The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1857-02-14

The Public Feeling ON The Burden Murder
Stn the crowd in Bond street seems com
paratively undiminished, the Burden case is an
unfaihpg topic of conversation in every circle
the country papers are as industrious as ever in
writing their little articles about it. The num-
Der of copies of the newspapers containing re-
ports Of the COroner's inquest that have been
sold, and read and re-read till the paper on which
they were printed has fallen to pieces would
surpass the belief Of any but one accustomed to
such manifestations Of public interest In this
city it may fairly be said that there has been but
one topic of public concern during the last fort
night, and that is-who killed DR.. Burdell2
Certain Of the clergy, moraliGng on the sub
ject, have taken occasion to reprimand the
press for what they call their indiscreet pander-
ing to a vicious taste for horrors among the
public. They hold that the newspapers ought to
be the censors as well as the chronicles Of pass
ing events; and that they should exercise
sound discretion as to what the public should
read, and should not be guided in any measure
by the desires or demands of the said public.
We trust that we bow, with proper con-
triton, to the censure of our spiritual
pastors and masters At the same time,
if authorities 20 far removed from subu-
nary concerns as the clergy would take the trou-
bic to investigate the laws of trade, they would
discover that the evil of which they complain must
be checked at its source, not in its progress, in
the demand and not in the supply. Whatever Is
legitimate and vendible will be sold at the pre-
sent day, if not by one person then by another;
and if any newspaper had refused, on grounds Of
principle, to publish the evidence on the Burdell
inquest, the only consequence would have been
that its subscribers would have read the story in
its contemporaries. OF course the clergy did not
read the evidence in any journal; we speak Oh
laymen only, Of that large though perverse class
which insisted upon having the latest news about
the Burdell ease, and which seemingly deserved
the ceDsure which fell upon the daily press
On the other hand, our rural contemporaries,
which have taken as much interest in the case as
The people of the city, though, for obvious reac
sons. their readers have been contented with
meagre summaries Of the evidence, have made
the case and its collateral features the text for
pretty sweeping denunciation of New York and
i
themselves very unhappy about the "extravagant,
insncere, Marnmon worshipping, envious, waste
tul, ostentatious, vicious, luxurious, hollow and
corrupt combination Of society which New York
presents; and have argued, not only that the muir
der of DR.. BuIdell flowed from this curious state
of society, but that murders were an essential
feature Of our social organization-in fact, that
without them We should come to stand still, by
sort OF coagulation of the public blood in the
social veins. Ii is evidently the idea of this
Philadelphian that without murder once year
or oftener. We should not be able to make any
Roadway.
In Southern paper, printed at Richmond,
Virginia. We find the leading features of the case
presented, somewhat coniusedly, but well enough
in the main, and the moral drawn that such is
the fruit of free society. As the Philadelphian
believes that horrid murders are a necessary
safety valve for seething New York society, the
Virginian believes that all free societies require
this safety valve, and that the only way of obvi-
ating the murder crop is by the introduction of
slavery. This is a very pretty theory assuredly,
and one which we carefully commend to our
readers.
The misfortune Of all these rural theories is
that they involve as premise that no murders
take place outside of New York 1t happens
curiously enough that since We began to report
the evidence in the Burdel inquest, we have re-
corded two murders-one at Boston. another
at Detroit, and an execution for murder at New
Orleans Surely the peculiar causes which our
country contemporaries notice cannot be in ope-
ration at all these places too: or il they are,
they must be incidental not to our peculiar
state of society, but to human nature at large.
There has been great deal written about the
Durdcll case but very little that Is worth remem-
beriDg. The naked fact stares us in the face
without comment Of any kind SO far as moral
purposes are conccrned-that is to say, 80 far as
the interests of the clergyman and the moralst
are involved, we are no further advanced than
VIC were on the morning when the corpse Of
Burdcll was found motonless on his floor, covered
with blood and wounds