Such, it appears, is the physical activity of the Supreme Judges of Ohio. Under such circumstances, is it not wonderful, that members should stand up in their places, and vote not against reform, not against a bill to revise the judiciary, not against a bill to amend the constitution, not against a convention to revise it, but simply against allowing the people to say whether they will have a convention or not? It is not surprising that they should trust the people with electing a governor, and refuse to trust them with the election of a judge-because, from the political bias of the state of Ohio, the old leaven of distrust of the people is strong among her political leaders; but it is certainly strange, that when a numerous body should have demanded reform, that members should refuse them the opportunity of ascertaining whether they are in the majority or not. The question is put by numerous bodies of the people, and members refuse to take the yeas and nays upon it. It is not an absurd judicial organization alone that affects Ohio; she has, perhaps, more than any other state, suffered from the overabundance of private legislature, of charter-mongering, contract letting, and debt creating. Corruption has, through unstable and hasty legislation, burdened the people with debts and taxation to a most deplorable extent. No state has greater reason than Ohio to complain of the iniquity of the lobby. For years, the business of lobbying for counties and towns and city charters was a lucrative one, and private emolument has been the basis of five-sixths of the legislation in Ohio, as well as of other States. At the session of 1844-5, the number of laws passed to promote the general welfare was 89, and the number of those that concerned individuals only, passed to benefit them at the expense of the public, was 470. For every law passed of a legitimate nature, five were enacted for private profit, including all descriptions of corporations. The state legislature has come to be regarded more as the means of exacting something from the public, than as the meeting of the delegates of the people assembled to transact public business under written instructions. Surely these are evils to be removed, and they may easily be done away with by general laws. One constitutional provision may be made to operate uniformly upon corporations. The number of citizens who may form a village, a city, &c., may be specified, and the powers that shall pertain to such a municipal corporation, when notice is given in a manner prescribed, defined, and the whole matter of legislating for private purposes placed above the corruptions of annual legislatures. The power to contract debts and construct public works, the citizens of Ohio are admonished, by the onerous taxation they labor under, is sufficiently liable to abuse to need constitutional restraints. Her long lines of public works, that long since would in private hands have paid an interest on a reasonable cost, are but a bill of expense defrayed by direct taxes. The iniquitous corruptions and political influence of which those works have been the medium, are fraught with warning for the future.

A great source of the inequality in the conditions of men in respect of wealth and comfort arises from the action of law. Too much government has a direct tendency to aid one man or one set of men in the "pursuit of happiness," and in the acquiring, possessing, and protecting property," if not at the expense of the rest, at least without rendering them the like assistance. As far as the conditions of animal existence go, there is very little difference in the ability of all men to provide for themselves and families; and if all were left without any special aid from government, both land and the products of industry would be far more equally distributed than they are. It is no doubt the case, that there are men more industrious, more skillful, more economical in their business, and frugal in their habits, than their fellows, and that these men will naturally acquire a large share of wealth. But their proportion will be much less if left to their own unaided exertions and watchfulness against the vicissitudes of life, than if the law steps in and assists them in the acquirement and possession of property. It is, however, the case, that four fifths of the action of all legislation is, by law, to promote the accumulation of prosperity in a few hands. If a portion have too much, others of necessity have too little. If the law draws from the general mass of the products a portion, and gives it to one man without an equivalent, it tends to diminish the value of labor. As an instance, a number of citizens are engaged in the production of flour, pork, leather, ashes and tobacco; the state government of New-York assumed that the persons who produced these articles, and those who buy them, could not appreciate their values without its intervention; that a plain citizen had not sense to see a hole in a side of leather, or to judge of the quality of pork or flour; but as soon as the executive gave that citizen a bit of parchment authorising him to receive a portion of the produce, he became mysteriously endowed with qualities that he did not before possess, and could now not only see a hole in a hide for himself, but for the whole community also. They then commissioned persons, who received in one year, for looking at the five articles named, $142,000. Here the operation of the law was directly to take from the producers a large portion of their goods, and give them to individuals without equivalent. The consequence was, that the latter became rich, more so than the farmers, and the national wealth was diminished by the amount of that, which those persons would have earned by their own industry, had the law not conferred wealth upon them without exertion. For similar purposes are the larger proportion of laws passed; but always under the pretence that they benefit the public.

The

Corporations for the transaction of business, in which there is no individual liability clause, are most pernicious in their effects. A number of persons wish to enter into a speculation, which they think profitable, but they do not wish to encounter risk-they wish to win at the risk of other people. They therefore apply for a charter, which allows them to subscribe a small sum each, to form a capital, and then borrow and run in debt on the strength of the credit of their charter. They ask the legislature to give them the profits, and to throw the losses upon their fellow-citizens. The business is then conducted in a careless and unskillful manner. If, through the aid of the law, large profits are earned, the stockholders only get the benefit. If losses are incurred, they do not pay their debts, but retire behind the soulless corporation, leaving the creditor public to suffer. Why should the state thus allow one set of men to contract debts and enjoy the property of the industrious, without being liable for the re-payment? To say that the reckless enterprise of these people benefits the country, is to say that robbery and extravagance are desirable virtues. It has also been assumed, that without these privileges, enterprise would not be undertaken, which is about the same thing as saying, that avarice would lose its desire for gain, and industry its vigor, unless spiced with robbery. example of England, however, shows that the only effect of the individual liability clause, is to promote care and business forecast in the conduct of institutions. All stockholders in English banks are liable for the whole debts of the concern, whatever may be their amount; and, to protect individuals, any stockholder may move the liquidation of the concern, if he can show that 25 per cent. of the capital is lost. Under this system, jointstock banks have multiplied more rapidly in England than under the reckless plan of United States banking.

The

The losses of the creditors of a bankrupt corporation are by no means all the plunder that appertains to the managers. Where all the stockholders are liable for all the debts, the greatest care and circumspection would be, as in England, exercised by all the parties, to the end that all the joint property of the concern should be turned to the best account, in order that the amount each would have to pay from his private purse to make up any deficit, should be as small as possible. At present, the reverse is the case, and the most acute find as much profit in settling up a company as in conducting it. When it is unprofitable, application is made for an injunction and a receiver. The applicant takes care to procure the appointment. He then has all the assets of the concern in his own hands, and forthwith proceeds to ascertain their value. Having done so, he knows the actual value of the stock shares; and while, officially, every indirect discouragement is given to poor holders as to the ultimate value of their stock, agents are at work buying them up at perhaps one-fourth their value. In this way $50,000 may, by judicious management, be squeezed out of a company, the capital of which is $500,000. This plundering system emanates directly from unjust laws. The person who acquires enormous wealth through this action of government, might, perhaps, dependant upon his own exertions only, have had his share of the national wealth, and no more.

A simple constitutional promise, that on certain specified conditions, any set of persons may be a body-corporate for any purpose, each one of them being liable for all the debts of the concern, as in the case of partnership, would root out the whole system of legislative charter-mongering.

CAPITAL PUNISHΜΕΝΤ.*

WE resume our remarks on this report, which were intended for the last number of the Review. It is to be regretted that our Legislative councils are so fluctuating, that the most important objects of one session may be entirely submerged and overlooked by the influx of new measures and new men at another. This document was presented at a later hour of the last session. It should be made the basis of speedy action during the present. It is an able condensation, with a connecting commentary, of the most forcible and conclusive arguments and statistics in favor of the abolition of the gallows. The scriptural argument is first considered, and the entire inapplicability of the provisions of the Mosaic code to our differing age and customs is conclusively shown. The dark catalogue of thirty three offences punishable with death by the sword, by stoning, by burning of the body, by hanging, by heaping of stones on the body, by decapitation, sawing asunder, strangulation and crucifixion, is held to be no less imperative upon us for example, than the command which compels us to take blood for blood.

After disposing conclusively of this argument, which is only of importance as great masses, who will not exercise their own perceptions, are aggregated by the church view of the subject, the committee say :

"All the precepts of the New Testament with reference to offences are the opposite of those of Moses. We have enumerated the long catalogue of capital offen

*

Report of the Select Committee on Capital Punishment. In Assembly, March 4, 1846.

ces as recognized by the latter and evincing its spirit; that of the former is manifested by the following injunctions: "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven;" "Be ye therefore merciful as your Father is also merciful;" Recompense to no man evil for evil." The contrast between the old and new law is forcibly stated in Spear's Essay in these words:

"No one, who has glanced over the New Testament, but must have seen the totally different spirit of the new and the old law. Moses addressed the injurer, Christ the injured. Moses says to the one who has mutilated his neighbor, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.' Christ says to the injured person, Ye have heard that it hath been said, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, but I say unto you not to requite evil; but whosoever strikes you on the one cheek, offer to him also the other.' Moses taught retaliation. Christ taught submission. Moses made his enemies die for him. Christ died for his enemies. Moses regulated the outward actions. Jesus regulated the heart. Moses was mortal. Christ was divine. Moses was sinful. Christ was sinless. Moses was a teacher to a single nation. Jesus is the teacher of a world. Moses required sacrifice. Jesus required mercy. Moses violated his own laws. Christ exemplified his in every action. For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious."

The right of society to take life is then fully considered, with all the awful feelings and responsibilities which attend cases of doubtful guilt. The plea of necessity is then traversed in the following passage, introduced from the North American Review :

" Capital punishment has not prevented murder. It has often been inflicted, it has slain its thousands and tens of thousands, and still its work goes on, and still its power is defied. No man can say, that it has had power in proportion to its magnitude, or to that expectation which has been its defence. No man can say, that it has done any good compared with the sacrifice of a single innocent life, even if we think nothing of the violent termination of a guilty life. Indeed, who can show that it has done any good at all? It has not prevented murder. It has not lessened the number of murders. So many have they been, that, had capital punishment been abolished, the frequency of crime would be ascribed to that. Seventy-two thousand persons were put to death in England, in the single reign of Henry the Eighth, making two thousand a year. But instead of deterring or preventing others, the number of victims seemed but to provoke anew, as by the sight of fresh blood, the appetite for crime and murder. The whole history of England and of France gives the same lesson. And the history of all nations, it is believed, will sustain the remark of Beccaria: The countries and times most notorious for severity of punishments were always those in which the most bloody and inhuman actions, and the most atrocious crimes, were committed.' The principle, indeed, that merciful laws afford more protection to society than severe, has the authority and express testimony of the first civilians in the world. By the strong voice of facts, the argument from self-defence is turned against the advocates of capital punishment. It has done its best and its worst for more than five thousand years. It has not abolished murder, or lessened the number of its victims. How much longer term is needed for trial?"

A much more benign picture is shown to have been presented under more merciful auspices. All the instances where death was banished from the law are appealed to. In Egypt, under Sabaco, for fifty years; in Rome, under the Porcian law, for nearly three hundred years; in Russia; partially in Amsterdam; in Bombay, in India; in Belgium; in Tuscany, and lastly in the pioneer case in our own country, in the example of Michigan. These familiar instances are sustained by numerous facts, showing the salutary operation of mild and merciful laws in place of the severer statutes drawn from codes of other ages.

These examples have been so frequently presented, that it is useless to give them now fully in connection with the argument which is deduced from them. After an amount of industrious research has been expended worthy of so great a cause, the conclusion seems to follow irresistibly, that mild laws make a mild people, and that the blood of outrage, rapine and revenge, flows through all the avenues of society, when the examples of ferocity are presented in the victims who fall by the executioner's axe or the hangman's cord.

An extract from the Report of the Hon. Robert Rantoul to the Legislature of Massachusetts, in favor of abolishing the Death Penalty, accompanied by valuable and unanswerable statistics, thus beautifully exhibits the spirit which ought to pervade our legislation :

"I have already laid before the committee of the two houses, and will soon address to you in this public manner, facts which show that crime diminishes in proportion as the denunciations and administration of the criminal law are rendered milder and the rule of a barbarous retaliation abandoned; whence I infer that it will be our duty, as it will be our happiness, to introduce and extend, until it shall pervade our whole legislation, the spirit of benevolence, compassion and sympathy, which is the spirit of heaven, and to banish from one code the spirit of malice, hatred and wrong, which is the spirit of hell. When men act consistently upon the belief which they now generally admit in theory, that the whole purpose of punishment is precautionary and not retributive, that brutal cruelty does not humanize him who suffers, him who inflicts, or him who beholds it; that after every instance in which the law violates the sanctity of human life, that life is held less sacred by the community among whom the outrage is perpetrated; that prisons are hospitals for the restraint of persons whose liberty would endanger the well-being of society, and for the remedial treatment of aggravated moral disease; then, and not till then, will the frightful catalogue of crimes committed in civilized countries be curtailed as rapidly as the remaining obstacles of intemperance, ignorance, and extreme destitution, and those untamed passions which the spectacle of blood stimulates, will allow.

"When one casts his eye upon the history of crime and punishment in modern Europe, the phenomenon which first attracts his notice is the prodigality with which the death penalty was formerly dispensed, and the prodigious advance which a milder system of repressive policy has made during the eighteenth and the first quarter of the nineteenth centuries; and still more remarkably during the last twenty years. As this mitigation of punishment has been tried in every part of Christendom, if any evil consequences had followed from it, some one would have been able to point them out, and to tell us when, where, and how long the mischief manifested itself. Yet among more than two hundred authors upon the subject, whose writings I have examined, I have never found but two who have seriously attempted to exhibit the evils which these successive meliorations of the law must have occasioned, if those wise men against whose indignant remonstrances these changes were effected, were right in their prognostications. The two champions of blood were the authors of "Hanging not punishment enough," published in 1701, and "Thoughts on Executive Justice," published in 1785; both which works are now reprinted and distributed by the opponents of the Death Penalty, to show the absurdities into which men of great learning and talent are forced, when they ⚫ attempt to vindicate the operation of the gallows."

The Report thus concludes :

"In every direction and upon every consideration we are urged to the prompt institution of this reform. We find where the death punishment is abandoned, murders and the other atrocious crimes for which it was the penalty, diminish in frequency, and that crimes decrease as the laws become more humane. We find that the abhorrence of executions is such that laws are passed to shut them off from the public gaze. We find that much difficulty is experienced in obtaining jurors to set in trial upon capital offences. We find that societies are forming throughout Europe, and in every state of our Union, for the diffusion of information on the subject of capital punishment, and joining in a concert of action for its entire abolition. We find, as society advances in refinement and in intellectual