New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-01-06

TIE LATEST OUTRAGES IN BROOKLYN.
1T is safer to commit crime in Brooklyn
" than to expose corruption there" When
this language was addressed to Gov. Dix
few days ago by Col A. G.. Davis in his argu-
ment against District Attorney Britton, it was
smiled at as an exaggeratlOn natural TO tne
occasion and argument, if not indeed wholly
untrue But occurrences subsequent to That
utterance furnish proof that it was neither
untruth nor exaggeratiOn. Since he spoke
what are now proved prophetic words two
plots have been cOncOcted in Brooklyn to I'M
prison one person and to assassinate another,
for no other Offense than the exposure OF cor
ruption there.
A subordinate writer Of this journal was
lately imprisoned for refusing to give the Dame
of the author of an article deDouncing the
Brooklyn Ring, and though regularly released
on habeas corpus, he has been again summoned
to court on the same proceedings, forced to
take position which Brooklyn Ring judges
pronounce contempt of court, and will doubtless
be again sent to Jail.
Happily the other, which contemplated
assassination has failed as by miracle.
The facts of tho attempted assassination OF
Judge s. ID. Morris were narrated yester-
day; and we commend their careful study
to all residents of Brooklyn, that they may
understand what desperate class the corrupt
courts and District-Attorney of Kings County,
by their failure to punish known and indicted
criminals. have encouraged in the City OF
Churches" We do not pretend for a single
moment to intimate, as some do, that this
diabOlical attempt at assassination of citizen
active in the exposure of the corruption in
Office of Mr. Britton was q direct result OF
the investigation. We shall not for the
present accept even the theory advanced
that the attempt was instigaUed by the men
whose guilt was exposed by the late investi-
cation. for there is no proof of any such thing.
But it cannot be denied that the first Thought
of every man who knows how relentlessly
Judge Morris has for two years pursued the
ruffians whom he as Dstrict-Attorney indicted
for fraudulent voting land whom his successor
has as persistently prOtected) will be that some
person or persons of this class instigated his
attempted assassination. 1t is idle to talk OF
personal enemies resorting to such deeds; 1t
is to mistake human nature to suppose that
some person convicted by Judge Morris has
thus sought his revenge after his release from
prison. This crime was the work of men who
fear rather than of those who have suffered
conviction.
But by whom done or by what motive in
stigated, no man can shut his eyes to the fact
that the tendency of the administration of
the laws under District-Attorney Britton has
been to encourage the desperate and criminal
classes Two years of Britton have made this
attempt at assassination possible in the quiet
city of years ago it has come to this terror
ism through a regular graduation of crime
from ballot-box stufiing to murder, and all in
two years. One year of vigorous prosecution
of the same class in NewYOrk by District
Attorney Phelps has made New-YOrk safer
to-day than its suburb. The contrast between
the fruits of honest administration here and
corruption in Office there is too glazing to be
lost on the people Of the two cities now strug-
Cling for reform.