there were in new england at one time twelve offences punishable with death, and in virginia seventeen. this would indicate that the death-penalty is getting unpopular very fast, and that in the contiguous future humane people will wonder why murder should have called for murder, in this brainy, charitable, and occult age, in which man seems almost able to pry open the future and catch a glimpse of destiny underneath the great tent that has heretofore held him off by means of death's prohibitory rates.