Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1873-01-25
CERTAINTY OF PUNISHMENT

The certainty OF punishment to the
transgreSsor is more effective in prevent
ing crime than the stringency of the law
A law whose stringency prevents its ex-
ecution defeats itself. \ severe law UNI
executed is no terror to the evil doer. In
the epidemic of crime which is sweeping
over New York they find that the chief
cause Of their trouble is failure to execute
the law The advocates and opponents
Of capital punishment both agree in this
opinion. The New York Post which is
opposed to capital punishment says in
an editorial
1t is significant fact that on Monday night
one young man visited the room of an &C.
quaintance and shot him down by his own
hearthstone, and that last night another man
coolly drove alongside stranger on horse
back and shot him dead almost at sight. Such
occurrences as these, each of which, so far as
is known, were due to trivial provocations, in
the very teeth of the general determination to
enforce the existing laws, call TO mind the I'M
settled dispute between the friends and oppo-
nents of capital punishment. In England,
within the last few weeks, there have been
five capital punishments, and there as here
the public journals are full of the details of
successive and numerous murders. We do
not intend at this time to discuss the question
of capital punishment, but simply to call at
tenton to the fact that those who, as we do,
believe that Il man should be punished accord
ing to the laws in force when he commits the
crime, are not necessarily committed to the
belief that those laws, either in their provis-
ions for trial or punishment, are the best that
can be devised. Efforts are now making in
the State legislature to change the criminal
code of procedure, and the events in this city
during the present week show the importance
of the subject.
But the character of law is one thing and
the enforcement of law is another thing.
Ex-Governor Seymour, in his address last
evening at Baltimore, before the National
Prison Association of the United States, said
"What they THE laws say let them do, for
certainty more than severity carries dread
of punishment" The thought has been ex-
pressed in these columns before, but the talk
around j. thousand tea-tables last evening
shows the pertinence of the sentiment. When
our laws are certain in their application and
effects we shall naturally come to an investi-
CATION of any proposed Improvement in them.
LIQUOR 0ANISSIONERS REPORT:
The annual report of the Liquor Commits
sioaer is very brief. lie says it is quite clear
that in some localities and in several counties,
our prohibitory laws are being better enforced
than formerly And whether the quantity of
intoxicating liquors used has been largely
diminished or not, yet it is patent to all that
in many places there is less open intoXica-
ton, and less disorder and crime.
The mode of regulating the sale of
liquors in this State for medicinal and me-
chanical purposes was never more generally
approved, he thinks than now.
Our city and town agencies are generally
as well conducted perhaps, as could reasona-
bly, be expected, and to large extent he has
reason to believe, are supplied from his
office. Some probably wish to extend their
sales beyond what they care to have publicly
reported, and buy more or less from other
sources while others with q view obviously
to personal advantage, or to the largest pos
slble revenue, purchase of outside parties,
with little or no reference to the purity of
the liquors or their fitness for medicinal use.
These abuses might be very generally cor
rected. if the citizens in such localities, or
the proper officers would endeavor to have it
DONE In some cases where agencies in 9TH
or respects are well managed the profit
charged is unquestionably too large, and is a
Just ground of complaint. This matter how
ever is wholly and properly regulated by
the Municipal Boards.
The report gives the amount of sales to
cities and towns for the last year. The whole
amount of sales is 500, 3ll,70.