REASONS AGAINST CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 195 
been executed ; and we had a firm conviction, that 
a life of perpetual solitude, and necessary labour, 
would be regarded by many as more intolerable 
and appalling than speedy death. 
We have always regarded it, as less difficult to 
render laws, once established, more sanguinary, 
than lenient afterwards. Another consideration, 
by which we were also influenced, was, the season 
to exercise repentance, or supplication for mercy, 
which it would afford the criminal before he was 
called to the bar of the Almighty. To the offender 
this was most important, and as it could be be¬ 
stowed without danger to the donors, we were 
always desirous that it should be' granted. No 
opportunity for observing the practical effects of 
this law has yet occurred, no murder having been 
committed in any of the islands since its enact¬ 
ment. Within two years after the promulgation 
of the Tahitian code, four executions for conspiracy 
and treason took place. The influence of these 
appeared by no means salutary; and, in the revi¬ 
sion of the laws of Tahiti in 1826, banishment for 
life was substituted as the penalty for those crimes 
to which death had before been annexed. One 
individual was sentenced to perpetual solitude, and 
was to have been furnished with a few tools, together 
with such seeds and roots as, it was presumed, would, 
when cultivated, afford the means of subsistence ; 
but before he was actually transported, circum¬ 
stances occurred which induced the king to miti¬ 
gate his sentence. It has never been intended 
to send any number of felons to the same island; 
hence distinct and distant islands have been ap¬ 
propriated to the residence of traitors and mur¬ 
derers. 
The observations on this article may appear 
& 2 
