Punishments may be divided into three classes; capital, when the death of the offender is intended to deter others from similar offence; precautionary, when a noxious individual is removed from general society by imprisonment or transportation; and correctional, when by some pain or penalty inflicted on the individual, he is to be deterred from future crime. Though the subject would admit of much curious detail, our remaining space will not allow us to trace the different modes or modifications of legitimate punishment used in various nations or ages; nor to enter our protest of abhorrence against the many and inhuman tortures which religious fanaticism or political rancour have invented for their antagonists; the only point on which we can physiologically have occasion to observe, as applicable to the capital punishments of the present times, is, that they should be inflicted with as little pain as possible to the criminal, lest compassion for the sufferings of the man, should supersede the salutary horror of his offence; an end which is really, though not apparently, attained in our ordinary mode of execution by hanging; the victim does not suffer, though sometimes his convulsive struggles induce a contrary belief; but the method is defective in one point, it is not calculated to produce a deep impression on the minds of spectators, Pompa mortis magis terret quam mors ipsa. The French mode of decapitation, though held in abhorrence from the outrages with which its very name has become associated, is equally humane; an instant terminates the mortal sufferings of the criminal; for this reason it was originally adopted, and when we consider that it superceded the barbarous punishment of breaking on the wheel, previously in use, and the clumsy and uncertain method of decapitation by the sword or axe, we feel ourselves justified, in spite of popular prejudice, in designating the guillotine[[105]] an invention of humanity.

Decapitation is also a punishment known in the law of England, and as a more dignified and impressive death, is reserved for the execution of nobles, or distinguished commoners, in cases of high treason, the rest of the barbarous sentence (now abolished by act of parliament), and the previous sentence of hanging, being dispensed with by the king’s authority.

The barbarous punishment of burning, formerly part of the law, is no longer in use; Catharine Hayes, to whose case we have alluded (vol. ii, p. 73), was the last who suffered in this manner.

On the subject of imprisonment we have already commented, (vol. ii, p. 112), and from the very general attention now excited, as well by the discovery of abuses, as by an encreasing spirit of humanity, we may expect the best results.

Of punishment, not capital, there are two which require medical consideration; the one is military flogging, the other the novel invention of the tread-mill. On the first of these, we might have had more cause to complain, had the old system of the army been continued; it is however due to the character of the present Commander in Chief to notice, that under his direction the punishment of flogging has been much diminished; regimental courts martial, composed of five officers (possibly infants), are now restricted in their sentences to the infliction of three hundred lashes; formerly double the number was deemed a moderate punishment; and there is good reason to believe, that the discipline of a regiment, and the capacity of a commanding officer, is no longer considered in the direct, but on the contrary, in the inverse ratio of the number of lashes inflicted:[[106]] we need not say that the general state and conduct of troops has proved the policy of the alteration, we have only to hope that the improvement will be extended, and that the English army will not long be subjected to a degrading and barbarous torture, from which less moral men, and much worse soldiers, are exempted in every other service in Europe. It is necessary, however, that till this very desirable reform is effected, some observation should be made on the mode of inflicting this punishment.

It is generally supposed that the surgeon who is present at a military execution, is responsible for its consequences; this is not legally true, and it is physiologically impossible; the punishment is too uncertain in its operation to allow of any medical assistant’s ascertaining the boundaries of danger; moral feeling, age, strength, nervous irritability, climate, previous disease, organic defects, and other circumstances, many of which it would be impossible for the most skilful to detect, and least of all by mere view of the culprit tied up to the halberts, may render a punishment fatal, which had been intended to be lenient. No surgeon therefore can answer, either for the ultimate, or immediate consequences of this species of corporal punishment; he may indeed err on the safe side, by interposing as early as possible,[[107]] but there is no criterion by which he can be guided in forming an absolute opinion on the danger or safety of the punishment.

But though the surgeon cannot be held criminally responsible (except in cases of gross ignorance or negligence) for the result of such executions, yet, if the commanding officer permits a single lash to be inflicted after the medical attendant has interposed, he would be held guilty of murder should the soldier die from the effects of excessive punishment; for malice will be presumed from such continuance after due notice.[[108]] In the notorious case of Governor Wall, who was executed for the murder of a soldier by excessive and illegal flogging; the punishment was originally unlawful, having been inflicted without sentence of a court martial, the mode of infliction was unusual, and the surgeon was stated to have been so much intimidated, that he was afraid to interfere, (a poor excuse for neglect of professional duty); under these circumstances, the plea that the deceased killed himself by excessive drinking, though the fact was far from improbable under the climate of Goree, was unavailable; the illegal flogging was the primary cause of the death, and therefore neither the effect of climate, misconduct, or mismanagement, could remove the original criminality. In this as in several other cases of death from ill-usage, it is a constant but unavailing plea that the deceased died not of the wounds or blows, but of fever, or defective treatment.[[109]]

On the subject of the tread-mill, we are not enabled to pronounce any very decided opinion, the invention has not been in use long enough to determine with any degree of accuracy its merits or defects; that it is held in considerable dread by offenders is certain, and the fear of returning to it may operate favourably on that class for which it appears best calculated, the regular vagabond; but it does not give any habit of industry, or teach any mode of labour to the merely idle or casually culpable, and therefore ought not to be indiscriminately applied to all cases. The punishment too is one of the most unequal in its operation that can be conceived; a man, who has been accustomed to running up stairs all his life, with good lungs and muscular legs, will scarcely suffer by it; while an asthmatic tailor, weaver, or other sedentary artizan will be half killed by the exercise. For women in certain stages, whether of menstruation or pregnancy, it is a dangerous and indecent torture, one which should immediately be forbidden, if not by the humanity of magistrates, by the wisdom of the legislature.

One very material objection to this machine arises out of the probability of abuse in the places where it is generally erected; an air of mystery has been thrown round houses of correction, which has acquired for some of them the odious name of bastile; even grand juries have been denied admission to them, on the ground that they are the prisons of the magistrates, not of the sheriff; we certainly do not understand either the policy or propriety of this distinction; that they should not be thrown open to the idle or merely curious we are ready to admit, but contend that they should be open to all official inspection; much must in every prison depend on the conduct and discretion of the jailors—to know that he is open to public animadversion is the best security for the due exercise of his office: a contrary assurance is well calculated to produce despotic feeling in ordinary minds; how much more then is it to be guarded against, when persons of the lower class are entrusted with extraordinary power of coercion, and are continually irritated by the refractory conduct of those who are placed under their authority. In such cases constant inspection, at uncertain times, and by uninterested persons, is the best guarantee against abuse.

FINIS.