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第9章

miscellaneous papers(各种各样的文件)-第9章

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dead; seem to refuse to deny the crime in the very act of which he is thus 

surprisedand yet the man has been; many years after; when his memory 

alone could be benefited by the discovery; ascertained not to have been the 

real murderer!       There have been cases in which; in a house in which were 

two persons alone; a murder has been committed on one of themwhen 

many   additional      circumstances      have   fastened    the  imputation     upon    the 

otherand when; all apparent modes of access from without; being closed 

inward; the demonstration has seemed complete of the guilt for which that 

other has suffered the doom of the lawyet suffered innocently!                     There 

have been cases in which a father has been found murdered in an outhouse; 

the   only   person   at   home   being   a   son;   sworn   by   a   sister   to   have   been 


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dissolute     and   undutiful;     and   anxious     for  the   death   of   the  father;   and 

succession to the family propertywhen the track of his shoes in the snow 

is found from the house to the spot of the murder; and the hammer with 

which   it   was   committed   (known   as   his   own);   found; on   a   search;  in   the 

corner of one of his private drawers; with the bloody evidence of the deed 

only imperfectly effaced from itand yet the son has been innocent!the 

sister;   years   after;   on   her   death…bed;   confessing   herself   the   fratricide   as 

well   as   the   parricide。    There   have   been   cases   in   which   men   have   been 

hung on the most positive testimony to identity (aided by many suspicious 

circumstances);   by   persons   familiar   with   their   appearance;   which   have 

afterwards proved grievous mistakes; growing out of remarkable personal 

resemblance。   There   have   been   cases   in   which   two   men   have   been   seen 

fighting   in   a   fieldan   old   enmity  existing   between   themthe   one   found 

dead; killed by a stab from a pitchfork known as belonging to the other; 

and which that other had been carrying; the pitch…fork lying by the side of 

the   murdered   manand   yet   its   owner   has   been   afterwards   found   not   to 

have been the author of the murder of which it had been the instrument; 

the   true   murderer   sitting   on   the   jury   that   tried   him。  There   have   been 

cases in which an innkeeper has been charged by one of his servants with 

the murder of a traveller; the servant deposing to having seen his master 

on the stranger's bed; strangling him; and afterwards rifling his pockets 

another servant   deposing   that   she   saw  him  come   down   at   that   time   at   a 

very early hour in the morning; steal into the garden; take gold from his 

pocket; and carefully wrapping it up bury it in a designated spoton the 

search of which the ground is found loose and freshly dug; and a sum of 

thirty pounds in gold found buried according to the descriptionthe master; 

who confessed the burying of the money; with many evidences of guilt in 

his    hesitation    and    confusion;     has   been    hung    of   course;    and    proved 

innocent only  too late。         There have   been   cases   in which   a   traveller   has 

been   robbed   on   the highway  of   twenty  guineas;  which   he   had   taken   the 

precaution   to   markone   of   these   is   found   to   have   been   paid   away   or 

changed by one of the servants of the inn which the traveller reaches the 

same eveningthe servant is about the height of the robber; who had been 


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cloaked   and   disguisedhis   master   deposes   to   his   having   been   recently 

unaccountably         extravagant     and    flush   of  goldand      on   his  trunk    being 

searched   the other   nineteen   marked   guineas   and   the   traveller's   purse   are 

found   there;   the   servant   being   asleep   at   the   time;   half…drunkhe   is   of 

course   convicted   and   hung;   for   the   crime   of   which   his   master   was   the 

author!      There have been cases in which a father and daughter have been 

overheard in violent disputethe words 〃barbarity〃; 〃cruelly〃; and 〃death〃; 

being   heard   frequently   to   proceed   from   the   latterthe   former   goes   out 

locking the door behind himgroans are overheard; and the words; 〃cruel 

father; thou art the cause of my death!〃on the room being opened she is 

found   on   the point of   death   from  a   wound in her side;  and near her   the 

knife with which it had been inflictedand on being questioned as to her 

owing      her   death    to  her   father;   her  last   motion    before    expiring     is  an 

expression   of   assent   the   father;   on   returning   to   the   room;   exhibits   the 

usual evidences of guilthe; too; is of course hungand it is not till nearly 

a year afterwards that; on the discovery of conclusive evidence that it was 

a   suicide;    the   vain   reparation     is  made;    to  his   memory      by   the   public 

authorities;   ofwaving   a   pair   of   colours   over   his   grave   in   token   of   the 

recognition of his innocence。〃 

       More than a hundred such cases are known; it is said in this Report; 

in    English    criminal     jurisprudence。       The     same     Report     contains    three 

striking   cases   of   supposed   criminals   being   unjustly   hanged   in America; 

and also five more in which people whose innocence was not afterwards 

established were put to death on evidence as purely circumstantial and as 

doubtful; to say the least of it; as any that was held to be sufficient in this 

general   summary   of   legal   murders。   Mr。   O'Connell   defended;   in   Ireland; 

within five and twenty years; three brothers who were hanged for a murder 

of   which   they   were   afterwards   shown   to   have   been   innocent。          I   cannot 

find   the    reference   at   this   moment;     but   I  have   seen    it   stated  on  good 

authority;   that   but   for   the   exertions;   I   think   of   the   present   Lord   Chief 

Baron;   six   or   seven   innocent   men   would   certainly   have   been   hanged。 

Such are the instances of wrong judgment which are known to us。                            How 

many more there may be in which the real murderers never disclosed their 


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guilt; or were never discovered; and where the odium of great crimes still 

rests   on   guiltless   people   long   since   resolved   to   dust   in   their   untimely 

graves; no human power can tell。 

     The effect of public executions on those who witness them; requires no 

better illustration; and can have none; than the scene which any execution 

in itself presents; and the general Police…office knowledge of the offences 

arising out of them。         I have stated my belief that the study of rude scenes 

leads to the disregard of human life; and to murder。                 Referring; since that 

expression of opinion; to the very last trial for murder in London; I have 

made inquiry; and am assured that the youth now under sentence of death 

in   Newgate   for   the   murder   of   his   master   in   Drury   Lane;   was   a   vigilant 

spectator of the three last public executions in this City。                  What effects a 

daily   increasing      familiarity   with   the   scaffold;   and   with   death   upon      it; 

wrought       in  France     in  the   Great    Revolution;      everybody       knows。      In 

reference to this very question of Capital Punishment; Robespierre himself; 

before he was 

       〃in blood stept in so far〃; 

       warned   the   National       Assembly   that     in   taking   human     life;   and  in 

displaying before the eyes of the people scenes of cruelty and the bodies 

of   murdered   men;   the   law   awakened   ferocious   prejudices;   which   gave 

birth   to   a   long   and   growing   train   of   their   own   kind。  With   how   much 

reason   this   was   said;   let   his   own   detestable   name   bear   witness!   If   we 

would   know   how   callous   and   hardened   society;   even   in   a   peaceful   and 

settled state; becomes to public executions when they are frequent; let us 

recollect     how    few    they   were    who    made    the   last  attempt     to  stay   the 

dreadful   Monday…morning   spectacles   of   men   and   women   strung   up   in   a 

row for crimes as different in their degree as our whole social scheme is 

different in   its   component   parts;  which;  within   some   fifteen   years or   so; 

made human shambles of the Old Bailey。 

     There   is   no   better   way   of   testing   the   effect   of   public   executions   on 

those who do not actually behold them; but who read of them and know of 

them; than by inquiring into their efficiency in preventing crime。                     In this 

respect   they  have   always;  and in   all countries;  failed。          According   to   all 


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facts    and   figures;   failed。    In   Russia;    in  Spain;    in  France;    in  Italy;  in 

Belgium; in Sweden; in England; there has been one result。                       In Bombay; 

during the Recordership of Sir James Macintosh; there were fewer crimes 

in seven   years   without one   execution;   than   in the preceding   seven   years 

with     forty…seven     executions;     notwithstanding        that   in  the   seven    years 

without     capital    punishment;      the  population      had   greatly   increased;     and 

there    had   been    a  large   accession     to  the  numbers      of  the   ignorant    and 

licentious     soldiery;    with    whom     the   more     violent   offences     originated。 

During   the   four   wickedest   years   of   the   Bank   of   England   (from   1814   to 

1817; inclusive); when the one…pound note capital prosecutions were most 

numerous and shocking; the number of forged one…pound notes discovered 

by the Bank steadily increased; from the gross amount in the first year of 

10;342 pounds; to the gross amount in the last of 28;412 pounds。                        But in 

every     branch     of  this   part   of   the  subjectthe      inefficiency     of  capital 

punishment to prevent crime; and its efficiency to produce itthe body of 

evidence (if there were space to quote or analyse it here) is overpowering 

and resistless。 

     I   have   purposely   deferred   until   now   any   reference   to   one   objection 

which is urged against the abolition of capital punishment:                      I mean that 

objection which claims to rest on Scriptural authori

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