, 1870-01-18

- The Coroner reports 40 cssos Of inquest,
Of which IS died from natural causes, es
drowned; II sere infants fonnd dsad; 80
Killed by falls, 3s BY railway t.ains; 81
sniuides; 2s died By de!inuna trensens 81
were murdered; killed by poison, IL by
kerosene explosions, and by street caza !;
1,747 persons we're received In the County
| Jail, and 1851 discharged. The present
number confined is 160.
CRIMES 6A1cTioaKD 81 LAW.
While the two elopemanta which ara the
latest sensation in New York and Chicago
resemble each other in no other particular,
they both indicate how inadequate both
our statutory and common law are for the
punishment or even recognition of c1ima-
Neither Sheriff Fischer nor the syren with
whom be departed committed any crime
which the laws Of Illinois define or our
courts would punish. Had the Sheriff
stolen some woman's breast-pin he would
have been felon, liable TO be indicted by
the grand jury, and chased into any State
in the Union. But, as he only overwhelmed
his wife with grief bittsrer than the loss
Of any amount Of property, tho grand jury
may look over our statutes in vain for any
definition OF crime under which he is in
dictable. Should his injured wife meet and
nssassinAse hin or his paramour, it il safe
to SAT, Judging from precedenta, that no
Jury in the land would convict her Of crime
for this 1awless revenge So sensitive is
the public conscience to the fact that such
elopements are crimes, and yet 80 negligent
| is it II awarding to their immediate victims
or to society At large any adequate redress.
The mist1ess, who, 1t Is currently report
ed, had, shortly before the elopement, shot
him for having given promise to his
friends to return to hls family, had, BY
such means, cowed him into submission to
her will, and compelled him to abandon
honor, family, and q prominent md
responsible office for her future company
Had she stolen horse, the Governors
requisition would follow her, also, to sveiy
part Of the land But as abe only robbed
wife Of her husband, she, too, is blameless
before the Law. II the Sheriff has taken
few dollars Of the county's money he is
arnenable to the law. But, having merely
inflicted On it disgrace and ultimats In
sands, he is clear.
So with the Reverend Horace Cooke and
Mas Mattie johnson, Of New York. Here
Was a Clergyman who, for q long tina,
steadily natures an intrigue, not donbtizg,
apparently, that, should he succeed in II, he
would have the villainy to 1eave wife,
fanily, church associations, good name,
and honor, and go into perpetual exile from
a1lin Life that was worth living for, for tho
sake of accomplishing seduction. Hero
is villainy which sails under the black
flag Of pirate into the eanctity and peace
Of two homes, which disgrsces religion and
dlshonors affection, and which defines its
author to be what the Law defines a pirate,
viz, hosfes huuani genens,-au enemy Of
the human race. Yet upon his return the
law acquits him Of all crime, and We doubt
It would have been otherwise had his &c
compliee returned rAvished and 1uined in
stead Of merely disgraced We say his
s. aceomp1ice." because the young woman
who took part with Cooke in this miserable
escapade deserves to bear equal 1esponsi-
billty with him for the crime. She, too, has
proved herself ready to plunge !
her parents into the lowest
depths Of grief in order to
enter upon life Of shame by stealine
another woman's husband. All these crimes
are Of The sneak ordsr. They prasnppose
months, perhaps yesrs, Of previous lying
and hypocrisy, and, in the New York case,
long outward pretenee Of piety, coupled
with an inner reckle5sness Of every corsid-
Grafton of affection or dnty which stood in
the WY Of IN unbrid1ed lust For her,
too, the law has no punishment.
In her case also, had the injured father
met and shot the Clergyman as her seducez,
or had Alr. Cookies wife administered some
severe cosporeal punishment to the Miss
who was 80 willing 10 become his victim,
the public conscience would have quietly
acquiesced, ,-subject, Of course, to the usual
protests Of the minority.
In the McFatIand Richardson case in
New York We have a lnnentable illustration
Of the steep descent by which drunkenness
Lends to alienation, alienation to intrigue,
intrigue to divorce, and divorce to murder.
Though neither drunkenness, intrigue, nor
divorce arc crimes, they, by direct opera
ton Of the laws and passions Of ordinary
human nature, plunge persons who little
anticipate the abyss before them into tbs
blackest Of all crimes es-murder.
Such instances provo that the law in its I
iuae1ibi)ity fails to meet the demand Of the
p1blic conscience in relation to some OF the
most obvious and fearful crimes which
desolate and curse society. While our In
stitutions in many respects are an advance
upon those OF all previous races md periods,
md in no respect more than in the Ger.
tainty which our Laws MIN to define
in advance ali crime, it is one Of
the evils growing out Of thess
1acta that we have no tribunal !
which represents the public conscience and
awards penalties upon offences which no
statute has measured, because none has
anticipated. Roma had no Law against |
parzicide, because it was not deemed pos
Rible that any Roman could murder his |
father. Bat the l,anicide did not, there
fore, 80 unpunished. In every case where
IN written laws failed tor want of provision
OF the manifold forns which crime could |
assume there was provided tribunal which |
would decide the case acco1ling to con-
science, and mete ont such punishment ns
indignant and outraged human mature de- |
manded. Tho cases in which such sp,,cial !
rescnpts or decisions were rendered be;-