The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-26 00:00:00

t-'
ergs.— Foy ro
convictions and sentencesdeserve le re-
ceived with morn satisfaction than those of the two quacks
Henity" (or Wray) and Anderson, which We reported from
the Central Criminal Court yesterday. These men are
examples of a class of miscreants who extort enormous sums
by practising tho most infamous tortures upon the worst and
weakest parte of human nature. Their system is as simple
as it is infamous. A person imagines himself to he suffer-
ing from some illness, about which, from motives of fake
delicacy, he is unwilling to consult a regular practitioner.
He sees one of tho advertisements of these quacks, which,
to the disgrace of our Press, are scattered broadcast over
the country, nod is induced to apply to him. From that
moment ho ceases to be a free being, and if he cannot sum-
mon up the courage and determination displayed by the pro-
secutor in this case, ho is a slave under the lash of the
quack he has applie.i to quill he compounds with his tyrant
for some monstrous ransom. The quack knows that his
victim has resorted to him from combined motives of fear
and shame, in order to avoid anything approaching to ex-
posure. If; knows, therefore, that he m,:y demand almost
any hing, without, as a rule, being in any danger of re-
etilitaa
btr:gnneces:mr,'LlitFihinire;suttnoofs'r:ulffl toireothi%ttlifsichsuisi'Pnloictdeva
he soon gods he is being gulled, bet wheu
et
neinuotremn
dont
he endeavours to withdraw from the trap, he is threatened
with exposure .unties ho continues to submit to the de-
mands male upon him. In this case the unfortunate pro-
secutor had paid £B6 in half a year before ho attempted to
break loose, and six months after ho had ceased to receive
advice or medicine he was attacked by a further demand for
4150. Upon his refusal to submit to this extortion two
letters were written to him threatening to publish the
matter. Fortunately, he had the prudence and courage
to put the letters into the hands of his solicitor, and to
prosecute the writers. It is very rarely indeed, however,
that persons can make up their minds to face the annoy-
ance and disgust which such a resistance entails, and these
tactics are all but always successful. It is notorious to
medical men that hundreds—nay, thousands of pounds are
being constantly extorted in this way. Persons in a good
position will pay almost anything to avoid the exposure they
are threatened with. In this instance, however, the prose-
cutor resisted successfully—a conviction was obtained 011
the charge of conspiracy, and the prisoners were sentenced
each to two years' imprisonment with hard labour. We re-
joice that two of these scoundrels have at last met with some
punishment, and we hope it will encourage other victims to
their practices to resist and prosecute. To do so is to per-
form a public service, for one each conviction weakens the
chains of every other slave to this tyranny. Tho sole power
of these men consists in a moral certainty that their victims
will notproseonte, Let that certainty be removed,and all their
power is gone. We regret, indeed, heartily, with Baron
Bramwell, that it was not possible to award a heavier
punishment. As he said, it is impossible to conceive tt
more abominable offence. It is a sort of moral garotting
by the foulest possible instrument. It is not merely, said
the Judge, one robbery that is committed, but a succession
of robberies. The bodily pain, moreover, that is inflicted
by physical violence is nothing to the moral buffering of
living in a constant sense of fear and shame. Add to this
tho abominable nature of the means employed, and it is not
too much to say that the ruffian who is sentenced to penal
servitude for a garotto robbery is a worthy member of so.
ciety to the wretches who carry on this infamous trade. We
do not discharge the unpleasant duty of making these re-
marks from any notion of affecting the criminals themselves,
for they must be dead to all human feelings before they can
engage in such a trade. But to give publicity to their pro.
ceodings may be the meansaof saving many victims from
their toils ; and there are one or two means in the power of
the public by which their system of extortion may be
greatly checked. First of all, wo appeal to the Press to
consider whether it is not disgraceful to promote the ends
of these wretches by publishing their advertisements. It
is impossible to plead these advertisements are inserted
in ignorance of their meaning, for no man of common
sense can be blind to what is meant by their suggestions.
Every one, in fact, knows the sort of advertisement
wo allude to, awl, we are sorry to add that every
ono is daily liable to be insulted with it. Iu the best-con-
ducted and most costly papers, as well as in the least
respeatable, may be seen these vile baits. Let it be con-
sidered that these advertisements aro the very instruments
by which this infamous business is carried on, It is solely
through the allurements held out in them that persons aro
induced to avoid a regular practitioner in the vain hope of
a speedy and secret treatment. And, worse than this, such
advertisements in innumerable cases are tho means of
creating the very evils of which they advertise the reme-
dies; and the extortion practised is, probably, of oven less
importance than the moral evil thus produced. If, there-
fore, our contemporaries would resolutely exclude from their
columns any advertisements of this nature, they would
strike at the very root of this infamous trade, and prevent
an incalculable amount of moral corruption. We are satis-
fied that they have only to consider the matter to decide on
this course at once. There are other ways of advertising,
which are equally, if not mare, petniciouq. There are in-
stitutions iu the metropolis which, under different names,
are filled with the most disgusting representations, These
places are advertised in every thoroughfare of London by
the gratuitous distribution of pap3rs. It is hard to believe
that powers do not already exist to put down such exhi-
bitions. The police have large powers under Lord Camp-
bell's Act, and it might be considered whether the term
"pictures, drawings, or other representations" would not
include the mod is exhibited in these places. But, at all
events, if no existing act is simple enough to meet the
case, there never was more urgent need of some extension
iii the law. It is idle to prohibit indecent pictures and
prints, as was done by Lard Campbell's Act, if representa-
tions infinitely more off.nsive to public morality are to be
passed over. We are satisfied that we shall be supported
by the whole medical profession in saying that no useful
end whatever is answered by the institutions we are de-
nouncing. In fact, the medical journals have for years en-
deavoured to put them down. We earnestly trust either
that the police will find that they have the power to
interfere, or that the Government will obtain the necessary
powers at the earliest possible opportunity. It is suffi-
ciently unpleasant to have to notice such a subject at all,
and wo hope it may prove sufficient to have once drawn
attention to it. Probably none but medical men aro fully
aware of the magnitude of the evil, but we believe it is
serious enough to demand the most prompt and vigorous

measures.

HERALD.—Undeterred by the grim lessons of four years
of failure the North is entering on another four years of
war. The most desperate effort that has yet been made
against Richmond has resulted in the Federal commander
being brought to a stand before Petersburg, which has de-
fied all his persevering efforts to take it. Assault has fol-
lowed upon assault, battle after battle has been fought north
and south of the James, with the one; invariable result, the
troops of Grant have been defeated with groat blaughtor.
From tho east, north, and south, from the Pamunkey,
the Janice, and the Apporustex, Richmond seems to be im-
pregnable. It has long been supposed that a part of the
combination intended by General Grant was en attack from
the west which should co-operate with the advance of his
army and draw off the attention of a large par I of the enemy's
force. General Leo has from the first been fully aware of
the danger in which ho might be placed by a successful ad-
vance upon Lynchburg. This important place taken, the
Southside Railway would be commanded, and the commu-
nications of Richmond placed in such peril that the capital
of the Confederate States would have to be abandoned.
General Lee provided for this risk by detaching a large force
to hold in check the army of Sheridan, intended for this
work of investing Richmond on the west. The saccossoo
of Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley and the retreat of
Early southwards seemed for the moment to open the way
to Lynchburg. It has since been Sheridan's turn to fall
back. He is now at Winchester, at the bottom of the
Shenandoah, and his army is closely invested by the Conte
federate forces, Tho oyes of the anxious Northerners are
now turned far away towards another chance of a march
upon Lynchburg, and aid which will be most welcome to
the decimated army of Grant. General Sherman,
after all this toil, has reaped nothing but bars
ren laurel from his conquest of Atlanta. Au-
gusta and Macon seem as far off as ever. His
communications with Chattanooga are almost hourly inter-
rupted. Hood, with an army, is between Nina and the Ten-
nessee River, and allows him no foothold in the state but
the line of railway which unites a long chain of camps in
hostile country. Sherman, however, is bent upon doing
something. He is said to have marched away from Atlanta
with the greater portion of his army,no ono knows whither
There were wild rumours that he had fired the city behind
him ; that he was rushing eastwards, without baggage or
supplies, through the heart of Georgia and South Carolina,
to Charleston or Savannah. As the distance in either ease
is about 300 miles as the crow flies, and as there is no pos-
sibility of his maintaining communications in such a march.
through the enemy's country, the conjecture may at once
aenst e
sr
o tVirginia,
nc) h
Lynch-
AtbLinibgfrometortn; Gap, in V
and to
Atlanta to Knoxville
be dismissed as preposterous. Nor is the idea that he is
bent on striking a sudden blow in the North-east much
Foraßidge
march a
acrossle Tennessee,ss
incredible.t
he
burg, is a distance of about 400 miles to Libya got
i
over. It s truo that there is a railway for three-parts
of the way, but a great part of that railway is com-
manded by the Confederates. Such a movement
as this would imply the abandonment of Georgia, for, with
Hood in the neighbourhood of Chattanooga, it would be
impossible for a small Federal force to maintain itself any-
where to the south of that place. Besides, wherever the
Federals can go the Confederates can follow. With pur-
suers from Hood's army behind him, with a strong force
sent by Lee to meet him in front, any raid of this sort,
could we supp ,so Gen. Sherman mad enough to attempt it,
would be pretty certain to result in his signal discomfiture.
There is nothing in the war news to lead us to anti-
cipate any further success for the North, or which be-
tokens immediate, danger to the South on any part of her
widely extended frontier. We must look forward, we sup-
pose, to another year of this war ; another year of cruel sac-
rifices, resultless battles, frantic efforts at conquest;
another act in the drama which is a skeleton at our feast of
progress—a reproachful marginal commentary on the his-
tory of our civilisation—a grim reminder that in the midst
of all our boasted enlightenment the passions of peoples are
Still, as ever, the mainsprings of their actions,