LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Bentley SIR.—Janues comment on the execution of 13entley reflects the first impression of many fair-minded people: he didn't shoot; the other boy is too young to hang; he himself was under arrest when the boy shot a policeman. The second impression: a young man goes on a joint expedition of armed robbery; the weapon in the hands of a boy too young to hang; himself, though in the hands of the police, urges the boy to shoot a policeman. Is the monkey less to blame than the cat's paw ?
The real importance of this case may lie in the terribly widespread morbid sentiment, to which the cheap Press panders so lavishly, that is aroused by the nature of the penalty prescribed by the law for murder. That the death penalty itself can so obsess the public mind is perhaps the strongest argument against it.—Yours faithfully, 2 Paper Buildings, Temple, E.C.4.
S. COPE MORGAN.
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