Mr.. Pease moved, on Wednesday, the second reading, of the
Capital Punishment Abolition Bill, advancing the very worst
argument of which we ever heard for his case,—namely, that very few of those condemned to death for murder belong to the criminal class proper. Well, what does that show? It shows surely that the criminal class proper have a very great dread of the penalty now inflicted on murderers, and very seldom incur it, though there is no class more likely to experience the. temptation to murder than those who are habitually breaking. the law. Mr. Cropper's argument, 'that we so often punisla rather for the result of the crime than for the crime itself, that we punish an intending murderer of the very worst class less. severely if he does not succeed, than we do a half-intending murderer who unfortunately. does succeed, is a better objection;. only, the remedy for that is to include amongst the crimes punish-. able by a capital sentence the more bloodthirsty and grave of the attempts to nnirder,—they often deserve it far more richly than actual murders,—and not to repeal the sentence of death as the penalty for all deliberate and intentional murders.. The second reading was rejected, by a majority of 96 (175 against 79).
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