THE judicial statistics for England and Wales issued the other day show a decrease as compared with the previous year of 1.4 per cent. in the number of the criminal classes at large and known to the police; of 8.1 per cent. in the houses of bad character; of 5.6 in the indictable offences reported by the police, and of 3.8 in the total commitments to prison. These figures warrant the conclusion that crime is diminishing, and it seems time to stop the steady increase in the constabulary which has been going on for many years. Last year nearly 500 men were added to the force, which is now 36,447 strong. During the last 10 years the Constabulary has increased by nearly 7,000, and its total cost last year was £3,711,933.
LYCEUM THEATRE. - Sole Lessee, Mr. Henry Irving. - TO-DAY at 2 and TO-NIGHT at 9.0, MR RICHARD MANSFIELD, in DR. JEKYLL and MR. HYDE. (Last 9 Performances)
Preceded at 8 by LESBIA. Classical Comedy in one Act, by Mr. Richard Davey. LESBIA, Miss Beatrice Cameron.
MORNING PERFORMANCE SATURDAY NEXT at 2.0.
MONDAY, Oct. 1, A PARISIAN ROMANCE. Mr. Mansfield as THE BARON CHEVRIAL.
Box-office (Mr. J. Hurst) open daily from 10 to 5.
Julia Woolf, the composer of the forthcoming opera of "Carina," at the Opera Comique Theatre, obtained her first King's Scholarship at the R.A.M., at the age of 14, for her varied ability in musical compositions, and was re-elected King's Scholar and made an Associate Member and Fellow for her orchestral writings. She has since composed the overture for the production by Chatterton at Drury Lane, of "The Winter's Tale," and the festival overture to the "Fall of Pompeii," and many popular songs.
The theatre is being redecorated in pale blue as in the old days of Gilbert and Sullivan's operas at that house. The new production of "Carina" is in the hands of Charles Harris.
Amid all the journals of the country, with their vast variety of opinion and character, there is not a single one that has a word to say in favor of Mr. Matthews. Here, for instance, is what Vanity Fair writes as to the unfortunate Home Secretary:-
Mr. Henry Matthews is now, I suppose, generally admitted to be the failure at the Home Office that I all along predicted that he would be. The blundering manner in which he handled the case of Miss Cass and the police magistrate, thereby making of an incident which might occur any day a mighty lever to be used against his Government, is proved by events to have been no accident, but the natural result of the man's
in dealing with matters affecting the public; and that blundering has been repeated since whenever a favorable opportunity for its display has occurred, until at last Mr. Home Secretary Matthews seems likely to be sacrificed to the manes of an unfortunate woman brutally done to death in a Whitechapel purlieu.
It was only last week that I pointed out Mr. Matthews's shortcomings in the matter of police control; and since then the daily Press has taken up the parable with increased vigor. Thus the Daily Telegraph, which is essentially the people's paper, says - "We have had enough of Mr. Home Secretary Matthews, who knows nothing, has heard nothing, and does not intend to do anything in matters concerning which he ought to be fully informed, and prepared to act with energy and dispatch. It is high time that this helpless Minister should be promoted out of the way." That is strong language; but I like strong language when it is deserved. And when these things are publicly said of a Minister as they are here,
indeed who refuses to listen. There must be a clean sweep of red-tape impotence at Scotland-yard, and the only way in which this clean sweep can properly be begun is by freeing the police from such utterly incompetent control as has been and is being exercised by the Home Secretary. As Home Secretary Mr. Matthews has been tried and found utterly wanting, and sooner or later he must go. And if he go not soon his Ministerial presence will undoubtedly imperil the existence of the Government.
Even the Sporting Times raises its voice against Mr. Matthews. It contains the following:- The Home Secretary is doing his best to manufacture another Cass case, so it is fortunate there is not an election on in Whitechapel just now.
WHITECHAPEL.
A Doctor Suggests to the Coroner What May be an Important Clue.
Since the publication of Dr. Phillips's evidence on the inquest on the body of Annie Chapman, Coroner Baxter has received a communication from a person of good standing in the medical world which affords an important clue to the murderer's probable motive. The coroner thinks the clue well worth following up, and has personally attended at Scotland Yard to confer with the heads of the detective department.
From the judicial statistics, 1887, just published, it appears that the number of persons summarily prosecuted in England and Wales in 1887 was 2,515, as against 2,838 in 1886. Of those proceeded against, 2,457 were men and 58 women; 619 men and 30 women were discharged, whilst 1,847 men and 28 women were convicted. The convictions resulted in 2,308 fines and 138 distraints and imprisonments. The largest number of prosecutions were recorded in the following police districts:- Nottingham 263, Yorkshire 231, Derby 180, Gloucester 142, London 136, Northampton 130, Hull 96, Lincoln 92. In many towns prosecutions are limited to one conviction, whilst in others the guardians have resolved not to prosecute objectors to the law.
The friends of Mr. J. W. Tarr, a Star compositor, will gather round him to-night at the Bridge House Hotel, London-bridge, to give him a farewell concert, for Mr. Tarr is about to leave London on account of the continued indisposition of his wife. No less than 24 persons take part in the programme, and the names of several "stars" - which is natural - figure amongst them.
Henry Glennie, the man arrested on suspicion of complicity in the murder of old Mrs. Wright, at her house in Canonbury-terrace, was brought before the Clerkenwell magistrate yesterday afternoon.
Detective-sergeant Merroney, of the G division said:- From instructions I received from Detective-Inspector Peel, on Wednesday night last I went with Detective-sergeants Fordham and Robinson to the King's-cross Railway Station on the Underground. At a quarter to ten we saw the prisoner standing near the corner of Caledonian-road, opposite the station, and Sergeant Fordham went across to him and took hold of him. I also took hold of him, and we put him into a four-wheeled cab. I said to him, "We are police officers, and we apprehend you for being concerned with another man with breaking into some premises at Islington last night and stealing a quantity of satin; also on suspicion of being concerned in the murder of Mrs. Wright at Canonbury-terrace." After a short time the prisoner said -
I can prove what I am and what I do." We conveyed him to the Upper-street Police-station, where he was detained, his name being taken by the inspector on duty. He declined to give any address, but said he was a "hot-water fitter." Yesterday, at a quarter to eleven, I and Inspector Glass saw the prisoner again. I said to him, "The inspector has directed me to ask you if you can refer me to any person who can prove where you were when Mrs. Wright was murdered at 19, Canonbury-terrace. It happened about ten minutes past three on the afternoon of 16 May last." He said, "Well, I can't say where I was. I think I was with my sister, Mrs. Swallow, at a confectioner's shop in Kingsbury-road, Neasden. I think I was there for about 14 minutes. My friends can tell you where I was better than I can." At a quarter past ten last night I saw the prisoner again. I showed him a carpet-bag (produced), and said, "This is the bag that was dropped by a man who was seen running away from Canonbury-terrace. I have obtained information that
He took it in his hand and examined it, and I said to him, "I have shown that bag to George Mack, of 14, Storey-street, Caledonian-road, and to Thomas Crook, of 26, Freeling-street. They both say that you had a bag like that, and that they believe it belongs to you." The prisoner became very pale and agitated, and after hesitating said, "Well, I admit that is my bag - or, rather, it was mine. I sold it with some tools to a man in the Star and Garter public-house, Caledonian-road. I don't know who he is, or how much I sold them for." I asked him if he could give any further information, and he said, "I can't tell you any more." Glennie volunteered the above statement, and not in answer to questions. This morning, at a quarter to eleven, I and the other officers saw the prisoner again, and asked whether he could give any further information or description of the man to whom he sold the bag of tools. He said, "No; but I sold them the Friday after I left the Eagle Range and Foundry Works in Regent-street." When he was charged formally at the station with having been concerned in the murder he made no reply.
Inspector Glass said the police had other evidence, which they would call when the prisoner was again brought up. The witnesses were not now all in attendance.
John Jones, of 16, Marylebone-lane, a carman, said: On the day - a Wednesday afternoon in May - I was standing at the corner of Alwyne-road and Canonbury-road, and I saw a man walking down from the direction of Canonbury-terrace. He passed me, and after he had gone by about 10 or 15 yards, I saw a lady coming from the same direction, and she called out twice to me,
I asked her what he had done, and she did not say. I found that she could not speak English, and the man turned round and looked back, and as soon as he saw the lady he started running. He carried a bag on his shoulder, a similar bag to the one produced. I went a few yards after him, but turned back. I cannot positively swear to the man, but yesterday I picked the prisoner out from among 16 other men at the Upper-street Police-station. He is very like the man I saw that Wednesday. - Mr. Saunders, the magistrate, said there was at present hardly sufficient evidence to detain the prisoner. However, this was so grave a charge that he would remand him till Thursday.
Moonlight strollers in the northern extremity of Regent's-park were startled, just before the closing of the gates last night, by a series of shrieks and screams evidently proceeding from some woman in dire distress or abject terror. They seemed to come from the direction of the lake-side nearest the Gloucester-gate entrance to the park. Nearly everybody who chanced to be within ear-shot hastened to the spot whence the sounds proceeded, but no immediate solution of the mystery was forthcoming. Presently an elderly woman who had come from the Zoological Gardens entrance rushed up to those who had been collected there by the screams and cried out:- "There's a man in it. He can't be far off." But she could offer no explanation except that she had just met a young girl running as if for dear life, and crying as if her heart would break. When asked what was the matter, the fugitive had sobbed out, "Don't stop me, for God's sake. He said
The elderly woman at first thought the girl intoxicated, and let her go without further parley, but when she got further on and learned of the screams that had been heard she at once connected them with the fleeing girl. Two of the park keepers who had come up, made a circuit of the upper portion of the lake before closing the gates, and also searched the copses near the little suspension bridge, but no traces of a tragedy were discoverable.
A Star reporter who went to the scene of the excitement early this morning found that the police had been informed of the occurrence, but had deemed it a matter of no importance, but a well-known resident of the neighborhood told him that he was walking outside the park, near the Gloucester-gate, just before dark last evening when he encountered
There seemed to have been some dispute among them, and one of the young fellows pushed the largest of the party, and would have been knocked down in return but for the interference of the girl. "Come away from him Annie," said one of the fellows. "Not if I know it," put in the big fellow. "She stops with me, or I'll know why." With that one of the others remarked, "Well, don't let us have another Gellatly affair," and tried to pull his companion away. He, however, was in a nasty temper, and wanted to fight, but the girl begged the big one not to hit him. "I'll hit you if you don't shut up," was his answer. The gentleman who told this story says he watched them until two of the young fellows disappeared in the direction of Chalk Farm, while the girl and the largest fellow went into the park, quarrelling as they walked. Later on he heard the screams.
James Cheeseman, of 30, Poll-street, Cable-street, Whitechapel, was dismissed from the police force in April last, after five years' service, because, as was alleged, he had gone into a public-house while on duty, a charge he declared to be false. He has just applied for a stage carriage conductor's licence, and has been refused, though nothing more serious than the charge on which he was dismissed from the police force can, he says, be brought against him.
"I mentioned the phenomenal success of The Star as a proof that possibly he might be too sanguine in his opinion as to the weakness of the metropolitan Radicals. He smiled sarcastically.
" 'I don't think any halfpenny paper has much influence in politics - certainly not The Star.'
"The mention of The Star brought our conversation round to the Irish members, whom he admitted were 'clever.' He thought that though the Parnell Commission might not actually prove everything, it would throw such a strong light upon the doings of the Irish members that its purpose would be served just as effectually as though it proved the Times' allegations up to the hilt. Sapient Mr. Austen Chamberlain!
The following handbill is being widely distributed. In appearance it closely resembles one given away by agents of the Rock Freehold Land Society:-
"That the Kingdom of Satan is liken unto the Star paper. It was established by lying which eminated (sic) from the Father of lies. While the Kingdom was being established a great noise was heard of much boasting and lying, declaring a great work has been done; this caused much blindness among the people, and many were deceived thereby. And it came to pass as the Kingdom grew it spread itself out like unto a green bay tree offering shelter to all from abuse and slander. A command went forth that whosoever was not found lodging in its branches, advertising in the Star, was declared to be in great danger, and could not be recommended as being honest.
"And it came to pass that many through fear of exposure sought refuge; these were treated very kindly and were spoken highly of as being good and sound, but - what do we think -
"After reading this circular, please pass it on so that peoples eyes may be open to the abomination that exists in our midst; for it is written that all liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire, which is the second death. See Rev. 21.8."
The Number of Copies Circulated
during the Six Days was
1,140,200.
This Number is Greater by
412,000
Than the Number Ever Circulated in
any week by any other
EVENING PAPER IN LONDON.
