The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-07 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

TemEe.—The news of Muller's capture will excite
an emotion which it is hard to analyse. His escape
would not have affected in any appreciable degree
the security of any human being, for the repetition
of such an act by the same person would be a por-
tent, and the readiness with which the murder was
traced to him would serve to counteract the con-
tagion of his example. Moreover, his arrest was as
certain as any future event can be. There was no
chance of the Victoria arriving at New York before
the steamer which conveyed the police officers and
witnesses, and it was absurd to suppose that the
resources of two powerful Governments could be
baffled by such artifices as imaginary persons were
reported to be contriving for the purpose of rescuing
him without even an imaginary motive. The satis-
faction which the public feels, and which philo.
sophers will not be ashamed to share, in the appre-
hension of this wretched fugitive owes little to the
temporary panic excited by his crime and the remote
possibility of his impunity. It is simply due to the
stern instinct of retributive justice implanted by
Providence in the hearts of all men for the protection
of society. Vengeance upon a wrongdoer, and espe.
cially upon an assassin, is consolatory to a righteous
mind, not because it gratifies a malevolent passion,
but because it tends to confirm our confidence in the
supremacy of law over the destructive forces of
human nature. Whatever may be said to the con-
trary, this supremacy is more and more assured as
civilization advances. This very case furnishes a
proof of the fact. Though Muller's plans do not
appear to have been laid with any great skill, he
would probably have got clear away if be had lived
30 or 40 years ago. It is true that a robber must
then have chosen some other scene for hie
,attack
than a railway carriage; but steam and the telegraph
have done more to facilitate the detection than the
commission of crime. They have armed the police with
the means of following up a clue in a way that was
before impossible, and stultified the old saying of the
poet about the halting pace of Justice. Photography,
too, lent its aid in the identification of Muller, and
publicity, of which the use for this purpose is one
of the most recent inventions, was the immediate
agency by which suspicion was brought home to
him. The conspicuous success of these defensive
weapons on a remarkable occasion helps to ac-
count for the universal sentiment of joy at the
prospect of Muller's conviction. If it be true that
the hat and watch of the murdered man have
actually been found on the prisoner's person, it
would be idle to entertain or pretend any doubt
as to his criminality—at least as an accessory. It
is hardly possible to frame an hypothesis upon
which all the presumptions which converge upon
Muller could have been raised against an innocent
man. We have positive evidence that it was he
who pawned the watch chain, who sold the pawn-
ticket, who was in possession of the jeweller's box
procured at MreDeath's, and who wore Mr. Briggs's
hat immediately after the murder. The only thing
that throws the least shade of doubt on the case, so
far as our present knowledge goes, is the almost in-
credible infatuation exhibited by Muller if conscious
of being guilty. That he should have incurred
such a risk for the sake of so small a prize, have
remained so long among his old associates, have
made so little effort to conceal his spoils, and se-
lected a sailing-ship to make his escape, is marvel.
loos enough; but why he should have kept the hat
and watch, instead of burying them in the depths
of the sea, is more inexplicable still. But for this
circumstance we might have pictured to ourselves
the mind of the conscious murderer haunted by the
restless conviction that the pursuers were on his
track, and striving in vain to obliterate all trace of
the identity of himself and the young German ac.
quaintance of the cabman Matthews. No such ter-
rors, however, seem to have aggravated the tor■
ments of his own conscience, if, indeed, we can sup-
pose that he experienced even these, for no feature
in his conduct that has yet come to light betrays
any sense of hie awful guilt. Six weeks passed
away on the passage, and he must have had
ample time for reflection and remorse, for
dismal thoughts of retribution awaiting him,
for wild longing that the fate of Jonah might be
his; and yet all that we know of him after he wrote
the letter that was to tell so strongly against him
is that he still retained Mr Briggs's hat and watch
when he was arrested at New York, and that he
protested his innocence. It is a strange story from
beginning to end, but the strangest part of it is the
disproportion between the audacious enormity of
the crime and the feebleness of the attempt to escape
its consequences. While Muller's name was on
every tongue, and every family was discussing
various theories of the murder, the archculprit him-
self, for all that appears, was calmly traversing the
Atlantic, his fears lulled to sleep, and his ingenuity
inactive, till he was awoke by the horrible vision
of the inspector and the two witnesses whose testi-.
niony was to seal his doom. It is possible that some
little time may elapse before Muller can be brought
back to this country and handed over to the ant ho■
rities at Bow-street, whence the warrant for his
arrest was issued. We are informed that the pro-
ceedings preliminary to his extradition were already
commenced when the mail left, and unless a wholly
new and quite inconeeivab!e aspect should have been
given to the case in the course of the examination,
he will be surrendered with the least possible delay.
Though the evidence was somewhat hastily got up,
and the departure of the officers hurried by the
urgency of the necessity, the strongest circumstan•
tial proofs of guilt must be at their disposal. Short
of having seen the murder committed,Mr Death and
Matthews have sworn to facts upon which, unless
rebutted, any magistrate would feel bound to com-
mit a prisoner for trial. This is all that is required
by the terms of the Extradition Treaty, and it
would be a gross injustice to American tribunals to
doubt that it will be strictly and honourably en-
forced in the present case. Hitherto every
assistance is said to have been given by the New
York police to the English officers, and whatever
difficulties may have arisen upon requisitions
involving conflicts between the municipal laws of
Great Britain and the United States, there is no
room for similar obstructions here. No civilised
nation willingly grants an asylum to persons
charged with a highway murder of the worst type,
without palliation or qualifying circumstances. We
may expect therefore, with some confidence, that
the next mail will bring the news of Muller being
in the custody of Inspector Tanner, who was fol-
lowed, it should be remembered, by Inspector lier-
ressey with fresh materials for the preliminary in.
quiry. If so, the tragedy on the North London
Railway will soon lose the last vestige of mystery,
and we may perhaps learn, for the hundredth time,
how small a degree of cunning and daring suffices
for the perpetration of atrocities which terrify
whole millions of people.

POST.—Upon the whole the prospects for the fall
of the year and the winter are unquestionably more
cheerful than two months ago it was anticipated
they could be, It will require care and prudence
to carry on without tripping till the spring of next
year, no doubt ; but we do not see, either in the
present or probable future condition of the country,
any ground for general alarm, still less for general
panic. The harvest is so nearly concluded that it
is not difficult to estimate the results with an ap-
proximation sufficient to enable us to form a pretty
good judgment of our situation in regard to the
supply of food in hand. The wheat crop, notwith-
standing the long drought and heat, under the in-
fluence of which it was somewhat prematurely
ripened, appears to bo very little, if at all, below
the average, and the quality throughout the coun-
try is pronounced to be unusually good. There is,
besides, owing mainly no doubt to the low rate at
which prices have ruled for now a long period, a
considerable stock from last year's harvest still in
hand. Foreign supplies too promise to furnish a
fully sufficient supplement to our means, and there
is therefore no reason to suppose that the prices of
wheat and bread are likely to rise beyond what the
population in the present condition of the commerce
and labour of the country will be able to pay without
serious strain upon their resources, or very appreci-
able diminution in the provision they have been accus-
tomed to make under the exceptionally low prices
for necessaries hitherto obtaining for the comforts
and luxuries of life, With regard to meat, however,
we fear the prospect is less encouraging. Boot
crops, upon which the farmer mainly relies, have
unquestionably been as nearly as possible a complete
failure throughout the kingdom. Hay, too, is un-
doubtedly short in quantity, though probably of
average quality—and the stock farmer will have to
depend largely, if not mainly, upon manufactured
foods, upon linseed cake, and malted or otherwise
prepared grain, to render his cattle or sheep fit for
market. In addition to this disadvantage, which
is exceptional, and attaches only to the current year
there is another of a longer standing, and not easy
apparently to master and remove. Some years ago,
owing to various circumstances, the amount of
young and lean stock was suffered to fall to a very
low ebb—far too low for the requirements of the
country—and up to this moment supply has never
been able to overtake demand. We have never sues
ceeded in•filling up the7gap then created, partly by
a seven) winter and a great advance in the cost of
breeding and keeping stock,and partly by an almost
universal misapprehension as to the results of free
trade in cattle; and we now find ourselves with
high prices, a short supply, and a root crop that
will not suffice even for that deficient stock. Mr.
Gladstone's modification of the malt duties may be
of some service, but the restrictions with which the
new law is hampered will, we fear, seriously limit
its application ; perhaps render it altogether nu-
gatory. Nor can it in any case remove the disad-
vantage imposed upon the stockbreeder by the
inability which he still labours under to substitute
beer for the milk which is now used in the diet for

his men to the detriment of the young beasts. IN
know, too, now from experience, that we cannot,
the matter of animal food, look to foreign tout
tries to supplement our short comings, as we ca
in the case of corn, We fear, therefore, that v
must anticipate a still further advance in tl
already high price of meat. We must hope that tl
activity which, notwithstanding the close of tl
season, appears to obtain in all the princip
branches of our trade and manufactures, and tl
consequent steady and remunerative employmei
afforded to the labouring population, will enab
them to bear the burden. From all the great centre
of industry there arrive unusually good account
and enterprises and business seem to be far le:
affected than was anticipated by the high rates I
interest. In fact, the extraordinary multiplicatic
of joint-stock banks, the extensive institution
huge money-lending companies, and the consequei
aggregation and activity of innumerable sine
amounts of capital which were formerly compari
tively dormant, or very limited in their sphere
movement, have rendered the speculative and tra
ing elements in the community far less depende
than they have been hitherto accustomed to be up 4
the Bank of England, and the wielding of the A
of 1844 by its directors. That once famous act h
in truth, almost ceased to be operative, since it h
become an accepted fact that its call to active pre
sure will always result in a suspension of its exif
ence and a neutralisation of its influence the mome
the one or the other threatens a serious stoppage
credit. It is true that the great increase of tilt
banks and financial companies, the enormous amou
of real and apparent capital which they scrap
together from all corners of the world, and t
hitherto unheard-of degree to which they offered
loan it to undertakers of all kinds of enterpriE
excited at one time a great deal of alarm, and it
no doubt true also that this alarm had no smi
share in determining the foreign policy which t
Government propounded, and the Parliame
adopted, in the Dano-German difficulty—a policy
which we expressed our strong disapprobatie
which exposed us to much obloquy, and of why
we have not yet in all probability seen the retold
A very large number of people, formerly absolute
unspeculative, suddenly found themselves involv
to a very uncomfortable extent in every imaginal
undertaking at home and abroad. They felt as
they were voyaging with themselves and their fc
tune on their back, embarked in a monster ballot
and they shivered with terror lest a spark from
Danish or German pipe should fall on their hu
machine, blow it up with one terrific explesic
and leave them tumbling through space to hopelt
destruction. We cannot retrace our steps, but I
have passed through that stage of apprehensia
The accounts of the financial companies have su
cesefully stood the ordeal of examination. The
have not been perceptibly influenced by the wo
derful fluctuations hurriedly declared from time
time by the directors of the Bank of England, wi
fancy, apparently, that they have a never-endii
mission to control enterprise as well as to sect
dividends for their shareholders, and the gene]
public seems to hope that its huge balloon may flc
on pretty comfortably for the next six months
so at all events. Stich being the present conditi
and prospects of agriculture and commerce, we eh'
be justified, we trust, in anticipating an autun
and winter not altogether unsatisfactory—not, pc
haps, without an active prosperity,