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Leader (1850-1860), 3rd January 1857, Edition 2 of 2, Page 13

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      The Anglo-American Alliance. An American...

      thoroughly acquainted -with the affairs of his own land— -who so perfectly understands the commercial relations of the Republic and the Commonwealth—who may he said to have identified himself with English commerce— - and who has had bo many opportunities of acquiring an insight into the character and feelings of the English people ? He can speak to England as an American , and to America as an Englishman . Closely connected with those classes , whose property is

      a gage for their peaceful tendencies , an Anglo-American , merchant yet understands how essential to the best interests of the two countries is the vindication of that freedom which has extended English and American commerce to every part of the world . But there is a further section to that chapter . Exactly in proportion as the people

      of the civilized world are free , as the incubus of despotism , bureaucracy , aristocracy , and excluaiveness of every kind , is removed from them , their power of production will increase , their capacity for commerce will enlarge ; and the wealth-acquiring trade which England and America already urge in every part of the world will augment proportionately to the partnership of England and America .

      We rejoice to see this testimony to the awakening of a noble ambition amongst the Americans ; we have often shown what they could do to enlarge their influence and power , even on this side of the Atlautie . If , through our own fault , we have fallen under the sway of a reactionary bureaucracy , we might still find the power to do something in the world , if a helping hand were held out to us : and

      who could hold out that helping hand so well or so congenially as America P American statesmen and the English people could , indeed , open up £ new markets , ' not only for the produce and manufactures of the two countries , but for their ideas ; and in swelling the power of the Republic and the Commonwealth , they would enlarge the blessings of mankind and open the heart of nation to nation .

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      The Garotte And The Gallows. X/Ife And P...

      THE GAROTTE AND THE GALLOWS . X / Ife and property are nowhere so secure as in our favoured land , cries the Englishman complacently—wholly forgetting the evidence of his own journals . According to themand in this at least they are true—there is a constant struggle between the orderlj r classes and the criminal classes . No place is safe . The decent tradesman going home after business , the Government clerk asking his way in a respectable suburb , the young lady

      walking along Oxford-street in the evening , are garotted . ' The shopman sitting at his work is suddenly assaulted and beaten to death , actually within view of indifferent passengers . The respectable woman going to market is assault ©'! , and the " [ Turso is wrenched from her hand . The passenger in the omnibus is warned by a printed notice to take care of his pockets , so common is depredation , even by those who look most respectable . The house ia entered by the bearer of a letter , by the sturdy beggar , by the area sneak , by the maid ' s sweetheart .

      The church is stripped . The money is drawn from the bank by a forged cheque . The manager of the bank uses the house as an instrument for gigantic swindling . The registrar of shares in the joint-stock company is daily , for years , selling forged shares . The accountant is periodically passing accounts habitually falsified , though by the system ot double entry a fraud in the books , without collusion , is almost a physical and moral impossibility . The merchant who sells you goods , or obtains advances on goods , is swindling you by a gigantic species of

      thimble-rig , in which the goods have been spirited away . The son . of a lordly house uses his name to facilitate a fraud . These events are as notorious as the opening of Parliament , as the position of Mr . Disbauli , or tlie relations of any member of the royal family ; neither one is singular in its kind . " Wesuck in fabulous accounts of " railways and revolvers in -Greorgia , " forgetting fche real railway frauds and garottes in . London . ~ We speak of Italy as the land of the assassin , when a man may traverse IPlprence from one end to the other daily , and never hear of an outrage .

      The remedies suggested are as various as the forms of crime . One person recommends revolvers—not in Georgia ! Another advises the bowie knife—not in California A collar of iron , to defeat the garotter . A collar of iron , -with poisoned needle spikes , to torture and kill the garotter . A . life-preserver . A doubling of the police force . A special police attendant on private persons or private carriages . A sword-stick ,

      a dagger ditto . A blue light , to burn and flabbergast the footpad . A boot-bayonet , set on like a spur , to kick withal . A door chain , to keep out the sturdy beggar . A little barking spaniel , for- the burglar . A small wicket peep-hole , to scan the visitor . A general raid , to kidnap all the suspicious characters . A universal transportation . A vigorous resort to the gallows , by way of counter-garotting .

      Carry them all off to the colonies , renew transportation , cries the practical man . Ay , why not do that ? asks the man of sense . For the simple reason , ray dear sir , that the threatened rebellion of the transport-receiving colonies obliged us to give up transportation , and the actual rebellion of the Cape Colony just told us what the free colonies would do if we attempted " to distribute our convicts over the colonial empire . "

      Take them then to a desert island , and keep them there . Ay , why not do that . Because , some years back , we had . a pure convict settlement at Norfolk Island ; and then the habitual manners and customs of a place peopled wholly by felons so rivalled the abominations described in the most accursed places mentioned by the Old Testament , that sheer horror compelled us to declare that such a place must not bo , and it was broken up .

      The gallows then—that is your only resort . " The London Scoundrel , " who has been sore frightened by burglars and garotters , declares that it is a pleasure to see a hanging . So do most London scoundrel s . When " an execution" is advertized they go in large flocks—the worst dressed , the most reckless , the low , the squalid , the tawdry—the pickpocket , the garotter , the burglar , the area snealc , the fence , the bully , the footpad , the broken soldier , the tieket-of-lea \ e man , and the harem of that aristocracy . It is as good as a play ; they like it as much as the " London Scoundrel" does .

      A committee of Parliament sat some years ago , and found out what we have just staled ; for committees annually discover what any man may sec for himself . Next session there is to be a committee to inquire the way from St . Giles ' s to Tyburn , with power to call for what it likes , and to re-port tho same . But in this country we never say out the one

      essential thing to be said . There is a reason why hanging is ' fun' to a ribald mob , and a most hideous spectacle to those who understand the said ' fun of the thing , ' It is tho same reason why Motteux , the French translator of " Don Quixote" into English , hanged hi in self ; tha same why we read of mysterious hangings * by persons who are known not to have intended suicide . Moat well-informed medical men know tho

      reason . Worn-out debauchees , sometimes learn it . They know it in the ;; lowest haunts of vice , such as those frequented by ?* the Old Marquis . " ^ The audience which . ass . eml ) les to see a hanging , knows and cracksunspeakable jokes upon the subject . But thai ; conjclujgive reason against hanging as the form of sjfuighter is never told , because , forsooth , it is not decent ! Some keep up the spectacle , because the fate would frighten and deter . vsi while it is but fun to the classes whom we want to

      awe . _ ¦¦ , ^ . . Perhaps we might alight upon the remedy of this social disease , if we were to resort to a course which has been found very effective in other difficulties— -if we were to investigate the causes . " It is all the ticket-of-leave system ! " exclaims Practical Man . DSTow it is a ' curious ' feature' that in a hundred cases of outrage , not more than three are by

      ticket-of-leave men ; so that the chances are thirty-two to one that it is not . a ' ticket-ofleave man . ' Just in the same way we call all sudden attacks in the street " garotfcing , " when no garotte is used , "We used to say that a footpad stopped a traveller ; we now say that the traveller is " garotted . " "We might as well say that he was bowstrung or lassoed . None of the most notorious

      criminals are ticket-of-leave men . Thtjrtell , Tawei / L , Cottbvoisieb , Mannin g , Hush , Palmer , and Do vj ; were not ticket-of-leave men , any more thau Winblh Cole , Gobdois" , Sadleir ., Paul , "Villiebs , iloBSON , Redpath , Camebon , or Pa . ttl the Second . Neither in conspicuousness , magnitude of crime , nor more than fractional numbers , do we find the ticket-of-leave men involved . So the cause cannot be the ticket-of-leave system .

      "It is then the philanthropic plan of Mr . M . D . Hill and other prison reformers , who are for cosseting the prisoner . " This is triply impossible—because M . D . Hixl and his coadjutors are not for indulgence , but for long imprisonment , strict discipline , and hard labour ; because the plan of letting loose culprits once detected and caught , after a short imprisonment or an hypocrital pretence of good behaviour , ia one invented by the Home

      Office , Colonel Xebts , and such persons as oppose Mr . M . D . Hill and the prison reformers ; and because their system has never yet been carried out or even , tried , but only a partial imitation of it . It is possible indeed that among the many causes for the insecurity of life and property in this country may be the neglect to carry out the system of M . D . H ill and his friends ; since that would provide for the more effectual detention of known and convicted

      offenders . The glutton alderman was fool enough to say that the cause of his apoplectic fit was " the last pea" which he took at supper ; but he was not dolt enough' to say that his fit was caused by the abstemious regimen which his doctor had been constantly recommending , and wliich he had not adopted . The real causes of the multitude of crimes

      and criminals , however , are obvious enough , if wo "will only look that way . The state of society which produces the creatures and their crimes must comprise the efficient causes . The crimes ami the criminals are no more the causes of that Btato than tho apoplexy is the cause of gluttony or debauchery , or the medicine is the cause of tho apoplexy . We can readily detect the peculiar symptoms . Wo have whole classes nlicnnted from others

      the child is brought up m raga , ignorance , and bad example ; ho is refused work because he has not a calling or a character ; the fence will hiiy what ho will prig . Is tho gallows tho proper instrument for putting that student in the right path of life ? We have no

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 3, 1857, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03011857/page/13/