But public affairs shrink into commonplaces compared to the startling7manifestations
of criminal violence. The journals of the week teem with every sort of murderous and burglarious Cahn's; and the lame towns do not enjoy a greater immunity than se- questered gtriets. The Police appear to act-on a charming deter- mination to ignore the existence of crime, as if they meant to 'carry out the spirit of some Orthodox dogmatists. In the Regent's Park, Mr. Holford's servants sustain a siege, and rout the burglars by dint of valour and well-contriyed'defences. In Birmingham, while Mr. Marston, a gold-beater, is engaged in protracted conflict with thieves, his daughter cannot convince an inspector and a con- stable of the Police force that her father is engaged in any more serious employment than " correcting " some disobedient member of his family ! Not only is Jael Denny strangled by a faith- less lover at a lonely spot near Brentwood, but the Pollee exami- nations show how Mr. Miller has been strangled, though less fa- tally, in the open streets of London, and Mr. Cureton the medalist in his own house. While old Mrs. Anne Jones is supposed to have been poisoned in the interest of a son impatient for his inheritance, the Police have discovered a per- fect merchant in the stolen goods line, whose transactions embraced Liverpool and London, mid must have given much encouragement to industry such as that which invaded the houses of Mr. Holford, Mr. Holiest, Mr. Vidal; and others. The news of the week pre- sents our civilization in an extraordinary aspect. On a closer in- spection, it turns out that in East Surrey the Magistrates have not only tried to do without a Rural Police, but have much neglected all the usual precautions of active vigilance., Still, the unpro- tected state of East Surrey will not account for the invasions in I,,ondont Liverpool, and Birmingham.
