Connecticut western news., 1876-01-21
LOCALIZED ROBBERY,
A Lecture on the Crimes of tho Day, and |
 Striking Analysis of Them.

A Lecture on the Crimes of tho Day, and n
 Striking Analysis of Them.
 Rev. David O. Mears, of Cambridge, Mass, gave a lecture upon Vital Prob lems, the subject for the evening being Legalized Robbery. There are tive standards, he said, in every Christian community by which the acts of each citizen are measured-the moral and the legal. The one is the expression of the Divine will, the other the expression of the principle of the State or nation. The one is never altered to suit the in clinations of the community the other varies with public opinion. Our civil code has been written by imperfect, fal- lible men, and it by no means follows that because these imperfect, falible men are not condemned by the laws of their own making, therefore they are without reproach. Inquiring into the validity of the legal standard, we notice first, the uncertainty of right and justice in framing the laws. Lobbyists crowd our legislatures, and votes are bought and sold and traded on the most impor- tant questions. Second, we notice the uncertainty of the laws as to their exe- cution. The same influences that work against right and justice in framing our laws work against their execution. If bribes are powerless in defeating the expression of strict justice, they are often powerful in defeating the execu- tion of justice. We have laws against gambling, yet under guard of the police we may enter every gambling house in Boston. In the third place, we notice the uncertainty of the standard of law. may be overruled in the next thus the slavery has been reversed and on the greatest question of to-day, the suppress sion of intemperance, the legal standards vary. From each of these points we are driven to the irresistible conclusion that it is morally wrong for us to rest satis- fled in an appeal to the legal standard as gauging our conduct. Yet men almost without exception act according to the legal standard members of the same church, sitting at Christ's table together, arc never sure of business transaction until the papers are passed not one man ill thousand, becoming prosper ous after once failing in business, ever pays the old debts which the law has cancelled.
 The highwayman who plunders his victim is a robber. Another man, re- spected in society, under cover of the law defrauds his neighbor of thousands, and because it is legally done, he holds his position as before the transaction is legalized robbery. A moral wrong committed lawlessly or lawfully, is a moral wrong still.
 We live in an age of great financial temptations. Wealth can build cities and whiten tho ocean with the sails of commerce. It can erect palaces and bring to homes many q comfort and joy. It is power, yet 1t cannot purchase 0ontentment or love; cannot buy back the virtue once trampled in the dust cannot bribe death or win heaven. II would ring counter feit-like on the pave. ment of heaven it's mansions would look gross and mean beside those which Christ has gone to prepare. Yet men in their haste to be rich stifie the convio tions of conscience by saying their trans actions are legal.
 We notice, first, fraud at home. We refer to the very common transaction oi deeding property to the wife or children ill time of approaching disaster. A maC has $25, ,0OO, but borrows enough to give him $10O, 900 for his purposes. He takes $15, 1000 and builds a house and deeds it to his wife, and this Is lega' transaction. As @ matter of fact, he is doing business to the extent of $85, ,0OC on $1O, ,OOO capital, and as @ matter oi necessity, the odds are against him. | What right has this business pretendel what moral right, to the house he has built9 What moral right has he to hold 1t from his creditors in case of his almost inevitable failureG Yet the law allows it. "Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness and his cham, bers by wrong; that useth his neigh. | bor's service without wages, and givetL him not for his work that saith, I will build me a wide house and large cham bers, and cutteth him out windows and 1t is ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion. Shalt thou reign because thou closest myself ill cedar 2"
 Secondly, the credit system. The tendency observable in the last fifteen years is alarming. Men borrow ill order to carry on business, and if we are tc trust the results, it is but poor invest ment for the lender. Corporations ad. vance a part and borrow the rest, and eventually fail. Towns hold their meetings and vote to construct rail road or build a schoolhouse, and borrow the money. Cities do the same. Church, es vote to build houses of worship, and do as every other organization, mortgage the building for the amount above what they have raised. If the words of the sacred book are true, "The borrower is servant to the lender" we are in state ! of bondage indeed. From such bond age the doctrines of reputation and in fiation have sprung up. Leav .ng out of account all persons fifteen years of age and under, eanry person in this country, male and female, above that limit would be compelled to pay over $100 to liqui- date the national debt. On the same basis $60 would be required from every person to liquidate our State debt. Add to these the debts of counties and towns and the amount would be appalling yet We go Oh carelessly adding burden to burden. The whole system is purely legal, but it can scarcely be termed either scriptural or moral.
 | Following this, we notice the system | of bankruptcy. It has few terrors fol ! men of hI1asnAaa Tha knsnkrnxk <11 f,x