Now assuming that we are all sinners, and assuming also the efficiency of the punishment for prevention,-say to the extent of preventing one half of the murders, which would be committed without it,—it follows that the state, by sparing to cut off A, who has murdered B, would be the occasion of C murdering D, and E murdering F; that is, of two persons being cut off in their sins by the hand of the murderer, instead of one by the hand of the executioner. This is an issue, which human judgment can distinctly reach and take account of, and in respect of which, therefore, God has devolved upon man a responsible agency."

This is true; it is excellent reasoning; and it not only meets the particular objection we have considered, but it is a sufficient answer to those, who argue the expediency of abolishing capital punishment, from the unwillingness of juries to convict of a capital crime. In the case of the crime of murder, where the Divine Law is so clear, with both Providence and

Conscience to support it, the true expediency would be, by a well-ordered sternness and immutability in the execution of the Law, to train the minds of all men to the perception and acknowledgment of the justice and necessity of its ultimate sanctions. This giving way to the disease of wrong feeling or mistaken opinion. in the multitude, in cases of clear moral right and duty, because it is feared that otherwise the purposes of Law cannot be answered, is a proceeding of melancholy omen in any government. It is the wisdom of digging down the charcoal foundations of the Temple of Ephesus, in order to keep up the fires upon its altars.* It is "purchasing the sword with the loss of the arm that is to wield it." This is not the virtue of Prudence; nor can there be any genuine expediency, without lasting principles as its living root. Assuredly, if these be despised, "instead of state-wisdom we shall have state-craft, and for the

*COLERIDGE: The Friend. Essay V.

talent of the governor the cleverness of an embarrassed spendthrift; which consists in tricks to shift off difficulties and dangers when they are close upon us, and to keep them at arm's length, but not in solid and grounded courses to preclude or subdue them. We must content ourselves with expedient-makers; with fire engines against fires, life-boats against inundations but NO HOUSES BUILT FIRE PROOF, NO DAMS THAT RISE ABOVE THE WATER MARK.

* COLERIDGE: Essay IV, of the Landing Place.

CHAPTER X.

Occasion of the prejudice against capital punishment.Injurious consequences of the severity of sanguinary codes.-Difference between the reformation of penal codes, and the annihilation of penalty.-The abrogation of the punishment of death a premium on the crime of murder.—Recklessness of the desire of concealment.

It is a question that very naturally forces itself upon the mind, assuming the fact of the divine original of capital punishment, Whence should have arisen so violent a prejudice in some quarters against it? In this chapter we shall state only the reason connected with this part of our argument, which we take to be the lavish use and consequently the great abuse, under many governments, of the highest, most awful, and most solemn sanction of the law. Having a sword put into their hands, men in power, like little children, have loved to flourish it on every occasion.

If legislators had restricted themselves to the application of the original ordinance of Jehovah, we believe there would have arisen no more question in regard to the justice and expediency of that law, than in regard to the authority of the very first commandment in the decalogue. Modern codes have been tyrannous and sanguinary; and the annexation of the punishment by death to minor offences, in codes of law notoriously severe, has begotten a deep sentiment of injustice, which the mind has afterwards connected with the punishment by death in any case. This has led criminals to such disregard and contempt of it, and juries to such frequent sympathy with offenders, and such connivance at their escape, acquitting them sometimes both against law and evidence; and it has trained the public feeling to such compassion for criminals arraigned and condemned under such laws, as if they were persecuted wretches; that some writers have seemed to possess strong ground in their plea for the abrogation of the pen