But let us take a more serious view of the question,--one which commands our deepest respect and our gravest veneration. Let us consider the question of the assumed right to take human life on the warranty, or, as is sometimes said, on the express command of Scripture. It has been often urged that it is expressly commanded in the Old Testament that “he who sheddeth man’s blood, by man _shall_ his blood be shed;” and, consequently, that the punishment of death for murder is sanctioned by the high and holy God who inhabiteth eternity. How cautious should we be, to ascertain that no fallacy exists in this our opinion! I grant that, according to our translation, the above isolated text, if taken alone, may be so construed; but what are the acts of the Creator recorded as following upon this text? What was his first judgment on the first of murderers, Cain? Not only did he not inflict death, but by a special providence protected him from its infliction by his fellow-man. Behold again the case of David, guilty of at least imagining the death of Uriah. Was David struck dead for the crime? Whatever an isolated chapter (much less, then, a single verse) may amount to of itself, if we take the context of the same part of Genesis and behold the first murderer even especially guarded, by God’s mark, from the effect of “every man’s hand being against him;” and again if we search the New Testament, where we find no passage, under the new dispensation, that can be construed to call for the infliction of death for murder,--from these results I submit that the question must be left solely to mundane argument, to stand or fall by its own efficacy as a preventive of murder, and that the isolated phrase of Scripture should not be construed into a command as to what ought to be done, but rather as the probable result of human revenge, a feeling at variance with God’s holy ordinance; for we read, “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord,”--expressly and clearly withholding the power over human life from mere mortal judgment. Let me here give a short extract from the “Morning Herald,”--a paper which has always so consistently and ably advocated the sacredness of human life:-- “On the motion of Mr. Ewart, some important returns connected with the subject of CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS have been made to the House of Commons, and ordered to be printed. “_First Class._--A return of the number of persons _sentenced to death_ for MURDER in the year 1834, whose punishment was _commuted_,--specifying the counties in which their crimes occurred, and stating the number of _commitments_ for murder in the same counties during the _same_ year and in the _following_ year, together with the _increase_ or _diminution of commitments_ for murder in the same counties in the year following the commutation of the sentences; similar returns for 1835, 1836, 1837, and 1838.