THE CRIMINAL AND REMORSE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XI, Issue 42, 21 October 1893, Page 329

THE CRIMINAL AND REMORSE.

ACCORDING to criminalists, the remorse that has been supposed to gnaw the conscience of the criminal is a myth. The worst men conduct themselves the best in prison, knowing that they will be the better treated on that account. Out of 780 studied by Ferri, he found only about three per cent, that showed repentance or manifested feeling in recounting their deeds. Thompson, out of 410 assassins, did not find one sincere case of repentance. Although some seem to repent, it is generally to profit by philanthropic delusions about themselves.

Lacenaire, after his first condemnation, wrote?to a friend for protection and money. ‘ Alas ! there is nothing for me to do but to repent ; yon can do a good deed, ami have the satisfaction of saying, “ I brought one back from the evil way for which he was not born.’’ ’ A few moments after writing these lines Lacenaire committed a theft and planned an assassination. On the scaffold he said he never knew what remorse was. The Marchioness of Brinvilliers, who hail been a parricide and a fratricide, passed for a model of penitence ; yet at the last moment she wrote to her husband, • I die an innocent woman, and it is owing to mv enemies. ’ When her confessor urged her to change the terms of this letter, she felt herself so incapable of thinking otherwise that she requested him to do it for her. It is nevertheless certain that rich thieves endeavour to keep their children from following their career. The fact proves that the great lack in criminals is volition. The idea of what one ought to do and the will power to do it are quite different, and criminals lack the will power.