25 MAY 1956, Page 22

Vie Opertat or

MAY 28, 1831 MAY 28, 1831

Two men were hanged on Wednesday; one for sheep-stealing, the other for stealing in a dwelling house. . . . The execution of these men for crimes unaccompanied by the slightest violence, has very naturally attracted the notice of a large and respectable. class of the community, to whom the sanguinary character of our code has long been a subject of regret. It indeed appears singular, on a first view of the stibject, that in free England, as it is usually called, the number of crimes punishable with death should be greater than in any other European state—that we who boast so highly of our civilisation should display in our practice greater barbarism than the least enlightened of our neighbours.