544 CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS. 



crimes, namely, arson, murder, rape, &c. It is unnecessary lo add 

 that the parlies who escape, and who are again turned loose on so- 

 ciety, are among the most depraved of the human species. 



It is, we maintain, an indisputable axiom, that the great preventive 

 of crime is the certainty, and not the severity, of the punishment. 

 This is equally proved by past history and present experience. In- 

 deed it is one of those facts which are self-evident. 



The history of other countries exhibits the same results as to the 

 comparative tendencies of severe and uncertain, and lenient and cer- 

 tain, punishments in repressing- crime. Let us take, for example, 

 the instances of Prussia, Belgium, and Tuscany. 



First, then, with regard to Prussia. And here we cannot do better 

 than quote an extract from a letter received some time since by the 

 Committee of the Society for the Diffusion of Information on the Sub- 

 ject of Capital Punishments. The intelligent writer, who dates his 

 letter " Berlin, March 10, 1835,'' blends some just observations with 

 his statement of facts. He says, 



"There are no p-'mted returns of crime in Prussia, but the Minister of 

 Justice, M. de Kampz, has, with great kindness and liberality, given me a writ- 

 ten statement of the capital convictions and executions in each year from 1818 

 to 1834, specifying the nature of the crimes, and the provinces in which they 

 were committed. 



" The paucity of executions is the first point. In the 17 years from 1818 

 to 1834 (inclusive) there have been, in all, 123 executions, and the crimes for 

 which they took place are as follows : — 



Arson . . . . . . 1 ^ 



" Volutary Manslaughter " . . 22 [ Total 123 

 Murder • 100 ^ 



"The one execution for arson took place in 1818, since which time, conse- 

 quently, the punishment of death has been inflicted only for intentional homi- 

 cide of different degrees. Even for murder the sentence is nearly as often com- 

 muted as executed. In the whole 17 years there were sentenced to death for 

 murder 187, of whom 100 only were executed. 



" J now come to another point — the great diminution in severity of late 

 years. 



Inthe^rs<3years, 1818, 1819, 1820, there were executed 24, 



In the last 3 years, 1832, 1833, 1834, there were executed 6 — 2 in each year. 



" The mean population of Prussia, during the same period, may be taken 

 at 12,303,535, that being the amount according to the official census in 1826, 

 which vear falls exactly in the middle of the same series of years. 



" On receiving these documents I immediately proceeded to examine whether 

 the crimes which have actually been punished with death in the above period 

 have increased or dimirished, as the punishment of death has been more and 

 more rarelv inflicted. In doing so I omitted the first two years 1818 and 

 1819, to get a number divisible into three equal parts, and then divided the 

 15 years into three equal periods of 5 years each. The only crimes actually 

 punished capitally in that period have been, as I said before, murder and 

 voluntary manslaughter. You will observe that, for both of these crimes taken 

 together, there were, 



in the 1st period most executions, and most crime, 

 in the 2nd period fewer executions, and less crime, 

 in the 3rd period a further diminution of executions, and a further 

 diminution of crime. 



" In the next table I omit the crime of manslaughter. It forms, in my 

 opinion, no correct test of the comparative efficacy of other punishments and 



