Cradley Heath & Stourbridge Observer. — 1864-05-07 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

PVNISHMENT.  COUNTRIES IN WHICH PUNISHMENT OF DEATH IS ABOLISHED.  POPULAR FEELING AGAINST CAPITAL PCNIStIMENT.  .iie  _  One objection to capital sentences was that they were irremediable ; another, that they were not susceptible of grwlation, and applied the mme punishment to every sort of character. The reluctance to convict which was now felt by juries in such can-s was more likely to increase than decrease. The different degnitions which were now given of insanity by medical men would also tend to lessen the chances of such conviction_s. One remedy. suggested was to except women from capital punishment. but such a restriction was illogical, and could hardly he maintained. Another was the abolition of capital punishment in cases of infanticide, but this proposal was open to the IMMO objection. The third was to establish a system of private executiona, but in this country such a system would never be popular; and if you had private executions, you must have long accounts in the newspapers, and these would prolixity do as much mischief as public executions themselves. He preferred to have a solemn Inquiry in order to ascertain whether execetious really deterred from erime, with what results their abolition had been attended in other countries, and what was the most effective substitute. These would form the subjects of inquiry before the select committee which he desired to appoint. It was said that murder was an exceptional case, in which an exceptional punishment ought to to maintained. His answer was that there were many acts of violence which were as had as murder, and some which were worse. Abroad, the 'game reluctance to convict in capital cases existed on the part of juries, as in lirance, where juries persisted in returning verdicts of guilty aver des circonntances a ftculnl63.  In many countries the punishment of death had been successfully abolished. It was said that in Ml.Sia the knout was really equivalent to the puniiihment of death; but surely this was not an invariable result. In Tuscany the abolition of capital punishment hal prevailed, more or less, for 90 years. For 76 years it had been abolished by law; and during an interval in which it wa r.stored it was found almost impossible to put it in practice. Even the gallows could not be raised. While it was not resorted to in Tuscany crime decreased. An hon, friend near him tsild him that it had been abelished in Fertugal. He an, not sure that the abolition bad actually taken plve in that country; but there was an intention to abolish it there. It had been abolished in thrLe of the States of America, and in two of the cantons of Switzerlard; and the Minister of the Interior in Switzerland, writing to an English gentleman, told him that during the fifty years it had teen abolishes' in Fribourg crime had not increased. lie believed experience showed that for a time after capital punishment was abolished crime increased, but that the increase was only temporary.  Would it be argued that the barbarous nature f the English people made the continuance of capital punishment necvsaary in this country 1, It was said that we should preserve punishment by death in order to vindicate the supremacy of the law; but was the eircanc etanee that the Home Sematary granted seprievee