THE POOR CRIMINAL. Why not Thrust Happiness upon Him?

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 63, 14 September 1901, Page 8

THE POOR CRIMINAL. Why not Thrust Happiness upon Him?

HUMANITARIANS have recently been much cxeicised as to the woes of the "poor criminal Many columns have appeared m many journals m favoui of making life moie joyous foi the wrong-doer, and the people who err on the side of leniency retail with unction, the news that "So and so the poor fePow who murdered Whatslsname sang hymns on the scaffold, and said good-bye with pathos as he disappeaied " A very large section of the community in New Zealand, which calls itself humanitarian, is strongly advocating that, in spite of the Scriptural injunction to have an "eye for an eye, 1 or to shed the blood of him who has shed man's blood, that it is savage and illogical to rid the country of the murderer, and it is kind to pandci to the unninal » * * The leloimers, followeis of a new (lilt of liumanitanans, believe that, as 11 limnology is a disease, it should bo lieated as any other disease Peifeitly collect If a man is suffering fioni a cancer, you must remove the whole giowth to cine linn , if he is suffeiiiig from diminology Ins whole biain is affected by the diseaso, and theic is no cuie but m the destiuction of it, and -incidentally of Ins body * » * There is evei a vivid mteiest attached to the person who has done some novel action If he has fought a good battle he is heioworshippcd, if he has made a name in football, broken the lecord for a bundled yaids spimt, beaten all(O'.rcis m the prize-ring, 01 murdeied a man in cold blood, he is looked on as having earned a imputation The eiinnnal has his moibid admneis and those who am not favoui cd with a sight of him m his cell aie content to agitate on his behalf to lessen his buiden and incidentally to inuease his facilities foi tiime * * * To make Ins well-eaincd punishment as light a.s possible seems to be then desue The biutal muideiei of several people is hanged with the name of the Crcatoi on his lips He is assumed to have made lepaiation foi his ciimc by the fact of having confessed it expiesscd sonov. , and accepted the offices of the clergy Is there any guarantee that if, at the last moment the muideiei had been lepncved. be he ever so penitent, that he would not again repeat the cnnie which his disease prompted him to do ' Should spineless alleged humanitaii.ins so* then licliculous

theories about the wickedness of the capital punishment because, forsooth, a wretched criminal mutters a few well-taught words of penitence ? * * * In the opinion of another class, and, believe it who may, the true humanitarians, the corrective and capital law is hardly exercised enough Imagine the universality of the law that should allow murderers to remain alive ' Would humanity be bettered by the imprisonment for life of such people, or would science find some means of curing them of their disease, and making them fit to propagate their species ? The wholesome fear of the lash, and the dread of the gallows, are the strongest deterrents to the merely brutal human being Admitting criminology is a disease, capable of scientific cure, can morbid humanitanans suggest any remedy other than the fair and equitable methods now obtaining?