CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN FRANCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 425, 18 August 1908, Page 2

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN FRANCE.

Thk French Government has decided to abandon the Bill for the abolition of capital punishment which it had submitted to the Chamber of Deputies. This significant decision is further evidence of the influence now exercised by public opinion on the attitude of the Legislature and the Ministry. Only last year the majority of the Chamber of Deputies seemed disposed to yield to the pressure of a particularly active element among its members which desired the abolition of the death penalty. The recrudescence of crimes of violence in France, however, brought about a strong revulsion of feeling among the general public, and more particularly among juries, which eventually altered the attitude of the Chamber of Deputies towards the Government measure. In presence of the fact that the Parliamentary Committee which had previously supported the Bill this time voted against it by a majority of eight or two, the Minister for Justice tried to have the discussion postponed. The Chamber, however, was not prepared to meet his views. In these circumstances the Government evidently realised that there was not a majority for the Bill, and thought it better to withdraw it, which they have now decided to do. Apparently with the object of maintaining the Presidential right of pardon, it is announced that the Minister for Justice will furthermore ask the Chamber to provide for more severe conditions in the case of prrsoners whose death sentence has been commuted by the President of the Republic. Apparently the intention is to propose that in such cases prisoners should be subjected to solitary confinement. The Government will furthermore express itself in favour of the Bill already adopted by the Senate suppressing the publicity of executions —a reform which will do away with one of the main objections to a law which the increasing impunity and boldness of criminals renders more and more necessary.