The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1854-08-24

pass enumeration. The newspapers are so
oppressed with them that they are now mere
matter.of. fact statements, dismissed in . line
or two, when inserted at all, and hundreds of
crimes of this character never make their
appearance in the public prints. Robberies,
with assaults on the person, are perpetrated
in the open daylight, in the most frequented
thoroughfares, and often with impunity.-
Murders, cool -blooded, foul, and superlative-
ly atrocious, are committed every week until
the public appetite for the horrible, has at
length been palled with the fearful details,
and the occurrence of them has become so
common, that when an account of one ap-
pears it excites less comment than the result
of horse-race or dog-fght. Now, seeing
such statement as this in the history of
Rome, for instance, under Decius, or in the
history Of France during the reign Of terror,
what feelings of horror would it not excite in
US, and how piously would we not turn up our
eyes and thank heaven that we had been born
in these happy days Of Christian civilization
and refinement, when we can enjoy the bless
ings of liberty, religion and enlightenment.
And yet it never strikes us that if one of the
historians of the time of Decius or Severus
were now to revisit this sublunary sphere,
and indulge himself in months experience
in this great city. he would carry back with
him to the other world an;account of the state
of things here that might compare unfayora-
bly, with the worst features of Roman So
a. sx,< af tbo hoxr<
named
The Express attributes much of the crime
in New York to an aboninable practice
which has long been in active operation in
England and on the European continent, by
which the jails, when they get too full to be
manageable, are emptied of their prisoners,
and cargoes of fostering vice and depravity,
composed of these offscourings of popular
corruption, are shipped over here. These
herds of thieves and burglars, and midnight
robbers and assassins, says the Express, are
thrust forth from the countries, whose laws
they have disgraced, and landed on our
shores, forsooth, to recommence their career
of villainy and wickedness, and in wider
fields.
England and Germany also, when they
want to get rid of their paupers, are in the
habit of emptying their poor-houses on our
shores. We agree with the Express, that i'm
mediate steps should be taken to arrest this
vile imposition.
New York society must be in sad condi-
ton, for whilst the Express gives this dismal
account of the people in the streets, the New
York Times gives an equal revolving picture
Of life in the parlors. According to the Times,
there is an extent of depravity among the
mushroom aristocracy of New York, unsur-
passed in Paris. These two corrupt extremes
of New York society present an inviting do
mestic field for abolition philanthropy.
The New York Tribune, commenting upon
our proposition that, if Fred. Douglas be
elected to Congress, his former owners shall
seize him as soon as he arrives in Washing
ton, says:
Az for Selling Mr.. Douglas when he appears 1T
Washington with the credentials of Representa-
Would not only Be found a b"s au em
nently unsafe enterprise. Mr. Douglas is q gentle.
man. who would be likely under such circumstances
flows in his veins, and that however degenerate the
majority of her may be- he at least il able
maintain his own rights he free from the dispo-
sition to trample on those of Others
We are not surprised that Mister Douglas
is spoken of by the New York Tribune as a
gentleman. Undoubtedly he is such in COM
parison with the conductor of that delectable
sheet. As to the "eminently unsafe enter
prise of Selling that runaway gentleman"
should he presume to come to Washington,
we take it for granted that his proprietors,
after the late exhibition of abolition valor in
the Burns case, would not be much afraid
Douglas himself though he may be terrible
to the New York Tribune, has liver as white
as his skin is dark The COW hiding scrape
on the Battery, which occurred few years
ago, when the poor wretch took to his heels
and made better time than Boston, yelling
and squealing the while like stuck pig
would seem to prove that his Virginia
blood has sadly degenerated.
We again recommend the former owners
of Fred. Douglas to take measures to re-
claim him. should he make his appearance in
Washington. ,.s..ss Il
PASSPORTS TO FUGITIVE SLAvEs.--Mr
Gadsden, our Minister to Mexico, says the
Washington correspondent of the Philadel-
phia Ledger, twill no doubt be sustained in
his determination to refuse protection or
grant passports, as citizens of the United
States, to fugitive slaves in foreign countries.
In case the abolition faction should get hold
of this isolated fact, and distort it for their
own purpose, would here state that there
have been many precedents for the act of
our Minister to Mexico, and that in every
instance the government here has sustained
its Minister abroad. Ministers of European
powers have never been known to protect
their fugitive subjects in foreign countries,
though they have claimed and sometimes
tried to kidnap them, for the purpose of in
ficting summary punishment upon them.v
A CHANCE FOR YANKEE SAILoRs,-The
recent successful sally of the Russian steam
frigate vladimer from the port of Sebastopol.
and one or two similar affairs during the war
show that Russia is not altogether such a
contemptible naval uower no tba T.;.:l