The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-03-24
BALTIMORE.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH "a, 1858.

The attempt, some two months since, of a few
Italian conspirators to asSasSinae the Emperor of
the French, at the door of the Opera House in Pa
riS, excited in this country very general indigna-
ton and Just reprobation. A wholesome horror
of the crime and honest detestation of the Grim
inals, were almost universally manifested by both
press and people. Within the last four weeks,
however, two distinct and deliberate attempts have
been made in the city of Baltimore to assaSSlnate
citizen in his own house, which have altogether
failed to elicit single word of comment from the
local press or stir the fiintest murmur of dsappro
baton among our people. On the 10th of Februa-
nv. about half past two O clock in the afternoon,
disturbance took place at the Adelphi public
house. on the corner of Fayette and Holiday
streets, in the very heart and centre of the city,
and within few yards of the City Hall and of the
Office of the Marshal of Police, in which young
man named ERASMUS LEVY, one of the Constabes
of the Tenth Ward, was shot by GEORGE NJ IMHoFF
the proprietor of the house. II is said that the
wound, which was not fatal, was inflicted acciden-
tally upon LEVY; the bullet having been intended
for a retreating gang of desperadoes, who were
leaving the house just as LEVY was entering and
whose actions had compelled IMHoFF to resort to
the use of his rifle in defence of his life. However
this may be, and it is not material to our present
purpose to enter into any examination of the facts
read in local columns of the 26th of Februa-
~, that about eight o clock on the preceding even
ing, just six days after the occurrence above men
toned, 'four persons entered the Adelphi House.
and after being waited upon by the proprietor, Mr.
GEORGE NJ IMHoFF, one of them remarked that he
would settle for it, and drawing a revolver fired
twice at Mr.. lMHoFF without effectn The assaant
was arrested the reporter further states and taken
to the Middle District Station House. and locked
up for examination The next mornings paper
imparts the further information, that on examna-
ton he twas bailed by Justice MEARIs, at the d.
rechon OF Deputy State Attorney, PNKNEY, in the
sum of $4,000, to appear and answer the charge
before the Criminal Court" "On last Saturday
night about half past ten O'clock we further
read in our paper of Monday morning, the 22d
inst, "a party of some six or eight persons entered
the Adelphi House, kept by Captain GEORGE NJ.
1MHoFF, corner of Holiday and Fayette streets,
from the Holiday street side, and passing through
went out the door leading to Fayette street A
moment after pistol was fired, and ball whizzed
close to the Captains head who was sitting be-
hind the bar. 1t was fired through the window
from Fayette street. This makes the third attempt
upon his life, adds the reporter, ''withn month,
and the object of the party in entering the room
was doubtless to learn, if there what position he
occupied
So far therefore as the crime of assassination is
concerned, we need not go to Paris to find at
tempts at its preparation. We may read any day
OF their occurrence in our own city, in its most
frequened Streets and almost at the very door of the
Office of our Chief Magistrate Mayor SWAMI, and of
the Chief of Police, Marshal HERRING; and vet the
fact causes neither Indignation, nor surprise, nor
remark. The assassin plies his bloody trade in our
Streets unpunished and unchecked, and men 90
about their daily avocations and the ordinary
business of life in utter and wlfu foreetulness of
the fact. The curse of blood-gutiness is upon
our community, and no hand is lifted to nut the
red slayer forth from our midst The parallel
which we have drawn between the crime of the
Rue Lepelleer in Paris and that of Fayette street
IN Baltimore, between the attempt upon the life of
the Emperor of the French and those upon the life
OF an American Citizen, ceases with the bare fact
that IN both cases assassination was ATTEMPTED and
~'"''H''1
to trial and to judgment; they have been con-
Victed and condemned. Have the perpetrators
OF like crime against the life of Man and a
Citizen in Baltimore, been brought to trial and
punishment? Have Marshal HERRING and his
police shown any of the vigilance in ferretno ont
the consprators against the life of a Citizen that
H. te Prefd PERI and his myrmidons have mani |
tested in hunting down the conspirators against |
the life of their Emperor? Has Mr. States Attor
ney WHITNEY shown any of the zeal i'm behalf of
the lives and security of the People whose sworn
and trusted servant he is, that NJ. lie Proeurevr
General CHAIN D EST ANGE has manifested in tbe
cause of his Imperial Master? Does not the thrice
repeated attempt at the commission of the same
CRIME give an emphatic negative to each one of
these questions? Is not the fact notorious to every
reader OF this journal, that in this city Justice is
halt and deaf, well as blind.-that she has
neither ears to hear the cry of the sufferer nor feet
with which to pursue the criminal, nor hands with
which to administer punishment? The whole adj
of Our criminal law is rotten and
inefficient; and the duty which we propose to as
sumo, and which we mean, day by dav. as occa-
sion may require, to discharge without fear par
aliy or favor is to expose alike the defects of tbe
system, and the shortcomings of its ministers
IN the performance of this duty we shall be aetna
ed by no spirit OF partzanship, and by no politi-
al preJudlces, for the evil is one which is above
I'll politics, for which neither party ought to be
eld sngly responsible, and for which the ascend
'ncy of neither party can promise or afford a
emedy.