The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1857-02-12


near two thousand indictments are on Ole in the
Office of our District Attorney, none o. which
are prosecuted; and also that some two hundred
indictments procured by the Mayor and Police
against gambling and other Illegal houses
have been treated with like neglect by the law
officers on the ground that the acts under which
they would have to be prosecuted were unconsti-
tutional. Whether this sort of thing is likely to
lead TO an increase in crime, the friends Of the
District Attorney and Recorder Smith can judge
as well as any one else.
The Bond Street Munder-Dogbery and
Verges Redivivus.
If there have been any doubts az to the univer-
salty of the genius of Shakspere, the close
similarity between some of his fictitious charac-
tiers and the dioyncracies Of the principal actors
in the great drama of real life now being enacted
in this city would at once dispel them. In Con-
merry and Capron we have Dogberry and Verges
over again-in the style Of the investigation we
realize the cutting satire conveyed in the crit-
cisms of the Grave Diggers in Hamlet" upon
GROWERS quest law" COnnery is the POM
pous constable who alternately amuses, bores
and disgusts the town with his antics, while
Capron is the tedious Verges-the old man that
will be talkiDg-the adviser who suggests that
rhe Coroner goes not the right way to examine
this matter-and both are willing to bestow all
their tediousness, were it ten times as great,
upon an indulgent and long-sutfering public
They are dealing with one Of the most
mysterious and fascinating crimes ever
committed. They are endeavoring to elicit
evidence against parties evidently much su-
perior to them in mental acumen. They are
watched by the argus eyes of public excited to
the highest pitch, and kept au couram to every
word and every minute circumstance of the in
veshgation. For the time being, they mOnopo-
Use public attention. Several important matters
which under other circumstances would have ex-
cited universal remark are passed over in silence
Among these is the examination Of the alleged
tibusters, the Stafford seduction case, the great
rresbet, the Scott and Davis correspondence
But all these matters are overlooked to discuss
the question, ''Who killed Doctor Burdell ?" The
most trifing circumstances connected with the
affair are snapped up with the greatest avidity.
Over one hundred columns of evidence and COM
ment have been given in this Journal the public
devours all that, and cries loudly for more.
The excitement permeates through every
grade Of society, from the highest to the
lowest. The murder in Bond street is the
sole topic of conversation in the street, the
omnibus, the saloon at the theatre: eating,
drinking, walking, riding-nothing but Bond
street. The public sups on horrors, dreams
of murders, and gets up the next morning with
renewed appetite for the same food. For the
time being the murder absorbs every other topic,
and the subject seems altogether inexhaustible.
It's horrible atrocity and the mystery which sur
rounds the perpetrators, combined with the
antics Of the Coroner and his oficious adviser are
essentially dramatic, and there is q rumor that
the whole affair will be represented on the boards
Of one of the minor theatres No broader con-
trast could be imagined than that presented by
the cool atrocity of the murder, the reticence Of
The persons Immediately under suspicion, and the
laundering stupidity, the laughable ignorance,
the wretched attempts at wit and the tedious
verbosity Of the parties having the matter
in charge. Cervantes, when he sent the
Knight of La Maucha forth upon his
adventures, never could have fanced anything
half SO ludicrous as the laundering of Don
Qujxotte Connery and Sancho Panza Capron
They have attacked more windmills than one, and
have always come off second best. Some acct
dental circumstances have been developed, but
not through any efforts Of the Coroner or his jury
Their endeavors have tended rather to muddle
the matter than to clear it up, while the counsel
for the prisoners hovcrs over the scene with
Mephistophelean acutenes, taking advantage Of
every little sir Of bis opponents. The Coroner
showers his undertaker's jests, his dijointed SEN
fences Of legal slang, his pompous, foundering
speeches ITO the press and the jury" bis ludi.
crous blunders in attempting TO expound his
ideas of law, medicine, surgery, anatomy
and sciences, while outside the crowd
bowls its execrations upon the prisoners,
against whom there is as yet but little positive
evidence even for the purposes Of a preliminary
investigation. So the great drama moves 70.
wards its d nouen,eat. What that will be no one
can safely attempt to predict.
The evidence taken yesterday is Of no great
consequence. The medical testimony has already
been laid before the public In these columns.
Another witness corroborates the evidence of
Doctor and Mrs. Main as TO the smell of burning
woollen in Bond street, but fixes the time al al
earlier hour. We presume that the end Of this
grand nquisition," as the Coroner calls it, Is
near al hand. To-day the result OF the chemical
analysis will be given in, and we presume tia,
he Coroner will take day TO sum up the case.
That will be his greatest effort, and we suppose
that the reporters will give il verbatim q Heo:.a,
"d punctuatinL"
The Esa OF Speculation I'm France.
Count de Morny, the confidential adviser Of the