Essays on the punishment of death / [Charles Spear].

  • Charles Spear
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essays on the punishment of death / [Charles Spear]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ESSAY II. REVENGEFUL. Story of a horse-stealer—Punishment and revenge— Confession of a magistrate—Ref ormation of a boy guilty of highway robbery— Sympathy for the degraded. 1 Government has not been slow to punish crime, nor has society suffered for want of dungeons and gibbets. But the prevention of crime, and the reformation of the offender, have nowhere taken rank among the first objects of legislation.’ Channing. Dr. Franklin relates the story of a horse-stealer, who, on being asked by his judge what he had to say why sentence of death should not be passed, replied, {that it was hard to hang a man for only stealing a horse.’ ‘ Man,’ replied the judge, thou art not to be hanged only for stealing a horse, hut that horses may not be stolen.’ This anecdote shows the true nature of Capital Punishment. The good of the offender is always unthought of in its infliction. One great object is entirely disregarded. It may be said of our penal code generally, that it is rather retrospective than prospective. The future good of the criminal is not considered. The idea is well expressed in our motto, by Channing. Our prisons should be places of emendation; not mere gloomy cells, but hospitals to heal the moral disorders of the soul. Until this is done, we cannot expect any beneficial results from the confinement of the culprit. 1 When we hear of the perpetration of a crime, we are too apt to think only of punishment. What suffering 3#
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