It Is A Luxury We Must
Forego In The Face Of The Stern Duties Which Evil Compels Us
To Encounter.
There is only one other argument against capital punishment
that is worth considering.
The objection so strenuously pleaded by Dickens in his
letters to the 'Times' - viz. the brutalising effects upon
the degraded crowds which witnessed public executions - is no
longer apposite. But it may still be urged with no little
force that the extreme severity of the sentence induces all
concerned in the conviction of the accused to shirk the
responsibility. Informers, prosecutors, witnesses, judges,
and jurymen are, as a rule, liable to reluctance as to the
performance of their respective parts in the melancholy
drama.' The consequence is that 'the benefit of the doubt,'
while salving the consciences of these servants of the law,
not unfrequently turns a real criminal loose upon society;
whereas, had any other penalty than death been feasible, the
same person would have been found guilty.
Much might be said on either side, but on the whole it would
seem wisest to leave things - in this country - as they are;
and, for one, I am inclined to the belief that,
Mercy murders, pardoning those that kill.
CHAPTER XIX
WE were nearly six weeks in the Havana, being detained by
Lord Durham's illness. I provided myself with a capital
Spanish master, and made the most of him. This, as it turned
out, proved very useful to me in the course of my future
travels. About the middle of March we left for Charlestown
in the steamer ISABEL, and thence on to New York. On the
passage to Charlestown, we were amused one evening by the
tricks of a conjuror. I had seen the man and his wife
perform at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly. She was called the
'Mysterious Lady.' The papers were full of speculations as
to the nature of the mystery. It was the town talk and
excitement of the season.
This was the trick. The lady sat in the corner of a large
room, facing the wall, with her eyes bandaged. The company
were seated as far as possible from her. Anyone was invited
to write a few words on a slip of paper, and hand it to the
man, who walked amongst the spectators. He would simply say
to the woman 'What has the gentleman (or lady) written upon
this paper?' Without hesitation she would reply correctly.
The man was always the medium. One person requested her,
through the man, to read the number on his watch, the figures
being, as they always are, very minute. The man repeated the
question: 'What is the number on this watch?' The woman,
without hesitation, gave it correctly. A friend at my side,
a young Guardsman, took a cameo ring from his finger, and
asked for a description of the figures in relief. There was
a pause. The woman was evidently perplexed. She confessed
at last that she was unable to answer.
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