University of Virginia Library

3. CHAPTER III.

THE mind of man is active, and the great secret of
managing it, is to find employment for it. L' ennui,
for which we have not a correspondent English word,
is the feeling of a vacant mind. We had a phrase in the
old Saxon, and which still exists in that dialect of it which
we call broad Scotch which hits it exactly; it is to think
lang.

The mind inactive loses its spring; and it ought to be
the study of all who are concerned in the early education
of youth, to devise employment for them; and in
communities, to find means of occupying the grown persons.
This to keep the man from pursuits that are injurious
to himself or to others. Where an army is not
to be raised, and soldiers enlisted, the making turnpike
roads, and digging canals, is an excellent substitute for
this draught of the superfluity of population, and a proportion
of society who have not the foresight, or perseverance
to devise employment for themselves. Hence
it is, that they are mustered in elections by the ambitious,
for their own private views; and these are they who are
made use of to call out for a change of the constitution;
Not that all who make use of them for this purpose,
mean more than to advance themselves by the aid of the
confusion which they excite. For when men are out of
power, they wish the drawing of the lottery to begin
again, and the prizes drawn to go for nothing. The blanks
that are drawn do not give satisfaction. Not but that the
common people are of themselves sufficiently disposed
to novelty. A desire of a change is the characteristic of
the multitude, at all times. And even if a man has no
prospect of ameliorating his condition, it helps a little
that it is not always the same. Though the next plank
is as hard as that on which a man lies, it is pleasant to
roll upon it. It is a great misfortune, when a restless

spirit has a faculty of haranguing; and still more so, if he
has ideas, and can get himself placed at the head of a
paper. He is restrained by feelings of delicacy only in
proportion as he wants terms to express himself. If
one of these should happen to be of the kingdon emphatically
so called, because it has been but nominally a kingdom
for some ages, he brings the same licence into his
paper, that he shewed at the fairs of Liffy, or Tipperary,
with a shamrock in his hat, and a shilelah in his hand.—
Yet there is in the history of that people in their own
country, something greatly to be valued: their hospitality,
and generosity. An Irishman has no mean vices.—
He is brave and open in his enmity; and sets the law at
defiance, at the same time with the public opinion.

It is an old adage, an ounce of prevention, is worth a
pound of cure: or, as the mock doctor of Smollet has it,
Bestum est curare distemprum ante habestum.

It is but a slovenly way of reforming a man, to hang
him. Some indeed have their doubts whether it is lawful
to hang a man at all, or take away life in society.—
Certainly nothing can justify it, but the necessity of self-preservation.
If a man had killed five hundred, and the
remainder can be safe, the necessity of taking away the
life of the murderer ceases; and it is unlawful to put
him to death. But where a man kills one, a presumption
arises that he will kill two, and it is on the principle
of precavention that he is suspended, or otherwise
taken from society. Banishment is unquestionably the
proper mulct to him who has forfeited the benefits of
society. But the culprit may come back, and take and
repeat his blows; or he may commit mischief in the
place to which he is sent, or to which he may come; or
another society may refuse to receive him. But the
Jewish lawgivers said, “Whosoever sheddeth man's
blood, by man shall his blood be shed:” but if that is to
be taken strictly, hanging is no shedding blood; and yet
the murderer is hung, not beheaded.

The meaning is predictive; and as much as to say,
that in the natural course of things, the taking the life of
a man, leads to the loss of a man's own. But taking it
even as injunctive, and as pointing out that punishment
which retributary justice ought to inflict, it must be taken
as applicable to the Jews in the wilderness, whose unsettled
life did not admit of places of confinement sufficiently
safe to secure offenders. While they were journeying

from Kadesh Barnea to Cushanrishatharim, they
must be at a loss what to do with the malefactor; and
therefore it saved trouble to despatch him from the
world. In a country where the sitting is permanent,
to borrow a phrase from the French national assembly,
and where strong buildings can be erected like the old
or new jail of Philadelphia, what necessity can there be to
put a man out of the world? He can be put to work, and
to make some amends to the community for the life he
has taken away, and the expence of bringing him to punishment.
As for himself, is he not more punished by
solitude, or labour, than by the infliction of death? It
does not follow, that if left to a man's self, he would prefer
confinement to death, that for this reason, the punishment
is lighter. He has not resolution to consult future
happiness, by the enduring present pain. But if it is left
to a man to consider whether he would wish to have his
enemy confined, or to undergo instant death, would he be
willing that his adversary should escape vengeance by
getting speedily out of the world? It might be a satisfaction
to him that the murderer should go to hell; but
he is not sure that he would go there; and when he has
him in a work-house, he is sure that he must work. Besides,
who can be of so diabolical a nature, as to be reconciled
even to a murderer going to hell; and why not allow
him space and opportunity to repent, as much as the
short life of man will allow, in a cell of confinement with
nothing but bread and water, at least until he gives signs
of repentance. Be this as it may, from all the examination
I have been able to give my own mind, I would think
a man more punished who had murdered, to see him in
a cell, than on a gallows; what I would think if I had
been murdered myself, supposing me still to have the
feelings of humanity, in another state, is a different question.
I might wish to have my adversary with me there;
in order to retaliate, and to have the gratification of retributary
vengeance. Unquestionably it must be a feeling
of this nature, and a putting ones self in the place of a
murdered person, that can lead to an idea that it is but
justice to the dead, that the murderer should die. It is
but an innovation in the common law of our ancestors,
the Saxons, to put to death, when a compensation could
be made to the public, and to the relations of the deceased
for the injury done, in taking away the life of an individual.

It seems to be a dictate of nature; for the early ages
of man in all countries, sanctions this mode of atoneing
for injuries, not excepting murder itself. Where there
was a community of goods, compensation could not be
made in this way, and confinement and hard labour would
be the only punishment.

But, be as it may, if life must go for life, I dislike the
mode of taking it. The sus. per col. is an ugly minute
on the docket. I do not know that they could have done
better before the invention of gun powder; for beheading
is not much better; if not rather more shocking, from
the mutilation of the body. I would prefer shooting;
at least if I was to die myself by the order of the law,
that would be my choice; and through the breast rather
than the head; for I would not chuse to have the human
countenance disfigured. I saw once four deserters shot,
sitting on their coffins, and their graves dug beside
them, and yet with these terriffic circumstances, I
thought them killed prettily in comparison of being put to
death by the halter. The guillotine is too appaling, on
account of the apparatus. My mode of death, were it
left to my choice, I mean death forced, would be to fall
by a pistol shot by the hand of a mild compassionate female,
drest in white muslin, who would have fortitude
to be unmoved; because, in that case, death would be
presented with as little terror as the nature of the case
would admit. “To paint death as we do, is an injustice,
says the duc de Ligne. We should represent it in
the shape of a tall, venerable, mild and serene matron
with traces of beauty left on her countenance, and her
arms opened gracefully to receive us. This is an emblem
of an eternal repose after a sad life, replete with
anxieties and storms.”

I will admit, that the sudden impression, the theatrical
effect, so to speak, of a public execution, is calculated
to strike the multitude; but it is passing, and as to
the deterring from the commission of crimes, no punishment
can have any great effect. All depends upon the
ways and means of preventing; caution a priore, is the
most effectual. I have weighed a good deal in my mind,
the speeches of Julius Cæsar and Cato in the Roman
senate, on the sentence to be passed on the conspirators,
the associates of Cataline. That of Cato prevailed,
which was for the putting them to death; and with
good reason, on that occasion, which was in the midst of

an insurrection, and when a confidence in the power of
government was necessary to be expressed, and the audacious
intimidated, shewing them what those who had
the administration dared to do, against those who had
so many of the populace on their side; and because also,
in those perturbed times, there was no secure keeping
them; they might have got out of custody in a short
time, and have gone to increase the numbers of the traitors.
Self-preservation, in this case necessity, dictated
the putting out of life; yet it is remarkable, with what
delicacy the Roman consul expresses the event, walking
down to the Forum after their execution: “Vixerunt,”
they have lived. The Greeks also, in their mode of expressing
the last offices, speak of having accompanied
the departed, a little way on their journey. “Odou cimarmenene,”
the appointed journey. What an impression
must we have of the manners of those times, when
torture preceded death; and death itself, was accompanied
with all the horror of circumstances. May not
the time come, when the putting to death at all, unless in
extreme cases, such as those alluded to, will be felt as
the proof of an uncivilized state of society; and a remnant
of barbarity still retained by the prejudices of the vulgar?