The Execution of Minors The case for and against the
abolition of capital punishment generally has often enough been argued in
these columns, and there is obviously much to be said on both sides. But the proposal to abolish the death sentence for persons under twenty-one stands on a completely different footing, and it is matter for regret that a committee of the House of Commons should reject that sound and humane demand by as decisive a majority as 23 to 18. When a Member of Parliament can record his solemn belief that capital punishment is one of the safeguards of civilization he may be invited to consider how it safeguards civilization in Chicago, or indicate how far its absence in Holland and Sweden and elsewhere has resulted in a relapse of those countries into barbarism. Civilization, pace Mr. Stourton, M.1'., would not have been imperilled if the nineteen death sentences carried out on persons under twenty-one in the past thirty years had never been pronounced. Rather would faith in the advance of civilization have been confirmed.
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