The second reading of the Bill for abolishing the horrid
spectacle of public executions, and performing them in private, passed the House of Commons on Thursday night by a large majority,-181 to 25. Mr. Hardy produced very striking evidence that the private execu- tion, instead of diminishing the deterrent effect of the punishment, would probably increase it. indeed, the vanity which is gratified by being an object of interest to these execution crowds, probably does more than anything else to withdraw the attention both of criminals, and of would-be criminals from the pain and shame of a violent death. We wish that in committee the gallows also might be done away with, and death by shooting substituted. In the Army this is the extreme punishment for all crimes, and is found perfectly efficient. It would still be a death violent enough to influence the imagination powerfully, and there would be no necessity for a hangman,—who is almost necessarily an outcast from society. Moreover, the possibility of torture, which always 'remains, from the uncertainty attaching to the effect of a fall upon the neck,—would be avoided. Torture is never contemplated in lianging, but often results from it ; while a volley of bullets would be as sure and speedy a mode of inflicting violent death as is to be found.
Previous page
