Untitled

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 208, 30 March 1877, Page 12

The Brussels correspondent of the ' Pall Mall Gazette' -writes: — No sentence of death has been executed in Belgium since 1863. Commutation to penal servitude for life, of -which part may subsequently be remitted, has been the course invariably followed. A recent great increase in crimes of violence of the worst kind has given occasion for bringing the subject again before the Chamber. The Minister of Justice, however, made the declaration that he would rather resign office than permit a single sentence of death to be executed. Murderers in Belgium have therefore still a good time before them. The census of Paris is looked forward to with much, interest. In 1700 the population numbered 720,000 inhabitants. Toward the end of the eighteenth century it had diminished to 620,000, and continued to decrease until 1801, when it numbered 546,000. From that time it has steadily risen. In 1831 it was 774,338 ; in 1833,. 909,126. Twenty years later it reached 1,538,613. In 1860 the annexation of all the districts comprised between the old Octroi boundary and the fortifications had the effect of swelling the numbers to 1,700,000, and to 1,825,000 in 1866. These additions nearlydoubled the area of the capital. In 1872 the population showed a slight falling off compared with 1870, being 1,851,792, against 1,900,000 in the latter year.