culprit, but I never find them shaking hands with the hangman. All
kinds of attention and consideration are lavished on the one; but
the other is universally avoided, like a pestilence. I want to know
why so much sympathy is expended on the man who kills another in the
vehemence of his own bad passions, and why the man who kills him in
the name of the law is shunned and fled from? Is it because the
murderer is going to die? Then by no means put him to death. Is it
because the hangman executes a law, which, when they once come near
it face to face, all men instinctively revolt from? Then by all
means change it. There is, there can be, no prevention in such a
law.

It may be urged that Public Executions are not intended for the
benefit of those dregs of society who habitually attend them. This
is an absurdity, to which the obvious answer is, So much the worse.
If they be not considered with reference to that class of persons,
comprehending a great host of criminals in various stages of
development, they ought to be, and must be. To lose sight of that
consideration is to be irrational, unjust, and cruel. All other
punishments are especially devised, with a reference to the rooted
habits, propensities, and antipathies of criminals. And shall it be
said, out of Bedlam, that this last punishment of all is alone to be
made an exception from the rule, even where it is shown to be a
means of propagating vice and crime?

But there may be people who do not attend executions, to whom the
general fame and rumour of such scenes is an example, and a means of
deterring from crime.

Who are they? We have seen that around Capital Punishment there