Wilmington daily commercial., 1875-05-17
FIRST EDITION.
Crime-Its Causes and Its Cure.

| SERMON BY REV. FIELDER IsRAEI,-soME THOUGHTS
| ON JUDGE oILPINs CHARGE TO THE GRANT
JURY.
Rev. Fielder Israel, pastor of tho First Uni
tartan church, preached sermon, last evening
on Crime Its Causes and Ito Cure" The
thoughts were suggested by Judge Gilpin's re.
cent charge to the Grand Jury, wherein it was
stated that crime is fearfully on the increase in
this county.
| First thanking the Judge for this opportunity
| and for tile timely warning which he gave, Mr..
Israel then noticed the three causes of crime,
VIZ: vciousness, vanity and vagrancy; or natal
| conditions. acquired tastes and idleness. Mr..
Israel here noticed class of persons who drift
| through life worthlessly, aimlessly and mis-
chievously, simply because they have nothing
| to do with their money or their lives. They
have no consistent principle or fixed purpose in
| living; hence they are subject to temptation and
| fall an easy prey TO the seductions Of crime.
From all these sources vice comes from vile
nurture and from vanity, the root evil Of which
is the indiscriminate respect paid to wealth and
from idlepess. He then went on to mention
several mistakes about the causes OF crime 1st,
To suppose that its commission is mostly among
the poorer classes; End, BY the ignorant and un-
educated and Srd By the Incorporate. While
| each OF these ID cause Of CRIME it is a mistake
to suppose that any one Of them is a fountain
head. The particular and special source OF
crime is the indiscriminate homage paid to
wealth, because it produces 1st, The desire
for distinction End, The ambition for money at
all hazards 3rd, 1t leads to dishonesty, defal-
cation, and destruction. 1t is incredible what
meu will do for money. 1t is demoralizng.
Herbert Spencer says, 'scarcely man is to be
found who would not behave with more civility
to knave in broadcloth than to q knave in fus-
tian."
What shall we do with crime? Let us remember
the root-dea of 1.-THE incongruity between the
faculties and their sphere OF action, when these
faculties are abnormal, or lily educated. or wick
cd, or warped. Iu order to cure crime we must
in the first place purify public opinion. We
must insist upon the enactment Of just and rig
orous laws. Here the speaker showed the in
sufficiency Of our Delaware code and its punish
ments, particularly noticing the pllory and the
whipping post and denouncing them as ineffec-
tual, and saying that Notwithstanding the ex-
istence OF this mode of punishment it is an
nounced by the highest authority in the State
that crime is on the increase. On Saturday last
larger number than usual were sentenced to
both the pillory and whipping post. We muet
come to better idea of punishment it must
be reformatory and not retributive for re-
straint, education and development of the good,
and not for vindictive, passionate determine
ton to vindicate the law merely, but save the
offender as we'll as the offended-not to destroy
his manhood, but to improve his manners. The
human mind can never be won, persuaded, or in
any respect gained over by brute force All his
tory proves this.
We need reformatory institutions and well reg
ulated Houses of Corrections penitentiary a
work house and self-sustainiBg almshouses.
We want education Here the speaker branched
of to show that education was not a preventa-
tive of crime, reading again from Herbert Spen-
Ger and also referring to Macaulley and Miss
Martneau, presenting the argument on both
sides that education is acure for crime.
But what we need more than all il gospel to
cure this evi-a gospel of sympathy, of human
ity, not of seasons and sacraments, of theolo-
ges, of metaphysics and philosophy, but one OF
service, of duty, of benevolence and good will,
of justice, of the recognition OF the rights of
man. Each were dwelled upon and applied to
the subject in hand and their power and effects
shown as reformatory and regulating principles.
This gospel can alone reach and rule these evils.