe capital punishment,
' whom the public safety required to suffer, or some
' would undergo this plinishment, where it was
' neither deserved nor necessary. Raw if jedgment of
' death were reserved for one or tele spec'es of crime
' only (which would reliably he the case, if that pi'-
' nislunent was intended to be executed without exec.p-
-' tion), crimes might oecur of the most dangerous ex-
' ample, and accompanied wl.ll circumstances of heinous
' aggravation, which did not fell within any description
' of OC-ewes which the laws led piaile capital, and
' yid:7h consequently could not ragtime the punishment
' their own rnelignity and the public safety required.'
' Tee law of England,' he a:twinges, ' in constructed
• upon a different awl better policy. By the number
' of statetca creating capital offences, it sweeps into
1 1 the net every crime, which under every possible cit.-
, ' mimeo:ince, tree merit the punishment of death; but
' when the execution of this sentee,e comes to he de.
6 libetatc,d upoe, a small proportiqn of each class are,
' sled': I out, the general character, or the peculiar ag.
' we-Jet:on' of whose crimes, render them fit examples
' of public justice. By this
.. . few actually suf-
eller
' fer death, whilst the dread and of it hang over
' the crimetoof many.' ..a..
Now, &Limiting the full force *is argument, what
would it prove? Much more titan Doctor Paley,in-
tended, via. that arbitrary power, discreetly alai:lie.
tered, is better than a system of law ; because as the
varieties of the degrees of guilt of dilterent culprits are
infinite, an no previous denunciations of the law can fit
them exactly, bat only the dinereion of the judg,es,
when all these circutnstances are known. Now admit-
ting this argument, it could only Ispl,l true were there
but one jucl.:e, and were he giftedellith the keenest in-
sight into characters and motives. Out there are twelve
judges, who go the circuits, and tire hare no right to
expect that they should be all an fated. The discre-
tion of one judge is very diFeein z from that of another;
and must be so. ' Imputing to all,es they well deserve,
mach knowledge, the highest integrity, sod the best
'intentions, yot from ratings mini of habit, tempera-
mail, stales, and tliWereace of iele.icnee, some

must be more inclined to severity thsn tethers, an 4 dome
most view Jilni:ur circumstances ie ditferent lights. 'rhe
consequence therefore is, that the fate of an °dewier, as
the law is administered in this country, depends, me:.
only on the varieue shades of guilt belonging to hia tv!"-
fence, but al:,o on the chance of who happens to be the
judge who tries him—whether. iu the coarse hut expres-
sive language of the criminate, it being a hangite: judge.
ur not. Besides this, 'he assertion or supitositicit, with
whieh the foregoing exeract from Dr. Peley cone! ades,
is not well grounded. lie xeye, ' Ry this expedient fete
actually suffer death'—iii proportion to the number
whom the law condemns to death, this is true. • Whii:t.
the dread and danger of it hang ova many.' Now
this is not true, nor can it be, utilese men were. differ-
ently constituted than they are. A much ~ranter
number of those, who are guilty of thtee minor offe 1-
eve I:uve their punishment mitigated than suffer capi-
tally.. This is known to the people at large as much as
to the lawyers or legislators of the country. flow thee
' can the dread of death be said to hang over those wile
are tempted to commit these offences, when a lar,!e
majority of those who do commit theta escepo.eupi_
tal punishment ? The fact is you cannot cheat the
people, and deter than from crimes by the dread of
death, if you do not generally inflict that penalty.
They will believe what they see and witeess, not whet
the leer hooks say ; experience will tell them, that
though in the books death for taco crimes is the
general rule, and a tuidguted penislimeeteilte eeceptiee ;
in point of fact the Maier penalty is,the genera rule.
and death the exception. - Mettle therefore, when - it
is inflicted, will not operate as an ceumple ; and etill
less will it du so, when the prisoner and every oee
else imputes it, nut to the degree of his geilt, but
to his being unlucky in the judge who tries him.
The sacrifice of his life, therefore, is clearly an evil,
without any eiptivelent good. l'ittis, as far as capitel
punishment is intlictod on these oll'euces, it does not
operate as an example, much less es far as it is nut
inflicted. It seer es, therctiwe, that this defenee of such
a bloody cote as the English, totally feils ;' and that
time very practice on which the defetice °vial:bates,
proves the impraeticability of the low as it ettinds ;
while the aixwe considcretiens show the i:epoliceeof it
as it is administered.

Accounts both from Sweden and Norwiy exhibit the
unexampled fact, that down to the beginning nf the
present month, them has teen neither frJsi nor snow 1-i
them remote and hitherto inhorpituble regions; b.. t
that the primrose blossom, and the gooseberry t e.a
are green, under the 59 h tiegre•?.. of latitude.

A document of some importaece has been received
from the United States, in the form of an official letter
from the Atneticen S.,eretary of State, to the Republk.,:a
Minister at the Llow tof Madrid : awl which prtifes4el
to be an answer to the representations of M. Pizarro, of
the much canvassed subject of the Floridas. Three-
fourths of the letter, though nominally discussing the
me. its of the late war with the Seminole Indians, as
concerns the Spaniards oely, is devoted to the sing.e
tonic of the milimry butchery of Arbuthnot and ,tm-
brister ; awl discloses, we can hardly hesitate to believe,
the principles en which the American Ministry are ia-
t*,iikl to argue, when it may be pressetl upon them by
$:;;•C.:t l4ritain, the great rFestion in which en: right,
Livervqs, and henottr, are involved. —drum the wl. e
of gas irapt,v, %% hit the docu:neuts annexed to it.
rather suspect that the American Government mean to
deli:n(l and justify the conduct of Gen. ladcson towar...s
the subjects of Great &nail', whom he and ins conn-
martial. betweeu them, unlawfully put to the sword.
Not eacuses, Hugely, but jiastifleatien ; not justiftteuion,
but the highest admiration andapplause,are lavi• bed ;e-
-on
Juck.oo for the whole of his preceedings towarris
these unhappy Englishmen. ry odious epithet is
hestewed the unfurtunate men, anti upon other
British olcers who Karl preceded them it: Weir ouatidee-
tit: intercourse 'vith the `tiara h ttut':orities er the
Indian •We trust that, upon reconsideration, the
Cabinet of the United States may dis vow tug atr,
lets dote in the Floridas. If approved .n at 1% irt);•,g..
ton, it is no lo 'ger Gen. Jacksen, but Mr. Mourne a.m•l
theßepublic itsclt, become reveze•LeioLaiiatnl,
to civiti..atuni, and to ha.ll.wity.