CRIME IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 403, 31 December 1880, Page 11

CRIME IN ENGLAND.

(Prom the Nation, October 30.) While the English newspapers publish day after day their virtuous denunciations of " Iri«h outrages," and keep steadily calling for coercion for Treland, England continues to be the scene of the most atrocious crimes, to which those aam? English newspapers give little or no attention. Scarcely a day passes that a murder, or an all but successful attempt at murder, is perpetrated in that country. Last week alone th*re were ahout six murders. Now, ordinarily, we should be disposed to nass over those crimes in silence. It is the moral character of the English people themselres which is at stake, and not ours. Moreover, the details of the various cases are by no means pleasant reading. But we are compelled to act in this matter against our wishes. We must, in fact, in self-defence, draw attention to the number and nature of the horrible do4ngs which may almost be said to saturate the whole land of England with blood. "Our people are held up, as we have intimated, to ths gaze of the civiliVrl world as a nation of cut-throats, and lettrcs de cachet, courts-martial, and the hangman are hinted at as the proper instruments to bring them to order. In the face of such infamous libels how could we be sajd to be doing our duty if we refrained from giving the effective answer thai if the state of Ireland requires stringent measures of repression, the state of England requires measures of repression infinitely more drastic. We repeat that our apology for introducing our renders to the disgusting subject of English crime must be found in the dangers in which our country is placed in consequence of the infamous falsehoods of the English Press regarding Irish crime. Not to go farther back than the newspapers of the last ten days, what a terrible record is the criminal calendar of England ! At Newcastle a man named David Anderson and a woman named Anne Grimes have been committed for trial on a charge of having beaten a woman named Anne Mason on the head with such violence as to rausp almost immediate d<>ath. At Leicester a youth named Herbert Collins has been apprehended for a murderous attack upon his father. The instrument of murder was a hedeeslashpr, and the injured man has two severe wounds on his head, from which he if not exnpcted to recover. At Bristol. William Smalll combe stands charged with a murderous assault upon his wife, whose arm he cut in a frightful manner by throwing a dish at her, after he had poured some hot soup over her head. The woman is undor medical care at the local infirmary, and it is stated that she narrowly escaped death. But as we cannot set out the whole li«t in place, we had better, perhaps, allude in preater detail to the circumetanceß of one or two other English atrocities committed within the past few days They are typical atrocities At Bradford, on Monday, a man named John Binns was put in the dock charged with assault and inflicting serious bodily harm upon hrs mother-in-law, Brigid Ward He first struck Mrs. "Ward with his fist. He then seized her by one of her lee^. pulled her down on to the Boor, and while she lay prostrate kicked her and struck her about the head and other parts of the body. He next dragged her across the length of the room, after which he kinked her a second time with great brutality, and with such effect that the woman's immediate removal to hospital was deemed necessary by the doctor. When Binns was apprehended hi* trousers and boots were smeared all over with blood. This piece of brutality is shocking to contemplate, but it is a matter almost of utter insignificance in comparison with the double crime which has been brought to liebt at Acton. A master painter and decorator named Bhephard who lives in that town, having occasion to go to London on Friday week, brou e bt thither with him his wife and youngest child, leaving behind him four other children, the eldest of whom was a little girl. Mr. and Mrs. ShephaTd returnpd about seven m the evening, and found their house in darkness. Upon entering the kitchen Mr. Shepherd stumbled asrainsh the body of his eldest danehter, which was lying in a pool of blood, the face covered with a handkerchief. He at once sent for the p .lice and Dr. Murrell and on the latter examining the body he stated that the child had been outraged and murdered. A closer examination showed that the poor yonng creature bad been stabbed through the throat from side to side There is no need to co further into the case. The details are too horrible to be stated in full. Now, self-praise is no praise but it is only one of many such that are every month perpetrated in England. Outraging first and then murdering women are, in fact becoming so frequent in England that they promise soon to attain the rank of national crimes. Killing paramours is another form of outrage to which Englishmen seem to be partial, and this fact reminds us of the essential difference between English crime and Irish crime. Here, generally speaking, people are killed in revenge for acts of outrageous in]ustice and oppression ; on the other side of the Channel murder is, generally speaking, the. outcome of deepseated immorality. English society, in fact, is diseased to the coie and crime of every sort and degree consequently springs naturally from such a soil. We end as we began. If Ireland is to have a Coercion Act m consequence of three or four agrarian murders England should be punished in a similar manner.

According to the Popolo Romano, His Holiness leo XIII is through his mother, a descendant of Cola di Eienzi. From the docu^ ments cited it appears that Angelo, the son of Cola, took refuge in the city of Con after bis father's death, and settled there. In 1636 the Rienz! family founded at Cori by him changed its name to Proapen, and at a later date added that of Buzi. The Capitoline archivea contain a decision of the Congregation of the Roman Patriciate, 81 A1 «y« y y_?whese Olgiati, Pcriba Senatus, confirming the claim of the Prospen Buzi family to noble rank on the ground of its descents frr,m i an ancient noble family taking its origin from Cola di Rienzi, Tribune of the > people in 1347, Senator by brief of Pope BronhaT'fam^ 3 - mother of Leo *in ™ Anne Prosperf