The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-02-20
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAND.
Wednesday Morning, February 20, 1867,
The Death Fen.lsv.
PORTLAND.

| The Death FenaItv -
10 Is little more than hundred ,o
since Beccaria asked, "What right have mo-
to cut the throats of their fellow creatures p,
and followed up the enquiry by another which
has never been answered: "If it is so, how
shall it be reconciled with the maxim that
man has no right to kill himself ?" In 1785
| Tuscany, influenced by his efforts, abolished
the punishment of death experimentally. In
1876, after twenty-one years trial of the re-
formed code, the Grand Duke Leopold de-
creed Its perpetuity. "Instead of increasing
the number of crimes" ," said Leopold, lit has
considerably diminished that of the inferior
ones and rendered those of an atrocious char
acter very rare" Almost fifty years later, in
1880, NJ Berenger reported to the French
Deputies, tina. "the mi!dness of their penal
legislation had SO tar improved the character
OF the Tuscans that there was time when
the prisons of the Grand Duchy were nearly
empty" And now the Kingdom of Italy has
adopted the principle of the Tuscan philoso-
pher, who being also marquis was able to
secure reasonable consideration for his the
orizings, and capital punishment is abolished
throughout the Italian peninsula. D
Throughout Europe, where the death pen
atty has in past ages been assigned to every
crime from larceny up to murder, there is
marked tendency towards the goal which Ita-
ly has reached. In France, in the last four
years of which the statistics are accessible,
little more than one-half of 94 death condenl-
nations were carried into effect. Out of 1877
sentences for murder in Prussia, from 1868 to
1862, there were but thirteen persons execut-
ed. In Austria, during ten years ending with
1854, nillety-fve per cent. of death sentences
were committed. From 1880 to 1853, the
whole number OF death sentences pronounced
in Belgium was $40, of which only fifty seven
were inflicted, or less than two for every year.
In Portugal the last execution occurred in
1916; in large part of Switzerland there
have been no executions for thirty-five years;
in Denmark, Sweden, and Holland, the COM
mutations have been ninety per cent. or more.
England, with the most cruel of criminal
codes, condemned annually to death in the
ten years ending with 1882, nearly 1880 per-
sons, out of which number the annual aver
age of sentences carried into effect was not
more than SO. Butin the decade ending with
1862, the annual number of condemnations
fell to go, of which only about II were exc
cuted
In this country the spectacle of public
hanging grows more rare. In Massachusetts
the twenty years ending with 1866 show only
10 executions out of % convictions for capital
offences. In Maine the law remains upon the
statute book, but the responsibility of ordering
its execution devolves upon the Governor
and the result is practical abolition of the
penalty. Gov. Chamberlain very properly calls
upon the Legislature to settle the matter def
nitely, by either making it the duty of the Ex-
ecutive to order the execution of condemned
criminals or abolishing the penalty altogether.
We trust the Legislature will accept the latter
alternative The carnival of crime which ap-
pears to be prevailing in this State and else
where cannot be justly attributed to the laxi
ty OF the present practice. Another and slf-
ficient cause is to be found in the demoraliza-
tioh WANh dooChuo dHu iouOWo wall Ii ID uOt
confined to this State, it should be observed,
but extends equally to States where the gal
lows still bears its shameful fruit. .t.t..-..7
Except on the point just mentioned argu-
ment on this question has been exhausted.
Communication of the extreme penalty of the
law has long been urged by some of the best
and ablest men of every country. The argu-
ments of Robert Rantoul before the Legisla-
ture of Massachusetts, of Livingstone before
the Legislature of Louisiana, and of John l..
O'Sullivan in 1S41 before the Legislature of
New York, have been spread abroad, repeated
and reconsldered by the public press until
there is no man of mature years who has not
become familiar with them. The simple fact
that the experiment has been tried in single
province OF Italy for hundred years, with re-
suits so satisfactory as to warrant its repeti-
ton on larger scale throughout the kingdom,
is worth a ca TOAD of treatises on the subject
Let us abolish the death penalty altogether,
or If we are not ready to do that, let us abol-
ish the barbarous gallows, adopt the instru-
ment which DIR. Guillotin recommended to the
French Assembly in 1889 and despatch our
criminals humfanely. ,..,. 49,. io....