New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-02-09
THE DEATH PEKALTY.

liberal OF our own OlaJe OOFtIuhOn'o O"ii
rarely be appealed to with success for com
mutation of the death sentence. Whle In
republican Massachusetts, the gallOws still bears
its horrible fruit mOnarchal Italy Is 80 lar
enlightened by the .liberty she possesses as to
have cut away with the AK Of a lpioneer that
tough old relic of barbarism. Her suffering
experience of the policy Of public murder taught
her the Justice of the act Her history for many
decades was q cOmpendiOus torture-the gibbet
set up in the shadow OF the church
doing bad business in the making of martyrs
or criminals Italy, like France, has had OPP
portunity in her day to examine for herself
every variety of capital punishment. Every
part of Europe has had full share OF the dis
nal record, dating back TO days when execu-
lions were thick as leaves in ValOmbrosa;
when Sir Edward Coke wrote" What Ia
"mentable thing it is to see so many Christian
"men and women strangled on that cursed tree
"of the galOws!n After so many centuries OF
MISREPRESENTATION, of one kind or another
tho death penalty having been assigned to
every crime, from larceny Up TO murder-Europe
is realizing not too soon that killing by law IS
not the vndcation of justice, but violence
upon its first principles.
Italy has abolished the death penalty, and 1t
is probable that Belgium is about to do the
same. Thus, the policy of Europe is tending
toward humanity; for the obvious reason that
humanity is economy, that it pays best and costs
least. European sentiment is so far advancing
that detail of the progress of the anti-killnS
movement will surprise some OF our native
patrons and cOnservators OF hn""," .TsS@%y
. v~--'o'"S' n.
Al
caria, abolished the punishment 81 geath' ex-
perimentally, in 1866. After twenty years
trial of the reformed penal code, the Grand
Duke Leopold, in 1886, decreed its perpetuity,
avening that "instead of increasing
the number of crimes, il had considerably
diminished that of she smaller ones and
rendered those of an atrOciOus nature very
rare" " The miidness of the penal legisla-
tom reports NJ Berenger to the French
Deputies in 1880, chad 50 far improved the
" character of the Tuscans, that there was
" tmo when the prisons of the Grand Duchy
were nearly empty This noble example
has no doubt been effectual in the slow but
evident grayitatiOn of Europe toward reform
In France, in the last four years of which the
| statistics Are accessible little more than one
half of % death cOndemnatiOns were
carried into effect. Out of 127 SEN
fences for murder in Prussia, from
1853 to 1862, there were but thirteen per-
sons executed In Austria. during ten years
ending with 1854 ninety five per cent of death
sentences were committed. From 1880 to 1858,
! the whole number of death sentences pro-
nounced in Belgium was $40, of which only
fifty seven were inflicted or less than two for
! every year. In Portugal the last execution oc-
cured in 1916 in a large part Of Switzerland
there have been no executions for thirty
years; in Denmark, Sweden, and Holland, the
combinations 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 persons, out of
which number the annual average of sentences
carried into effect was not more than 50. But
in the decade ending with 1862, the annual
number of COMBINATIONS fell to co. of which
about II were executed 80 that even England,
brutal and remOrseless as her penal system has
been, and still exhibiting the horrible spectaclcs
of public executions, prepares TO array herself on
the side of humanity and common sense.
We cannot assure ourselves that even
in this free and humane Republic the
record OF the death penalty is quite 50 credit
able as these statistics Of the "tyrannous sys-
toms of Europe. In Massachusetts for twenty
years, up to 1865, says Governor Andrew, " the
record di,closes only 20 executions out of %
convictions, leaving Is combinations" But
Massachusetts, with her tendencies 30 enlighten
ment on the subject Of capital punishment
cannot stand in this respect for the country. If
in each State of the Union there have been
two executions in the course of the year, our
portion of responsibility for the taking of
human life would seem to be "a great as that
of France or England, or in shameful excess, if
we judge ourselves by the standard of that
superior enlightenment and freedom we claim
to possess.
The c0mmutation of the death penalty has
long been the subject OF eloquent argument
and appeal by the best men of every country
With rare ability, Robert Rantoul pleaded for
it years ago, before the Legislature of Massa-
chusetis, rs did Mr. Livingston before that of
Louisiana; and in this State, in 1871, Mr. Jno.
l.. 0Sulliyan, in paper remarkable for its
logic and research, urged it upon the
Legislature. 1t is well remembered how
certain ministers of the Gospel, fired with
a pious zeal for the cruelty of the old Jewish
ulspenSation, anu ucteIminou 10 employ the
Bible 90 keep mankind in state of religious
dcstructiyeDess, opposed the able effort of
O'Sullyan and other men on the side of reform
and progress. They made the Bible buttress
for capital punishment, and, in the words of
DR.. Lebbeus Armstrong declared that "the
Communication of the murderer's sentence was
virtually q repeal of the Divine law" In
other words, to quote the same extrayagant
pamphleteer, at man may legslate into