fter 1832,
even so late as 1871, thirty offences were capital, one being perjury
against a prisoner resulting in his condemnation to death (art. 361). At
present it may be imposed for wounding a public official with intent to
murder (art. 233), assassination, parricide, poisoning, killing to
commit a crime or escape from justice (arts. 302, 304). But juries
freely exercise the power of acquitting in capital cases, or of
defeating the capital sentence by finding extenuating circumstances in
more than seven-eighths of the cases, which compels the court to reduce
the punishment by one or more degrees, i.e. below the penalty of death.
And in recent times the prerogative of mercy has been continually
exercised by the president, even in gross cases where public opinion
demanded the extreme penalty. The sentence is executed in public by the
guillotine.

_Germany_.--In many of the states of Germany capital punishment had been
abolished (Brunswick, Coburg, Nassau, Oldenburg in 1849; Saxe-Meiningen,
Saxe-Weimar, 1862; Baden, 1863; Saxony, 1868). But it has been restored
by the Imperial Criminal Code of 1872, in the case of attempts on the
life of the emperor, or of the sovereign of any federal state in which
the offender happens to be (s. 80), and for deliberate homicide (s.
211)--as opposed to intentional homicide without deliberation--and for
certain treasonable acts committed when a state of siege has been
proclaimed. The sentence is executed by beheading (s. 13).

_Holland_.--In Holland there have been no executions since 1860. Capital
punishment (by hanging) was abolished in 1870, and was not reintroduced
in the Penal Code of 1886.

_Italy_.--Capital punishment was abolished in Tuscany as far back as
1786, and from Italy has come the chief opposition to the death penalty,
originated by Beccaria, and supported by many eminent jurists. Under the
Penal Code of 1888 the death penalty was abrogated for all crimes, even
for regicide. The cases of homicide in Italy are very numerous compared
with those in England, amounting in 1905 to 105 per million as compared
with 27 per million in the United Kingdom.

_Japan_.--The penalty of death is executed by hanging within a prison.
It may be imposed for executing or contriving acts of violence against
the mikado or certain of his family, and for seditious violence with the
object of seizing the territory or subverting the government or laws of
Japan, or conspiring with foreign powers