LONDON ROUGHS.

The Regent's Park Murder* Vendetta in England. [Fbom our Special Correspondent.] London, August 10. The terrible fate of the ringleader in the Regent's Park catastrophe will, it is hoped, serve, if only for a time, to chesk the general exuberance of our old friend 'Arry (or 'Erry as he prefers to be called), and his "pals." You don't know this nuisance in the Colonies yet. Melbourne and other large towns can, of course, boast- their " larrikins," but a " larrikin " is a noble creature compared with 'Arry. The brutes who set upon poor young Kuinbold and his girl, last May, were simply vile cowards, incapable even of being true to one another. The first thought of every man of the eighb, after their victim was found to be dead, was, " Shall I be able to save my bacon by turning Queen's evidence." They separated vowing solemnly to be secret, yet, within two hours, every one except the actual murderer had found his way to the Police Officer on a tell-tale mission. THE HORRIBLE STORT. The stoiy itself (as a murder story) is of the simplest. In fact, there has been no mystery about the case from first to last. London, as the Daily News explains, contains many organised gangs of roughs, and the prisoners belonged to one of these gangs. A friend of theirs had been attacked by another gang; they organised an expedition to avenge the outrage ; and meeting two defenceless youthß walking with their sweethearts in Regent's Park, they took the life of one of them in cold blood, on a suspicion (which proved entirely groundless) that ho was concerned in the original assault. The murder is sickening iv its brutality, and in its cowardice. There were eight or ten against one ; aiid even' at this odds, the knife thrust that laid the victim low was a thrust in the back. FEROCIOUS BANDS. It is, if possible, still more melancholy as an. evidence of the degradation in which numbers of our population live. Eight prisoners stood in the dock, and their average of individual age was but sixteen and a half years. Yet these children, for they were little more, were regularly banded together for violence, if not always for murder, and their relations with similar gangs in onher districts were those of warring Indian tribes. There is a Fitzroy square gang, for instance, and there is a Mary lebone road gang, and there is a blood feud between Marylebone road and Fitzroy square. There is also a gang of " Seven Dials men," or "Deckers," and it may safely be affirmed that there are hundreds more. They prey upon each other, and the greater part of their leisure is devoted to the prosecution of bloody vendettas which go a long way to account for the deplorable condition of the London streets. Women and men, or, rather, girls and boys, share equally in the perils of the encounter, and, where there is somebody to be knocked down and jumped upon, the chivalry of either side knows no distinction of sex. THE VENDETTA'S ORIGIN. In the present instance the original cause of offence had been given by an attack on one of the prisoners, named Cole. Cole and a young woman were walking one night in the Marylebone road, when a gang unknown came up and knocked both of them down. On this the vendetta was declared. Cole, attributing the outrage to the " Marylebone lads," induced his friend Gellatly to organise an expedition against them. Gellatly was soon at the head of a force of boyish desperadoes, one of them armed with a knife. He had no difficulty in finding recruits—an invitation to join a fighting party seems the most natural thing in the world in these circles. His friends accept or decline without surprise. One witness cannot join " because he has to meet his young lady." Another witness is asked " if he will go up to Marylebone road to have a fight " — that ia all. When they reach the Regent's Park they see two pairs of lovers who are supposed to be members of the obnoxious gang. They go very methodically to work. They have come for the vendetta, and they show some care in selecting their victim. Eumbold, the murdered man, and Byrne, his friend, were about twenty yards apart, each accompanied by his sweetheart, and Rumbold was deliberately singled out as the supposed author of the outrage of the night before. Both were examined by the gang, and when it came to poor Rumbold's turn he was surrounded and twice stabbed. The girl by his side gave the alarm, but Bhe was instantly felled, and she was" kicked as she lay on the ground. Nothing could have been more deliberate than the crime from first to last. FAILURES. Six of the prisonei-3 were acquitted of the capital charge in the earlier stage of the trial. Lea, the sailor boy who had lent the knife to Gellatly, had a narrow escape of the gallows. There could be no doubt that he had a shrewd suspicion of the use to which the weapon might be put. The Jury, however, were unwilling to convict him of either murder or manslaughter, and he pleaded guilty to a minor charge. Much of the evidence pointed to Gellatly as the. murderer. He was tmdoubtedly the leader of the group that surrounded the murdered man ; he undoubtedly inflicted one of the wounds ; and after the affray he twice spoke of having used the knife. Upon him, therefore, Mr Justice Hawkins pronounced sentence of death. His extreme youth may yet tell in his favour, but in any case he can hardly escape a severe punishment. The direct evidence against him is no doubt anything but unexceptionable. The prisoners have been convicted mainly on the testimony of informers, and the chief informer, Cleary, who was himself one of the gang, has not a clean " record." He must have been quite a child when he was sent to gaol and to the reformatory, for theft. He is one of the failures of our reformatory system, as all hiß companions are the failures of our social system.