The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-04-04
Boston Traveller.l
Assassination Not a Popular or
Democratic Crime.

tion-and especially of Regicide-as if it were
crime of popular nature, and favored by
democracy; but history shows, not only that
this is not correct view of the matter, but
that assassination is crime that is essentially
aristocratical in character; and that the worst
King killers have been Kings. By aristocracy
we mean men who are above the masses in po-
stion, and who consider themselves to be the
salt of the political world, as we'll as of society.
In every country where there is monarch
there is necessary some kind of aristocracy, or
superior class. There may be country with
an aristocratical polity, but having no mon
arch but there can be no monarchy without
an aristocracy, according to the popular mean
ing of the word. An aristocracy's presence
does not imply the presence of monarch;
but monarch's existence does imply the ex-
istence of aristocrats The classic hostility to
TyrdntS did not mean love for freedom; it
meant arstocratical- oligarchical- of
absolute rule, of the ascendency of one man at
the expense of class of men. Assuredly we
find in both Greek and Roman history-which
furnishes so much of the intellectual food
of modernism absolute reverence for men
who have slain other men who had established,
or who had sought to establish, tyranny, or
what was so considered, and called Almost
all tho Roman assassins of note were aristo-
Gratis, who loathed kingly rule; and the regard
in which they were held by antiquity has de-
scended to us, whence the semi-tenderness
with which we look upon the killing of ad-
mitted tyrants, holding it to be something
quite different from ordinary murder. Some
of the Roman proceedings were assassnations
under the forms of law, but of law of the ex-
tremest kind. Such were the SULTAN pro-
scriptons, and such. too, were the proscrip-
tions OF the Triumvirate, that under which the
Republic persisted, for it was the Trumvirate
that triumphed at Philippi. Cicero was as
much the victim Of assassination as Caesar
That of Caesar has been generally approved,
even in modern days, though it was neither a
better nor worse deed than the murder of
Gar Alexander III. The slayers of the Grac-
chi were assassins. Indeed, assassination was
as much mode of government under the Ro-
mans as it has been under the Russians, and
seems still to be. The Romans showed small
mercy to foreign kings, as appears from their
treatment of Perseus and Jugurtha, and others
of their conquered royal foes. Assassination
has been kind of art in modern times, and
ward IL, if the common account be correct
but it has been questioned, had the honor of
being assassinated by his wife; and she, like
Jezebel, was Kings daughter. Henry ".
assassinated Richard H.; and Henry vi. is
supposed to have been assassinated by Edward
w., not by Richard I'LL, as commonly is said.
The worst of the crimes attributed to Richard
Ill. is the assassination of his nephews, Ed
ward V. and the Duke of York. Henry VII.
| assassinated the Earl of Warwick, who was the
hoir 70 ha EuO1ich nrOU altar tho loot
| of Edward " and his brother,- and he assass-
| mated him in the basest manner, and for the
! basest of reasons. Long afterward, Henry
| VIII. assassinated the Countess of Salisbury,
| Warwick's sister, and only because she was
| the Last of the Plantagenets. Her sole offence
| was that she was of the blood royal. Queen
| Elizabeth assassinated Mary Queen of Scots
| whom she had no more right, either legal or
moral to send to the scaffold, than Herod had
| to order the Massacre of the Innocents.
Charles II. sought the assassination of Crom-
well, and he doubtless approved of the assassi-
nations of envoys sent by the English Com
monwealth to Holland and Spain The Duke
of Albany, brother of Robert Ill, King of
| Scotland, had assassiIated his nephew, the
| Duke of Rothsay, heir-apparent to the crown
and he sought the death OF Rothsay's younger
| brother. Albany's purpose was to divert the
crown into his own branch of the royal house.
| James l. of Scotland was assassinated by a
| knot of aristocrats. James III. assassinated
| the Earl of Douglas, giving him the first stab.
| James III. was murdered by some aristocrat,
| when he was flying from a lost battle. The
| assassi nation of Ricclo was the work of Scotch
| aristocrats, and Mary Stewards husband Darn
| ley) was one of the gang. James vi, either
| undertook to assassinate the Ruthvens, or they
undertook to assassinate him, history can't
say which, In the many, Scottish assassina-
| tions, aristocrats commonly figure, and savage
| ly, too. Assassination was not unknown to
| Continental sovereigns, and Louis XI. of
| France has the reputation of having dealt in
it, at the expense of royal blood, though failing
| in some of his amiable attempts. Other mon
archs were just as ready to attempt the spilling
of such blood. The point is, that King
killing has been Kingly pursuit. In the
sixteenth century, that pursuit ragged. Phil
| ip IL, of the Spains, was an assassin
| of the worst kind. He attempted to take off
| Queen Elizabeth, and he was a party to the
murder of Henry III. OF France. He COM
passed the assassination of the Prince of Or
| ange. His position was that he had right to
| remove senemies whom he could not other
| wise reach, by resort to assassination,-and of
| that right he availed himself, vigorously,
| Henry Ill of France followed Philips exam
ample, when he assassinated Henry, Duke of
| Guise, and his brother, Cardinal Guise. Other
| rulers acted in the same way, and the Repub-
| lie of Venice is charged with having excelled
| in assassination-and it was the most oligarchi-
| cal government in the world. The men who
got up the Gunpowder Plot were all of the
class gentlemen, and they boasted of the fact
| They were gentlemen of name and blood -
| said Fawkes, VINO was one of the number; and
| he added, that no one was employed who was
| not a gentleman. Their names-Percy Gates
by, Digby, Rookwood, Tresham, Winter.
| Grant, and others-show that he spoke the
| truth; and that the assassination of King,
Lords and Commons,-the murder of King
| dom in its representatives, was sought, as
the Attorney General (Coke) described them
on their trial, by gentlemen of good houses,
| of excellent parts, and OF very competent for
| tunes and estates" Ninety years later anoth-
| er Rookwood was one of the men who were
| concerned in tie Assassination Plot that was
| directed against William I'LL At later dates
in the seventeenth century, many great men
took parts in assassination plots, and in some
| instances were active assaSsins. Wallenstein
was one of the victims of such q plot, and the
| chief of the assassins was no less parsonage
| than the Emperor Ferdir and H., head of the
| Holy Roman Empire, and the only Emperor
then in the world; and who lavishly rewarded
| his associates in the foul murder, most of
whom were men of high birth, and some of
whom founded great familes-yet existing
and hourishing-out of the property taken
Montrose is not free fiom the suspicion of hav-
| ing been engaged in an assassination plot,
though it is with the EXTREMIST reluctance that
one thinks evil of him. The men who sought
| to assassinate Cromwell were almost invaria-
bly, men of the higher classes; and SO were
those who endeavored to murder William III.
| Twice did Louis XIV.-the Most Christian
King, the Grand Monarque-become party
to attempts to assassinate William. James III
then in exile, was a party to the same
plots. For James there was something
that might pass for the shadow Of
an excuse, but Louis had not even
a shadow to stand between him and in
fanny. A plot was formed against the Royal
Family of Great Britain, in the last century,
by nobleman. The government of George
| III placed a price on the head of Prince
Charles, equal to 100000 of our present
money; and what was that but the offering OF
vast reward for the successful assassination
of youth whom most of the inhabitants of the
British Islands believed to be the heir of their
legitimate Kings, and in whose veins coursed
l,la..l 49, IA R;,a1xa a.