POLITICAL ASSASSINATIONS

Lake County Press, Issue 978, 5 September 1901, Page 2

POLITICAL ASSASSINATIONS

Japan is beginning to realise the perils of statesmanship. Mr Hoshi Toru, who was assassinated on June 21 while attending a meeting of the City Council of Tokio, was one of the most famous men in Japan, whose reputation as a political leader had survived the severe trial to which it was subjected not many months ago. He had risen high in political circles, and had been President of the House of Representatives, and nobody was surprised when the Marquis Ito invited him to join the Cabinet last autumn. Mr Toru became Minister of Communications. Then, when he had reached the summit of his political ambition, the crash came. He was one of the chief figures in a< great scandal, and was charged before the courts with accepting bribes. The popular belief was against him. Ha had been Minister at Washington, and knew all about Tammany, and, earlier in his career, when Japan was slowly emerging from feudalism, he had been convicted and exiled for political offences. That was in Japan's unsettled days, and the worst that was proved against him was that he wrote strong articles against the Government; but the fact that these unpleasant incidents were associated with his career inclined the people to believe the charge of corruption brought against him last year, and' his reputation fell. But it was not utter ruin. The courts cleared the character of the Minister, although the force of public opinion compelled him to resign. He recovered something of his old strength, and a month or two ago lie was accepted as Liberal leader. He was one of the most advanced men in Japan, and in spite of one or two ugly blots on his career —which did not necessarily dishonor him—he seemed to be on the way to the Premiership. A member of the English Bar —he was called at the Inner Temple— Mr Toru had great sympathy with England, and his influence in Japanese politics undoubtedly made for friendship with us. His tragic death, in spite of the bitterness of feeling which he sometimes aroused in his opponents, will be universally regretted. Assassination is one of the perils which statesmen must always face, until the day dawns when the lion and the lamb lie down together, and man is no more inhuman to man. Political assassinations have been painfully frequent in our time. It is nearly a hundred years since a prominent statesman was murdered in England, but the murder of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr Bourke in Phcenix Park is not yet twenty years old. Hardly a generation has passed, either, since a Governor-General of India—the Earl of Mayo—was murdered by a convict. Spain and Bulgaria have lost Prime Ministers by violence within the last seven years—M. Stamboloff and Canovas del Castillo, who was stabbed to death in the presence of his wife. The list of murdered statesmen and heads of Governments which has now been lengthened by the tragedy in Japan was sadly long enough already. Not going back more than a generation it stands thus : Abraham Lincoln, 1865; Earl of Mayo, 1872; President Garfield, 1881; Alexander 11., 1881; Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr Burke, 1882; President Carnot, 1894; M. Stamboloff. 1895; Shah of Persia, 1896; Canovas del Castillo, 1897; King Humbert, 1900. The list takes no account of assassinations in those countries where revolutions are everyday occurrences, of the murder of the Empress of Austria, or of the various attempts to murder Bismarck, Signor Crispi, President Diaz, and many Royalties. The assassination of Mr Toru, who was serving his count iy at the moment of his death, recalls the death of the only Premier of England who has been murdered in modern times. It will be ninety years ago next May since the House of Commons was horrified by the sound of a pistol in the lobby, and the sight of the dead body of Mr Spencer Pereival, who had become Prime Minister on the death of the Duke of Portland. The tragedy took place on the 11th of May. The. Premier was passing through the Jobhy on his way to give evidence before a Committee of the whole House when he received 'lis death wound. The lobby was crowded, 'he question before the House being oue if treat public importance, and nobody saw the peril in which the Prime Minister stood until it was too late. Like the murderer of Mr Toru, the assassin of Mr Pereival was a man of position and means ; he had been a merchant at Liverpool, and was embittered because he had been unable to obtain redress for an unjust conviction in St. Petersburg. When the terrible moment came he seems to have made a mistake. His complaint, was that his case had been neglected by Lord Granville, and it was Lord Granville, he declared, whom he intended to shoot. Mr Pereival, however, received the bul>et, and died almost, immediately. Hellingham, the murderer, was seized by two members of the House one of them was Joseph Hume, the historian -and within a, week of the firing of the fatal shot he was tried and executed. Parliament voted an annuity of £2,000 a, year for the. Prime Min jster's widow, and set aside £50,000 for his children, the last of whom died <|uitc recently at Haling at a ripe old age. A.M.