shows it as that one at Brooklyn did has not much to fear.

force majeure, tie them to a tree, and flog them with his own hand. Farmer Lynch was a just man as well as a stern one, and his neighbors, finding that his character made his methods respected, resorted to him to settle disputes of their own with horse-stealers or other aggressors. This duty he performed with impartiality, and with substantial regard for the principles of justice. Hence he came to be called " Judge Lynch," and his decisions com. manded such support, that, whereas no innocent person feared him, no guilty one had any hope of escaping his sentence. Judge Lynch's court, though without legal authority, complied strictly with rules of law and evidence, as then understood. It probably dealt out better justice than most legally constituted courts in the American colonies did in those days. It was severe, but not merciless; expeditious, but not hasty; unceremonious, yet decorous; unpaid, yet absolutely incorruptible. The example of the Virginian settlers was followed by the inhabitants of all outlying settlements where society was not yet organized nor law established. The most respected citizen in each community was chosen judge, and the high character and decent procedure of the original court were faithfully maintained. The result was everywhere the same. Lynch law was a terror to evil-doers, and the sure precursor of law and order. It was itself

Another curious instance, quite typical of this class of American murders, was that of a mere lad in New York, whose mother was concerned in a lawsuit, and who shot her attorney dead in his office chair because he did not think he was conducting the case properly. I saw this amiable youth in the Tombs, and the chaplain a highly educated Episcopal clergyman, from whom I learnt a great deal about crime in America - told me he did not care at all for what he had done, but rather gloried in it, so completely had temper overmastered his sense of right and wrong. I believe he is still awaiting trial on appeal. Innumerable shootings are the sequel of lawsuits, and if it seems that there has been any serious hardship in the decision of the court or the conduct of the case, public opinion takes a mild view of assassination, as a sort of compensating balance. This is unquestionably the reason of many suits being compromised. It is better to take half of what could be got, than to take the whole with a chance of being shot. It is very suggestive, when calling on a lawyer in any American city, to observe the revolver in a pigeon-hole of his desk or some other situation ready to his hand. But thousands of other business men take the same precaution. Revolvers are everywhere. The last time I landed in Amer- a powerful exponent of law and order, and ica I went into a money-changer's office, nearly opposite the White Star Company's dock, to get "currency" for my English gold. While waiting my turn at the lattice, I noticed a little girl playing with some heavy object close to the stove, which was nearly red-hot. Another customer noticed it, too, and with the usual blasphemous exclamation he took from the child a loaded revolver. The moneychanger, to whom he handed it, put it on a shelf behind him, with the remark that the child was always "foolin' around with somethin'."

The last of the three classes into which homicides in America may be broadly divided, are the most numerous, and are certainly the most disgraceful to the nation which countenances them. These are the multitudes of brutal and brutalizing murders done under a pretext of irregular justice called lynching. Lynch law is said to take its name from a strong-minded farmer in Virginia, in the middle of the last century, who, unable to obtain legal redress against thieves and trespassers in those rough times, used to seize them by VOL. LXXVII. 3951

LIVING AGE.

All men were

furnished as complete a tribunal as could
be wished for under the circumstances.
The main principles that governed the
Lynch courts were these.
equal before the court. Every man was
deemed innocent until proved guilty.
Trials were held in public. The accused
was brought face to face with his accuser.
All evidence was given in open court, and
the accused had the right of questioning
every witness. After the hearing of the
evidence, the accused had the right of
speaking in his own defence, and of urging
any matters not in evidence that might
equitably weigh in his favor. The judg
ment of the court was final. If found
guilty of death, the accused was allowed a
reasonable time to arrange his earthly
affairs and say his prayers, and was forth-
with hanged as humanely as might be. If
acquitted, he was not liable to further
molestation, but took his place in the com-
munity again as an innocent man. False
testimony or any attempt to influence the
court by fear or favor was a heinous of-
fence. It was as much as a man's life
was worth to tell a palpable lie in evidence

before Judge Lynch, whilst a threat or the bare suggestion of a bribe was a "contempt" punishable by instant death. In a word, the accused had a fair trial. Such was Lynch law in its palmy days. But it is totally different from that now. The lynching remains, but the element of law has vanished. It is now neither more nor less than murder by a mob. There was, indeed, an intermediate stage in this degeneration, which is worth noting, because it explains much that would otherwise be inexplicable.

more than a show of yielding to irresistible force under protest, so as to save his place and pay; but whether he did or did not made little difference. The prisoner was taken out of his custody, conveyed to some distance from the town, and hanged to a tree. The party then held an inquest, found a verdict of "died by misadventure," buried the body under the tree, and dispersed. There was a good deal to be said in favor of this system. The man was legally tried and condemned. There was no doubt about his guilt. It would be a gross failure of justice if he escaped, and the law-abiding community would be exposed to his vengeance and that of his accomplices in crime. On the other hand, if he were left to the slow and costly process of legal execution, the innocent ratepayers would be mulcted in a heavy tax. By taking him out of the custody of the gaoler and hanging him to a tree the citizens avoided all these risks and did no injustice to anybody. The two great ob

as its many advantages in such a state of society as that. It was unlawful, and it brought otherwise respectable people into contact and complicity with bloodshed. In any other country those two objections would have prevailed overwhelmingly against any number of advantages. But in America it was not so, and the result is what we see. The spirit of lawlessness and morbid excitement gradually took possession of the people, and lynching after sentence soon led to lynching before sentence. It became impossible for a

Lynch law proper was long ago superseded by regular justice in all parts of the United States, except remote cañons or inaccessible mining camps, where it may possibly linger yet for many years to come. But long after State judges and United States judges had occupied Judge Lynch's bench, and the cumbrous forms of law had been substituted for the curt ceremonial of a "meeting of citizens," the institution of lynching survived as a kind of accessory to the regular courts.jections to it were not nearly so apparent The trial of prisoners was left entirely to the lawful authorities; but after conviction, the citizens in numberless cases took the execution of the sentence into their own hands. There were several reasons for this. One was that the legal tribunals never commanded half as much confidence as the Lynch courts in their best days used to command. They were not expeditious, and they were not incorruptible. It was soon seen that, because a scoundrel had been sentenced to death, it by no means followed he was to die. He had the right of appeal, and pending his appeal the ac-man against whom there was much popucuser or the witnesses might be got at or overawed. If he did not appeal, his friends might bribe or intimidate the gaoler, or, if they were numerous enough, might force the gaol and take their mate out, to recommence his career of crime. But this was not all. A stronger reason always existed. The expenses of criminal proceedings were charged on the rates, and what with sheriff's fees, and State attorney's fees, and hangman's fees, and coroner's fees, and registrar's fees, and cost of gallows and wagons, and all the rest of it, half the year's revenue of a county might be swallowed up to put a single horse-thief out of the way. Hence arose the practice of "strengthening the sheriff's hands." That is to say, as soon as the sessions closed and the legal functionaries departed, the citizens, often headed by the mayor, went in procession to the gaol and demanded the body of the convict. The gaoler generally made no

lar feeling to get a fair trial at all, or if he were tried and acquitted he was in danger of being lynched all the same. This is exactly what took place at New Orleans with the Italians accused of the murder of chief of police Hennessey. Those men were tried and acquitted; and, having read every word of the evidence day by day, as it was given, long before the excitement arose which ended so disastrously, I do not hesitate to say that upon that evidence they would have been acquitted by any unprejudiced jury, whether in Europe of America. There was nothing like conclusive proof against them. Yet the citizens of New Orleans broke into the gaol and slaughtered them, together with several other prisoners who had not been tried at all.

This brings us to the next step in the downward path of Lynch law. It is obviously only a short step from lynching be. fore sentence or in spite of acquittal to

lynching before trial; and this is very common now in all parts of America where popular passion is stronger than constituted authority. Great numbers of prisoners are taken out of legal custody, often with the connivance of the authorities, and put to death without their guilt or innocence having been made the subject of any evidence whatsoever. There is only one step beyond that, and it has long since been taken. The fact of legal custody implies that the accused has at least been arrested upon legal process, which in itself is some sort of protection against mere undiscriminating murder. But in some of the states the citizens habitually relieve the law of even that small share of responsibility, and themselves undertake the accusation and the arrest. It would be more correct to say they dispense alike with accusation, arrest, and trial. The whole procedure is shortened down to suspicion and execution.

I will explain this from my own experience. In July last year I was at Birmingham, Alabama, a wonderfully thriving town with a resident population of thirty thousand, swelling at certain seasons to sixty thousand. I stayed at a magnificent hotel, and saw around me all the externals of civilization and progress. I read in the local paper on the day of my arrival, however, a paragraph which showed how much real civilization or progress there was there. It stated that an assault had been committed on a woman in the suburbs of the town, and, after giving some sensational details, concluded thus:

were

captors from bringing him into Birming-
ham and handing him over to the police.
But if they had done that, he would have
got a reasonably fair trial, which is ex-
actly what the citizens were determined he
should not have. It would have cost
money, there would have been no excite-
ment about it, and the chances were ten
to one the prisoner would have been ac-
quitted for want of proof. As it was it
cost nothing, the citizens had a "lovely
time," and the honor of the injured family
was vindicated. There probably was not
a white resident in Birmingham who did
not approve cordially of what was done.
I was only there two or three days; but
during my short stay two men
lynched, and one who, I think, had
given himself up to the police
hanged in legal fashion. I was told it was
a "tough section," and that severe exam-
ples were needed, especially among the
colored people. But I had already learnt
enough in my travels to see that the col-
ored people were so brutalized by the
prevailing example of bloodshed and in-
justice, that they had little or no respect
for law, divine or human. There are many
tough sections in America. They cover a
great part of some of the most important
states. Examples," such as I have de-
scribed, are always being made there.
And the effect everywhere is precisely
what I found it in Alabama.

66

was

It will doubtless shock and surprise worthy people in England, who do not know much about America, to hear that burning alive is practised in that free and "A colored man, named is sus- enlightened country, a century after it has pected of the crime, having been seen been abandoned in Spain and Italy. But loafing about the locality lately. He is so it is. In those states, where race hasaid to have taken to the woods, but a tred is added to the ordinary passions of a party of citizens have gone in search of lawless mob, burning is not an uncommon him, and when caught he will be lynched." form of execution by a lynching party. It is not necessary to draw further at The Americans defend it on the ground tention to the points of this announcement, that it is only employed to punish crimes which differs in no material feature from against women. Humanitarians may say scores that appear in American country that is not a very good defence; and, in papers every day. There could not be a fact, it is no defence at all. Only the more eloquent commentary on the tone of other day, in Tennessee, a young negro, public feeling there. In this case, as in who had been tried for an assault on a most, the party of citizens were successful woman and acquitted, but had afterwards in their search. They caught the sus- been convicted of stealing, and served pected man, who apparently made no twelve months in gaol for it, was, neverattempt to escape, but protested his inno- theless, met by a lynching party on his cence; and they bound him to a tree and release, and burnt alive. The truth is, burnt him alive. There was no proof that there is no rule in lynching, no scale of any crime had been committed at all-punishments, nothing of the sort. All nothing beyond a bare assertion and depends on the humor of the lynching there was nothing to connect this man party at the moment, or the quantity of with it beyond vague suspicion. There whiskey they have "hoisted in " before was nothing, moreover, to prevent his they get their victim into their power.

Sometimes nothing but roasting will sat- This being so, it is difficult to see how isfy them. At other times hanging or any improvement can be looked for. On shooting is sufficient. At others, knives the contrary, there is every reason to beor clubs are used. The other day a lynch-lieve that the state of things, of which I ing party massacred a number of colored have given only a faint impression in this men with axes, for the sole crime of work- article, will grow worse and worse, until ing for lower wages than white men. that great change comes which all thinkAnother lynching party flogged a young ing Americans say must come before very white woman to death for marrying against long. What that change is to be, or how the wish of her family and the neighbors. it is to be brought about, no one seems to The tendency of lynching, as all experi- have any definite notion. But one thing ence shows, and as might naturally be is sure. To be of any effect it must inexpected, is to become more frequent, clude in its scope the humanizing of the more irresponsible, more inhuman, and national sentiment - the realizing of what more subservient to private animus, the the author of the "Biglow Papers " had longer it is tolerated by the government in mind when he wrote:and encouraged by public opinion. The waste of human life through this odious institution is by no means its worst effect. The Americans will find out to their cost some day that it has degraded them from their place among civilized nations, and brought them perilously near the level of the blood-stained anarchies which are all that is left of the Spanish Indies.

What are the causes of it? Why are the Americans more given to bloodshed than other nations? There are three main causes. First, slavery. That monstrous outrage on humanity has avenged itself in the very way in which Harriet Beecher Stowe in prose, and Longfellow and James Russell Lowell in poetry, foretold that it would. It seared the national conscience, and brutalized the national tone of feeling, and its legacy of degradation has increased with usury ever since the institution itself expired amid the clash of party strife. Secondly, the Civil War. For five years the Americans bathed and wallowed in each other's blood, and they revel in the recollection of it still. If they knew what is for their good, they would level all the war monuments, instead of raising new ones every year, and plough up the slaughter-yards which they call battle-fields. Thirdly, the futility of the law under the federal system of government. All this sanguinary lawlessness could easily be put a stop to if the central authority had power to deal with it. But the central authority has no such power, and the State governments are too feeble, and too much concerned with local and personal politics, to undertake so unpopular a task. In matters of this kind there is practically no government in America, where a totally mistaken idea of liberty prevails,

An' thet idee's thet every man doos jest wut he damn pleases.

Tell ye jest the eend I've come to,
Arter cipherin' plaguy smart,
An' it makes a handy sum, tu,

Any gump could larn by heart;
Laborin' man an' laborin' woman
Hev one glory an' one shame.
Ev'ythin' thet's done inhuman
Injers all on 'em the same.

EDWARD WAKEFIELD.

From The National Review.

A TEMPLE OF SILENCE.

Two years ago I was wandering about in Yorkshire, sketching "characteristic bits of light and shade on the moors and coast, when, in the course of my travels, after revelling in the quaint old fishing villages of Runswick and Staithes, I found myself at the little grey town of Redcar. A bare little place it is, uninteresting enough in itself, but set in the midst of a grand tenmile stretch of firm sand, the severe outlines of whose golden curve, unrelieved by any beauty, save what may be gleaned from the broken lights on the rolling benthills, gain a certain serene charm from that very bareness, while the glorious, irrepressible eastern sea dashed towards it with immeasurable music of green billow and crested wave.

It was early night as I entered the little place, and a pale young moon was shining faintly across the grey waters. Far away, at the breakwater, the revolving light peeped in and out, and nearer great masses of flame, red, golden, and white, blazed and flickered from the furnaces at Eston. A light wind was driving the fleecy clouds swiftly across the deep blue sky; and the stars, now hidden, now shining out clearly, imparted a spiritual excitement to the scene, as though one were

My dreamful hills, purple with heather flowers,
Wax radiant 'neath the passing of his feet;
And God's dear sunshine, amber-clear,
and sweet,
Clings to his blown gold hair: from cool green
bowers

had recognized, and shown forth for all the face of an angel!" At last, with a time, the Master's love in seeking for deep sigh, she was silent; presently she these wanderers; then unconsciously, as rose from her knees, and sat down as it seemed, the pleading voice fell into before, her head slightly bent forward, rhythm, and described the marvellous pic- her hands clasped together. I remember ture's echo in her own heart. nothing more of that morning meeting; around me, indeed, and the silent people, I sat there as in a trance, the white walls for no one spoke afterwards; but the solid building seemed to have become as bright and clear as glass, through whose transparent surface I could see the distant Cleveland Hills basking in the golden sunshine, the purple cloud-shadows throwing into strange and vivid relief the patches of the highest peak, stood a gracious, at their feet, while, on the summit white-robed figure, with extended hands, as though preparing to descend into the valley, and come down into the little white room to bless the silent worshippers.

Wing the small birds, athrill with song that dowers

The sapphire day: how shall my wan lips greet

This mighty Lord whose eyes I fear to

meet,

My soul, will he in sooth heed word of ours?
Master and King, and tenderest Comforter,

Is he, who loveth heather-flower and bird,
Blue sky, sweet sunshine, and least things
that be!

No meanest soul but he hath died for her
No faintest prayer but this Crowned One
hath heard

Love is his name, love only asketh he!

She paused a moment after the last line, and then added, with greatest fervor, "And in each of us, dear friends, the Light of the World is dawning to-day. If we listen with our souls, we shall hear his blessed voice; yea, and even now, methinks, my spirit's eyes can see him, standing on yonder hills, as once he stood on the hills of Galilee, the sunshine falling like a crown on his gracious brows, the lights and shadows flitting round him, like angels' wings, and each flower lifting its delicate head to kiss his feet, or the hem of his garment, as he passes. He comes slowly towards us, the Flower whose seed is in every soul, as its root is in God himself; waiting to reveal his blessed presence, as that inner light which will guide us safely through all sorrow, and temptation, yea, even through the darkness of sin, to his own land of everlasting peace. One prayer only is necessary from man to God: Lighten our darkness!' Let that prayer be in every heart, on every lip, this morning. A wise and beautiful spirit, which left earth darker at its flitting, once said, Truth can never be told so as to be understood without being believed,' and, therefore, Lighten our darkness' should be the burden of every prayer, the cry of every soul."

While she spoke, with long pauses between the clearness of her phrases, her face, with its great innocent blue eyes, became more and more "as it had been

of

66

grass

By and by the people began to move quietly out, and, still in a dream, I rose and followed them. An old man standing by the door held out his hand, with a grave Good-morning!" and then, once again, I found myself in the fragrant air, saw the white roses clustering over the walls, the poplar leaves softly swaying to and fro, and the robin still singing in their cool dimness; everything exactly as I had seen it an hour before, and yet how different it all seemed to me! A subtle radiance suffused the world; and wherever my eyes fell, they met softly shining ones smiling a greeting back, with the far-away gleam of stars. I turned down to the sands, and wandered on, until gradually the people from the various churches, taking their orthodox little walk, neatly sandwiched between devotion and dinner, were left behind, and I was alone amongst the benthills, great waves of sand piled up into hiMocks by gradual seas, and held loosely together by strange grasses, - elymus and psamma stretched their long, attenuated, blue-green blades thickly over the yielding surface, until they seemed phantom waters, forever flowing softly on. Here and there, in the hollows sheltered from the sea, the ground was covered by the flushed pink flowers and slender, wild-rose-like leaves of the small rest-harrow, or by patches of the golden orange bird's-foot trefoil; and, more rarely, the wide yellow eyes of the potentilla repens smiled up at me, while the little pinkish-mauve flowerets of the sea-rocket crept cautiously along the slippery sand, and the sedum anglicum dotted itself about at intervals, its quaint stiff little personality giving a suggestion of strength and permanence, not warranted