123 



proved that the latter could not he efficacious in preventing 

 the former ; for, as Archbishop Whately had well remarked, 

 if the object of the law was to prevent crime, then every 

 infliction of the penalty was an instance of the failure of the 

 law to produce its designed effect. He then adduced statis- 

 tical facts to show, that with a vast decrease in the number 

 of executions there had been a decrease also in the number 

 of crimes, and that property and life were much safer now 

 than formerly. This was especially illustrated by the results 

 which had followed the abolition of the capital penalty for 

 many offences to which it was formerly attached, those 

 offences having decreased even while others had increased. 

 In some Foreign States the experiment had been safely tried 

 of abolishing capital punishment altogether; and in Belgium 

 murders had diminished in number after the abolition, and 

 increased again when the capital penalty was re-imposed. — 

 It thus appeared, as a matter of fact, that the punishment 

 of death was favourable to the commission of crime. He 

 then pointed out, as one reason of this result, the uncertainty 

 of execution always attaching to a severe penalty. Prose- 

 cutors, witnesses, and jurors, were always reluctant to be 

 instrumental to the death of the criminal. Cases were 

 adduced in which juries had glaringly violated their oaths 

 rather than cause the death of a fellow-creature. Altogether, 

 "a capital penalty held out the greatest chance of escape. He 

 showed how recklessly the mere contingency of death was 

 braved by men in various occupations — much more, then, 

 by hardened criminals acting under desperate passion. 

 Criminals, when condemned, felt and were treated almost 

 like martyrs, receiving much public sympathy. The penalty 

 of death threw a sort of fascinating excitement around 

 capital crimes. The conduct of the crowds assembled round 

 the gallows was adduced to show the uselessness of the 

 public example as an impressive warning to offenders. It 

 was an ascertained fact, that scarcely any murderers had not 



