The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-24

penaltles OF crime were DeyOnd the province
of the Jury. On the second occasion another |
Juror wished TO know whether there was any |
evidence that Reynolds was insane at the |
time of the commission of the crime, and |
being told that there was no evidence that he |
was ever other than sane, asked, argumenta- |
lively, But is it not possible that he was
insane p 1t is evident that here were at least
two Jurors convinced that the prisoner had
committed heinous offense for which he was
accountable, but, unconseiously to them
selves, seeking quibbles by which to avoid
the painful alternative of inficting the pun
ishment prescribed by the statute. Yet they
Joined in the verdict, and thus did gross vio-
lence to themselves.
Experience constantly augments the proof
that law is powerful in proportion to the GER
tainty rather than to the severity of its PEN
alties. 1t is constantly becoming more diff
ficult to enforce the punishment prescribed
for murder in the first degree, because the
humanity of the age instinctively shrinks
from the gallows. The assassin Reynolds
brutally expressed the sentiment of civiliza-
ton when he exclaimed, with the blood of his
victim yet damp upon him, Hanging is
played out" Because of the fact that society
revots from it, and our Lawmakers
have not the sense and nerve to alb
rogate the death penalty, we are in constant
peril of being overrun by assassns. While the
law DEGREES penalty which, practically, it is
impossible to enforce, criminals will sneer at
it. Give us one that will not be imperative
because this advanced civilization has given
birth to a higher sentiment, which objects to
the creature assuming the functions of the
Creator, and the law will get the upper hand
of the assassins. AS we look at the subject,
the death penalty has for years past been the
incentive to rather than the preventive of
| homicide. How many of our murderers are
| hanged? How many escape on bubbles that
| the ingenuity Of counsel would not be taxed
| to invent were not the gallows looming up
| before their clients? Upon this point Dis
trict Attorney Garvin gave valuable testi-
| mony in explaining why so many
murderers remain in the Tombs unpunished.
| 1t was not his fault but due to the accused
taking advantage of the delays afforded by
the law.
Some cases were appealed to the highest
| courts; in others, commissions were demanded
| to take testimony in distant lands Every
| possible technicality is used to postpone final
| judgment to the last moment. 'All that
man hath will he give for his life, is a solemn
| truth every day illustrated in our courts, at
the cost of society and to the profit of the
| lawless.
We do not urge the vital legal reform of
an abrogation of capital punishment at this
moment from any sympathy with this most
| dastardly assassin, but because we detect in
that it must be effected before crime can be
repressed by certain and sp eedy infiction
of the laws penalty.
THE STEAMSHIP CITY OF BOSTON.
| From the NJ Y. Times
The fate of this fine vessel of the Inman
line is still in suspense. She left New York
on the 25th of January, and three days after
wards she passed Halifax, since which time
nothing has been heard from her. She was
due in Liverpool on the 9th instant, and is,
therefore, nineteen days late. All the great
transatlantic lines have their own tracks
as distinctly charted down and separated
as if they were rival railways. The Inman
track, after leaving Cape Race, curves con-
siderably towards the North, and runs in
higher latitude than any other of the main
sea-tracks, except that of the Glasgow steam
ers. The City of Boston, if disabled, whether
by accident to her machinery, or by gale,
would be in a part of the Atlantic whence
escape must be very slow. At this seasons of
the year the Gulf Stream, as is well known,
, crosses the ocean at lower parallel of lati
tude than in summer; its northern edge
being according to Maury and others, five
hundred miles south of the Inman track
The disabled ship, therefore, would probably
, be in part of the sea where she would fine
but little if any current to drift her either
| towards the Irish coast or towards the Azores
, to the west, south of the Inman track; and il
! | the City of Boston were on the Brest o.
Bremen line route, under ordinary circum
, | stances, with neither steam, sail, nor helm
> she might, in few weeks, float safely to th'
, | Azores. In consequence of the high latitude
D | followed by her master, she is now probabl,
a out of the drift or eastward recurvation o
the Gulf Stream washing these Western
islands, The indications, both in Europe ant
: here, are strongly in support of the belle
+ that the usually westerly winds have beel
: considerably modified during the past winter
s and the steamship thus subjected to still
, greater delay.
r The season is somewhat early for icebergs
o but the abnormal tropical blasts We have hat
b until lately, and which have been traced ol
a the American coast beyond the Canadas, ma
IS have begun the work of dislodging the 10
20 masses on the southern coasts OF Greenland
IS The incidents of the loss of the San Fran
}. cisco, a few years ago, are perhaps fresh II
,s the public mind. That vessel after founder
If ing ON Christmas day, was so lost sight OF D.
le the ship Three Bells-whlch faithfully stoo
70 by her-that not fragment of the wreck wa
20 visible to tell where she had drlfted, unit
et the 4th of January following, when he
a. spars and rigging were found not over nv
rt | hundred miles east from the scene OF tn
is disaster At this rate OF motion, !
r. the very axis of the Gulf Stream wheI
II the San Francisco went down, supposing tn
g. now missing steamer to be helpless, she ma
re- be out vet forty days before she can reac
8. the coasts of Europe, and nearly as long l
" drifting to the Azores II we remembt
rightly. it was the Atlantic, OF the Collins lint
that. few wears ago, on her trip to England