New-York daily tribune., 1843-02-06

later period. And the same returns which exhioie
this important fact afford also reason tor 1t:
namely, tha, while the number Of offences commit
ted unde, the modified penalty had decreased, the
per centeee OF conrictioHs upon the prosecution
OF those 80 offending had greatly increased. Who
hath ears to hear, let him hear
And now to the cases more directly in point;
l. BELGluN-king Leopold ascended the
throne OF Belgium in 1880, and, being disciple OF
the ant-killing philosophers Of the age, promptly
declared that he should not doom any man TO
death unless under circumstances OF extraordinary
atrocity. his resolution was one which weald
soon make self manifest to all by acts, even II It's
concealment were attempted. Ii carried with it,
in our view, all the evils which would result from
legal abrogation of Capital Punishment, without
securing all its benefits. We dislike the idea OF
paldors-of irregular and intermittent Justice
And vet one Of the chief Jurists of the country,
and now one of the Kings Csunsellors OF State,
published in 1886 work on Jurisprudence, en-
b,acing the Statistics OF Crime in that Country,
which show that, while the number OF murders tor
wears before had been pretty steadily e'sht per
annum, for the FIVE years following they averaged
but four Is not this to the purpose, and worth
whole balloon Of clcquencc? Mr.. {. indeed OBJ
ec,ed that the period was too short to be decisive
but we submit that, devolved on his side to show
that the seven subsequen, years tell q different
story. We undoubtedly believe the contrary, and
will endeavor TO procure the needfu Information
II. TuscAsY-This country abolished the in
fiction of Death by law about 1873, and adhered
to that abolition through quarter of century
When its Independent Government was su5verted
By the democratic dcspotism Of Revolutionary
France, the guilotine was among the instruments
of human regeneration established by the new su-
premacv. Now we have no precise and full sta
tistics with regard to this country-we deeply re-
gre, that we have not-but European writer's of
high character affirm that the number Of murders
greatly diminished after the abolition OF C0pt-
tai Puaishmcnt-thatth they reref far te'eer during
the tscenty.f fire gears exemption from legol blood
SHE'D MGn 6etore-less than they hare been SINCE
Death has been rcstorcd-and far less than IN
other parts Of Ediy al The same period. we do
not see how these facts can well be got ever. Mr..
C. indeed dwelt on the fact that Capital Punish
ment had been restored, and that murders were re-
pu,ed to be frequent in Tuscany. Yes; but We're
hev freqpent vhiie the punishment was NOT Ca
pital? and Hare they been LESS So since Our
position asserts the negative of both these qucs-
lions, and it has not yet been even disputed. Pro-
badly Mr. C.s frs, facti, the reason of his second
III. RussA-The opponents of Capital Fun
shment do lay great stress on the fact that this
Punishment was abolished in Russia hundred
wears ugo; that it has never been readmitted into
the code of that immense and sem-barbarous I'm
pire; and that her Statemcn and Authors unanlm'
ou.ly agree that its Abolition has been followed
by the most salutary results; that heinous crimes
are less frequent among the People than formerly.
Is not this case directly in point, and one nightly
efectivel How is it TO be escaped A cavil at
the absence of precise data will hardly answer,
since the Russian Government does not court pub
citv for its operations: the simple fact that Sixty
Millions of People live in at leastthe usua! security
against mutderous assaults in the absence OF the
death penalty. and, after century OF experience
still warmly and proudly proclaim their own sys-
TEN superior to that which prescrlbes Judicial
Killing, is certainly very much to the purpose
How is il to be circumvened! Mr.. Cheever told
us that, though death no longer the legal
penalty of capital crimes, yet the Emperor, WELD
ing despotic power sometimes nllcts It, either by
whipping to death with the knout or directly
Yes it is true that Death has been inflicted IN
Russia ky arbitrary power; but is death there the
legal punishment Of murder' Most certainly
not Now the fact that the Soverei gn sometimes
puts men TO death arbitrarily for treason and
kindred offences, Con the assumption that traitor
is perpetual danger to the State while he lives)
cannot possibly affect the question at issue. THE
man rho commits or meditates Murder an Russia
does not apprhesnd that his DEATH wiN be lis
penalty Even if it were proved that Death rs
inflicted there on one murderer in every hundred,
i, would not nvalidatc the facts that the murderer
no longer breads death as the penalty of his
crime, and that murders not thereby increased,
but the contrary. How this be got over .
Surely this much is established that the penalty OF
Death for Murder has been greatly relaxed in some
countries and utterly abandoned in others, and
,eh;le the advocates Of It's abolition appeal tgtA
confidence TO The ascertained effects Of swch abro-
CATION tAer opponents shrink Jrsm and seek to
aiscrcdu them.
"A word here in correction Of Rev. Dr.. Cox,
who on two several occasions has asserted in de-
tate that several of our Southers States have
abolished the penalty of Death for Murder, and
that there this crime is greatly prevalent. We have
vet to learn the names of the Southern States which
have so acted. We know that Life appears TO be
held quite cheap in some of them, and had always
s1nposed that the unchristian legal and social