The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1854-08-22
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.

The London Punch has taken up the cud
gels against capital punishment. and shows its
usual wit, If not any very knock down logic,
at the expense Of the hangman. Jack Ketch
receives no mercy, and ii he is not hung with
his own rope, is put in the pillory and merci-
lessly pelted. On this subject. Punch, and
the grim Saxon hearted old Carlyle, are at OPP
posite extremes. Punch is of opinion that
the worst use you can put a man to is to hang
him that men are no more deferred from
murder by the fear of death, than they are
from war by the same motive; that the LIE
vitical law which requires an eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth has been expressly
abolished and that it is no more right for
nation to recognize and act under that law
than individuals.
Carlyle, On the contrary, vindicates with
lusty argument the justice and the value OF
the rope. He is not in favor of applying any
emollients to the diseased and depraved mem
bers of society. His mode of dispossessing
men of the demons which inhabit them, and
at the same time of relieving society OF its
pests, is to compress the wind pipe, so that
breath and devil must both go out together,
and never be able to return. Society is thus
minus one rascal, and its interests, in that
proportion, more secure than before, 1t is
proper to add, however, that the halter, or
extinction Of life in some form is Carlyle's
fayorite panacea for crime in general, with
out much respect to degree, and indeed for
idleness and worthlessness of every sort
An inspired Apostle declares that she who will
not work, neither shall he eat''-which decla-
ration Carlyle interprets literally, and would,
by means of hemp and guilletine, place all
lazy people in condition in which even the
power of galvanism could never induce their
jaws to move again. He would have the
workers of the great hive of society drive
out and kill off all the drones OF course.
Carlyle Injuries the course of capital punish
ment by the indiscriminate application which
he would make of it. The surgeon who
would not only cut off a mortified foot to save
the body, but amputate mans head to cure
him Of drowsiness, is not likely to have many
disciples.
Whilst the public mind is theoretically sa.
tisfed with the propriety ofkilling those who
kill others, there is great difficulty in bring.
ing men to practical exemplifcation of that
theory when they sit upon juries and have
the power by raising their hands to snuff out
the candle of life. If that candle is an ordi-
nary tallow candle, of common appearance,
and which never gave much light anyhow
there is not so much conjunction; but, if it
is beautiful spermaceti, emitting an agreea-
BILE and brilliant lustre, not one jury in ten
thousand is going to put an extinguisher up
on it. When the jurymen retire to their box,
they may gravely discuss with each other the
facts and arguments which indicate the guilt
or innocence of the prisoner, but the real dis
cussion, that which is to decide the fate oil
the prisoner, is going on in every mans Sc.
cret breast, somewhat in this wise:
"Put out the light, and then
Put out the light!
II quench thee, theu flaming minister,
can again thy former light restore,
Should repent me but once put out thine,
Thou cunning'st pattern of excslling nature,
know not where 10 that Promstheaa heat
o~S Ss>s
There can be no doubt that there has
been some such sohloquy as this in the hear,
of many juror, and he has hesitated and
often refused to put out a fame which he
could not rekindle, and to bring darkness
sorrow and shame on the habitations of the
innocent relatives of the criminal. 1t is an
easier thing to take life under the prompt.
ings of a powerful passion than to destroy il
calmly at the dictates of even handed Justice
Jurors, being men, are more apt to follow
their feelings than their judgment, and the
only emotion which the trial of criminal
cause, at a period when the first sensations
produced by the crime have died away is
likely to awaken, especially when there are
eloquent lawyers employed, is compassion for
the culprit at the dock, or at all events for his
unhappy friends. Hence, great criminals of
ten escape the just desert of their crimes-not
because juries are bribed or venal-but be-
cause they do not like to widen the circle of
misery which the prisoners crime has alrea.
dy created. 1t is difficult to rectify this loose
screw in the administration of justice, except
by purging human nature Of the quality of
mercy.
We can go part Of the way with Carlyle,
and agree that there are many offences which
deserve the rope, besides those for which i.
is now employed. We would twist the neck
of man who killed for revenge, quite as
quickly as of man who killed for gold and
burn ut the stake those human brutes, who,
by arts or violence. infict upon helpless wo.
men fate worse than death. Capital nun.
ishment ought, by no means to be confined
to those murderers who destroy the BODY.
THE ESCAPE OF THE GEAR.
In another column win be found an accoun
from the London Times Of the Czar,s LAT,
narrow escape. II makes one hold the bre all
to think how close the bark that held OF,
Nick and his fortunes ran to the jaws of ruin
Our 1hoaan gaaaaf' friend, the Emperor
must really take better care of himself. job,
Bull came within one inch of nabbing him
and, but for orders not to run into Danger
only think Of British sailors being under a..
darsnot to follow their heroic impulses -