The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-04 00:00:00

TIIE FINSBURY MURDER.

The man Spines was sentenced to death yesterday
for the murder of the woman Aldridge in Finsbury.
The defence was confined to an attempt to prove
that the offence was manslaughter and not murder.
Serjeant Sleigh argued that they were both intoxicated
and that whilst in this condition nothing was more
probable than that a quarrel should arise, and that
the act was committed whilst the prisoner was in a
state of hot blood and excitement. In that case the
jury would be justified in returning a verdict of
manslaughter only. The jury, however, decided
otherwise.

PUNISHMENT OF CRIME IN NEW YORK.

(From the Ang7o American Times.)

As our New York correspondent last week ob-
served, the ruffian BREAM alias O'BRIEN,a/ias REY-
NOLDS, has given the philanthropic HORACE GREELEY
a hard nut to crack. His remark when arrested for a
brutal murder, that " hanging for murder is played
out in New York," places the morality preached by
the Tribune in a very curious light. No paper more
strongly denounces the infliction of the death penalty;
every execution is held up to scorn and execration.
The incidents attending the really barbarous exhibi-
tion are dwelt on with force, and the more bungling
the operation the more pointed and telling are the
Tribune's comments. Many good men are equally
earnest in their efforts to abolish legal killing, and it
is because of their advocacy, that society listens with
respect, and feels so far persuaded that these philan-
thropic gentlemen are right, that such a ruffian is
able to exclaim that " hanging for murder is played
out in New York." But is it not a strange co-
incidence that such good men, actuated by the
purest motives, should be yoked in the same team
with the greatest villains in the American commer-
cial metropolis. BREAM alias O'BRIEN, alias REY-
NOLDS, and the philosopher, HORACE GREELEY, are
working together for the same object, though they
clash when they come in contact, and the collision
proves that there is a hitch—something wrong in the
policy which the philanthropists advocate. -When
the Tribune is on its philosophic tack it writes is
a lofty strain on the folly of the law in setting an
example of killing to the murderer, and the crimi-
nality of making life cheap in the eyes of the
community, but when its own correspondent is shot
in its office, when a respected citizen is wantonly
murdered in his own store, and before his family,
then the cry of the Tribune is, "Up with the ruffian
to the nearest lamp-post !" " Let the criminal suffer
the extreme penalty before the burial of his victim"
—an exclamation which is exactly the same thing
as the French cry, " A la lanterne," for it really
means execution without trial. Glaring as is the
inconsistency, still, we can sympathize with the
Tribune in both its moods. Nothing tries the phi-
losophy of a philosopher more than the rude shock
of the actual contact with the event about which
he may be philosophizing in his study. A murder
is heinous, almost in proportion to its proximity to
the individual. A Chinese city of 100,000 people
might be depopulated by an atrocious massacre, while
only the faintest shadow of horror might be con% eyed
to the best informed European ; but let one person
be murdered in his own neighbourhood, in his
street, in his house, and his hair rises with horror
and indignation. We can preach morality about
the former event, and recommend that the barbarians
be taught and civilized, not exterminated ; but our
cry as regards the latter is, " Lynch the ruffian !"
Wherever else the extreme penalty might be abo-
lished, New York City is not the place wherein to
try such an experiment. It has become the para-
dise of ruffians, as its Republican institutions have
thrown municipal and political power into their
bands. The scroundrels of Europe are more strongly
attracted there than the good New Yorkers are at-
tracted to Paris, for not only do the former find a con-
genial society among their "pals" of the Old World,
but they can ply their trade on more favourable terms
and with greater impunity. When the crimes are
investigated it nearly always transpires that the
criminals have been imported, and many of them
but recently. BREAM, for instance, was an Irish-
man, who had not spent five years in America,
while his experience was almost confined to the pri-
sons of the country, and his victim was an English-
man from Birmingham ; APFARLAND was an Irish-
man ; and so it will be found in most cases. It is
not surprising that if America has the benefits
of getting, for nothing, the services of the skilled
workmen of Europe, that it should be qualified
by the evil of a considerable importation of pick-
pockets, and others, trained in the villainous walks
of life ; that is, that weeds should spring up with the
good grain. It would be impossible to prevent this,
but why should the citizens of New York idly
look on at the weeds flourishing to the serious
detriment of the crop. Republican institutions com-
mend themselves to the common sense of mankind
so long as the people are educated and respectable;
but if a large section of the inhabitants of a city be
thieves, shoulder-hitters, and burglars, such institu-
tions are dangerous, tending to give criminals a ma-
terial advantage ; for, in practice, it will be found
that men will organize for vicious objects if there-
from they can extract a personal gain, more rea-
dily than to do good, from which security alone can
result. Alluding to this subject the New York
World says :
"You may construct a costly mill after an approved
model ; every part of the machinery may be admirable
and perfectly adjusted; and yet, if the water wheel is so
placed that the stream turns in the wrong way, all the
elaboration is useless. The great need of this city is a
municipal system that will give us pure elections. If mat-
ters are so shaped and fixed that the elections thwart, in-
stead of executing, the will of the people ; if the water-
wheel, the great moving-power of the machinery, turns
backward, everything will go wrong."

The Tribune, in its remarks on the article, asks the
leader of the Democratic party, " Will you help
us to break down the power of these bad men and
to drive them from place ?" Help you? replies the
World. Why the corruptionists can count with
absolute certainty upon your betraying any ally
against them. It is shere impudence for you to
pretend a desire to break down the power of bad
men and to drive them from place ; for their pre-
sence in office is the very thing which has lifted the
Republican party into power. What we will do to
put an end to corruption is, to inform the pub-
lic that the Tribune is its stiffest bulwark. It
is thus these leading newspapers, which in New
York are very powerful, deal with this grave
question affecting the lives and property of the
citizens. Both admit that the city is " villain-
ously misgoverned by Democratic thieves," who
perpetuate their sway by ballot-box stuffing, nu re-
form they think being practicable until the election
frauds are stopped. But it appears from the charge
of Judge INGRAHAM, at the opening of the Oyer and
Terminer, that there is another means, at least,
of checking crime together with the audacious mid-
day infractions of the law. " I regret to be com-
pelled to say to you," said the Judge, " that of
late ,crime has much increased ; the best remedy for
it, is speedy and prompt trial and punishment."
They may depend upon it in New York that the
Judge is right ; that the laxity with which justice is
administered, and the impunity accorded to cri-
minals, through the political power acquired by,
means of the democratic institutions of the coun-
try, have given an impetus to the lawlessness which
would, no doubt, be quickly checked by speedy and
sure punishment. Of all preventatives certainty of
punishment is the most effective. Crime will increase
in a direct ratio with the probability of escape, and
this argument has been ably used for the abolition
of executions. A jury shrinks from bringing in a
verdict which consigns a man to the gallows ; the
Judge shrinks from the sentence, the Governor
from signing the death warrant ; and this natural
reluctance is increased by the well-intended efforts
of many good men and women. The consequence
is that, even in the best governed city of Christen-
dom, numbers of criminals who ought to be hanged
are let loose on society, and the chance of escape
incites others to acts from which they would
otherwise most carefully refrain. By abolishing
the death penalty, punishment, say those who op-
pose it, will be more certain, and crime in con-
sequence diminished—a sound argument, we con-
fess, but New York is not the place in which to