New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-07-12

women who brazenly defy the Govern
this is a wise view. | do not think
English influence has declined or is de-
clining. But it is the view widely held
abroad
Mr.. McKenna's police precautions
have not prevented and cannot pre-
vent the burning Of historic houses,
the outrages in ST. Pauls Cathedral,
in Westminster Abbey, in Buckingham
Palace, in the art galleries. The shat
tered Coronation Chair, the slashed
Nelasquez, which. like Sargents por-
trait of Henry James, is irreparably IN
jured-these are the answers to the
Home Secretary's plea in eXtenuation
of his failure The closed galleries
Of London and still more the open
galleries where no work of art is safe
while they are open-these also are
answers The futility of the police
precautions has been proved again and
again. There is a comic side to Il as
we'll as a tragic. A friend wrote me
the other day from London:
Il went last week TO the British
Museum with another girl TO see the
new rooms; we had no permit, but we
prevailed on the two policemen at the
gate TO let us in, and finally reached
an inner room where q delightful
young man, after much entreaty, gave
us two cards. | had to sign paper
saying | would do no damage of any
kind, and even then they only admitted
US after ! had threatened to send for
DR.. Bridge, the head of the Egyptian
Department. 1t was colossal cheek on
my part, for | barely knew DR.. Bridge.
Even then we were still treated with
great suspicion, and when we got
out of reach of one policeman he would
clap his hands to attract the attention
of the next one. This being treated
as potential criminals made US almost
long 10 do something to justify their
suspicious
But the questions of jurisdiction and
responsibility are not exhausted even
when they have been referred to the
Government and to Parliament. Be-
hind both, and superior to both, are
the people of England, and it is clear
that the people are not satisfied with
Ministerial methods, or with the re-
suits of these methods. Weeks ago
The Times said:
"The need of checking this campaign
Of violence and crime is so pressing
that unless the Government can do 1T
By lawful and authoritative means it is
TO be feared that the public will take
the law into their own hands"
"To be feared" says that ever con-
sentative journal, but things have gone
so far that there is an ever-increasing
number of the community who do not
fear it, but hope for it.
They hope for it because they de-
IF coairo p,ili+anpv priiQhpd IN
any other way. We in America have
long been familiar with the law which
is outside the law: and sometimes
above it. Not so in England, where the
majority dread all non-legal or extra
legal means Of redressing wrongs. The
lesson of the California Vigilance Com
mttees; of the New Orleans uprising
against the Malta; of the lynchings by
which alone the Southern whites think
il possible TO protect their women--an
these are imperfectly understood in
England. They are precedents which
Englishmen do not wish to follow. They
viii not be cited as presidents when
the crisis comes.
Nor do presidents of any kind, Eng
lish or American, much matter when
irresistible forces are let loose. In
California and in New Orleans, society
resolved .self into its original ele-
ments. The machinery Of the law had
broken down. There remained but one
way Of restoring order, of enforcing
the law. or of rescuing those rights
which the law was meant TO protect;
and had failed to protect. There IS
every prospect that when once the Eng
li9h people are convinced that society
cannot otherwise defend itself against
q
take the law into their own hands.
C. w 9