DECREE of the Conseil du Cap, which orders that a nègre condemned to death shall be Exécuteur des Hautes-Œuvres, and that he shall be appraised by Experts, his value to be taken from the fines and paid to his enslaver

HAVING SEEN by the Conseil the Representation made by the Procureur-Général du Roi concerning the man named Sénégal, who had been condemned to death, and concerning the necessity of an Exécuteur des Hautes-Œuvres, THE CONSEIL has commuted his sentence to that of Exécuteur. As for the appraisal to be made by Experts named by the Lieutenant de Juge of this place, the said appraisal, once made, shall be taken from the fines of this jurisdiction that belong to the King. GIVEN, etc.

It is the constant practice of the Colonies to take the Exécuteurs de la Haute-Justice from among the nègres condemned to death. They always choose those guilty of an offense accompanied by circumstances which, without being such as to soften the severity of the Law, nevertheless permit this kind of commutation.

Before the penalty of death pronounced against fugitives in the third case was changed to that of being attached to the public chain for life, the Bourreaux were chosen from that class. But at present they are commonly taken from the class of thieves who broke in, without aggravating circumstances.