LONDON democracy has won its greatest victory since the fall of Hyde-park railings. It is "triumphant democracy" with a vengeance. On the anniversary of the day on which we write these lines Sir CHARLES WARREN met the people of London in Trafalgar-square and drove them violently out of it, Pall Mallism applauding with both hands, and crowning the champion of law and order with never-fading laurels. To-day Sir CHARLES WARREN is a defeated and discredited man, deserted by the Minister who is responsible for his mistakes, betrayed by the party which supported him, snubbed by the Press which made the welkin ring with his praise. The long steady cheers which greeted the news of his resignation in the House of Commons were ominous of much. They were the death-knell of militarism, Trafalgar-squareism, and generally of that mysterious order of disease known as Warrenitis. Sir CHARLES WARREN was the sincere victim of a delusion. He thought London was in the hands of a violent and disorderly "mob." He said so with his usual frankness. Then the Minister who had all along been acting as if Sir CHARLES were right - who, as long as political credit was to be got from the "law and order" cry, backed it with all his might - seized the opportunity afforded by a breach of official etiquette - a breach committed, and rightly committed, by Sir THOMAS FARRER and many another Civil Servant - and threw the unpopular agent overboard. When the Hyde-park railings fell, WALPOLE wept. When the Whitechapel murders occurred, and Warrenism, apt for the bludgeoning of the people, incapable of detecting crime, began to stink in the nostrils of the men of London, MATTHEWS ran away. A more contemptible episode in the career of the weakest of politicians and the meanest of men was never on record. King DEMOS may well laugh "Aha!" when he sees that these are his masters.
Sir CHARLES WARREN is gone after twelve months' ineffectual struggle with popular opinion. We do not regret him, but we say firmly that a worse offender remains. Mr. MATTHEWS is the Minister who is responsible for Sir CHARLES WARREN'S administration. It was he who gave and broke the pledge about "bonâ fide meetings." It was he who defended from his place in Parliament the savage treatment of London Radicals by the official who simply carried out his orders with military promptitude and severity. It is true that Mr. MATTHEWS gives the Press and the House of Commons to understand that he accepted Sir CHARLES WARREN'S resignation on account of differences of opinion as to the organisation of the Detective Department. That is true, but it is not the whole truth. Sir CHARLES WARREN, having succeeded in a flank movement in Trafalgar-square, thought he could succeed as a detective. In the attempt he came into sharp conflict with Mr. MONRO, and eventually with Mr. MATTHEWS. But no man with the smallest acquaintance with such natures as Mr. MATTHEWS'S doubts the real reason for the Chief Commissioner's supersession. And, that being so, it behoves the people of London to say whether they will sacrifice the agent and let the director go free. Sir CHARLES had at least the courage of his mischievous opinions. Mr. MATTHEWS has neither courage nor opinions, but only the base instinct of self-preservation.
MATTHEWS then must go. But that is not the immediate moral of last night's victory. The pressing question is the appointment of a successor to Sir CHARLES WARREN. Now we invite the London Liberal members to make two demands on the Government. The first is that the new CHIEF COMMISSIONER shall be a policeman, and not a military man. The reign of the HENDERSONS and the WARRENS is over. Both parties are to blame for the militarising of the police, and one party at least must confess its error in sackloth and ashes before it is too late. The best Chief Commissioner which London ever had was Sir RICHARD MAYNE, who was a lawyer. Either a lawyer or a policeman like the excellent Chief Constable of Birmingham should be chosen to succeed the Major - General who has been happily restored to the profession which we suppose he adorns. But that is not all; indeed it is only half of the popular demand. We are not at all sure that the time has not come for the total abolition of the office of Chief Commissioner and the decentralisation of the police. But most emphatically the time has come for placing the Chief Constable of London under popular control. The Radicals, therefore, should press for a purely temporary appointment, made with the express understanding that as soon as the County Council is called into existence its holder shall be at the service of the people's representatives. That should, we think, be a sine quâ non of the popular demand inside Parliament.
And outside? What is to be done about Trafalgar-square? Well, the main point on which to insist is that nothing shall be done in a hurry. Within the last two weeks the policy of Parliamentary pressure has won two startling and significant victories. The Star programme has been acknowledged and partly incorporated by the Liberal party; and the people have struck down military government in London. Do not let us lose the moral of these events. Sir CHARLES WARREN called us a mob. The answer to that must be that we are not a mob, but an army marching on to assured and speedy victory. Our policy is to watch with lynx-like vigilance the next step taken by her MAJESTY'S Government, jealously to canvass the new appointment, and then to ask the new official whether he will make terms for a responsible and properly-organised meeting to be held in the Square. In other words, the policy of "rushes" has not succeeded; the policy of Parliamentary attack has and will. The first was magnificent, but it was war at long odds; the second is hum-drum, but it is the winning game. We can play it now with the assurance that no power on earth can stand against the united voice of an emancipated people, speaking through its chosen representatives.
WE are sorry to see a small section of London democrats mixing themselves up with the cause of Anarchism. We have only to point the moral of our leader with an emphatic condemnation of such a gratuitous piece of folly, and what is worse, such rank treason to the popular cause. Anarchism is tyranny's best friend. It is the negation of progress; the destruction of rational society; the last miserable resort of intellectual and moral pessimism. Away with it! We will have no part or lot in it; and the sooner our friends the Socialists understand that, the better. Let them look to the lesson of Birmingham and the lesson of Trafalgar-square, as against the lesson of Chicago. There is the true moral of the situation in London to-day.
SIR CHARLES WARREN may now be reconciled to his bloodhounds. These animals, it will be remembered, mysteriously disappeared, and there is no doubt that, finding they could not get on with the Chief commissioner, they resigned.
The inquest on Mary Janet Kelly has closed, like its predecessors, without throwing any useful light on the crime. Light of a certain sort there is, but it is so confused and shifting as to be almost worse than useless. We have at least three descriptions of an individual who may be the man wanted. There is Mrs. Cox's account of a man who went with the deceased into her room about midnight on Thursday - "a short stout man, shabbily dressed," with "a blotchy face and a full carrotty moustache." There is Sarah Lewis's description of the man who accosted her on Wednesday in Bethnal-green-road, which varies slightly from the preceding, but might fit the same man. Finally, we have the statement by an anonymous witness which has found its way into the morning papers, and which makes the suspected individual an elegantly-dressed gentleman about 5ft. 6in. in height, "with a dark complexion, and a dark moustache curled up at the ends." Why this statement has been made public at this particular juncture is one of those mysteries in the police management of the case which no one out of Scotland-yard can understand.
Charles Malcolm Wood, who formerly used to be in the Indian Police, is pointed to as Sir Charles Warren's successor. He is the Chief Constable of Manchester, and has distinguished his rule by great success in the detection of dynamitards. His right-hand man is M. Caminada, who presides over the decidedly humane but business-like French system of the C.I.D.
At the Birmingham banquet, which is shortly to be given to Mr. Henry Irving, it is expected that Mr. Joseph Chamberlain will preside.
This morning the old man Levi Richard Bartlett, 66 years of age, who was convicted at the Old Bailey Sessions by Justice Cave, of the murder of his wife, was hung at Newgate Prison in the presence of Mr. Under-Sheriff Metcalfe, the governor and medical officer of the gaol, and other officials. Berry was the executioner. Bartlett was a stevedore at the docks in the East-end. He lived with his wife, who kept a small general shop in Poplar. She was an industrious woman, and her husband had long been given to drink. On 18 Aug., while the wife was engaged with her customers in the shop her husband, after a long drinking bout, demanded money to get more drink. She refused. He seriously assaulted her, and in the presence of others declared his intention "to do for her that night." This was not an unusual occurrence, and his conduct was generally so eccentric that he was known as "Mad Dick." He went out and returned at a late hour, his wife and he going to bed without further wrangling. In the middle of the night he got a heavy hammer out of the cellar, and
while she was asleep, and then tried to cut his throat. Bartlett had received the information that he was to hang with stolid indifference. He woke at an early hour, and after a conference with the chaplain, whom he thanked, together with all the officials, for their kindness, ate a big breakfast, and was again engaged with the chaplain. He showed no emotion. The only allusion he made to the crime was that he was so besoddened with drink at the time that he did not know what he was doing. At a quarter to eight a procession was formed to the scaffold. The prisoner was supported by a warder on each side and the chaplain reading the burial service. He walked with a tolerably firm step. Bartlett was quickly pinioned, the bolt was drawn, and the almost
showed that Berry had rightly calculated the drop.
This fact imparted a sensation of relief to the officials. The wound in Bartlett's throat, from his attempt at suicide, had not so fully healed as to remove all fear of its opening on the drop falling. Added to this was the circumstance that the prisoner was a very heavy man. Berry gave him a moderately short drop. Several hundred people were outside Newgate.
A correspondent sends us a statement as to the unprovoked brutality of some of the constables on duty in Trafalgar-square on Lord Mayor's Day. He says that he saw two policemen deliberately kick a young fellow who was walking out of the Square several times on his ankle till they lamed him. "It was difficult to obtain the numbers of these men, as they were well covered by their capes. However, I quietly followed the more brutal of the two, and asked him for his number. He refused to give it me, and tried hard to avoid me by slipping amongst the crowd and his comrades, but I kept close behind him, and when passing an officer who was apparently in charge of a body of police on the west side of the Square, I asked him to give me the man's number, but, much to my astonishment, he also refused, and walked away. The constable now went quickly into Cockspur-street, and here endeavored to avoid me by taking advantage of the vehicular traffic. We again entered the Square, and happening to approach another superior official, I asked him to give me the man's number. This officer, who was anything but civil, very reluctantly stopped the policeman and gave it to me, which was 17 A R. I enclose my card, and should the Chief Commissioner desire to investigate these illegalities of his subordinates, I shall be glad to give him every assistance in my power, and I am sure that he will have no difficulty in procuring other eye-witnesses to bear out my statements."
Who killed Cock Warren?
"I," said the gin distiller;
"I'm the tyrant killer,
I killed Cock Warren."
Who killed Cock Warren?
"I," said the Pall Mall;
"I set him up as well,
Then I killed Cock Warren."
Who killed Cock Warren?
"I," said Mr. Graham,
"I'm the hound to bay 'em.;
I killed Cock Warren."
Who killed Cock Warren?
"We," said the people;
"Clash the bells in the steeple;
We killed Cock Warren."
H. W. M.
The London correspondent of the Glasgow Herald this morning telegraphs: - "A number of persons are mentioned as candidates for the office of Chief Commissioner of Police, but it is understood that the choice of the Government will practically be made from three gentlemen, each of whom is believed to be well qualified for the post. These three are Mr. Munro, the late chief of the Criminal Investigation Department; Mr. Malcolm Wood, the Chief Constable of Manchester police; and Mr. Farndale, the Chief Constable of the Birmingham police. Of the three, Mr. Farndale is supposed to have slightly the best chance.
An order of committal, suspended for a month, was made to-day at the Westminster County Court against F. J. Harris, the lessee of the Opera Comique, for the non-payment, according to an order, for dresses supplied in 1885 for the "Fay of Fire."
A similar order was at the same court made against Mr. Tabrar, musical composer and theatrical agent, of York-road, Lambeth, and Waterloo-road. His income was put at £600 a year.
Bonner, the Australian cricketer, whose committal was also asked for, was ordered to pay £5 a month.
Alice Wood attempted to commit suicide in Dublin last night by taking poison. This is the twentieth time the woman has attempted to take her life.
Coroner Baxter held an inquest yesterday at Shadwell, on Florence A. Hancock, aged 26. She was found in the Thames, off Wapping, on Friday last, and her body had been in the water about a week. Up to the opening of the inquest the body remained unidentified, and then a neatly though fashionably dressed young woman came forward and said her name was Maud Jennings, the wife of a ship's steward, and she lived at 13, Puross-road, Brixton, of which house the deceased was the occupier. She had seen a description of the deceased in the newspapers, and identified her by her clothes as well as by a brooch and other articles the deceased was wearing. The deceased was the wife of George Hancock, formerly a bus conductor. She was separated from him, and had since been living under the protection of a gentleman whom witness knew as Mr. Pain, who was connected with the cattle trade. He allowed her £5 per week and usually came to town twice a week. The deceased left home on Monday afternoon, 22 Oct., to go and meet him at King's-cross, and she never returned. Deceased had been seen at Charing-cross, and also at Ludgate-circus, the same evening. She had two children away at school. She had never threatened to commit suicide to witness's knowledge. She was in no trouble, but was of a most lively disposition, and one not at all likely to take her life. The inquest was adjourned.
When the body was found it was fully dressed, with the exception of the hat and boots. On the day since which she was missed she was seen walking along the Strand with a tall, fair gentleman with heavy moustache. She was then wearing a gold necklace. When the body was recovered the necklace was missing. It is expected that the evidence given on the resumption of the inquest will be of a sensational character.
Fahy Fought With His Wife.
Michael Fahy, an officer of Customs, was charged at the Thames Court with assaulting his wife Amelia, of 77, Turner's-road, Bow. He went home drunk on Monday and cut her head open. Mrs. Fahy said she had been married 10 years, and had had to put up with this kind of conduct for years. She could support herself, and held a certificate as a School Board teacher. She had no children. Fahy charged his wife with drunkenness, but he was bound over to keep the peace.
A boy was bitten at Willesden five weeks ago by a dog, which was immediately poisoned. The wound was treated by Mr. Rutter, also at St. Mary's Hospital. He yesterday developed symptoms of hydrophobia, and at the instigation of Dr. De Lacy Evans, who has visited M. Pasteur before, he was immediately sent off to Paris, accompanied by friends.
The Social Democrats of Tunbridge Wells have addressed a letter to the Local Board, asking that some works, much needed in the neighborhood, should be opened at once for the sake of the numerous unemployed in the town. A reply was sent, stating that the Board could not, and would not, recognise the principle of providing work for the unemployed.
The most important point which has yet transpired in connection with the Miller's-court murder is the fact that Mary Ann Cox, who lives in the house where the dreadful deed was done, saw Kelly go into her room at midnight on Thursday with a man who was
He had on a long dark coat, a black billycock hat, and carried a pot of ale, and had a blotchy face, shaven chin, and a full carrotty moustache. The first care of the police on receiving this statement on Friday was to compare it with the descriptions given by various people and at various times of men supposed to have been seen in company of the murderer's previous victims. Unfortunately the accounts do not harmonise. The Berner-street suspect was described as a very dark man. The Hanbury-street victim was seen in company with a dark, foreign-looking man, and a similar description was given of a suspected individual at the time of the Buck's-row murder. It is noteworthy, however, that there were two descriptions given of the suspected Mitre-square and Hanbury-street murderers which agree in some respects with that furnished by the witness Cox. About 10 minutes before the body of Catherine Eddowes was found in Mitre-square a man about 30 years of age, of fair complexion, and with a fair moustache, was said to have been seen talking to her in the covered passage leading to the square. On the morning of the Hanbury-street murder a suspicious-looking man entered a public-house in Brushfield-street, and was afterwards
He was of shabby-genteel appearance, was stoutish, and had a sandy moustache. He was suspected because he was bloodstained.
It is said that a man who knew Kelly has stated to the police that on the morning of the 9th inst. he saw her in Commercial-street, Spitalfields (near where the murder was committed) in company with a man of respectable appearance, about 5ft. 6in. in height, and 34 or 35 years of age, with dark complexion, and dark moustache turned up at the ends, wearing a long, dark coat, trimmed with astrachan, a white collar with black necktie (in which was affixed a horseshoe pin), a pair of dark gaiters with light buttons over button boots, and displaying from his waistcoat a massive gold chain. Strangely enough, since it
from the description given by Cox, the police are said to attach a good deal of importance to the man's statement.
A point in Cox's evidence which seemed likely to afford some clue was the statement that the man was carrying a pot of beer. The can or pot which contained the liquor was not found in the room, and a careful examination of the fireplace and ashes showed that it had not been melted down, as was at first considered probable. If, therefore, the beer was actually taken into the house as described, the murderer must have taken the can away. This would seem to show that the murderer
in a possible chain of evidence against him. As far as inquiries have gone, no man answering the description given by Cox entered any tavern in the immediate neighborhood and took away beer.
As to the time of the murder, it is now generally admitted that Kelly could not, as some have stated, have been alive on Friday morning. The police have come to the conclusion that the woman who made the most positive statement to this effect must have been mistaken as to the day. Dr. Phillips's evidence, together with that of Mary Ann Cox, Elizabeth Prater, and others, proves that the murder was committed
- a fact which brings into startling relief the murderer's coolness, caution, and tenacity of purpose. The woman's drunken merriment lasted until shortly after one o'clock, by which time doubtless the liquor taken in had been consumed, and the couple must have sat up talking for half an hour or more before they retired for the night, because it is now known that the light was not extinguished until about two o'clock. The murderer must have restrained his impulse for nearly another hour, probably waiting until all fear of the return of late revellers and others had passed. Long before the murderer began his deadly work the victim must have been in a deep sleep, from which she was awakened by the murderer's onslaught, but only for a moment, as she was able to utter only one cry of murder, as said to have been heard by several dwellers in the court.
Some surprise was created among those present at the inquest yesterday by the abrupt termination of the inquiry. No question was put to Dr. Phillips as to the mutilated portions of the body, and the coroner did not think fit to ask the doctor whether any portions of the body were missing. The idea was that by at once making public every fact brought to light in connection with this terrible murder, the ends of justice might be retarded. Notwithstanding reports to the contrary, it is still confidently asserted that
During yesterday several arrests were made, but after a short examination in all cases the persons were set at liberty, as it was felt certain they had no connection with the crime.
Mr. Taunton, in whose care Mr. Brough left the bloodhounds with which Sir Charles Warren experimented in the park, has been interviewed as to their non-appearance. He says:- "About a fortnight ago I received a telegram from Leman-street Police Station, asking me to bring up the hounds. It was then shortly after noon, and I took Barnaby at once. On arriving at the station I was told by the superintendent that a burglary had been committed about five o'clock that morning in Commercial-street, and I was asked to attempt to track the thief by means of the dog. The police admitted that since the burglary they had been all over the premises. I pointed out the stupidity of expecting a dog to accomplish anything under such circumstances and after such a length of time had been allowed to elapse, and took the animal home. I wrote telling Mr. Brough of this, and he wired insisting that the dog should be sent back at once, as
if it were known that the police were trying to track burglars by its aid, was very great. The origin of the tale regarding the hounds being lost at Tooting while being practised in tracking a man, I can only account for in the following way. I had arranged to take Barnaby out to Hemel Hempstead to give the hound some practice. The same day a sheep was maliciously killed on Tooting-common, and the police wired to London asking that the hounds might be sent down. I was then some miles away from London with Barnaby, and did not get the telegram until on my return late in the evening. Somebody doubtless remarked that the hounds were missing, meaning that they did not arrive when sent for, and this was magnified into a report that they had been lost. At that time Burgho was at Scarborough. Under the circumstances in which the body of Mary Ann Kelly was found I do not think bloodhounds would have been of any use. It was then broad daylight and the streets crowded with people."
Shortly before three o'clock this morning two well-dressed men, one of them answering to the description published by the police, were noticed in Commercial-street acting in a very suspicious manner. They accosted a young woman, and commenced to walk along with her. Two policemen who had been watching them called to them to stop, but the two men took to their heels and darted down one of the side streets and escaped. The young woman states that the taller man had his face scratched.
Shortly before five this morning a man was arrested in Cable-street, and taken to Leman-street police station.
Daniel Jones, between one and two this morning was found outside Little George-street, Westminster. Asked what he was doing, he replied, "It's all right; I'm looking for Jack the Ripper." (Laughter.) He was arrested and remanded at Westminster.
About midnight a man was arrested in Islington charged on his own confession with being concerned in the murder. He was taken to the King's-cross-road Police Station. He was decidedly intoxicated, and probably little importance will be attached to his statements.
The threatened dispute as to who should bear the cost of the burial of the latest victim of the murder-maniac has been settled by several private persons coming forward to pay the expense. A local undertaker has offered to make the coffin and superintend the arrangements without fee, and two of the jurors are prepared to pay for a hearse and coach if the undertaker's offer is accepted.
O where, O where, are your little wee dogs,
O where are they gone, Sir C.?
Says Charles "Down in Surrey,
They fled in a hurry,
And never came back to me."
And where, O where, were your merry men gone
That people should murdered be?
"O my men were 'all there'
In Trafalgar-square,
Looking most militaree."
But Chawlie, O Chawlie, where were you?
Why didn't you journey down E.?
"I was up to my eyes
In a Christmas Prize
Composition for Newnes's T. B."
The Police Again.
SIR, - Last night I had occasion to pass Conduit-street, when I was suddenly confronted by what appeared to be a party of respectable young men, singing and enjoying a joke as they passed. In their midst were two police-constables, if I can only have the patience of calling them so, for afterwards their conduct was more like madmen than civilians. I saw one draw his truncheon and deliberately aim at a young man, dealing him a cowardly blow behind the ear for no reason whatever. Their numbers were 26 DR and 29 DR, England's protectors stationed at Conduit-street. - Yours, &c.,
10 Nov.
SIR, - I wish to call attention to a most dastardly act on the part of two members of the police force on Friday night. I was strolling down Conduit-street, when a crowd of young men, who were marching and singing (not rioting), were stopped by the police, two of whom, who were in the crowd, drew their batons without any provocation whatever, one especially dealing a most cowardly blow behind the ear to a young man, who was afterwards taken away in a cab. I should like to know if this action was justifiable on the part of Sir Charles's myrmidons, - Yours, &c.,
P.S. - I have the number of the constable if of any use to the injured young man.
