The Industrial Review, Social and Political. — 1877-11-17 (London, England)

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.-At a meeting of the Dialectical Society last week at the Langham Hall, London, an interesting discussion on Capital Punishment took place, introduced, at the request of the Society, by an address from Mr. Wm. Tallack, the secretary of the Howard Association. He showed the long and successful operation of the discontinuance of the death-penalty in the American States of Michigan (for 30 years), Rhode Island (for 25 years), -Wisconsin (for 24 years), lowa, Maine Illinois, and Tennessee; also in Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Portugal, Tuscany, Saxony, Oldenburg, Wurtemburg, Nassau, Fec. ; and in the vast Russian Empire (so far as cases of ordinary murder are concerned). As a consequence of abolition, the conviction of murderers in these countries has become much more certain, while the crime itself has not increased but rather diminished. Respecting Italy, official statistics were quoted showing that murders are very frequent in most of the provinces where capital punishment is retained, but that in Tuscany (where there has been no execution since 1830), murders are fewest, being less than one fourth of those in Sicily, for example. Mr. Tallack laid it down as a principle that murder should be repressed in the most effectual and certain way possible, but that in this respect the capital penalty peculiarly fails, inasmuch as it is necessarily attended by various obstacles which specially prevent that one penalty from being accompanied by the comparative regularity attending secondary punishments. The reason for this is mainly the irrevocable nature of death punishments, demanding as they do an extreme certainty of evidence, whilst, at the same time, in murder cases there is often less evidence than for most other crimes, the victim being put out of the way.  DEMERARA : THE LAND AND THE LABOURERS .—The first of a series of lectures which has been arranged by the Trades Guild, on subjects connected with war and commerce, was delivered on Monday evening, in the Vestry Hall, Chelsea, by Sir Geo. Young, Bart., on " Demerara : the land and the labourers." The chair was taken by Mr. Mundella, M.P. In the course of a few introductory words the Chairman explained the object of the lectures, stating at the same time that they were promoted warmly by Lord Granville. The present lecture dealt with one of our colonies, and it should be remembered that England and her colonies covered half the world. How those colonies were treated depended mainly on the English people, whose opinion could emancipate slaves in the West Indies, and save the lives of millions in the East. England was still adding to her colonial empire, having a year since annexed the Fiji Islands, and this year the Transvaal, in South Africa, a territory of immense extent. It was well that the people of England should be fully informed as to the state of their colonies, and the mode in which they were governed, in order that they might promote for the nations genial and civilising treatment, instead of having them shot down in bootless wars. We had first warred with the Maori, and then we had conciliated him, and now he was a member of the colonial Legislature, and an admirable contributor to the local journals. In conclusion, the chairman introduced the lecturer, who having (he said) been sent out by Lord Granville to examine into the condition of the labourers in Demerara, was qualified to give them the fullest and most reliable information on the subject. Sir Geo. Young proceeded to give an eloquent sketch of the history and geography of Demerara, the El Dorado of Sir Walter Raleigh and the Elizabethan voyagers, but which was not finally ceded to us until 1814. The colony was now entirely devoted to the cultivation of sugar, and for this an unlimited supply of labour was necessary. Formerly the plantations were cultivated by slaves, but now by free labourers. The advantages of the latter were fully explained in the remaining portion of the lecture. The supply now consisted principally of coolies from India, and the strictest care was taken of the health and rights of the labourer. The coolie:population of Demerara now numbered 60,000. On the:whole, he thought the present system of immigration good both for the colony and the coolie. The lecturer was frequently cheered during the lecture.