40 



CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 



there, thiiii in oilier countries less abundantly and 

 cheaply supplied with the necessaries of life. Bcc- 

 caria, with his characteristic humanity and sagacity, 

 'ias strongly urged tliat the certainty of punishment 

 is more important to deter from crimes than the 

 severity of it. At present, there is great danger that 

 the pardoning power, in our free forms of govern- 

 ment, will, in a great measure, overthrow this salu- 

 inry principle. Its exercise, therefore, ought to be 

 watched with the greatest jealousy and care, lest the 

 abuse of it should lead to the introduction either of 

 absolute impunity for offences, or of more extensive 

 capital punishments. It will probably be found, 

 from the experience of most nations, that capital 

 punishment ought not wholly to be dispensed with. 

 ( )u the other liand, it may be safely affirmed, that 

 there is no positive necessity to apply it to a very 

 large number of crimes. Treason, murder, arson, 

 piracy, highway robbery, burglary, rape, and some 

 other offences of great enormity, and of a kindred 

 cliaracter, are not uncommonly punished in this 

 manner ; but beyond these, it is extremely question- 

 able whether there is any necessity or expediency of 

 applying so great a severity. Still, however, as has 

 been already intimated, much must depend upon the 

 opinion and character of the age, and the prevailing 

 liabits of the people, and upon the sound exercise of 

 legislative discretion. What may be deemed use- 

 lessly severe in one age or country, may be positively 

 required by the circiunstances of another age or 

 country. 



4. As to the manner of inflicting the punishment 

 of death. This has been different in different coun- 

 tries, and in different stages of civilization in the 

 same countries. Barbarous nations are generally 

 inclined to severe and vindictive punishments; and, 

 where they punish with death, to aggravate it by 

 prolonging the sufferings of the victim with ingenious 

 devices in cruelty. And even in civilized countries, 

 in cases of a political nature, or of very great atro- 

 city, the punishment has been sometimes inflicted 

 with many horrible accompaniments. Tearing the 

 criminal to pieces, piercing his breast with a pointed 

 |H)le, pinching to death with red-hot pincers, starving 

 him to death, breaking his limbs upon the wheel, 

 pressing him to death in a slow and lingering man- 

 ner, burning him at the stake, crucifixion, sawing 

 him to pieces, quartering him alive, exposing him to 

 be torn to pieces by wild beasts, and other savage 

 punishments, have been sometimes resorted to for 

 the purposes of vengeance, or public example, or 

 public terror. Compared with these, the infliction 

 of death by drowning, by strangling, by poisoning, 

 by bleeding, by beheading, by shooting, by hanging, 

 is a moderate punishment. In modern tunes, the 

 public opinion is strongly disposed to discountenance 

 the punishment of death by any but simple means ; 

 and the infliction of torture is almost universally re- 

 probated. Even in governments where it is still 

 countenanced by the laws, it is rarely resorted to ; 

 and the sentence is remitted, by the policy of the 

 prince, beyond the simple infliction of death. In 

 Prussia, where atrocious criminals are required, by 

 the penal code, to be broken upon the wheel, the 

 king always issues an order to the executioner to 

 strangle the criminal (which is done by a small cord 

 not easily seen) before his limbs are broken. So, in 

 the same country, where larceny, attended with de- 

 struction of life, is punished by burning alive, the 

 fagots are so arranged as to form a kind of cell, in 

 which the criminal is suffocated by the fumes of sul- 

 phur, or other means, before the flame can reach 

 Iiim. In England, in high treason, the criminal is 

 sentenced to be drawn to the gallows, to lie hanged 

 by the neck, and cut down alive, to have his entrails 



taken out and burned while lie is yet ;ilive, to have 

 liis head cut oil', and liis body divided into tour parts, 

 and these to be at the king's disposal. Hut, gene- 

 rally, all the punishment is remitted by the crown, 

 except the hanging and beheading; and when it is 

 not, by connivance of the officers, the criminal N 

 drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution, and is 

 not disembowelled until actually dead. In other 

 cases, the punishment is now simply by hanging, or, 

 in the military and naval service, by shooting. In 

 France, formerly, the punishment of death was often 

 inflicted by breaking the criminal on the wheel. 

 (Dainieiis was torn to pieces by horses, after he had 

 been tormented with red-hot pincers, and had suf 

 lered other horrid tortures.) The usual punishment 

 now is beheading by the guillotine. In cases of 

 parricide, the criminal is conducted, barefooted, and 

 covered with a black veil, to the place of execution, 

 where his right hand is cut off just before he is be- 

 headed. In Austria, the general mode of punishment 

 is by hanging. In Prussia, hanging is rarely inflict- 

 ed ; but the usual punishment is beheading with a 

 heavy axe, the criminal's head being first tied to a 

 block. In other German states, the uncertain mode 

 of execution by the sword still exists. Sand was 

 executed in this manner. It should be remarked, 

 however, that, in Germany, hanging has always been 

 deemed the most infamous sort of punishment ; and 

 the sentence has often been commuted for Sheading 

 by the sword, as a milder mode, of punishment. In 

 the United States of America, hanging is the univer- 

 sal mode of capital punishment ; and, indeed, the 

 constitution of the United States contains a provi- 

 sion, declaring that " cruel and unusual punish- 

 ments shall not be inflicted." In China, murderers 

 are cut to pieces ; robbers, not. In Russia, the 

 punishment of death has been frequently inflicted 

 by the knout. In Turkey, strangling, and sewing 

 the criminal up in a bag, and throwing him into 

 the sea, are common modes of punishment. In 

 the Roman code, many severe and cruel punish- 

 ments were prescribed. During the favoured times 

 of the republic, many of these were abolished or 

 mitigated. But again, under the emperors, they 

 were revived with full severity. In the ancient 

 Grecian states, the modes of punishment were also 

 severe, and often cruel. But the most general 

 mode of punishment, in ordinary cases, seems, both 

 in Greece and Rome, to have been by hanging. 

 Whether the ancient Greek mode of capital punish- 

 ment, by taking poison at such hour as the condemn- 

 ed party should choose, has ever been adopted in any 

 modern nation, we are unable to say. As far as we 

 have been able to learn, it is not in use among any 

 Christian people ; and the idea of suicide connected 

 with it would probably prevent any such nation from 

 adopting it. 



Whether executions ought to be in public or in 

 private, has been a question much discussed, and up- 

 on which a great diversity of opinion exists among 

 intelligent statesmen. On the one hand, it is said 

 that public spectacles of this sort have a tendency to 

 brutalize and harden the people, or to make them in- 

 different to the punisliment ; and the courage and 

 firmness with which the criminal often meets death, 

 have a tendency to awaken feelings of sympathy, and 

 even of admiration, and to take away much of the 

 horror of the offence, as well as of the punishment. 

 On the other hand, it is said that the great influence 

 of punishment, in deterring others from the like of- 

 fence, cannot be obtained in any other way. It is 

 the only means to bring home to the mass of the peo- 

 ple a salutary dread and warning ; and it is a public 

 admonition of the certainty of punishment following 

 upon crime?. It is also added, that all punishmeuts 



