The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT 0-1' TUE PITS LIO atolll NALL

In a leader on the CapitalPuntshment deb; ate, the Times
asks—ls there, then, any valid reason for a esertilig, that
the substitution of imprisonment and hard labour for
death as the punishment of murder would mo re effectually
deter men from that crime? Nothing th at has been
brought forward by the abolitionists leads us • to believe so,
and the direct testimony of those best acquainted with the
criminal classes negative such a supposition. It is geie.
rally admitted that the most reckless and violet it have a
thorough fear of the willows, which secondary punish-
ments do not inspire. It will, perhaps, be answered,
" Why not, then, hang for everything? If death be the
best deterrent, and society have the right to inflict it,
why not bring the coiner and forger to the gallows, as of
old ?" The answer is short. Murder is a crime so pre-
eminently hurtful to society that it is advisable to dis-
tinguish it by a punishment above every other, and by
one which may be held up before the eyes even of a man
who is undergoing the most extreme sentence for a
minor offence. Secondly, the crime of murder, in
contradistinction to ordinary crimes of larceny or fraud, is
generally the offspring of that kind of savage disposition
which only the fear of death will effieiently control. If
the opinions of those conversant with prisoners are to be
taken, there does exist a salutary fear of the death penalty
among the worst class of the population. A man will rob
a house or waylay a traveller, but, in the very heat of the
act, or at the very height of his fury, he will know how
to hold his hand and avoid the actual killing of a human
being. It is said, and we doubt not with perfect truth,
that the ,reason why the proportion of murders to minor
grimes is so small— why the deed so often stops short of
the capital offence, even at the risk of leaving a witness
of the scene—is, that there is among the criminal class the
very strongest fear of actually causing death. They
know that the pursuit will be far more keen if a murder
be in'question, and that, if caught and convicted, a very
different doom awaits them. If this be the effect of the
law, it is certainly a most important advantage to society,
and one that should not be thrown away in deference
either to sentimental humanity or to vague theories of
abstract juries.

The Daily News has an elaborate article to answer the
views set forth by Mr. Mill in the Capital Punishment
debate. Mr. Mill thinks that where the sad contingency
of the innocence of a prisoner convicted of murder on
plausible evidence is more than infinitesimal, the sen-
tence of death should be commuted. A recommendation
to this effect should be made by the judge, not solely
where the proof of guilt is open to the smallest suspicion,
but wherever (to use his own words) there remains any-
thing unexplained and mysterious in the case, raising a
desire for more light, or making it likely that further in-
formation may at some time be obtained. As murders
are seldom committed in the open day, or in the presence
of witnesses, there are few crimes of that character
which would not come under this category. The as-
sassin would be able to speculate more hopefully, and
with more reason than ever, on the chances of escape
from the extreme penalty. It is probable, too, that
public ideas of evidence would receive a shock
if it were once authoritatively proclaimed that the testi-
mony which is insufficient for one purpose is sufficient for
another ; that it may be too weak to justify loss of life,
and strong enough to justify loss of all that makes life
valuable. The benefit of the doubt which the English law
mercifully extends towards the accused is in his case to take
the form, not of liberation, but of penal servitude for life.
Practically this would be intolerable. Mr. Mill's plea for
capital punishment fails of its purpose. The reluctance
deliberately to inflict death, which is at the root of the
movement which he combats, does not spring from any
superstitious regard for human life apart from the purposes
of living, but from a desire to give these defeated purposes
a new chance of partial fulfilment. Be this as it may,
there is little room for doubt that the feeling which refuses
to tolerate public executions will soon prohibit any execu-
tions at all. What the eye cannot endure the mind will
not long hear with. In abandoning publicity a great part
of the arguments for capital punishment are surren-
dered.

It is said by some that penal servitude is as severe as
CIPC ecut ion. The Herald answers this by the case at Man-
chester. For what, it asks, did their friends and sympa-
thisers petition—for pardon? No, but for penal servitude,
lifelong and hopeless —if penal servitude be ever
hopeless—for any punishment, however ignominious and
severe, short of the scaffold. And Mr. Gregory mentioned
numerous instances in which, as was well known, the
most unscrupulous scoundrels have avowed that, but for
the dread of the gallows, they would have " knifed " a
victim instead of simply garotting or stunning him. This
confession has been made over and over again, and we
must bear in mind that not a few murderers belong to the
order of men who reflect before they act, and hesitate
long, because, although careless of disgrace, care-
less of liberty—chances they would risk with com-
parative alacrity for the stake of a great prize or a great
revenge— they cannot face all at once the horrid thought
of the hangman. But, apart from this main question,
the public will rejoice to know that the evil which by the
vast majority of persons has long been deemed the chief
reproach of the law inflicting capital punishments is being
rapidly legislated out of existence. It was against the
hardening influence, the demoralising revelry, the loath-
some episodes of public executions that they protested—
against the gin-drenched rabble, the night of uproar and
debauch— the ghastly reflex of the convict on the scaffold,
to be seen in the countenances of so many standing below
him and staring up with hideous curiosity at his face. The
murderer will, for the future, die in comparative secrecy,
with no opportunity for bravado—no exposure of his last
physical agonies to the boastful populace. The provisions
made for securing his execution, tor announcing the
moment at which it takes place, for identifying him,
living and dead, and for giving to the outside world a
record of his agony, have already been more than once
explained ; and the reform is one, we believe, which has
been projected in the interest of popular morals and
manners without detriment to justice.
The Star lays down that there were flaws in Mr. Mill's
ratiocination on capital punishment. In the first place,
every perpetrator of aggravated murder is hardly within '
the category of utterly incorrigible and hopeless villains.
Secondly, the description of absolutely hopeless wickedness
would apply with much more truth to many habitual per-
petrators of smaller crimes who would not be executed.
Thirdly, Mr. Mill altogether leaves out of view the
religious element of this question. A member of Parlia-
ment who discusses the propriety of execution without en-
tertaining the idea of the future life, does not place himself
sufficiently en rapport with his countrymen to bring them
into harmony with his views.
The Post remarks that the Trish have now put in a new
claim for justice. They want a "Balmoral." They say
that it would tend to supply the link between the people
and the monarchy, the absence of which they so keenly
feel. They have, they complain, had no opportunity of
exhibiting the loyalty which has been lying dormant in
their hearts. They intimate, rather sarcastically, that
Ireland is really worth a little attention of this sympathetic
description. They declare plainly that it is vain for her
Majesty to expect love from those whom she never con-
descends to visit ; but it is evident that they are more
than content with the representation of the Crown
which is now visible to them. They claim royal con-
sideration, and affirm that it would find its reward in
the gratitude and devotion of a peaceful and law-abiding
community. They willingly allow that past neglect has
become traditional and habitual, not studied and inten-
tional ; but it has, they add, operated very injuriously.
In short, the pleasure which they are experiencing has
come none too soon, and it remains to be seen whether
their satisfaction may be established, as they wish it
should be, so as to secure for Ireland a better future.
Such is the burden of a.) interpretation of public opinion
which certainly is entitled to be considered in the spirit
which its expression manifests. There is an opening that
may not again present itself, and that could not again be
made, after a long interval, even by the same potent in-
fluence, without exciting suspicion calculated to neutralise
its purpose.

The Telegraph has a word to say in answer to the Times
diatribe against the leader of the Opposition. At the
termination of the Easter recess the business is resumed
exactly where it was broken off. Mr. Gladstone, it will
be remembered, had carried his motion to go into com-
mittee, and had submitted his first resolution, when Par-
liament adjourned. On its reassembling, therefore, the
discussion would be resumed precisely at the point
where it was suspended and whatever occasion
ulterior incidents may afford for explanations or
statements on the part of the Cabinet, assuredly
there was nothing in the meeting of Monday to
call for any formal statement from Mr. Disraeli. Nor
was there anything to demand the special attendance of
Mr. Gladstone, whose absence has been so severely cen-
sured as a neglect of parliamentary duty in the leader of
the Opposition. The situation is so simple as to want
neither explanation nor " statement." The position is
one of ordinary progressive business ; Mr. Disraeli has no
new facts to communicate, and Mr. Gladstone had no
explanation to ask. The first resolution follows the great
division and majority as naturally as Monday comes after
Sunday, and it will, we believe, be carried by a majority
as great as that which affirmed the goodwill and just inten-
tions of the English people towards Ireland.

The Standard points out the heavy task that it will be
co Sir Robert Napier to take such a place as Magdala is
described to be. The odds are heavy, and yet one need
not fear to encounter them under such a leader as Sir
Robert Napier. Whatever may be the issue of this cam-
paign, it is impossible that Sir Robert Napier can emerge
from it without having achieved a reputation second to
that of no other English general. Let us agree at
least in this, I,f,,re the last scene in the drama begins to
I 1,1,15,2,1, that Sir Robert Napier has, up to this
time, performed his work most ably, wisely, and
br;lliantlY• II has Ore than justified the choice
of him by the 4:nvermnent, and amply confirmed the
large hopes entertained of him by his friends. He has
not, indeed, conducted the campaign as certain impatient
newspaper critics advised hint to do. Ire has not made a
"clash" with a flying column against Theodore. He who
chased 'l'antia Topee through all Central India, and
baffled that wily chief in each of his dodges and doublings,
might have taken even that perilous counsel and achieved
success. But Sir Robert Napier preferred to risk nothing.
Isis chief glory is that he has made the Abyssinian campaign
as uneventful as a march from London to Portsea Common.
He has marched 300 miles into the interior of Africa, and con-
tinued to report, from the first day to the last. " all well."

LETTER FROM DR. LIYINGSTON.E.

A letter has been received in Edinburgh from
Livingstone, fly a friend of the celebrated traveller. The
following are Axtracts :—" Country of the Chipeta, Nov.
10, 1866.—1 t has been quite impossible to send a letter
coastwise ever since we left the Rovurna. The Arab
slavetraders take to their heels as soon as they hear that
the English are on the road. I am a perfect bugbear to
them. Eight parties thus skedaddled, and last of all my
Johanna men, frightened out of their wits by stories
told them by a member of a ninth party who had been
plundered of his slaves, walked off and left me to
face the terrible Mazitu with nine Nassick boys.
The fear which the English name has struck into
the souls of the slavetraders has thus been an incon-
venience. I could not go round the north end of the lake
for fear that my Johanna men, at sight of danger, would
do there what they actually did at the southern end,
and the owners of two dhows now on the lake kept them
out of sight, lest I shouldburn them as slavers, and I could
not cross in the middle. Rounding the southern end, we
got up Kirk's range, and among Manganja not yet made
slave-sellers. This was a great treat, for, like all who have
not been contaminated by that blight, they were very
kind, and, having been worried enough by unwilling
Sepoys and cowardly Johanna men, I followed
my bent by easy marches among friendly, gene-
rous people, to whom I tried to impart some new
ideas in return for their hospitality. The country is
elevated, and the climate cool. One of the wonders told
of us in successive villages was that we slept without fires.
The boys having blankets did not need fire, while the inha-
bitants, being scantily clad, have their huts plastered
inside and out, and even the roofs, to make themselves
comfortable. Our progress since has been slow from
other and less disagreeable causes. Some parts have been
denuded of food by marauding Mazitu or Zulus ; we have
been fain to avoid these, and gone zigzag. Once we nearly
walked into the hands of a party, and several times we
have been detained by rumours of the enemy in front.
January 1867.—1 mention several causes of delay. I must
add, the rainy season is more potent than all, except
hunger. In passing through the Babisa country we found
that food was not to be had. The Babisa are great slave-
traders, and have, in consequence, little industry. This
seems to be the chief cause of their having no food to spare.
The rains, too, are more copious than I ever saw them
anywhere in Africa ; but we shall get on in time.
February I.—l am in Bemba, or Lobemba, and at the
chief man's place, which has three stockades around it,
and a deep dry ditch round the inner one. He seems a
fine fellow, and gave us a cow to slaughter on our arrival
yesterday. We are going to hold a Christmas feast off it
to-morrow, as I promised the boys a blow-out when we
came to a place of plenty. We have had precious hard
lines ; and I would not complain if it had not been gnaw-
ing hunger for many a day, and our bones sticking through
as if they would burst the skin. When we were in a part
where game abounded I filled the pot with a &strata
rifle given me by Captain Fraser ; but elsewhere we had
but very short rations of a species of millet called macre,'
which passes the stomach almost unchanged. The sorest
grief of all was the loss of the medicine-box which your
friend at Apothecaries' Hall so kindly fitted up. All
other things I divided among the bundles, so that if one or
two were lost we should not be rendered destitute of such
articles ; but this I gave to a steady boy, and trusted him.
He exchanged for a march with two volunteers, who
behaved remarkably well, till at last hungry marchea
through dripping forests, cold hungry nights, and
fatiguing days overcame their virtue, and they made off
with ' Steady's' load—all his clothes, our plates, dishes,
much of our powder, and two guns, and it was impossible
to trace them after the first drenching shower, which feU
immediately after they left us. The forests are so dense
and leafy that one cannot see fifty yards on any:side. This
loss, with all our medicine, fell on my heart like a sentence
of death by fever, as was the case with poor Bishop
Mackenzie ; but I shall try native remedies, trusting Him
who has led me hitherto to help me still. We have been
mostly on elevated land, between 3,000 and 5,000 feet
above the sea. I think we are now on the water-shed for.
which I was to seek. We are now 4,500 feet above the sea
level, and will begin to descend when we go. This may be
put down as 10deg. 10min. south lat., and long. 31deg.
50min. 2sec, We found a party of black half-caste Arab
slaves here, and one promises to take letters to Zanzibar,
but they give me only half a day to write. I shall send
what I can, and hope they will be as good as their word.
We have not had a single difficulty with the people, but
we have been very slow. Eight miles a day is a good
march for us, loaded as the boys are; and we have often been
obliged to go zigzag, as I mentioned. Blessings on you all.
Love to Mrs. From yours ever affectionately,
" DAVID LIVINGSTONE."