The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-22 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JANUARY 22, 1855.

his felon hand one of his fellow-creatures was re- I
morselessly dispatched, " unhouselled and unan-
nealed, no reckoning made, with all his imperfec-
tions on his head," to his dread account ; and if
a second was permitted a brief hour of grace,
BARTHELEMY was not to thank for it. The mur-
der was pitiless. Had escape been practicable at
the cost of a dozen lives, there is every reason to
believe he would have taken them. If hanging,
therefore, for murder be right and politic, BAR.
THELEMY was rightly and properly hanged. We,
however, have grave doubts as to the existence of
the right, and are confident, if it do exist, of the
impolicy of exercising it.
We do not intend to enter en the Scriptural
question. All we will say in relation to the
alleged right of inflicting death is, that it
seems inconsistent with the spirit of the
Christian dispensation. In hanging a man
for murder, are we not doing with him precisely
what he did with his victim, and for doing which
we punish him—that is, violently depriving him
of life--a striking anomaly I Homicide, the
righteous avenger of murder ! Of the impolicy
of the punishment of death we are thoroughly
satisfied. It does not meet the exigency for which
it is set apart. Society finds no safeguard in it
from felonious violence or secret contrived mur-
der. The scaffold is a failure. Not only, however,
does it not accomplish the end for which it was
designed, but it also does much evil. It is a demo-
ralising spectacle, in that it tends to confound right
and wrong in men's minds by misdirecting sympa-
thy and mitigating the reprobation with which the
crime of murder should be regarded. Before con-
viction, the murderer is looked upon with horror
lsy all; after conviction, provided he gives signs of
penitence, with dangerous sympathyby most. The
brand of CAIN is forgotten—he is regarded by
many solely as a fellow Christian, fit for, and
about to be launched into a blissful eternity. He
is more pitied than his victim, or than his crime
is reprobated. It is demoralising, also. In
the lesson of disregard for human life
and physical suffering it teaches the uneducated
masses. Veneration for a thing so sacred as
human life cannot, surely, but be diminished by
taking it with whatever circumstance as a punish-
ment. Far better, we submit, would it be to set
the convict apart in confinement from his fellows,
and there leave him, if penitent, to the
stings of conscience, and if impenitent to the
retributive justice of his MAKER. In the latter
case, it seems horrible in mere mortals to hurry
his unprepared soul before its Judge. The be-
lief, by the impulsive masses, that " the avenging
sprite" in his lone cell points its accusing fingers
at the convicted murderer by day and glares over
his sleepless pillow by night throughout, it may
be, a long course of years, would do more, in
our opinion, to render murder repulsive, and to
deter from its perpetration in the hour of tempta-
tion, than the present brief shameful exposure
and physical agony. The gallows is cut of date,
and should be put aside.

{Although we cannot concur in the concluding
observations of our respected correspondent, we
gladly give insertion to his views, knowing that
they are participated in by many excellent and
well-disposed men. We feel that truth must ever
be promoted by discussion—that the greater pub-
licity given to various opinions, the greater pro-
bability of sound conclusions being arrived at.
We have not hesitated to declare that capital
punishment cannot be altogether abolished.
That there are cases in which society is bound to
avenge the death of any of its members, by the
solemn execution of the wilful and deliberate
murderer. This being so, we may rest on the
admission that "if hanging for murder be right
and politic, BARTHELEMY was rightly and properly
hanged." The only difficulty in the case aroso
from the grave mistake of trying him for the
murder of poor CHARLES COLLARD, in place of
that of Mr—Aloone, which would have brought
all the facts to light, and opened every possible
line of defence to the unfortunate criminal.—
ED. SUN.]

LONDON, BRIGHTON, AND SOUTH
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