The Express.
London, England, 1860-12-19 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, DEC. 19.

APA lit altogether from its serious political com-
motion% the year now drawing to a close has ac-
quired a special character, and will hereafter be
distinguished by the unusual disturbance of the
material and moral elements on which the welfare
of the community depends. It is the year of violent
storms and brutal crimes. We by no means, of
course, wish to suggest any necessary connexion
between the extraordinary variations of the baro-
meter and the increase of murderous assaults. The
depressing influence of November weather is, in-
deed, proverbial ; and during most mouths of the
present year we have had a good deal of November
damp and gloom. But this would only explain
any increase there may be in cases of suicide, and
madness of the melancholy type. Why cloudy
skies and ungenial weather should inflame men's
evil passions, and raise them to a pitch of mur-
derous violence, is not so apparent. But, absurd
as a meteorological explanation of murder may
be, some of the explanations actually offered
are scarcely less so. At a meeting of the
Law Amendment Society two days ago, for in-
stance, Mr. Wseeraa stated his belief that "in
" most instances murderers were influenced by
"psychological conditions, and it was vain to
" expect such persons would be deterred from the
" commission of murder by fear of the hangman."
This curious statement is either an inconsequent
truism, or a denial that such a crime as that of
murder is possible. Of course, any one who acts,
who dose anything at all, is influenced by psycho-
logical conditions ; for both the will and the
motives that affect it are psychological conditions.
In the cave of the criminal, the fear of punish-
ment is just as much a psychological condition es
the gratification of passion. Strictly interpreted,
therefore, Mr. Wammut's statement is a contra.
diction in terms. He says, that since murderers
are influenced by psychological conditions, it is
vain to expect that they will be affected by
motives—or in other words, by psychological eon-
(biking. If, on the other hand, he means to
say that criminals are fatally determined by
passion to the absolute exclusion of all
considerations, then there ia no such thing as
crime. In either case Mr. WEIRTIA failed to ex-
plain what the psychological conditions on which
murder depends are, and why they should have
been more active during the last six months than
• year

Whatever the explanation may be, the fact re-
mains, and it is • very serious one. Within the
last few months there have been upwards of •
dozen brutal murders committed, about as many
savage manslaughter; and an equal number of
murderous assaults, in which the victims' lives have
been saved only by accident. Murders and attempts
to murder have indeed during the last few weeks
accumulated in such numbers that it is impossible
for the 'lady journals to report them fully. The
most terrible tragedies have to be crowded into a
few lines. They have multiplied so rapidly that
the most diligent readers cannot keep up with
them unless they happen to possess • morbid
appetite for horrors. The more sensitive,
sickened with the thrice-told tale of brutal
outrage and violent death, instinctively re-
coil from the fatal columns. We cannot
wonder at it. Take up our impression of
yesterday for example. In a single column of
Assize intelligence, containing the report of the
Oxford and Northern Circuits, there follow conse•
cutively live trials for wilful murder ; while in
another column are accounts of three attempts to
murder, each of the most determined character,
and one of peculiar atrocity. The first of these
trials for wilful murder will indicate the general
character of the fatal outrages perpetrated during
the last few months. In a majority of cases they
have been of a peculiarly savage kind, without
adequate motive or provocation. The murderers
have given way to an ungovernable passion of
hatred, jealousy, or revenge, apparently on the
slightest grounds. In one or two cases their evil
passions were inflamed by drinking, opposition, or
fancied ill-usage, but in general the more powerful
motives that urge desperate men to tho last fatal
step ins course of crime are wanting. In place
of such motives we have simply the terrible
ferocity of passion and a savage thirst for blood.
Tile victims are unsuspicious and unresisting. The
real or fancied wrong is brooded over till an oppor-
tunity for sanguinary retaliation offers, or avenged
at once by • tiger-like spring at the life of the un-
conscious offender. Take the first case at the
Oxford .tesizes--that of SAMUEL Twioo, arraigned
for the wilful murder of his wife, Mane Twiou.
This e nitched man was convicted on the evidence
of his son, a youth sixteen years old. The son
deposed that his father, who is a bricklayer, came
home very late on the night of the murder, all the
family being in bed. He heard his father knock-
ing at the front door and shouting, "Now, Poo.;
" get sip and let me iii." His mother went down
stairs and let him in. Twu.n having a companion
with him ordered his wife to cook some
steaks and let them have supper at once.
She replied there were none in the house, and
that it was impossible at that hour, one
o'clock us the morning, to get any. Having
only a shawl on, she left the room and refused
to return while the stranger was present. TiVIGO,
it seem., bad been drinking, and this refusal roused
him to a state of savage vindictive passion. The
boy heard him say, "If her don't conic down and
" conk me some steaks, I'll cut her throat from
" ear to ear." The stranger having left, his wife
and WU ...sine down stairs to get Tw ea: to hed.
He refused to go, and they made him as comfort-