WHEN thieves fall out honest men come by their own; and when officials fight the public are benefited. So the quarrels of Matthews and Warren are likely to do the popular cause nothing but good. If, however, we must express our opinion, there can be very little doubt that Mr. Matthews behaved to his late Commissioner as no gentleman would behave to another. He wrote him a letter in terms which any self-respecting man would have taken as a notice to quit. Mr. Matthews says that that letter and Sir Charles Warren's answer to it were the sole reasons for Sir Charles's resignation. We question the good faith of that statement. In the first place, Mr. Matthews himself discredits it, for he admits that there were previous differences between him and the Chief Commissioner. In the second place, it is obvious that that letter was written with no other purpose than of bringing old quarrels to a head and forcing Sir Charles out of office.
As for the article in Murray's it was extremely useful as showing that Sir Charles Warren was no more fit to be entrusted with the care of our liberties than a homicidal maniac with the care of a six months' old baby. But as to the breach of the Civil Service regulations, there is something to be said for the Chief Commissioner. The breach has often been made before, and Sir Charles might plead that his policy having been attacked he had a moral right to appeal to the people to support it - if they would. Instead of that they strengthened their determination to have done with our martinet Commissioner. But that does not make Mr. Matthews's conduct the less contemptible. Sir Charles was thrown as a tub to the whale. But the whale will have another tub, and that tub will be Mr. Matthews.
It is said that the disagreement between Mr. Matthews and Sir Charles Warren is of recent date. This in incorrect. They first fell out over the Trafalgar-square riots. Mr. Matthews was in favor of yielding to public opinion at the last, but Sir Charles took a different view of the matter, and went in person to Lord Salisbury. He succeeded in winning the Prime Minister over to his side, and Mr. Matthews has never forgotten the slight then put upon him.
Colonel Daniel, the Chief of the Hertfordshire Constabulary, is known to have some influence at Hatfield House, and as his record embraces the distinction of having commanded the special constables under circumstances which surpass description, a Daniel may again come to judgement.
Mrs. Langtry was offered untold sums to show herself in a burlesque at the Gaiety. Mrs. Langtry declined, on account of a moral objection to wear tights. It has been wrongly said that it was also owing to a desire to secure an engagement in Genteel Comedy, and therefore to avoid spoiling the market. Mrs. Langtry has since appeared in tights as Rosalind.
As his junior counsel Mr. Parnell has in Mr. Herbert Henry Asquith one of the most able men of his generation. He comes of a Dissenting stock, and only a few years ago was perhaps the best president that the Oxford Union Society ever had. He carried off all sorts of University honors, and scored the Balliol Fellowship. Then he wrote a book on the Corrupt Practices Act, and got briefed on several election petitions in consequence. He made his mark in Parliament last year by a first-rate speech on the Address; he is a capital speaker, a "safe" lawyer, an intelligent writer, and a good all-round man. He is 36 years old and promises great things.
Mrs. John Wood, who has given up her house in Gordon-square, has gone to Cheyne-gardens, Chelsea, to the pretty red-brick house formerly occupied by the late John Clayton, and well known to a large portion of the artistic and theatrical community in London.
Here lies
Sir CHARLES WARREN,
Formerly
Chief Commissioner of Metropolitan Police.
During his Tenure of Office
He Lectured on the Holy Land,
And Trampled Under his Feet
Our Free and ancient laws,
Daily insulting the law-abiding people of London.
Contrary to the Regulations of the Service
He wrote an article in Murray's Magazine,
The grammar of which was shaky
And the spelling of which is said to have been corrected
By the Printer's Devil.
He resigned rather than submit to
Merited censure.
Forbear, pious reader,
To spit upon his tomb
For though his actions were despotic
His resignation brought joy and gladness
To the homes of thousands.
"When the wicked perish there is shouting."
THE CIRCULATION OF
THE STAR
On Friday last reached the Enormous
Total of
298,800
Copies.
This number exceeds the total ever
circulated in one day by this Journal
or by any other evening paper.
TORCHES AT CLERKENWELL.
The Careful Methods Adopted by the Police to Provoke a Disturbance.
There was a strong element of poetic justice in the fact that on the anniversary of the brutal scenes of Bloody Sunday, London Radicals should gather together in huge numbers to rejoice over the downfall of one of the authors of those scenes. Last night Clerkenwell-green was crowded from end to end with an audience animated by a rare enthusiasm. The scene from the central platform was one not to be soon forgotten. On every side was a sea of upturned faces, stretching away back until lost in the dusk. From each window of the Patriotic Club, bright streams of limelight were flashed over the crowd, and on each of the four platforms numbers of torches flared luridly. On the roofs of the neighboring houses red lights were burned at intervals. Here and there amongst the throng a policeman's helmet was discernible, and round each corner a file of mounted men was ranged, and private constables and detectives swarmed in the crowd. Every point of observation was occupied, roofs and windows were all taken up, and four enterprising youths had mounted to the top of the fountain, to the envy of their less agile companions.
The prevailing tone of all the speeches was one of triumph. "Warren has gone, and
was the key-note of it. Mr. Cuninghame Graham, M.P., spoke from the central platform. He impressed it upon his hearers that although Warren was gone, and Matthews might go too, their quarrel lay deeper than opposition to individual men; the battle was against the system of class government as opposed to democracy, class government, to which Warren and the rest were merely incidental. Amongst the speakers at other platforms were Mr. Wm. Morris, Mr. Richard Eve, Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji, and Mrs. Eleanor Marx Aveling. The resolutions were carried without dissent.
As soon as the great audience began to disperse the police, as usual, began to disturb the peace that up till then had prevailed. They made for the torches with the intention of extinguishing them. Those bearing them received no warning that it was not allowed until they found a policeman struggling with them roughly. One of the speakers, Mr. Power, of the Social Democratic Federation, was holding a torch up when two detectives knocked him down and trampled upon the light. Instantly there was a scene of confusion. The crowd went for the two detectives, mistaking them for private citizens bent upon disturbance. Down came the mounted men and a crowd of foot and for a few minutes there was a general free fight. Finally Power was arrested and conveyed under strong escort to King's-cross station. As soon as he was safe inside the mounted men charged at the crowd that had followed, and rode at a furious pace up and down the street, some of them on the pathway. Three other arrests were made at about the same time.
Mr. Boynes of the Borough of Finsbury Radical Federation, writes :- Superintendent Jones and an inspector of the police force called last (Monday) evening at a late hour at the East Finsbury Radical Club and offered to give every assistance they could to the processionists, but asked them as a favor not to light the torches in the street, owing to the danger to vehicular traffic. They did not forbid them on the Green or in the street, but as they seemed to acknowledge our right to carry them we thought it advisable, both in the public interest, and also bearing in mind the severe affliction the "force" is suffering under by the official decease of their leader, to refrain from lighting them until we reached the Green.
PARLIAMENT.
WARREN.
The House then went into Committee of Supply, and continued the discussion on the Metropolitan Police vote.
Sir WALTER BARTTELOT thought justice had hardly been done to Sir Charles Warren, whose resignation, he believed, was extremely regretted by the force. (Cries of "No, no.")
Mr. CUNINGHAME-GRAHAM said he believed the Chief Commissioner to be personally a straightforward and honorable man, but the worst fitted man in the British empire to fill such a position. In his dismissal he had had neither act nor part, and if he were asked to answer the question "who killed Cock Warren?" he would say Gent-Davis. The Commissioner had not scrupled to override the Constitution, and to treat British citizens half a mile from the House as if they were rebels in the South Seas. The Home Secretary had taken upon himself responsibility for all that had been done by the Commissioner, and he impeached the Home Secretary for breaking up by the police a meeting at Clerkenwell-green last night. He did not hesitate to say before God and man that he had stood between the Home Secretary and death many times, but if this sort of thing was to be continued, and British citizens were to be batoned down at public meetings without the Riot Act being read, we should have some frightful horror such as occurred in Chicago.
Mr. BARTLEY having lived in London all his life protested against the statement made last night that the people were antagonistic to the police, and regretted that Sir Charles Warren had been sacrificed to the cry of demagogues.
Sir W. HARCOURT said the condition of things at Scotland-yard was a painful surprise to him, for during the time he was at the Home Office the relations between the Criminal Investigation Department and Scotland-yard and the Home Office were in perfect harmony. He could not however concede the demand that had been advanced from some quarters that the Commissioner of Police should be independent of the Home Office.
No successor to Sir Charles Warren has yet been definitively selected, but it is understood, says the Daily News, that the Government favor the appointment of a civilian to the office of First Commissioner. The choice of the Home Office is likely to fall upon either Mr. Malcolm Wood, Chief Constable of Manchester, or the Chief of the Birmingham Police. The representatives of Lancashire, irrespective of party, support Mr. Wood. Yesterday that gentleman was summoned to town.
The statements made at Dalston yesterday, as to the prevalence of drunkenness amongst the inmates of the City of London Union Infirmary, as a result of the Lord Mayor's treat, appears to have been greatly exaggerated. We are assured by an inmate that the few cases of misconduct which occurred on Monday were to be attributed rather to the usual weekly "day out" than to the misuse of the Lord Mayor's gift.
An Exchange Company's telegram from Paris to-day says :- An English boy, named Michael Field, nine years of age, died in the Dieppe train from a fit of hydrophobia. He was bitten in Willesden five weeks ago, and was on his way to M. Pasteur.
Yesterday morning at ten o'clock a man about 60 years of age committed suicide in a railway tunnel on the Great Northern Railway at Highgate. He had placed his neck on one of the rails, and it was cleanly severed from the body.
He Fixes the Time at Two o'Clock on Friday Morning, and Says the Stranger Carried a Parcel, Wore Gloves, and Walked with Noiseless Tread.
This morning we have a fuller statement respecting the well-dressed man said to have been seen with Kelly early on Friday morning. The story is told by George Hutchinson, a groom by trade, but now working as a laborer. He says :- "On Thursday last I had been to Romford, in Essex, and I returned from there about two o'clock on Friday morning, having walked all the way. I came down Whitechapel-road into Commercial-street. As I passed Thrawl-street I saw a man standing at the corner of the street, and as I went towards Flower-and-Dean-street I met the woman Kelly, whom I knew very well, having been in her company a number of times. She said, 'Mr. Hutchinson, can you lend me sixpence?' I said, 'I cannot, as I am spent out going down to Romford.' She then walked on towards Thrawl-street, saying, 'I must go and look for some money.' The man who was standing at the corner of Thrawl-street then came towards her and
and said something to her, which I did not hear, and they both burst out laughing. He put his hand again on her shoulder, and they both walked slowly towards me. I walked on to the corner of Fashion-street, near the public-house. As they came by me his arm was still on her shoulder. He had a soft felt hat on, and this was drawn down somewhat over his eyes. I put down my head to look him in the face, and he turned and looked at me very sternly, and they walked across the road to Dorset-street. I followed them across, and stood at the corner of Dorset-street. They stood at the corner of Miller's-court for about three minutes. Kelly spoke to the man in a loud voice, saying, 'I have lost my handkerchief.' He pulled
out of his pocket, and gave it to Kelly, and they both went up the court together. I went to look up the court to see if I could see them, but could not. I stood there for threequarters of an hour to see if they came down again, but they did not, and so I went away. My suspicions were aroused by seeing the man so well-dressed, but I had no suspicion that he was the murderer. The man was about 5ft. 6in. in height, and 34 or 35 years of age, with dark complexion and dark moustache, turned up at the ends. He was wearing a long dark coat, trimmed with astrachan, a white collar, with black necktie, in which was affixed a horseshoe pin. He wore a pair of dark 'spats' with light buttons over button boots, and displayed from his waistcoat a massive gold chain. His watch chain had a big seal, with a red stone, hanging from it. He had a heavy moustache curled up and dark eyes and bushy eyebrows. He had no side whiskers, and his chin was clean-shaven. He
I went up the court and stayed there a couple of minutes, but did not see any light in the house or hear any noise. I was out last night until three o'clock looking for him. I could swear to the man anywhere. I told one policeman on Sunday morning what I had seen, but did not go to the police-station. I told one of the lodgers here about it yesterday, and he advised me to go to the police-station, which I did last night. The man I saw did not look as though he would attack another one. He carried a small parcel in his hand about 8in. long, and it had a strap round it. He had it tightly grasped in his left hand. It looked as though it was covered with dark American cloth. He carried in his right hand, which he laid upon the woman's shoulder, a pair of brown kid gloves. One thing I noticed, and that was that
I believe that he lives in the neighborhood, and I fancied that I saw him in Petticoat-lane on Sunday morning, but I was not certain. Kelly did not seem to me to be drunk, but was a little bit spreeish. After I left the court I walked about all night, as the place where I usually sleep was closed. I am able to fix the time, as it was between ten and five minutes to two o'clock as I came by Whitechapel Church. When I left the corner of Miller's-court the clock struck three o'clock. One policeman went by the Commercial-street end of Dorset-street while I was standing there, but not one came down Dorset-street. I saw one man go into a lodging-house in Dorset-street, and no one else. I have been looking for the man all day."
The police have received from Mr. Samuel Osborne, wireworker, 20, Garden-row, London-road, a statement to the effect that he was walking along St. Paul's Churchyard yesterday behind a respectably-dressed man, when a parcel wrapped in a newspaper fell from the man's coat. Osborne told him that he had dropped something, but the man denied the parcel belonged to him. Osborne picked up the parcel and found that it contained
and a thick blade 6in. or 7in. long, with stains upon it resembling blood; the parcel also contained a brown kid glove, smeared with similar stains on both sides. Osborne found a constable, and together they searched for the mysterious individual, but without success. The parcel was handed over to the City police authorities, who, however, attach not the slightest importance to the matter, as the knife proved to be a table knife, eaten with rust, and so blunt that it could not possibly have been used in connection with the late murders.
A second inquest would have been held on Kelly's body had it been removed into the Whitechapel district for burial. But the double inquiry has been averted by the action of Mr. H. Wilton, parish clerk and keeper of the Shoreditch mortuary. He has undertaken to inter the body at his own expense, assisted by contributions which may be received, and yesterday he obtained from the coroner's officer an order to prepare a coffin. In
Dr. Macdonald stated that the duty of the jury was merely to ascertain the cause of death, but the common law, since Edward I., has declared that in the language of the declaratory statute, "all the injuries of the body, also all wounds, ought to be viewed; and the length, breadth, and deepness, with what weapon, and in what part of the body the wound or hurt is; and how many be culpable, and how many wounds there be, and who gave the wounds - all which things must be enrolled in the roll of the coroner's." No question was put as to any of these points.
Soon after three o'clock this morning screams of "Police! Murder!" were heard in the neighborhood of Commercial-street. Several policemen ran to the spot, and found a young woman lying on the pavement insensible and bleeding from an ugly wound in the head. After she recovered she said she was accosted by a man who, when she refused to go with him, drew a large knife. She gave the alarm and the man knocked her down. The woman was sober, and gave the police a description of the man which tallies with that published.
At five o'clock this morning there were three persons in custody at Commercial-street Police-station. One tried to persuade two women to accompany him into one of the small streets adjoining Spitalfields Market. He was watched, and ultimately handed over to a policeman. At the police-station the man refused to give an account of himself or where he lived, on the ground that he did not wish his parents to be alarmed by the police inquiries regarding him. Questioned as to his whereabouts on Thursday night, and Friday morning last he gave various explanations, and contradicted himself so frequently that it was considered advisable to detain him until his identity and antecedents were thoroughly investigated.
At Leman-street Station no fewer than 10 persons were brought in the course of the morning; but of this number only two were detained at half-past five.
A correspondent writes :- Between twelve and two o'clock this morning I and a friend perambulated the murder district. Except in the main thoroughfares, there was not a woman to be seen; for the terror has struck so deeply that they will not venture out of Whitechapel-road. There were a few, seemingly quite destitute, here and in Commercial-road, but in the network of lanes and alleys lying north of Cable-street, and the maze of winding courts about Osborne-street there was not a soul but policemen, mostly in plain clothes. There were several easily distinguishable people got up as amateur detectives, one ingenious young man feigning drunkenness in a most unnatural fashion. It struck me as strange that most of the police confined their attention to the main streets, and gave but scanty attention to the more dangerous bye-lanes. In order to test the much talked-of ubiquity of the police in Whitechapel at present my friend and I halted under the bridge in Christian-street, determining to see how long we would remain undisturbed. It was seventeen minutes before anyone appeared, and then the arrival was not a policeman, but a young man who entered a house near by. There was plenty of time for the undisturbed performance of another tragedy. We tried the same experiment in several of the dark courts of the district, and in the majority of cases it was over ten minutes before we were observed. My experience did not by any means bear out the idea that the police are particularly vigilant in the district, except, of course, in the main streets, where there are police every few yards apart."
Thomas Murphy, arrested in a Holborn lodging-house and found in possession of a knife, has been discharged.
Four Brussels workmen were playing cards on Monday night, and one trumped his partner's trick. The partner, not content with a passing oath or two, as is usual under the circumstances, gave the man twenty digs in the ribs with a long knife and killed him. The murderer fled, but was found later in the evening playing cards quietly in another café.
A Child Rescued from a Lodging House Goes Into the Southwark Workhouse Clean and Comes Out Filthy Dirty - Her Golden Hair Cut Off and Sold.
Shameful treatment of a child in the workhouse has been brought under the notice of Mr. Slade, the Southwark magistrate. Two little children named Shannon and Cronin were taken from a common lodging-house frequented by prostitutes and brought before Mr. Slade. The father of the child Shannon said he slept at the lodging-house because he could get accommodation nowhere else, and preferred sleeping in a common lodging-house to walking the streets all night. He paid 3s. 6d. a week for lodgings, and he was not bound to know the character of all the people who slept there. The child was clean, well-nourished, and healthy, he said, as he pointed to the little thing in the dock, and her appearance undoubtedly corroborated his statement. - Mr. Slade told him that a house frequented by disorderly characters was not a proper place to bring up his child in, and recommended him to get lodgings in a private house; if he did so the child would be restored to him. In the meantime his daughter, with other children taken from the same place, would be sent to the workhouse. - On the case being brought before his worship yesterday Shannon complained of the filthy state in which the child was returned to him. Not only were her under-garments in a dirty condition, but
Mr. Slade directed inquiries to be made, and this morning the master and matron of the workhouse came before him. - Mr. Henry Thompson, Master of St. George's Workhouse, said the child was put into a proper ward and placed under the care of a pauper attendant named Rixon, who had occupied the position for seven years, and against whom no complaint had been made. - Mr. Slade remarked that there would have been no complaint in this case if the father had not been a man of mettle and determination. - Mary Rixon said she bathed the child yesterday morning before it left the house, and declared then she was quite clean and the head free from vermin. - Mr. Richard Stevens, the Rescue Officer through whom the children were brought before the Court, said he examined the children's heads himself immediately on their discharge, and found them in a shocking condition. The child Shannon when sent into the workhouse had splendid golden hair, and four or five inches had been cut off in the workhouse. He had information that this
in the neighborhood. Before Shannon was taken to the workhouse he and a sergeant examined her head; it was then perfectly clean. - Rixon, in answer to the magistrate, denied cutting off the child's hair. - Mr. Slade thereupon ordered the female searcher to examine the child. She did so, and corroborated the statement of the father. - Mr. Stevens added that, although it was denied that the child's hair had been cut off, he had now ascertained the name of the woman who had taken it. - Mr. Slade asked Mr. Thompson what he had to say now. - Mr. Thompson said the matron was dependant very largely on the wardswoman, and it seemed that to some extent she had been deceived. - Mr. Slade (firmly): That is no answer to these serious allegations - it is the duty of the matron to look after her subordinates, and take care that nothing of this kind happens. It is the duty of the Local Government Board to look after you. It is an extraordinary case, and I shall certainly make a report of it.
Captain Helvennes, of the London and North-Western Company's steamer Shamrock, running between Dublin and Holyhead, reported this morning on arrival in Dublin that a first-class saloon passenger named Pyne, believed to be Mr. Douglas Pyne, the member for Waterford, fell overboard about midway between Holyhead and Dublin, and was drowned. The body has not been recovered. Mr. Pyne's beleaguerment in his castle before his arrest at the House of Commons under the Crimes Act, made him a famous member of the Irish party.
Mr. Pyne, M.P., was not in the House of Commons on Monday night. He was last seen at the offices of the Irish party on Saturday. He said he was going to dine that evening with a friend.
(We have received no confirmation of this from our Dublin correspondent.)
