Description:
8vo. Modern green boards; some minor foxing, but a good, crisp copy.Only edition of this essay calling for the abolishment of the death penalty in France. The author, a lawyer and prison reformer, argues that execution does not deter repeat criminals from committing future crimes and that torture only tests the ability of the defendant to endure pain. He asserts that the death penalty and torturous interrogation cast the entirety of France in a bad light, and that society should be past such barbarous practices. In particular, he condemns the guillotine. He bolsters his claims with quantitative evidence from the years 1825-1833.
This paper was awarded a silver medal by the Société de la Morale Chrétienne during its 1836 general assembly. Unrecorded in institutional holdings.
Cat. de la Bib. de L'Administration Centrale du Ministère de la Justice, 5205.