The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1877-05-19

ASubjoct that has Engaged the Atten.
tion OF Statesmen and anthroDists
for many years past.
In oldcn times punishment was in
flicted on tho offender, corresponding
to the amount of pain or suffering
which he had inflicted on others.
Hence arose the retaliatory principle
of punishment, which demanded an
eye for an eye, tooth for u tooth,
etc. But now it is considered Il
vintictive proceeding, contrary to
the spirit Of tho ago, and that if a
person is to be deprived Of life, it
should be done in the manner which
will cause the least pain.
Blackstone has enumerated ono
hundred and sixty offences for which,
only century back, the law pro-
vidcd the punishment of death.
Four-fifths Of these excluded tho
"bcnciit of clergy" as it was
called. 1t no longer exists, and tho
death punishment in England, as
with us, is now narrowed down almost
to the two crimes Of murder and
treason.
CruciliXion was a very ancient
punishment. The Syrians, Jews,
Egyptians, and especially the
Carthaginians, used it. But in no
part of the ancient world was this
punishment SO generally resortcd to
rs in the Roman empire, where it
was regarded us the most infamous
of deaths. BY the Roman law tho
culprlt was scourScd previously to
the cruciliNion, either in the prmto
rum or on the way to tho place of
execution. On his arrival there he
was stripped Of his garments, and
ther either nailed or tied by the
hands and feet to tho cross, or, as
sometimes happened, only fastened
to it hy ropes. In order to hasten
death, it was the practice to break
the legs or to pierce the body Of the
sufferer with a spear. BY the Jew
ish law, it was ordained that the
culprit should be removed from the
cross Oh the day Of his execution :
but the Romans frequently allowed
it to hang until it dropped piece
meal to the ground.
Among The Greeks capital punish
ment WAS inflicted byrcgular killing,
or, as in the case Of Socrates, by or
deling thnt the victim should drink
Il bowl Of hemlocl, which is poison
Gus. The ancient Israclitcs stoned
their crlprits to death, and in Rome
certain criminals were destroyed by
throwing them from the Tarpcian
rock.
In England during the Middle
Ages death was'tho ordinary punish.
ment for all felonics but if the cul.
prit could read he escaped with life
on first conviction. In tho British
army and navy, within the present
century. soldiers and sailors have
been literally noggcd to death with
a cat-o-ninc tails. Sometimes 1,OOC
lashcs wero ordered. The infiction,
though much mitigated, is still con.
tinucd in tho British military and
naval service. In the American it
has been humanely abolished within
tho last thirty years
During the first French revolu-
ton what were facctiously called
republican marriages" (where two
persons of different sexes, bound
together by strong cords, wore cast
into the river Rhono at Lyons and
left to drown) wcro outrages upon
humanity.
Formerly, in Scotland, culprits
heads were chopped off by the
maiden. It was an old contrivance
revived, having been used in Persia
in carly times. In Italy it's name
was mannaja, and culprit-noblcs had
the privilege of being decal ,itatcd by
it, and aslmilar instrument had bccn
previously usod in Germany. In
France, in 1852, q Due do Montmo,
renci had been executed by q similar
instrument ut Toulouse, and CEN
tury back the Dutch employed it in
executions. There fore, in October,
1870, when Joseph Ignaco Guillotin,
physician of Paris, proposed to
the national assembly thoro tho use
of tho beheading instrument which
perpctuates his name, he only im-