THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIMINALS. 547 



for this. Mauy would not prosecute, and juries were naturally 

 loth to convict ; or, in other words, harsh and cruel laws and 

 punishments have been tried, and failed — a point it is desired to 

 emphasise. 



SOME OBSERVATIONS ON PUNISHMENTS UNDER THE PRE- 

 SENT LAW. 



The next question it is proposed to consider is, " Does the 

 present Criminal Law require amendment? and, if so, in what 

 respect is it capable of improvement ? 



The admitted objects of punishment are — (1) To reform the 

 criminal. (2) To deter others from committing crimes. Now, 

 although undue severity has failed to attain these objects, it is open 

 to doubt wliether the pendulum has not swung too far the other 

 way. The abolition of the death penalty for crimes other than 

 murder was in accordance with natural justice, but in the extreme 

 reaction a not altogether healthy sentiment appears to have been 

 evoked in some communities. We find sympathy expressed for 

 murderers of the worst class, and after sentence the Executive are 

 invoked to remember the sacx'edness of human life. The well- 

 known answer of Talleyrand, " Let messieurs, the assassins, begin 

 by remembering this," ought surely to express the sentiments of 

 every well-regulated community. 



In America there are two degrees in murder. These degrees 

 were first defined in Pennsylvania in 1794 ; the same principle is 

 adopted in most of the other States. A murder deliberately pre- 

 meditated Mith malice aforethought would be one of the first 

 degree, and where an American jury would find a verdict of murder 

 in the first degree it is open to grave question if any sentimental 

 consideration shovild prevent the law being carried out. 



Sir H. Maine, in his " Ancient Law," upon this subject says : — 

 " Like every other institution which has accompanied the human 

 race down the current of its history, the punishment of death is a 

 necessity of society in certain stages of the civilising process. 

 There is a time when the attempt to dispense with it baulks both 

 of the two great instincts which lie at the root of all penal law. 

 Without it the community neither feels that it is suflficiently 

 revenged on the criminal, nor thinks that the example of his 

 punishment is adequate to deter others from imitating him." 



No one will dispute that there are many cases coming within the 

 legal definition of murder in which it would be unjust to inflict the 

 death penalty, but these would never be comprised in the American 

 category of murder in the first degree. It is not my intention to 

 enter into the ever- recurring controversy as to whether capital 

 punishment is justifiable or not. Judges have to administer the law 

 as it exists, but it is a matter worthy of consideration whether some 

 more certain method than that now prevailing should not be 

 adopted as to the carrying out of sentences. 



