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    782 The Saturday Analyst and Leader. [Se...

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    THE I-IANGMAN'S LESSON. npHE hangman has...

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    Reform—Political And Social. A Letter Fr...

    their very nature are mischievous , because productive of htinian detriment , from those which in themselves are innocent cr indifferent , but become productive ' of : harm by reason of the false beliefs and absurd prejudices , by which they are condemned and proscribed . These latter may be termed sins of estimation and opinion—being merely considered wrong by foolish and mistaken people . For example —stabbing a man is an act that must necessarily be productive of injury , notwithstanding any opinion or belief to the contrary . And eating bullock ' s flesh is . a thing perfectly harmless in itself , notwithstanding any absurd superstition

    against it . Yet by reason of the absurd belief existent in India , to eat beef there might be attended with very prejudicial consequences . Fanaticism—if it did not hunt the sinner against popular prejudice to death , would at least bring to bear upon him all the terrors of that moral assassination , which makes itself felt in public odium and disrepute . And much nearer home than India , things quite as innocent , nay , as positively beneficial to health as eating and drinking , are proscribed by false beliefs , and bad institutions , usages , and laws . Now a test of universal application for distinguishing at once those acts- —those sorts of human conduct—which are intrinsically and of their very nature innocent or indifferent from those which are

    inherently and unalterably pernicious , is of more vital significance , more transcendant importance , in its direct application to human well-being than anything that can engage the attention of the human mind . For though in such , matters as murder , robbery , lying , cheating , drunkenness on the one hand ; and sobriety , truthfulness , benevolence on the other;—the very lowest degree of experience and observation is suffi c ient to distinguish those things , the essence of which is their mischieyousness , from things which are beneficial ; yet in the " higher and more delicate questions of moral and legislative science , the problem is the

    naost complicated and difficult that is presented to us in any department of science whatever , The mischief produced in consequence of the proscription of things harmless or indifferent in themselves , by prejudices , bad ; laws , and bad institutions , is manifold . For one thing , it makes artificial criminals—punishes people like real criminals for things which arc perfectly innocent—punishes them for the mischievous folly of society in holding these absurd beliefs , maintaining these wicked and cruel laws and institutions . But it not only makes artificial criminals , and immolates the innocent on the altars of national insanitv , but it tends to make real criminals

    too . "When a person is treated as a criminal for doing what he feels and knows to be perfectly harmless , he is not only stultified and degraded in public opinion > but loses his own self lespect ; and from a mere factitious criminal at first , the chances are he finishes his career as criminal a in serious earnest . Another consideratipn is , that it brings the whole rule of conduct into contempt , confounds right with wrong , vice and-virtue , good and evil ; and breaks down all distinctions and barriers between them . The rule of conduct—be it law , public opinion , one ' s moral code , & c . —is the regulator which restrains men from crime . They have been taught to

    regard it with respect , as the obligation which compels them to do what is rig ht and avoid what * wrong . Their reason for considering some things Tight and others wrong is that this rule tolls them so ; their reason for doing some acts and avoiding others is that the former is enjoined , the latter forbidden b y this role . All of a sadden they find by bitter experience , that this very rule , the object of their deepest veneration , p roscribes and punishes things which they cannot but feel and know are perfectly harmless . At once the rule foils into contempt with them 1 and they have always regarded things as being wrong because prohibited by it , or right bocause it commands them to be done ! The consequence is that , tho rule losing its binding force upon their minds , they

    come tp look upon things really vioious as no worse than the really innocent things whioh their rulo confounds together in ono category , and punishes with oqual severit ) r . Now tlio beginning of a social regeneration must resolve Itself into the abolition of those laws , customs , institutions , prejudices , beliefs , which punish or proscribe the doing of tilings intrinsically harmless or indifferent , The first steps of this branch of enquiry , like the axioms of mathematics , sound like self-evident truisms ; but ! a very few propositions further on we get into th © thick of problems , compared with which those of Kuct . id are simple and obvious . And . the proof is that mathematics has for ages been reduced to a scriemje , while morals are in the crude and ohaotio state indicated , above . Wp shall resume the subject on n future occasion .

    782 The Saturday Analyst And Leader. [Se...

    782 The Saturday Analyst and Leader . [ Sept . « , 1 S ( K )

    The I-Iangman's Lesson. Nphe Hangman Has...

    THE I-IANGMAN'S LESSON . npHE hangman has had another opportunity of ' readme ? the p . ub-I licit lesson on the . crime of murder . The practical moral in this instance was conveyed by tho . execution on Tuesday morning ci Wijl , lia . u GocriiKi - Yuuxti . MAN , for the murder of his mother , his sweetheart , and his two brothers . Caix'i : a . ft read his lesson to 20 , 000 attentive scholars . Since the law recognises Caccraft us a teacher , and maintains capital punishment on the ground of its deterrent influence , the law may be congratulated upon the fact , of bo large an attendance . Let us see how the lesson was received . 1

    As early as eight o ' clock on the previous eveningcrowds ot persons began to take up their position within sight of the . drop . Most of these persons were young-, ranging for the most part between twelve and twenty . The boys were provided with short pipe- ; , which . they smoked all through the night . T > y three o ' clock in the morning the greater portion of the ' standing : space oiitside Hha barriers " -was fully occupied by the impatient scholars . The majority consisted of young men and their sweethearts ,-whom they had brought to share in the instruction about to be gratuitonsly oftered by Calcraft . for the good of the public in general . They sat side by side in pairs on the pavement , and whiled away the time until day light , in retailing- to . each <; . ther their recollection , of former executions . It was the pride of some to remember that they

    were taken > when mere children , by their parents , to see the Mannings hung-. While the darkness continued the young girls relieved the story-telling with snatches of songs ; a public-house , close to tlie drop , and a coffee-stand , -being- frequently patronised between -whiles . As the time wears on . scholars of a . more respectable class arrive on the scene , and offer large prices for the best places in windows opposite the gallows ; ¦ which now begins to standout in horrid relief against the . ' liwoii . The boys , _ tired of waiting , are beginning to play at leap frog . The squalid brutal mob , who have been spending their time in the public-house , are reeling about the pavement , thieves : in . hundreds , are mingling in the motley throng , and when the dawn lifts up the curtain of night , the cold eye of morning- rests upon a dense mass of human beings .

    staggering about in drunken besotted confusion , cursing and swearing , sing-ing ribald songs , larking , laughing , chaffing , and in every conceivable manner giving way to the lowest ; the most reckless , and most abandoned conduct . The chaplain' arrives , and the mob begin to ¦ speculate as to whether the culprit is _ likely to confess . Then they watch anxiously to catch si" glimpse ol Calcraft , and propose various modes of treatment far that functionary , if they could only lay hands on him . At length , as the hour approaches , the all-absorbing enquiry is . " will Youngmax die gamer '" Hopes are expressed that he will for the honour of old England . " The interesting and anxiously awaited ceremony is now about to be enacted , and the drunk oh riut is hushed . A sea of dull , bloodshot eye * are east upon tho drop as the procession appears on the roof of the gaol . Squalid women rush franticallv into the crowd and hoist up young children on their

    shoulders to see the sight . The boys , who . aye * not tall enough to see , content themselves with larking outside , and the thieves , utterly regardless of the last penalty of the hiw now being exhibited for their edification , are Ivusy ¦ robbing- the besotted staring n ' mb who are now absorbed on the ghastly spectacle before them . It is to such . scholars that tho hangman reads his lesson , and it is in such a spirit that it is received . Will he die game ? That is still the anxious enquiry . The culprit walks up with a firm step , he shakes bands with the CnArr . Aiv and with Catch \ nr . he stands unmoved on the drop , he turns his face towards hoavt'n . thy drop falls . : md lie has died game ! Listen to the remarks of the scholars : Well , it ever 1 coine to be hung . I only hope 1 may die as game as him . That is the moral t / tcjj derive ' from the lc .-so ' n . W there \ vcve any pretence thul the institution ol' the fa llow * is i > . ;; i ) ntninod in obedience to a divine law . there might be soisi" excuse fov

    its continuance But there 5 * none . The Legislature ai any rate docs not uphold hanging on tlmt plea . It is maintained simply as a warning , us a practical example of the penalty which tho murderer will haive to pay . It certainly is not si little curious , tlie question being narrowed to tins issue . Unit the Legislature has not ere this been convinced of the unsoundness of the principle upon which it proceeds . No one who bus witnessed a public exhibition , and watched its influence upon the mind * of the lower classes can doubt for a moment that its effect is exiK-tly thf reverse of that which it is intended to produce . We will sny nothing of tho gross idea inculcated by tho spectacle of a nnirderir bong prepared fov heaven in it few hours by tin * chaplain . That is but one of many other stint ling inconsistencies which beset capital punishinejit . The chief question is us to tlie inlluenee nf n pul'iuf mnnler

    execution in deterring others from committing the eviiue «» . Tho review of a few well'known facts ou < vht to be ^ urhVienllv j ' l-nvincing 1 . Every murderer In these duvs of extensive pulilu'ilY becomes for the time being , and often fur King niter lie jmvs the penalty ot'liis crime , a sort of hero . No individual in the country wild more thought about nt the beginning of this weok thiiu William Yovscma . v , Twenty thousand people wei-e pt-ox'Jii |" see him ' hanged , and uevhaps a . hundred thousand nn'iv ^ ouhl have l ) i ? i'ii present , if they could have made it euinjiiuiu . Hundred * of thousand * impatiently waited fov the ncws ) m ;» Vi > l >> know if he had made n confession , and in what nuniinr be had died , For woks , until tho c-uhninatinu- point oi' hi . s celebrity on tho roof of HovMoniony « v-lane yaol , this murderer who one of the lending topics ol conversation . He was the till I ; "I family eirelcM . the subject of enquiry in Courts of . Law . a theme of discussion in i-vevy newspaper , un object of solicitude

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 8, 1860, page 6, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08091860/page/6/