MIXED MUSINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16020, 11 September 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

MIXED MUSINGS.

■T J. GILTS. What heart invented, and what preaching spread That fiction of "the Hnreturning dead?" Believe it not The felon and the hero; Aurehus, Alfred, Catiline, and Nero: Do they not throng our paths, for good or Dl, witnra us whispering and prompting still? Kain not their thought* upon us day and night. , Dull baleful darts, or shafts of golden light? bo we must bless or blast the coming life Of men to be, till, through the long, long strife, LoT^ 8 »$? we from { «*r shall bloom, and truth a from doubt; And every lie Be slowly filtered out.

Are we quite sure that when we hare hanged a murderer we have got rid of him ? Because, if we are not quite sure about this, it would seem prudent to think twice before deciding to hang him. So long as we have him under lock and key, his power of mischief is restricted, but if we once let him slip into the unseen, who knows what may come of it ? Is it not a rather large assumption to take for granted that a spiritual entity can be annihilated by constricting with a ligature a cartilaginous tube called the windpipe. And I do not know upon what other assumption the practice of hanging a criminal can be defended. For, if it does not make an end of him, it seems to implr the hope that he will have to employ his energies in some other sphere, as police magistrates sometimes dismiss an offender on the understanding that he will betake himself to some other district or jurisdiction—a practice, by the way. that seems to be prompted by expedience rather than equity. But when we hang a man we can never be sure, however materialistic may be our mode of thinking, that we have put an end to him ; nor are we able to insist that he shall betake himself to some remote sphere or jurisdiction. What if he persist in haunting the earthly '■ regions, in frequenting the places where ' vice, with all its abominations, is found in its most sordid and repulsive aspects, in all of which he perhaps revels, deriving a sort of vicarious enjoyment by intensifying in others the evil cravings, from the physical gratification of which he is himself precluded ; or perhaps, out of pure malignity to a world that has expelled him, sowing the seed of future murders by inflaming the embers of discord and hatred in souls that are prone thereto? In a former paper I alluded to the conflict which is perpetually occurring in our criminal courts between the rigid rules and narrow reasonings handed down from ancient jurisprudence, and the truths that medical science and psychological research are gradually building up by the study of the human mind as manifested through the nervous system. Our law of lunacy seems simple enough in regard to civil interests since it pronounces a person lunatic if he is plainly incapable of managing his own affairs : it is when we come to the criminal side of the question that the difficulties begin. ( Our judges often listen with some impatience to the fine-spun reasonings and distinctions made by medical witnesses in cases where the suggestion of insanity has been made, and the judge will tell the witness that the only real question is—did the prisoner when he committed the act know that he was doing wrong? Yet it is well known that lunatics, legally declared to be such, will commit acts well knowing them to be wrong, but trusting to their acknowledged insanity for immunity." To set aside as irrelevant all recognition of the intricacies of the human mind and of the complexity of human motives, and to resolve the whole business by asking whether the accused knew he was doing wrong, is surely to pick a very delicate lock with a crowbar. But the progress of scientific research is a thing that will take no denial. More and more will the researches of physiologists and psychologists bring into relief the inadequacy ■of maxims framed in an age of rough-and-ready methods to solve all the questions that' must inevitably arise with the growth of knowledge. And first and foremost it seems necessary that this question of criminal insanity should be freed from the unfair influence and terrible incubus of the thought of the death penalty. The jury should only be asked to say whether the accused committed the act, and whether he did it intentionally— what were the moral principles or beliefs that actuated him. That settled, the way is clear for the question, what is the proper treatment of one who has committed such and such an act, under such and such circumstances? This is not an easy question ; it is anologous to the diagnosis and prognosis of a medical examination, and, perhaps, requires longer time and more protracted observation. The truly scientific and humane treatment of criminals is doubtless a long way off yet, but that it is coming is clearly indicated by such reforms as the indeterminate sentence, and the institution of children's court*. But the way to comprehensive reform can scarcely be open so long as it is cumbered by the death penalty.

I have suggested that the only opinion that can justify the death penalty is the opinion that a criminal put to death is a criminal got rid of. It is questionable whether even that view affords a justification, but it is impossible in the present condition of the world to leave this topic without asking from the opposite point of view whether the belief that » criminal hanged is got rid of does not carry with it the belief that a hero slain is a hero lost. Such a thought, if entertained, must be a thought of infinite distress to thousands of sorrowful or anxious hearts who, in whatever variety of modes they may view the matter, must feel, we may hope, in their inmost being, that all is well, and that no noble movement of the human spirit can be lest to God or to humanity. The growing tendencey of thought is "to the realisation of the oneness of men in the ever present spirit which manifests itself in counties forms or personalties, which acquire with toil and pain the knowledge that they are but conduits or channels of the one universal life, and with that knowledge liberation from fear and knowledge. The hero tliat we consecrate in our hearts is not the body that is shattered by shrapnel in the trenches, but the soul that in the buoyant strength of its divine nature defies the death and pain that would obstruct its path. Shall we suppose that the hero soul can fail to do its part in the accomplishment of the divine plan, in the regeneration of the earth, and the upward progress of humanity indeed, we talk insincerely about the coming of God's Kingdom on earth ?