Excerpt from The Practical Results of the Total of Partial Abolition of Capital Punishment in Various Countries<br><br>Thus exactly 100 crimes hare been rendered non-capital, in France, in 75 years.<br><br>King Louis Philippe's experience and observation convinced him of the inefficacy of capital punishment, and, as a great step towards it, he secured, in 1832, the power of juries to return verdicts of "guilty with extenuating circumstances" on murder trials. Such a verdict renders it compulsory on the court to lower the penalty at least one degree. Since 1832 this power has been largely exercised, and in some instances, perhaps, carried to an excess. But notwithstanding this, and the greatly reduced number of executions, we have the official testimony of the Keeper of the Seals (Garde des Seeaux), that the marked diminution of capital punishment during the last 30 years has not caused crime to increase, but that, on the contrary, there has been a decrease. The correctness of this statement is confirmed by the published official statistics of France, extending over that period, and which show that there were in the five years ending 1860, fewer committals for homicidal crime than in the corresponding period 30 years previously, notwithstanding the great increase of population and the extensive exercise of the prerogative of mercy, both by juries and by the sovereign.<br><br>The latest experience of France runs in the same direction, for there were but five executions in that country in 1864, and only 9 capital sentences passed, after a continued decrease in the number of executions during 30 years.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.