New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1846-03-25
are mean. degraded. miserable crininels; End no

1llt Inc puOIlCdL!Ou u lLesc I've" ~dit
colars TO which have alluded is injurious society
there can be no doubt. Apart from their inevitable
association with revolving details, revived again and
again. of bloodshed and murder most Objectionable
as famiiisrisiRg peoples minds with the contem-
petion of such horrors IL is manifest that anything
which tends 10 awaken false interest in great vii
ains and 10 invest their creates, villsines and light
est actions with terrible attraction, must be vicious
and bad, and cannot be wholesome reading. Bat II
is neither Just nor reasonable TO charge their Puoli-
cation on the newspapers. or the cleaners Tor lie
newspapers They are published because they are
read and sought for. They read and sought for,
not because society has causelessly entered into
monstrous and unnatural league on this theme (which
it would be absurd 20 supposel. but because Il IS IL
the secret nature Of those of whom society is made
up 10 have dark and dreadful interest in the pun
ishment a; issue.
Whether public executions produce any good i'm
preston on their habitua witnesses wcetherthey
are calculated to produce any good impression on
the class of persons most likely 10 be attracted 10
them, is question, by this time pretty we'll deci
ded. | was present. myself, at the execution of
Courvoisier. | was purposey, on the spot, from
midnight Of the night before and was near witness
of the whole process OF the building OF the scatfod
the gathering OF the crowd the gradual swelling of
the coucourse with the coming. on OF day, the hang
ing of the man, the cutting of the body down, and
the removing of it into the prison. From the mo-
ment of my arrival, when there we've put few
score boys in the street. and those all young thieves
and all clustered together behind the barrier nearest
10 the drop-down 10 the time when saw the body
with its dangling head being carried on wooden
bier into the jail did not see one token in all the
immense crowd at the windows, In the streets, on
the housetops anywhere; OF any one emotion suit
able 10 the occasion No sorrow no sa!Gtary terror,
no adherence, seriousness; nothing but rbaldry,
debauchery, evity. drunkenness. and Haunting vice
in tiftv other shapes | should have deemed il i'm
,bo- I cnnl1 have falt arre
blage of my fellow.creatures 10 be so odious |
hoped for an instant, that there was some sense Of
Death aud Eternity in the cry OF Z" Hats otf! when
the miserable wretch appeared but found, next
moment, that they only raised It as they would al
Plav-to the Stage the better in the final scene.
Of the effect upon perfectly different class, can
speak with no less confidence. There were with
me- some gentlemen OF education and distinction In
imaginative pursuits. who had. as had, partlcu-
lar detestaton of that murderer not only for the
cruel deed he had done, but for his slow and subtle
ireachery and for his wicked defence. And yet, II
anv one among us could have saved the man I'VE
said so, afterwards with one accord) he would have
done it, 1t was so loahsome, pitiful, and vile
sight that the law appeared 10 be as bad as he, or
worse being very much the stronger, and shedding
around it far more dismal contagion
The last of the influences OF this punishment on
society which shall notice in the present letter, is,
that through the prevalent and fastincreasng feeling
of repugnance TO it, great offenders escape with
very inadequate visitation. Only few weeks have
ELAPSED since the streets Of London presented the OBJ
scene spectacle of woman being brought out 10 be
killed before such crowd as have described and,
while her young body was yet hanging In the brutal
gaze. OF portions of the concourse hurrying away,
10 be in time see man hanged elsewhere, by
the same executoner. y barbarous murderer Is
tried soon afterward, and acquitted on fiction OF
his being nsane-as any one, cognlzant OF these two
recent executions, might have easily toreseen.
| will no, enter upon the question whether juries
be justified or not justified in evadIng their oaths,
rather than add the list OF such deeply degrading
and demoralizing exhibitions and sanction the IN
Fiction oil punishment which they conscentiously
believe, and have so many reasons for believing, 10
be wrong 1t is enough for me that jurles do SO !;
aud | presume 10 think that the able writer OF
powerful article on Johnstones trial IN The Daily
News does not sufficiently consider that this IS no
new course in ,iuries. but the natural result and
working of law TO which the general feeling Is
opposed Mr.. Abercrombie, five and-thirty years
ago stated it in the House of Commons TO bave be-
come common practice OF jurors IN cases OF \ or
eery TO find verdicts contrary 10 the clearest ana
most indisputablc evidence of facts and cited the
case Of woman who was proved 20 have stolen
ten pound note which the jury, with the aPprooa'
ton of the Judge, found TO be worth only thirty
nine shillings. Sir Samuel Romily IN the same de-
bate mentioned other cases OF the same nature )
and they were of frequent and constant occurrence
at that time.
Beside-that iuries have within our own time, IN
another class of cases. arrived at the general prac
tice of returning verdict tacitly agreed upon be-
forehand and OF making il applicable TO very difer
ent sets of facts we know by the notaoe instance
OF Suicide Within few years, jurles frequently
found that a man dying by his own hand, was
guilty. of self.murder But this verdict subJecung
the body to q barbarous mode OF burial from which
the better feeling OF society revoted las It Is now
revolving from the punishment of DEATH 1t was ao-
rogated by common consent, and precisely the same
evasion established as is now, unfortunately, so
often resorted to in cases OF murder. That is an
evasion and not 4 proceeding on soundiy proved
and established principle, that he who destroys his
own life must necessarily be mad,-the very ex-
ceutions from this usual course in themselves de-
monstrate.
So ills in case of Murder Juries, like society,
are not stricken foolish or motiveess. They have,
for the most par an objection to the punishment OF
death and they WILL for the most part, assert 1t by
such verdics. AS jurymen, in the Forgery case,
would probably reconcile their verdict to their con-
sciences, by calling mind that the intrinsic value
of a bank note almost nothing, so jurymen In
cases of Murder probably argue that grave doctors
have said all men more or less mad, and there
fore they believe the prisoner mad. This Is great
wrong 10 society but it arises out OF the punishment
of death.
And the question will always suggest itself in
Jurors minds, however earnestly the learned Judge
presiding, may discharge MS uuty- Wh'Cu 10 tae
greater wrong to society," To give this man the
benefit Of the possibility OF his being mad, or to
have another public execution, with all its deprav:.
ing and hardening influences 2 Imagining myself
Juror, in case OF life and death, and supPoslng
that the evidence had forced me from every, other
ground OF opposition this punishment in the par
ocular case. as possibility OF irremedieble mis-
take, or otherwise l would go over i, again on this
ground and if | could, by any reasonable special
pleading with myself find him mad rather than
hang him-I think would CHARLES DICKENS.
The Extraordinary Express from HALIFAX win
the Foreign News-its Complete and ri
umphant success.
Yesterday morning was riumphantly consum,
mated the most extraordinary enterprise ever attempted
By the press in this or any other
enterprise originating with the penny press and prose-
cuted to close by the united efforts OF the Newt OF
SUN the New-York Tribune and the New-fork Ioulnai
of Commerce-the presses concerned in the iore, gl
gautc effort In thar enterprise they were defeated oy
combination of extraordinary circumstances %ncn
no human foresight exeron could have ioueo; lucy
had the elements contend agsns as did Napoieon d.
Moscow but one campaign did not annlniate mem.
The sun of Austertzr mad not yet set Not"hnstaho
ing tie of many Ill naiu.ed coeporaries al te
partial faiure-(we cay partial for on the former
sion had the news In our city sometime III
Of the arriv, Of the Cambrial-efiective a'fsng
do ins seesnn running second