The Northern Guardian. — 1892-05-05 (Hartlepool, Cleveland, England)

FROM PARIS TO LONDON.  Tim fugitive Anarchists, driven out of Paris and other Continental towns, arc flocking to London. Perhaps there is here no great cause for alarm, and, at any rate, we do not mean to emulate the Parisians and rush into a foolish stampede. But for anyone to be wilfully blind to the dangerous character of the Anarchist movement is little short of madness. The outrages in Paris and Belgium have been of such a daring and such a reckless character that we can almost excuse the terror of the French people ; and lit is just a question whether some steps should not be taken to guard against this country being over-run by the scum of the Continental capitals. What, however, should be made perfectly clear is that these Anarchists have no definite scheme for the increased comfort of the poorer classes. We are too prone to believe that every man professing violent beliefs uttered in violent language has been goaded to desperation by some form of tyranny— usually that of the capitalist. In the case of the Anarchists, at least, this is not so. Let 118 take as an example the man Nicholls, committed Last week in connection with the Commonweal prosecution, whose mode of appealing against the decision of a judge would be to blow the unfortunate functionary to the skies. Nicholls is not a working man. So far as we know he never did a day's manual labour in his life. He is a journalist with an incoherent idea that the world is very imperfect, and that he and a few others are specially retained to put things right. Other instances could be given of prominent Anarchists who have no connection with the labouring classes, who have suffered no injustice themselves, but are fully convinced that the world is going wrong, and that nothing but a universal explosion can put things on a proper footing. This should be clearly ' -understood. Were these men ardent reformers, who had tried in vain to remedy their grievances by legitimate methods, perhaps they would receive a greater share of sympathy. But they are too lofty in principle to tackle any specific evil which afflicts any particular body of men. They have no time to work at reform piece-meal. Their grand principle is a great upheaval of the whole social fabric, which would then be reconstructed by those who happened to escape the general destruction. Can any rsensible man look upon such ideas with other than amazement and contempt Is it possible to believe that the introduction of dynamite as a governmental quality can ever better laws or better life? We do not think it. Men of the Ravachol typo can never do an atom of good either to the working or any other classes. They are dreamers, if not monomaniacs. There is not one sound practical idea amongst the whole crew. They talk of universal brotherhood without know, Mg in the least what it would be and how it could be brought about. They do not say how they could improve trade and put better wages into the pockets of the people. Such considerations are beneath a full-blown Anarchist. There is another strange feature of the present outbreak. With the exception of the paltry Commonweal case we have had no outrage in England. The Anarchists have almost altogether confined their operations to Paris, which is the capital city of a Republic. We might also point ta the outrages a few years ago in Chicago, another Republican city. It would, therefore, appear, if we may judge from the locality of the outrages, that things are better in countries under a Monarchy than in Republics, which are regarded as being a considerable step in the direction of universal brotherhood. There is a little paradox here which it would take Mr. Nicholls all his time to explain. But, ras a matter of fact, Anarchists explain nothing. Their stock-in-trade is a collection of fine sentiments, which upon occasion are made to do duty as arguments. We do not think the English working men will fall victims to the creed until it is shown that sentiments , can be exchanged for coin of the realm.  . Deeming now says he is partly convinced that he committed the murder, hut is not certain. The date of the execution will be fixed on Monday.