The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1867-11-19 00:00:00

YENI A N TAIL

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Within • few yews thins hashes imported ioto our
land a peculiar kind of wad, said to mine from
America. With marvellous rapidity, it has spread itself
through all our rivers, so that few arsnow free from it,
and the irrigation of some is sorionsly impeded. Nor
Is the mamas to be got ad of ; year efts, year
amens may be used to abash itt growth; mason after
season it may be cat off by millions of tons, and per.
mitiod to float down the stream, but its roots are
not touched; it is now a naturalised evil; its origin
was small, It. effects are hire, with • constant
essidonoy to increase. But this was but the fors-
notion of • greater evil, raised in the same country,
Americo, and imparted hither no one kaows how. It
has assumed so horrid a form, it shows itself in so
many directions, that Familial= is in .vary one's
month. There is nothing English about it. We
believe that up to the present tiros it has enlisted
no English sympathies, with the exception of some
lanans members of the so-called Reform League; but
yet it spreads, and we believe, on good authority,
that its numbers may now be counted by hundreds
of thousands. And thaw are meet all b mod together
in a society that has for its object the destruction of
all that makes *misty safe, sod enjoyable • there is
DO religious Miami in the matter, not moil political
fooling, sitoept a hatred of all religion, an ignoring of
all Government Without sufficient organisation to ,
show itself in the field even in Canada, of Inland,
exempt in most oontomptable numbers, ft has mini-
Mai organisation to keep the whole of England in
a date of disquietude by its unwearied plotting.,
and its realms samminatioos. It therefore becomes
a neuron of alarm not only to the people at large,
but to individuals.
But there is as danger to be feared from this last
form of Socialism which ought not to be overlooked,
and that is its effect upon the criminal claw. in our
own lead. In itself it is • mixture of American
rontlessoms, and Irish audacity. The Irish have
never been popular among the working classes in
England. On tbe railways, or in the haremt fisida
they have generally kept aspirate from their fellow
workmen. la Leaden and other Urge towns they
away Mord together ; alloys sad motets aro found
entirely Irish. There is little fear therefore of the
mostagion at sympathy, but us cannot overrate the
danger of example. Whoa men who have felt the
so a punishment for garrotting, no how cam
ditimidy • policeman indisposed of by • "Mx shooter,
we can hardly expect but that it will be more and
more difficult to apprehend them, and it will become
a matter of necessity to incision the numbers, and
the means of daimon of oar polio..
Nampo one good result will arias from this evil ;
it will teach our milers, whoever they may be, not to
piny with criminals. There has been too Much
rympaity for tho criminal in his well-deserved
punishment, sopsoisUy when contrasted with the
want of sympathy for the bonaMbut struggling work-
man. John Croat might have struggled on in poverty
for years, sod no one oared for him; but the moment
be broke) the law, and was punished for it, money
poured in in abundance, and he has now the tumour
to appear in the list of bankrupts. We are constantly
hearing and main complaints of this want of firm-
DIOS in the executive, but we krgoli bow faulty the
whole of society is in this comsat. Let • man be
condemned to be hung foe the most grows sooner;
what is the result? First of all, cortato piranions who
object to capital punishment set to work with a
petition; this is followed by on• from the ladies;
every manure ii brought to bear upon the jury who
tried the wretched man, to incloos them to sign
their names • and then the unfortunate Homo Sane-
tary finds the duties of judge and jury devolved upon
himself, and that moot unfairly. In the, cam of •
foreigner lately executed it is &Imola incredible what
influences wore brought to bear in order to save his
if.. We cannot wonder, therefore, if under these
oircomatmoes men escape from the esimelems penalty
of the law; nee if others reckon upon the some
inmunity, and act osoordingly. Already we have
men axproseing • bope that only one of the Fenian
murderers may be executed; and if the number is
rodoced to one, there will not be wanting petitions
on his behalf, We shall therefore never have jusiios
administered with unvarying decision, until the
responsibility is taken away from the Rome Secre-
tary ; until in asses of doubt there be some final
court of appeal, and no subsequent interferon°e
by petition, or otherwise, with the sentatos of that
Court

»membered at the present time there are
about 145,000 persons in Ragland and Wales living
in sod by crime, exclusive of another army of
100,000 beggars and tramps. This vast host is daily
being recruited from another army of cadet rogues,
whose traising has oonimenoed from their birth. The
expense of this incubus upon the country is about
three millions of money, not including the interest, '
or the money expended in buildings for their romp- 1
tion, which would swell the whole to four millions !
Paulsen= amoog such • clam, is like a torch thrown
among the most combustible stores. A prison In'
is broken open in Idanchester, • policeman shot,
and the chief primate» rek free t • kw weeks after.
wards the Yale thing is tried in London : the
amounts of intended Fenian riots are circulated
through the land, and riots in Devonshire, Somerset,
and even in Dorset, soon follow, and unless this evil
is met promptly and decisively, it will be found like
the American waterweed, • naturalised and Chronic
source of disquietude and crime
In a case like this, epee of all parties should
combine to meet the aifiiculty. As it is, we fear
that whatever the Government does, the Opposition
will try and oppose. If they are determined to
carry out the law' they sill be attacked as cruel and
unmerciful; if they are lenient, they will be mocked
as meek and timid. This ought not to he it will be
time enough to return to party criticism when the
mischief is allayed. He that for Pauly purposes
seeks to cripple Governkent at such • time as this,
may succeed in his nnpatriotic designs, only to reap
the fruit, of hi. folly in digester and general panic.
! Iduchmaybe dose by lammed attentioa to the wants
of the labouring clams to remove from them the cause
of non plaint. The law in making any pr..visitui for
the poor, is compelled of necessity to provide against
imposition by most stringent regulatious ; and thus
the good, if left entirely to the provision of the
poor law, suffer for the Lad. It is here Hilt public
benefkienoe should step in—net by poblie subscrip-
tions, which are generally administered with too
little regard to real want and character, but bit
individual attention, by • personal acquaintance with
the family circumstances of poorer neighbours,
and by kind sympathy and generous help. India.
criminate beneficienoe creates the very evil it seeks
to Cure: it robs men of their independence and oaks
them beggars. A judicious system of help is not
only more useful, but more economical ; but than it
requires eelf.denial and labour in inquiring ink each
distinct case, and therefore mane tarn away from it
from selfish indolence.

Once more, there must tis sisne stringent measures
taken for dilator with them Ants that now infest
our large towns: with don compulsory edigoetioo
can skew prove effectual. If these be the results of
Reutemann, if it lead" different cleans of society to
take a deeper mutual interest in one another; if it
leads Parliament to take more decisive steps in
dealing with our juvenile ruffian* 114 if the
executioner is allowed to carry int the lett with
Armitage, we shall look bash loon this Maas awl
wicked organisation as het entirely ageless.
With regard hei the wretched and rockiest men
now under seithectos of death, we ow lay but little,
and the lees said the batter. As loyal 'objects we
feel that they ought to be left in the hands of a
Government that ham ever been merciful; that hag
far better opportunities of knowing the whole case
than we have; that would gladly eateh it say atom
for sparing their lives; and that irifl not, exoept as
a wetter of strict sad neomearyjuatioe, take the WI
even of one. We would not "whores the executive
by any suggestion or petition. Would that we could
hope that the example sow cheetly to be made,
would stop some of them infatuated men in their
mad Career, and show them that increased audacity
on their part c.n only be met by increased severity,
while the.ooly gnomes they can possibly expect, is
the oommtesou of gratuitous crime, and the indict
-
Mg misery ou others without ay What to them-
es! gee.