The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-03 00:00:00

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zy ENGLAND'S TRAGEDIES.
•
Nicze fuss is made in Great Britain over death
by violence than in any other country. The execu-
tion of an ordinary murderer of ten in England as-
sumes the proportions of a State event, so deeply
does the public mind become interested. MULLER
was a vile criminal, who enteied a first-class rail-
way carriage, where he saw a very old gentleman
seated—to murder and rob him. Yet Ar.ULLKR'S case
attained au importance that kept nations iu cor-
respondence, induced Sovereigns to exchange corn-
munications, and excited national animosities. It
was not that there was anything interesting in
the tailor who with his shears slew the old man,
but because the people made such a noise over his
execution that the world echoed with the sound. It
benefits the Press to create an excitement, and
London newspapers can so rivet attention to any
to any circumstance, that selecting one with a
hearty goodwill they make it ring over creation.
Pence are gathered by the ten thousand in the
streets of the metropolis for " extras," containing
an account of the interesting execution ; all aig-
land is eager to hear, and every one wants the
earliest and fullest intelligence. When the leading
dailies are carefully scanned by the people, trades-
men know that then is the time to advertise, and
the principal effect of MULLER'S crime was to in-
crease the circulation and bring grist to the mill of
such papers as the Telegraph. But, universal as has
been the excitement caused by the execution of
some former criminals, it has been far exceeded by
the late affair at Manchester. The British public
like a " sensation," and it is for the interest of the
Press to cater to this appetite. The Manchester
Examiner last Saturday printed 192,645 copies,
consuming fourteen and a half tons of paper, and
for five hours turned out 600 copies per minute.
The British public hasa horror of violent death while
in its calm and sentimental mood, and horrors, form
the groundwork of sensations. The ordinary mind,
unaided by the Press, would be unable to realise this
pleasing feeling. So aided, it is carried to an extrava-
gance, and events made to assume an importance out
of all proportion greater than they deserve. Those
who followed in their thoughts the footsteps of
ALLEN, GOULD, and LARKIN to the drop, who read
with an absorbing interest every gesture, every
word, every change of feature of the condemned
men, saw with apathy, almost in the same paper,
accounts of hurricanes by which hundreds perished.
What amount of commiseration was excited in
England for the inhabitants of Galveston, New
Orleans, Mobile, and Savannah, desolated by a
plague--who cares for the awful suffering in the
Southern States ? I'Vhat, beyond mere figures, was
the execution done by the cyclone at Calcutta in :865,
when the sea swept over the delta of the Ganges,
and engulfed more than 30,000 human beings ?
How many realised the real import of the telegram
from Canton which informed them of as fearful a
typhoon, by which a still larger number had perished
in the river? When in this country, we arc told, that
the rebels have taken Chin-cheng-foo, and are
threatening Chunchow, what is tne idea suggested
to our mind ? Why mere unintelligible Chinese
names, which we dismiss without further notice. Yet
the news is of the slaughter of thousands, families in
scores brutally murdered—torture,rapine, and arson,
all, matters to us, of no moment whatever. The
battle of Gettysburgh brought mourning to almost
every family of the United States, but a despatch
descriptive of the contest was suggestive only of a
field in a certain county, of a certain State, where a
certain number had been killed or wounded. It is
not till the story of individual suffering is told, that
we begin to realise what is the true significance of
these figures ? In the North-West Provinces of India,
shortly after the mutiny, a number in its immen-
sity unestimated, perished by famine. But a year
ago, a district lying between the Presidency towns
of Madras and Calcutta, was in a measure depopu-
lated by the same cause, yet it was found difficult
to arouse sufficient public interest in these hideous
calamities to inaugurate preventive measures, or to
apportion the blame to the true official culprits.
Thus, while the British public learn with innnov-
able impassiveness the horrors that desolate a foreign
people, they exaggerate the little horrors which affect
themselves, and make the whole world ring with the
stories of their domestic tragedies. So dealt with,
death assumes undue proportions, and in the na-
tional wail over the murder of the victim and the
execution of the culprits the fact is lost sight
of that both the crime and the penalty did, but by
a short time, anticipate nature. In Asiatic coun-
tries men lie down by the road-side and die, and no
one seems to care. In China there are those ready
to sell their lives as a substitute for others of whom
they know nothing, the consideration being a pro-
vision for their families. In Paris, gamblers have
often placed their last stake on the table, knowing
that the throw of a die or the turn of a card may
consign them to the Seine and the Morgue. Even
in a British military hospital, the doctor standing
over a sick soldier's bed will sometimes remark to a
visitor in a tone of indifference, " This man is dying
—his lungs are gone ;" or, "It is the result of his
own dissipation ;" while the soldier listens with
an unmoved countenance, taking the intimation as
a matter of no moment. But the strangest thing
of all, is the interest the English papers arouse in
foreign countries for the tragedies enacted in Eng-
land. In the distant laud, horrors out of all pro-
portion greater than those described may be passing
before the eyes of the people, yet they will fasten
on the English scene, entering fully into all
the particulars, and discussing every detail,
while their own tragedies pass unnoticed. This
is due to the English Press, for the subjects dis-
cussed by the London newspapers are those which
form matter for conversation to the most influential
masses of mankind. What is read with thrilling
interest by an English fireside is little less eagerly
read by the squatter in Australia, the merchant at
Canton, the soldiers in India, the Consul in Egypt,
the farmer in the new settlements, and widely over
North America. And what moves the Anglo-
Saxons makes an impression on the people among
whom they dwell, and thus it ramifies, while the
world forgets that it may be but a paltry story
of crime, containing a small measure only of the
elements of tragedy compared to those enacting
in their midst. The effect is twofold : the one
preventive, the other encouraging to crime. So
awful is the paraphernalia of death moving slowly
and solemnly before the eyes of awe-stricken mil-
lions, that each realises in his own person the horrors
of the execution. It is thus deterrent. There are,
however, those so constituted, that their imagina-
tions are captivated by the wide publicity, the strong
sensation—all centreing around themselves. To be
—even for a brief space—the object on which the
world has fixed its eyes, may hare to them a charm
sufficient to overcome the noose, the drop, and the
agonising suspense when night follows night, and an.
other day dawns, as time, step by step, approaches
the fixed period when they are to be launched into
eternity. Such persons fatally deceive themselves,
and it is probable that ALLEN, LARKIN, and GOULD
were among the number. The brutal crimival is
generally devoid of sensibility, and the spectacle is
often presented of a man unchanged in outward ap-
pearance, with seeming indifference on the scaffold,
dying with a lie on his lips, and an unconfessed and
unrepented murder on his hand. The very feelings
upon which the leaders acted in the Manchester
affair, which made ALLEN exclaim, while carrying
out the rescue, " I will die for you !" were those
that so changed these men in the period be-
tween their condemnation and their execution.
A. mind capable of enthusiasm and great self-
sacrifice is one imbued with fine sensations, and
therefore capable of realising in all its agony
the torturing hours that precede an execution.
Thus the sufferings of ALLEN, GOULD, and LARKIN
were beyond comparison greater than those of
a criminal like MULLER, though the former were
fortified in the belief that they perished as mar-
tyrs for a noble cause, and the latter went forth
to execution a brutal murderer actuated by the
lowest motives. Whether the fuss made in England
over her domestic tragedies is beneficial or the re-
verse to society we cannot undertake to say, but to
those gifted with the power of appreciating justly
it approaches in its sublimity perilously near to the
ridiculous.—Anglo-American Times.

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