114 murders, or only 8 per annum. Capital Punishment was then entirely abolished, and for the next five years there were no executions and but 20 murders, or only four per annum. How remarkable the change, and how hard to credit with many; and yet it is the very result which a true philosophy warrants, as we show in our next chapter.

BOMBAY. It is thought by many that the gallows may be safely dispensed with in a highly civilized community, but is indispensable in countries with a rude and ignorant population. Experience has taught, however that strangling or beheading, burning or crucifying men or women, is just as unnecessary and impolitic with one people as with another, while the moral influence is equally pernicious. Bombay is an Island in British India. It was obtained by the Portuguese in 1530 from an Indian chief and was ceded to Great Britain in 1661. Its population is nearly 200,000 of whom 120,000 are Hindoos, 40,000 Mohammedans, 12,000 native Christians, 15,000 Parsees and only about 5,000 English. And yet among this mixed and ignorant population, of Hindoos, Mohammedans and Parsees,—in the midst of heathen darkness, with but scarcely a ray of Christian light, it was found by actual experiment that killing for crime was utterly useless. On this point we have abundant testimony, but a single statement must suffice. It is taken from the farewell charge of Sir James Mackintosh to the Grand Jury of the Supreme Court of Bombay, July 20, 1811. He says:

"Since my arrival here, in May, 1804, the punishment of death has not been inflicted by this court. Now, the population subject to our jurisdiction, either locally or personally, cannot be less than two hundred thousand persons. Whether any evil consequence has yet arisen from so unusual (and in British dominions unexampled)

a circumstance, as the disuse of Capital Punishment, for so long a period as seven years, or among a population so considerable, is a question which you are entitled to ask, and to which I have the means of affording you a satisfactory answer.

"From May, 1756, to May, 1763, (seven years,) the capital convictions amounted to one hundred and fortyone, and the executions were forty-seven. The annual average of persons who suffered death was almost seven, and the annual average of capital crimes ascertained to have been perpetrated, was nearly twenty:

"For the last fifty years the population has more than doubled, and yet from May, 1804, to May, 1811, though we had no capital execution, there have been but six convictions for murder. Murders in the former period with executions were, therefore, nearly as three to one to those of the latter, in which no Capital Punishment was inflicted.

"This small experiment has, therefore, been made without any diminution of the security of the lives and property of men. Two hundred thousand men have been governed for seven years without a capital punishment, and without any increase of crimes. If any experience has been acquired, it has been safely and innocently gained."

Here, then, are the results of abolishment. To whatever country we turn our attention we find the same favorable response. Are not these facts significant? Let not our States, then, longer be "faithless, but believing." Cicero said, many centuries ago, "Away with the executioner and the execution, and the very name of its engine! Not merely from the limbs but from the very thoughts, the eyes, the ears of Roman citizens." Shall American Christians of the nineteenth century say less with reference to American citizens?

CHAPTER XIV.

NINTH REASON FOR ABOLISHMENT.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF HUMANITY FAVORABLE.

Validity of our Philosophy doubted-Kindness in the government of Home and the Family-A State or Nation a Family Want of faith in Goodness to overcome EvilThe Philosophy of Christianity and Humanity harmonious-Saying of the French SageExample of the State-Conversation of the Monk and the Executioner-Influence of bloody Examples Sacredness of Human Life should be enforced-Early training of Children-The Quakers free from Crime-Children of Newgate Criminals.

THE facts which we present in the preceding chapter, will astonish many persons who have given the subject but little attention, or whose education has been such that their prejudices are wholly enlisted on the side of stern and inflexible laws for criminals. Some will doubt the validity of the philosophy upon which the reform we advocate is based, and say it is impossible that a mild and lenient government should possess the power to prevent crime, that is found in a stern and uncompromising administration of justice. Even fathers and mothers who have long since learned the necessity of love and kindness in the government of home and the family, and who are certain from daily observation that those children are the most disobedient and cruel, who are educated under the most stern and cruel authority, will doubt the philosophy upon which they base all their hopes in domestic discipline, when they come to apply it to the government of a state or nation and say, "we dare not trust it !" But what is a state or nation but a family? And we may be certain that whatever principles will exert a

healthful moral influence on the minds and hearts of our children, will exert the same influence on the minds and hearts of men and women, who are but children of a larger growth. The philosophy of humanity is in harmony with the philosophy of Christianity, and is, therefore, in favor of abolishment. Every principle begets its like. "The grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world."* God's grace or love will produce this effect, but wrath, hatred, never. "The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance;"† not his vengeance. Christ was once charged with casting out devils by Beelzebub the prince of devils; but he denied the possibility of such a thing by showing that Satan, could not cast out Satan, or in other words, that evil could not allay or destroy evil, but only the Spirit of God-or goodness. Hence the injunction: "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with GOOD;"‡ which is the only principle which can overcome evil.

Now, in the philosophy of these Christian declarations will be found an explanation of the seeming mystery connected with the facts recorded in the last chapter, with reference to the effects of clemency. Cruelty and retaliation fan up the fires of hell in the soul, while forbearance and gentleness allay them and awaken only thoughts of repentance and aspirations for a more virtuous and holy life. The lesson of the French sage is a true one; "Une loi rigoureuse produit des crimes"-harsh laws, beget crimes; and said Bentham: "If the legislator be desirous to inspire humanity amongst the citizens, let him set the example; let him show the utmost respect for the life of man. Sanguinary laws have a tendency

Tit. ii: 11.

+ Rom. ii: 4

Rom. xii: 21.

to render man cruel, either by fear, by imitation, or by revenge. But laws dictated by mildness humanize the manners of a nation and the spirit of government."

Douglass Jerrold, in his "Lessons of Life," gives a conversation between a monk and a hangman in Paris, as follows:

"Ho! hold you there, Father-'example.' 'Tis a brave example to throttle a man in the public streets, on the gibbet. Why, I know the faces of my audience as well as Dominique did. I can show you a hundred who never fail at the gallows' foot to come and gather good 'example.' Do you think, most holy Father, that the mob of Paris come to a hanging as to a sermon-to amend their lives at a gibbet? No: many come as they would take an extra dram! it gives their blood a fillip— stirs them for an hour or two; many to see a fellow man act a scene which they must one day undergo; many come as to puppets and ballet-singers at the Point Neuf; but for example, why, father, as I am an honest executioner, I have, in my day, done my office upon twenty, all of whom were constant visitors, of years standing, at my morning levees around the gallows, to witness the jerk and the struggle. That was the effect of a 'good example' Father!"

Here is exhibited the philosophy of sanguinary punishments; as an example, they harden and demoralize the soul, and prepare men for deeds of revenge and blood. When the state kills, it authorizes and sanctions the work of death. Naturally, man has a horror of taking human life. His instincts revolt at it, and his frame shudders at the thought of it. It is not the old and experienced soldier who trembles at the blood and carnage of the battle field, but the man whose sympathies have not been blunted by these dreadful exhibitions. Let