THE DEATH PENALTY.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12755, 30 March 1910, Page 1

THE DEATH PENALTY.

L _ ■» , The Victorian Attorney-General pro- [ poses to introduce a Bill to abolish [ capital punishment, and it is expected . that Victoria will fall into line with certain other countries in doing away with the death penalty. Sooner or later, of course, there wil.l bo no more executions anywhere. It can. only be a matter of time when even Russia, bowing to the weight of public opinion, will sweep the system away. But the growth of humanitarian sentiment 4 s slow. At the beginning of the nineteenth century upwards of two hundred offences - were set down in the Imperial Statute Book as punishable by death. During the reign of the first three Georges, stealing from a dwelling to the value of forty shillings, theft from a. shop to the value of five shillings, robbing a rabbit-warren, and counterfeiting hair-powder or perfumery stamps were all capital offences. Forgery, too, meant death right up to the "thirties" of last century. Speaking in 1864, the late John Bright declared his belief that the abolition of capital punishment would not cause the number of murders to increase, and so, indeed, most of the countries . which have ventured upon, the experiment have proved. There have been no executions in Holland since 1860, rone in Roumania since 1964, none in Belgium since 1863, and none in SwitI zerland since 1874. In 1870-79 eight hundred persons were sentenced to d?ath in Austria, but only sixteen were ; executed ; thirty-two in Sweden and , three executed; two hundred and forty-nine in Bavaria and seven cxcouted. In 1867-78, four hundred and ■flighty-four wore condemned to die in North Germany and only one was "xecnted. In Great Britain to-day 'inly two crimes are punishable h'v — murder and hfch treason. It, ; s tolerably safe to predict that before mother decade has elapsed the death penalty will be abolished in the Homo Country altogether.

The investigations into the charges against M. Alberti, formerly Danish Minister of Justice, show that he embezzled £833,000.