The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1885-02-20
THE APOTHEOsIS OF AVENGERS.

1t is amazing that the London jour
mails and some New York newspapers
which betray these British sympathies
too reckl lessly, should be blind to the
stupendous Ulunder involved in iaudlng
the attempt to murder O'DOnovan Ros-
sa. The would-be assassin, Mrs. Dud'
ley, is not herself more craZv than the
writer's who make her mad act a pretext
for confounding right and wrong, for
demolishing the bulwaIks of Law and
social order, and for piunging English
men and ITishmen on both sides OF the
Atlantic in a war for mutual extermina-
| tion,
1t has pleased the London Times to
dignity the misguided and appaI emily
| demented Mrs. Dudley by comparing
her to Charlotte COrday. From one
point of view that newspa per has done
its best to give the parallel malign ex-
actituje The morbid sentiment that
masks a savage passion for Ieprisals, is
| not the frame of mind best fitted to con
stTue the real lesson of historical anaio-
giPs. To the broad view that embraces
effects as well as motives, the murder OF
Marat is memorable, less for the deLeSt-
able character of the victim and the
self immolatiDg spirit of his destroyer,
than for the appalling consequences of
the crime. The act of Charlotte Cor
day was, more than aughJ else, charge
able with the inhuman butcheries of the
succeeding Reign of Terror. 1t made
a martyr of a monster and transformed
an outcast's rawlings, of which even the
Paris mob had begun to tire and sicken,
into the inspired injunctiOns of trans
lated prophet. 1t confused the con-
science, stifled pity, and split the sym
pathies OF France it blocked the rising
wave OF conservative reaction, crushed
the widespread GiTOndist conspiracy,
stamped out the Vendean insurrection,
chOked the prisons, whetted the guIllo-
tine, and draped even the devilish ma
lignity of Carrier in the cloak of righ-
teOus Tetribution. There must have
been much less of romance than Of alb
hOrrent folly in the act of Charlotte
Corday TO the eyes of Marie Antoinette,
of Nine. Roland, and the myriad vic
tins of the ensuing fatal twelvemOnth,
during which the gospel Of blood found
itself rehabiitated by the deplorable
slaughter of its apostle. Is il possible
the London Times can sobeTy desire to
see the analogy by which it would exalt
the stupid or insane work of an assassin
implacably carried out
Here is another needless comment on
Mrs. DuGley's mad act from the usually
temperate and well l-balanced Standard.
This organ Of influential English opin-
ion does not scTuple to twist Scripture
to its purpose and prnpOunds, aprOpOs of
Rosa, the edifying doctrine that ''they
who live by the sword must perish by
the sword" Now, what is this but to
acclaim lynch law; TO discard the whole
machinery of justice; to advocate the
right of private ajudicatiOn and re-
venge ; to set price upon the head of
every IIishman suspected-dnd in the
absence of trial sIspicions pass for
pTOOfs-Of completely in dynamite con-
spiracies? What is it but to hound Eng
lishmen the world over, 20 the murder
of their fellow beings of Irish birth I?
How long time will probably elapse,
after crime like Mrs. Dudley's has
been excused, spplauded. tricked out in
patriotic, romantic, heroic coloTs, before
a mob OF English cranks, infected with
the saDguiuaTy craze, may forget TO dis
CTimiuaJe with nlcenesS between the
guilt and innocence of ITishmen, aud
come at last to run amuck IN the thor
oughfares of London ?
BY the vicious tenor of its comments
on rather shabby counterfeit of Char
loLte CUrday's infaJuation, the London
press is taking the straight course to-
ward converting England into a sham
bles and Ireland into hell. But let its
disciples do their bloody work at home
Neither Irishmen nor Engiishmen shall
fight out their quaTrels here. Our
courts are open tor the trial aud the
punishment of ITishmen and English
men who can be shown to.have commit
ted any offence against our laws. But
our streets are not open, and they never
will be, tOI cutLhrOats to gIuJ their
grudgss in, and buy the cheap distinc-
tiOn Of patriotic ardOr by unreprOved
assassiEation.-Net York San.