e
sentence of death may be passed for waging war against the king (s. 121)
and for murder (s. 302). If the murder is committed by a man under
sentence of transportation for life the death penalty must be imposed
(s. 303). In other cases it is alternative. This code has been in
substance adopted in Ceylon, in Straits Settlements and Hong-Kong, and
in the Sudan. In most of the British colonies and possessions the death
penalty may be imposed only in the case of high treason, wilful murder
and piracy with violence. But in New South Wales and Victoria sentence
of death may be passed for rape and criminal abuse of girls under ten.
In Queensland the law was the same until the passing of the Criminal
Code of 1899.

Under the Canadian Criminal Code of 1892 the death sentence may be
imposed for treason (s. 657), murder (s. 231), rape (s. 267), piracy
with violence (s. 127), and upon subjects of a friendly power who levy
war on the king in Canada (s. 68). But the judge is bound by statute to
report on all death sentences, and the date of execution is fixed so as
to give time for considering the report. The sentence is executed by
hanging. In South Africa the criminal law is based on the Roman-Dutch
law, under which capital punishment is liable for treason (_crimen
perduellionis_ or _laesae majestatis_), murder and rape (van Lecuwen, c.
36). In the Cape Colony rape is still capital (_R. v. Nonosi_, 1885; 1
Buchanan, 1898). In Natal rape may be punished by hanging (act no. 22,
1898). Though the Roman-Dutch modes of executing the sentence by
decapitation or breaking on the wheel have not been formally abolished,
in practice the sentence in the Cape Colony is executed by hanging. In
the Transvaal hanging is now the sole mode of executing capital
punishment (Criminal Procedure Code, 1903, s. 244). The Roman-Dutch law
as to crime and punishments has been superseded in Ceylon and British
Guiana by ordinance.

_Austria-Hungary_.--In Austria capital punishment was in 1787 for a time
abolished, but was reintroduced in 1795 for high treason, and in 1803
for certain other crimes. Under the penal code still in force in 1906 it
might be inflicted for the offences in the table given below, but not on
offenders who were under twenty when they committed the offence. The
annexed table indicates that the full sentence was sparingly executed.
Under a Penal Code drafted in 1906, however, only two offences were made
capital, viz. high treason agains