The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-04-19

that after the three admirable blogra-
plies that lead in the order named-Bos-
wells Johnson, Lockharts Scott, TreYe-
lyan's Macaulay-there are scores OF
highly interesting biographies accessible
Be sure to read Mark sons Milton
Stopford Brooke's Milton, and Dowden
Southey 1 could suggest many others !
much charm and merit
John Wesley. Charles Wesley, George
Whitefield and three or four other stu
dents at Oxford University, were the
earliest movers in Methodsm. Later, IS
followers included such scholars and men
of very remarkable abilities as John
Fletcher. Adam Clarke, Joseph Benson
Richard Watson and Richard Coke Such
were some of the great men who stood
by Methodism in it's infancy. The cole
bra.cI pr. Archibald Alexander, Presi-
dent of Princeton College, now great
University. said of Richard Watson thai
he was "the only systemizer, who ID
theology, approached the eminence
Turretin, or reasoned like PaleY, and
described like Hall. Referring to Robert
Hall This illustrious Baptist preacher
and orator, said Of Watson that he
scared into regions of thought where nc
genius but his own can penetrate" Hall
was, l have thought for forty years, The
greatest pulpit orator of the
nineteenth century, and now that
it is closed can find none
to equal him. Lord Macaulay, Rev. John
Richard Green, a minister of the Church
of England, and William =. H. Lecky, a
sceptical writer of great ability, ali these
pay the significance and Importance OF
the great Wesleyan movement in Eng
land most marked consideration. They
were not favorable to Methodism, but
appreciated its tremendous Importance
and its very great founder. Lecky de-
votes thirteen of his octave pages to its
consideration. English conditions were
simply awful when Wesley entered upon
his great work of spreading Scriptural
holiness in these lands" Bishop Stevens
Episcopalian in his History Of Georgia"
says that John and Charles Wesley were
men "of deep learning and ardent de-
yotion," that in scholarship but few sur
passed them that 'in the exact and ma
tural sciences they were we'll versed in
the classics they were great profcents,
reading writing and conversing in Latin
and Greek with ease and elegance" He
says While in Georgia they frequently
correspondent in Greek" because their let
ters were intercepted, and to prevent
eavesdropping they "conversed in Latin. "
He says that John Wesley was versed in
rine ages-English, Hebrew, Arabic
French, Spanish, italian, German. Latin
and Greek He tells that he held four
services on Sunday while in Savannah, in
four languages English, French, German
n nd IA mir ct att n
of Great Britain ever had greater execu-
tive ability. Macaulay says he was mot
inferior to Richeheu,'' the eminent
French statesman of the past. Buckle
seems to agree with him, according to
citations by Bishop Stevens. He also
gives another interesting statement
Bishop Lcwth, the able Commentator and
Bishop of London, whose commentary
have owned for fortX-fve years, whom
contemplating the career of the great
divine, exclaims-'Mr. Wesley, may be
found at your feet in another world"
Is it fact that hangings in this coun-
try have become a comparative failure?
If so, what has caused it? Is it on ac-
count of poor jury trials or an unsoUnd
public sentiment? Perhaps both are
combined and responsible for murder
trials having become to a great extent a
very dead failure. In the North the
death penalty is well nigh played out"
1t is SO very rarely administered it Is
said, that the fear of it exerts but lit
tie influence" How is it in the South?
How is it in North Carolina? There are
a great many killings, very many muir
ders. How as to hangings? The gal
lows has lost much of its old horror, and
power with it. A Northern
paper opposed to the death penalty. some
years ago insisted that in it's section the
jury trial in murder cases had become a
mockery and useless burden upon the
public" 1t even went so far as to say
that 1.-THE practical effect of jury trial Is
to defeat the ends of Justice" 1t is no
wonder that year by year crime much in
creases and murders and shootings and
rapes multiply. The paper-I neglected
to mark the name when ] clipped the
editorial-gave this, and is very sugges-
tive as well as alarming:
In the year 1890 the proportion Of
executions to murders was as one in
forty-tWo; in 1891 it was one in forty
eight, and in 1892 one in sixty three And
in the same years the number of muir
derS increased In an inverse ratio-from
1920 in 1890, to 5,906 in 1891 and 6,792 IN
1892. Thus it appears that in 1e,9SS
known cases of murder the Mosaic In
junction, a life for life, was carried out
only 332 times"
The wonder is not that there are many
lynchings held, but that they are not five
or ten times more numerous than they
are. 1t is stated that the unrcporteI
murders are not included in the above
figures, and that they actually count by
the thousands. What is to be the out
come? VIII legislatures act and do some
thing more for the protection of society
and the intimidation of brutal scoundrels
)r let crime go unpublished, and villains
escape the just penalty at the hands OF
outraged justice? The answer is not en-
,ouragng. The paper quoted from says
this. and it is worthy of the attention
Of North Carolina makers, jurists
and lawyers:
Whether solitary confinement for life,
amounting to living burial would be
dreaded more or less than hanging, is
hard to be determined With the pardon
ng power as freely used as it is now.
life eonvicts would at least have the hope
If release left them. But the proposed