New-York tribune., 1909-07-08
ANARCHIST IN ENGLAND.
holders.


1t is pretty safe assumption that the Indian
anarchist crime Of last week in London is re
I carded by anarchists in Great Britain and
( throughout the world with CONSERVATION and
regret as well with malevOlent eXultation.
That is because 1t imperils their enjoyment of
their favorite asylum. Hitherto the United
Kingdom, and especially London, has been the
chief refuge of anarchists from all over the
world who, as a rule. have maintained fairly
good behaviour there in order TO avoid expul-
sion They have realized that it would be n
disastrous thing for them to have the police Of
England cooperate with the police of France
and Germany in suppressing them: and for
that reason Englishmen have rejoiced in a
supposed immunity from anarchist outrages-
Nevertheless there have been some outrages
there. though none so serious as TO provoke the
government TO the enactment of more severe
laws
The notorious John Most of Augsburg. Ger
many, was the chief founder of the criminal
cult in London, in 1879 Two years later he
got locked up for his deviltres and on his re
lease came to New York to conduct q similar
propaganda here. But he published and dis
tributed IN London his anarchists Guide
containing directions for the making and use
of murderouS bombs. and it is still the favorte
handbook of criminals of that class. His dis
ciples founded the Autonomy Club after his
departure from London, of which the member
ship was at first exclusively German but after
ward became cosmopolitan and thus distin-
guished from the organizations of Russian
nihilistS Armenian revoutlonists and Others
of national rather than international compost
ton. It's organ. Die AutonOmie," became the
most conspicuous periodical of crime in all
Europe.
IT was TO this villanous organization that
most. if not all, of the anarchist outrages in
London for number of years were due. One
of its chief officers was a Frenchman named
Bourdn who in February, 1894 set out to
blow I'D the Greenwich Observatory with
bomb. but happily succeeded in blowing up him
self instead. In the same year Francis Potti
and Giuseppe Carnot attempted to blow up the
Stock Exchange when it was crowded with
members, and were sent to prison for q term
of years as was another who wrecked with
bombs several pOstofiices in London. Then the
police raided the Autonomy Club and broke it
ND. with the result that its members went into
other clubs, and thus scattered the virus of
that sort Of crime still more widely about the
city There are supposed to be now from eight
hundred to one thousand professional anar-
chists in London many of them apparently in
dustrious artisans. while many others ply the
trades of burglars and cutpurses.
IT is not improbable that this latest outrage
will move the government to enact more strin-
gent laws or the police to administer the exist
ing laws more rigidly and remorseleSsly. AS
matter of fact existing laws afford little no
protection against anarchists as such. 1t is
only when actual crime further than criminal
incitement, is committed that anything is done.
1t is very difficult to exclude undesirable i'm
migrants. If one is sent back because he is
pauper. he goes, but he may presently return
with little money in his pockets. and then
he is unhesitatingly admitted. Practically any
one with a TO note may enter, and it is said