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    1 st . The punishment of death is impolitic , not merely because it only aims at the accomplishment of one of the great ends of p unishment , but also from its utter incapacity to effect even that . The proverbially fre quent occurrence of public executions in England , whilst it would almost seem to justify the assertion of an eminent foreigner ( made in allusion to the subject upon which

    I am writing ) that g the English were the most cruel people in Europe / affords also primd facie evidence of the extreme inefficiency of ' Death-punishment , ' as a preventive of crime . But , as it is not necessary to rely merely upon evidence of this description , I shall cursorily notice certain well-authenticated facts , which in my opinion place the matter beyond the reach of disputation . In Tuscany the punishment in question was totally

    abolished by the Grand Duke Leopold , during the space of twenty years . At the expiration of that period it was , however , re-established by Napoleon . c Upon comparing three successive periods of twenty years each—in the first , the punishment of death existing—in the second , abolished—and in the third , restored , —it was found that fewer crimes and even fewer murders * were committed during the middle period , in which no executions

    took place , than in either the preceding or succeeding one , in which the scaffold was in use ! ' England has also furnished evidence of similar character . The severity of the punishment till lately annexed by our laws , to forgery , sheep-stealing , &c . had , it is well known , a direct tendency to increase the commission of those very crimes which it was instituted to prevent .

    And this it effected by diminishing the chances of its application . It was highly probable , in such cases , that the injured party would be unwilling to prosecute , f or the jury to convict . J A milder punishment has since been adopted , and if the result have not proved so satisfactory as could have been wished , § the failure merely proves the inadequacy of the substitute , and not , as some persons argue , the propriety of returning to the old

    system . In addition to the chances of escape which criminals of the classes just alluded to , formerly enjoyed , a third has been added for the benefit of burglars and high way-robbers , —viz . the extreme probability that , even in case of conviction , the royal prerogative of mercy will be extended towards them . I say the extreme

    * ' Only six : while in the Roman States , not much larger than Tuscany , the number in a quarter of a year was no less than sixty . '—J . Bentium . t When the propriety of altering the laws relating to forgery , was last agitated before Parliament , a banker told the Legislature that he knew of forty instances of the crime , in which though the offender a were detected , no prosecution followed . Another banker said he knew of innumerable instances of the some tor / . Indeed , it would appear that the quakers generally refused to prosecute in such cases , whilst death was the consequence of conviction . —Vide Morning Herald / Oct . 1833 . I Cases in which the prisoner has enjoyed the benefit of a jury ' s * doubt , ' ( not as to the commission of the crime , but as to the propriety of the punishment awarded to it by / aw ) must occur to all who have paid any atttntion to the subject . ^ Vide 4 Kdinbucgh Review , * lor Jau . Ib 34 , AiU' Secondary WuiUhmeals . ' .

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    On the Propriety of totally abolishijig Death-Punishment * 333

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1834, page 333, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2633/page/21/