above the fear of death by the exhortations and prayers of the pious; the converted sinner receives the tender attentions of respectability, beauty, and worth his prison becomes a place of pilgrimage, its tenant, a saint awaiting the crown of martyrdom; his last looks are watched, with affectionate solici tude; his last words are carefully remembered and recorded; his last agonies are beheld with affliction and despair; and, after suffering the ignominious sentence of the law, the body of the culprit, whose death was infamy, and whose life was crime, is attended respectfully and mournfully to the grave, by a train that would not have disgraced the obsequies of a patriot or a hero. This sketch, though highly-coloured, is drawn from life, the inhabitants of one of the most refined and wealthy of our state capitals sat for the picture; and although such exalted feelings are not always excited, or are prudently repressed, yet they are found in nature, and in whatever degree they exist, it cannot be doubted, that in the same proportion, they counteract every good effect that punishment is intended to produce. The hero of such a tragedy can never consider himself as the actor of a mean, or ignoble part; nor can the people view in the object of their admiration or pity, a murderer and a robber, whom they would have regarded with horror, if their feelings had not been injudiciously enlisted in his favour. Thus the end of the law is defeated, the force of example is totally lost, and the place of execution is converted into a scene of triumph for the sufferer,

whose crime is wholly forgotten, while his courage, resignation, or piety, mark him as the martyr, not the guilty victim, of the laws.

Where laws are so directly at war with the feelings of the people whom they govern, as this, and many other instances prove them to be, these laws can never be wise or operative, and they ought to be abolished.

Quid leges sine moribus vanæ proficiunt? But if laws unsupported by the morals of the people are inefficient, how can we reasonably expect that they will have any effect when they are counteracted by moral feelings as well as by ideas of religion. This is the effect of capital punishments in a country where they are not commonly inflicted. Let us now see what is their result, where they are unhappily too frequent.

In England, a great portion of the eloquence, and learning, and all the humanity of the nation are at work, in an endeavour, not to abolish the punishment of death (that proposition would be too bold in a government where reform, in any department, might lead to revolution in all), but to restrict it to the more atrocious offences. This has produced a parliamentary inquiry, in the course of which, the reports to which I have alluded before, were made; one of them contains the examination of witnesses before a committee of the house of commons. From one of these, that of a solicitor who had practised for more than twenty years in the criminal courts, I make the following extracts :

"In the course of my practice, I have found, that the punishment of death has no terror upon a com

mon thief; indeed, it is much more the subject of ridicule among them, than of serious deliberation. The certain approach of an ignominious death, does not seem to operate upon them; for, after the warrant has come down, I have seen them treat it with levity. I once saw a man, for whom I had been concerned, the day before his execution, and on offering him condolence, and expressing my concern at his situation, he replied with an air of indifference, players at bowls must expect rubbers;' and this man I heard say, that it was only a few minutes, a kick and a struggle, and all was over. The fate of oné set of culprits, in some instances, had no effect, even on those who were next to be reported for execution; they play at ball and pass their jokes as if nothing was the matter. I have seen the last separation of persons about to be executed, there was nothing of solemnity about it, and it was more like the parting for a country journey, than taking their last farewell. I mention these things, to shew what little fear common thieves entertain of capital punishment, and that so far from being arrested in their wicked courses, by the distant possibility of its infliction, they are not even intimidated by its certainty."

Another of those respectable witnesses (a magistrate of the capital) being asked, whether he thought that capital punishment had much tendency to deter criminals from the commission of offences, answered, "I do not. I believe it is well known to those who are conversant with criminal associations in this town, that criminals live and act in gangs and confederacies, and that the execution of one or more

of their body, seldom has a tendency to dissolve the confederacy, or to deter the remaining associates from the continuance of their former pursuits. Instances have occurred within my own jurisdiction, to confirm me in this opinion. During one sitting, as a magistrate, three persons were brought before me for uttering forged notes. During the investigation, I discovered that those notes were obtained from a room in which the body of a person named Wheller (executed on the preceding day, for the same offence) then laid, and that the notes in question were delivered for circulation by a woman with whom he had been living. This is (he adds) a strong case, but I have no doubt that it is but one of very many others."

The ordinary of Newgate, a witness better qualified than any other, to give information on this subject, being asked, "have you made any observations as to the effect of the sentence of death upon the prisoners?" AnswersAnswers-" It seems scarcely to have any effect upon them; the generality of people under sentence of death are thinking, or doing rather, any thing than preparing for their latter end." Being interrogated as to the effect produced by capital executions on the minds of the people, he answers, "I think, shock and horror at the moment, upon the inexperienced and the young, but immediately after the scene is closed, forgetfulness altogether of it, leaving no impression on the young and inexperienced. The old and ex

perienced thief says, the chances have gone against the man who has suffered; that it is of no consequence, that it is what was to be expected ;

making no serious impression on the mind. I have had occasion to go into the press-yard within an hour and a half after an execution, and I have there found them amusing themselves, playing at ball or marbles, and appearing precisely as if nothing had happened."

No colouring is necessary to heighten the effect of these sketches. Nothing, it appears to me, can more fully prove the utter inutility of this waste of human life, its utter inefficiency as a punishment, and its demoralizing operation on the minds of the people.

The want of authentic documents prevents me at present from laying before the general assembly some facts which would elucidate the subject, by examples from the records of criminal courts in the different states. The prevalence of particular offences, as affected by the changes in their criminal laws; the number of commitments, compared with that of convictions, and the effect which the punishment of death has on the frequency of the crimes for which it is inflicted; accurate information on these heads would have much facilitated the investigation in which we are engaged. But although from the causes which I have stated, these are not now within our reach, there are yet some facts generally known on the subject, which are not devoid of interest or instruction. Murder, in all the states, is punished with death; in most of them it is, except treason (which never occurred under the state laws), the only crime that is so punished. If this were the most efficacious penalty to prevent crimes, this offence would be the one of