The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1890-04-12 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1890.  NOTES OF  THE WEEK.  THE contincx of Emin Pasha in accepting service under the German Government and proceeding at once tc the interior of Africa has been severely criticised, especially by some of the promoters of the Relief Expedition. Emin will begin his new employment without coming back to Europe. He has been relieved from one danger merely to assume a scarcely less responsible post, namely. that of pushing German interests in the vicinity of the great lakes. After all he is not so blameworthy as his accusers would have us believe. He was under no permanent obligation to this country, although England was to a certain extent morally responsible for rescuing him from a perilous situation. That being done Emin was free to choose his own employment, and he accepted the first and most congenial offer made to him. The Germans are entering almost fiercely upon the task of "opening up" the interior of Africa, and it is possible what they believe to be their "interests" may eventually clash with what are believed to be British "interests." The civilizing and colonizing agencies of the two empires will eventually come into contact, but there is surely room for both  in the immense territories of the Dark Continent. So keen are the Germans upon Africa that a colonial department is warmly advocated. After all they may not find the new colonies El Dorado.  Mn. SECRETARY MATTHEWS has done Some queer things since he took charge of the Home Office. He has now surpassed himself in the treatment of the Crewe murder case. It will be remembered that when the youths Richard and George Davies were found guilty of the crime of killing their father the jury recommended them to mercy on account of their tender age. Everybody understood at the time that the jury were equally unanimous that the degree of guilt in each case was the same. The foreman of the jury now writes confirming that opinion. Public opinion entirely concurs in that decision and in the declaration that both youths should be treated alike. Nobody but Mr. Matthews would have thought of separating the two cases or of drawing such an invidious distinction. The only possible justification for deciding that Richard should die and that George should be respited is that one boy is a year or two older than the other. If this is the way the "clemency of the Crown" is to be exercised the sooner the entire decision is left to the jury the better. In this case Mr. Matthews decided in a diametrically opposite way to the expressed wishes of the jury. A London correspondent very properly remarks :—" I have never known a decision of the Home Secretary in a capital case received with such universal disapprobation. His obstinate refusal to extend the mercy of the Crown to the elder brother makes the reprieve of the younger appear a half-heart:ll concession to clamour rather than an act of mercy founded on equity and reason. The Home Secretary has long been the most unpopular member of the Cabinet, and he will have made countless enemies by his harshness in this case. The unpopularity of a second-rate Minister is, however„a matter of small consequence compared with the impetus which this event has unquestionably given to the movement for the abolition of capital punishment. Human lives, even those of murderers, are too solemn things to be terminated or continued at the mere caprice of an executive officer."  LORD RANDOLPH CnuncuiLt continues t 9 attack the Irish Land Purchase Bill as " a thoroughly unsound and unsafe measure." The main objections urged against the Bill by others is that it is a landlords' relief bill and that the security to be taken is altogether inadequate. In other words, the tenant