Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-26
C0WARDS In DEATH.
No Law in Pennsylvania to Punish
Those Who Attempt Suicide
EVEN IF THEY FAIL TO SHUTTLE.
An Old English Statute That Isn't Found in
the State Blue Laws.
a MISTAKEN IMPRESSION CORRECTED

Someone lately thought he hau discovered
thu the old English law for the punishment
OF suicide was in force in this State, like
many obsolete statutes that have been al
lowed to die bat were never repealed, and
might be enforced. The Sunday law of l79i
is sort OF moribund, but every now and then
there IS 6 sDasmodic action, caused some
times by fanatics and at others by meddlers,
and every trial only serves to show the alb
surdity OF attempting to run modern life on
the plane ofi00 years ago. But the English law
on ;he subject of suicide was never in force
in this State and OF late it has fallen into
desuetude in England. 1t would be strange
ii for the last 100 years the State mad allowed
its opportunities to enrich itself at the ex-
pense of suicides and their families to al
together slip. Insurance policies are almost
weekly paid on the deaths of suicides, and in
the case of the noted Franklin B. Gowen Al
quarter of q million was paid his heirs by
insurance companies, and without protest.
II all the estates of suicides were escheated
the Commonwealth need not levy very
much taxes.
Progress on the Subject of Suicide.
Il is interesting to note the progress that
has been made in thought and reasoning on
this subject as well as on many others, since
the days of Blackstone. Jurists were very
ingenious then in framing theories to suit
the aims of the governing class, and on this
subject, as on almost any other, Blackstone
Is interesting, but it might be added that
among lawyers nowadays he is a back num-
Der and would not be read much we're it not
for the elegance of his style and for the
curious lore he sets forth Is is a daily grow
ing belief that people largely own them
selves and that they are not made, as in
Blackstoneis time, for the State but the
State for them, so if life is not worth living
liable enough to pity the felo de
sc rather than deny him ordinary
burial, and they would laugh at the prepos-
terous notion of driving stake through his
body in the highway and denounce tile in
justice of robbing his family of the property
which they might have largely accumulated
themselves. But here is what Blackstone
had to say:
BIacl1stone's Size-Up of Self-Murder.
"Self-murder the pretended heroism, but
real cowardice of stole philosophers, who
destroyed themselves to avoid those ills
which they had not the fortitude to endure,
though the attempting of it seems to be
countenanced by the civil law vet was pun
jshed by the Athenian law with cutting off
the hand which committed the desperate
deed. And also the law of England wisely
and religiously considers that no man hath
power to destroy life but by commission
from God, the author of it: and as the suicide
j. guilty of a double offense; one spiritual in
invading the prerogatlye of the Almighty
and rushing into his Immediate presence un-
called. for, the other temporal, against the
King, who hath preservation of all his SUBJ
jects: the law has therefore ranked this
among the highest crimes, making it a
peculiar species of felony, a felony COM
1nitted on ones self. And this admits of
accessories before the fact as well as other
Jelonies; for if We persuade another
70 kill himself, and he does so,
the adviser is guilty ofmurder. A Afelo dc sc,
Therefore, is he that deliberately puts an end
70 his OVID existence or commits any unlaw-
sui. malicious act, the consequence of which
Is his own death; as If attempting to kill
another ne runs upon his antagonists
sword or ,si1S shooting ting at at another the gun
years Of discretion and in his senses, else it
Is no crime. But this excuse ought not to
be strained to that length to which our Cor |
Oners juries are apt to carry it, viz, that the
very act of suicide is an evidence of insan-
ity, rs # every man who acts contrary 10 |
reason had no reason at all, for the |
same argument would prove every |
other criminal non compo, as well as |
the seifmurderer. The law very nationally |
judges that every melancholy or hypochon- |
driac fit does not deprive man Of the ca /
pacity of discerning right from wrong which /
is necessary to form a legal excuse, and, /
therefore. if a real lunatic kills himself in q /
ucid interval, he is felo de Sc as much as
another man
Possibilities of Punishment.
"BUt now the question follows, what pun
IshmCnt can human laws in1lict on one who
has withdrawn himself from their reach?
They can only act upon what he has left be-
reputation and fortune; on the |
former by an lgnominious burial
on the highway, with a stake
driven through his body, on the latter by for
.eiturc of ali his goods and chattels to the
King, looping that his care for either his own
reputation or the welfare of his family |
would be some motive to restrain him from
SO desperate and wicked an act. And it is |
observable that this forfeiture has relation |
10 the time of the act done in the felon's
which was the cause of his death |
Az If husband and wife he possessed Jointly
1t a term OF years in land and the husband
lrOwns himself the land shall be forfeited
10 the Hing and the wife shall not have it by
For by the act of casting him
which gives a title to the King
prior to the wifes title by survivor
hip. which could not accrue till
he instant of her husbands death. And
hough it must be owned that the letter of
Inc law herein bordersa little upon severity, |
yet II is some alienation that the power of
is left i'll the breast of the Sover-
,i%n, who is reminded by the oath of his
,tiice 10 execute judgment in mercy"
From the baTbarism OF our good and pious |
OrCiathers, which increasing knowledge
las delivered US, may the Lord make US
TulE- thankful.
1t Is some comfort TO know that subse-
luently our English ancestors relented
shamed to exercise his prerogative
n full, so it WAS subsequently
xaltcd that the blood of a felo de Sc
: ltL NpIlupl1N 1lOI his lslllQS OF inheritance |
orfeited, nor his wife barred of her dover,
nd in the time of George ", it was decided
hat the practice of driving stake through
he body should be discontinued, and the re-
Mains might be buried in the churchyard or
ther burial ground of the parish, the inter
nent to take place within "a hours from the
hiding OF the inquisition and between the
ours OF and L at night but none Of the
ties incident to Christian burial were al
owed.
1t was reported that Coroner Mcdowell
lad found the law to be in force in this State
nut his attorney stated that he knew moth |
nc OF it. A writer in the American Ency-
lopedia, states that it does not appear that
he DarbGrouS English law was ever in force
n any part of the United States even where
he English common law had as much effect
S SIsLtiltOTN laLM- |