In his speech at Mr. Spurgeon’s Big Bethel Mr. Bright used the following strong language on the subject of capital punishment:—“Notwithstanding such defence as can be made for it the gallows is not only the penalty but the parent of murder.” As this remark about the gallows is founded on a delusion, to some extent popular, it may be as well to devote a few lines to its refutation.
The idea that the gallows is the parent of murder is founded upon the statistics which show the decrease of that crime since the abolition of capital punishment for minor offences.
The abolitionists say that since murder has decreased in proportion to the restrictions placed upon the exercise of the last penalty of the law it would decrease still more if that last penalty were altogether abrogated.
This conclusion is, however, a transparent non sequitur. It is obvious that when burglary, sheep-stealing, and other offences were punishable with death a housebreaker or other criminal would resist to the last, even to death, in order to escape detection.
No. 36.
CHUDLEY VISITED IN PRISON BY MR. JAMBLIN AND HIS DAUGHTER.
He knew that whether he murdered his captors or not his punishment would be the same, and consequently it was his intent to carry deadly weapons with him and to use them if interrupted.
Punishment was not sufficiently cumulative, and, after a man had arrived at a certain degree of crime, he knew that no offence, however great, could add to the penalty consequent on detection.
Thus it happened that a highwayman or burglar was indifferent whether he took your money or your life, or both, and thus the restriction of capital punishment to the offences of murder alone restricted also the frequency of the crime itself.