The North-GermanParliament has abolished capital punishment by a-,vote iof 118
to 81, in spite of a strong speechlrom Count von Bismarek,.and a threat that the -Federal Council would reject the common Penal Code. The vote is a remarkable one, as it is not susceptible of the ordinary,explauetions. 4.11 Southern races, it is said, detest-the penalty of death, because they enjoy life so much that death wears to them an aspect of torture, but the Prussians certainly do not hate it on that account. Neither do they abolish it, as Calvinists ought to do, because they believe that the soul is endangered by the premature sentence of the body. May not the dislike to the punishment arise from a gradual weakening of the belief in a future state, an impression that when we take away life we take away the last chance, take-more, that is, than we can have a right to take ?
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