CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. TO THE EDITOR OF THE EVENING POST.

Evening Post, Volume XX, Issue 285, 6 December 1880, Page 3

CAPITAL PUNISH MENT. TO THE EDITOR OF THE EVENING POST.

Sir—l havo read with intere t the correspondence that has appfn eJ in your journal with reference to caxjital punishment, and although we never can tell now many people aro deterred from crime by its example, the fact remains that it is not effectual to prevent murder being committed from time to time. Bulwer made the remark "that the worst use yon could put a person to was to hang him," and I think if a man is fit to die he is certainly fit to live; if he is not prepared to go before his Maker, is it right to send him out of the world impenitent? If thid life is the only frail raft in the ocean of eternity where pardon and forgiveness can be sought, is it right to shorten the time, even by a day ? Some time ago an innocent man at horne—Habron—nearly suffered for the crime of another; and the chance of such a thing taking place, even once in a hundred years, is a strong argnment^gainst the death penalty. * One of your correspondents cites the Mosaic law to justify the forfeiture of life for murder, bnt the same code would allow us to take a larrikin, wanting in filial obedience, and do him to death with rood metal. I am, Ao.. - X.Y.Z.