from the Asiatic shores, alien sounds | addressed questions, in the House of meet the ear, like Miltokythes, Oloros, Commons during last session, to the Rhometalkes, Pixodaros, Orophernes. home secretary, calling his attention to We take note of varieties characteristic some glaring cases where almost nominal of different parts of Greece; how names punishments were inflicted upon ruffians in -kрáτns, common everywhere, are espe- for outrages of a most brutal character. cially common (we wonder why?) at Towards the end of the session I moved Rhodes; how patronymics, though uni- a resolution upon the subject contrasting versally used, yet have an old-fashioned the punishments awarded for assaults sound, and belong more often to Dorians upon the person with the sentences passed than Ionians; so that when an Athenian upon criminals for attacks upon property. bears a name like Alkibiades, it is worth I endeavored to show, and I think suc while asking whether his family had any ceeded in showing, that in the first class connection with Sparta. We observe that of cases they were often, indeed generally, Philopomen, the one great hero reared entirely inadequate, while in the second by Arkadia, bore a name suggestive of they were almost uniformly excessive. If old Arkadian life. We can measure by this statement is true, and I am sure that aid chiefly of names in -dwpos the compara- it is substantially so, it follows, that in the tive hold which foreign worships obtained eye of the law, and in the minds of its adin Greece: the mother of the gods (Mŋrpó- ministrators, property is more sacred than δωρος, Μητροφάνης), Ammon (Αμμώνιος, Φιλάμ- person or even life. I contended that uwv), Bendis (Bevdidwpos), Sarapis (aparó- drunkenness should not be allowed as a δωρος, Σαραπίων, Φιλοσάραπις), Isis (Ισίδωρος, 'loyévns), and still later Horus and Triphis (Ωριγένης, Τρυφιόδωρος). We observe how, in later Athens, the very names bear witness to the decline, having little to do with politics or war, and more suggestive of philosophy, or superstition, or mere fancy (Σόφος, Λόγος, Μυστικός, Νήφων, Σπένδων, Αβάσκαντος, Γραφικός, Στάχυς, Ανθος, Κόρυμβος). And meanwhile, as Roman names mingle themselves more and more freely with the Greek, we seem no longer to be in Greece at all, for the stream of Hellenic civilization is losing itself in the world at large.*

E. L. HICKS.

THERE is no subject of more importance to the public than the mode in which the criminal law is administered. Upon the mode of its administration, and its effect upon the criminal classes, the comfort, peace, and security of the public largely depend. Public attention has been lately drawn to the subject by the apparent increase of savage, and often unprovoked assaults upon peaceful persons going about their avocations in the streets. Having long felt that some change was needed, either in the law, or the way in which it was administered, I

plea in mitigation of punishment, except in very rare and extraordinary circumstances. Finally I moved for a return of the number of outrages upon the person during the last five years, and the punishments awarded in each case. I fear that this return will show an increasing number of such crimes, and if it does, it will be due to the inadequacy of the punishments given by police magistrates and others. If it could be shown that the maximum punishments permitted by the law were generally given, then it would be clear that the law itself was to blame and not its administrators. Perhaps it is partly both, but before changing the law it must first be shown that its full power has been applied. I do not think that this is the case, for it often happens that not a tenth of the punishment allowed by law is given. This country has attained a most unenviable notoriety for a class of crime but little known in others. Brutal assaults upon wives and women of all kinds are a disgrace to the manhood of England, and it is high time that the reproach should be wiped out.

The home secretary was never able to suggest any means by which public attention could be called to cases of manifest injustice. He always contended that no person was competent to say whether a sentence was adequate or inadequate, unless he had been present in court when the case was tried, had heard all the evidence, and had had an opportunity of studying the demeanor of the witnesses. If this theory is a true one the public is indeed helpless and publicity useless. I contend, and I think most reasonable

people will agree with me, that when a the value of human life was a farce, and person has been found guilty by a jury, a the sentence that followed was a burjudge, or a magistrate, the public is quite lesque. Be it remembered that this pris. competent to say whether the punishment oner's crime was so very like murder that has been commensurate to the offence, it had been mistaken for the real article without having heard a word of the evi- by the coroner's jury. This sentence dence or having seen one of the witnesses. was passed on the 26th of May, and beI readily admit that the public is not com- fore the middle of July Hunt was a free petent, upon the mere report of a trial, to man - free to look for a successor to the say whether the prisoner is guilty or not late Mrs. Hunt, with whom, the chief jusguilty with the same certainty as a judge tice said, he might have lived happily had or jury. But the evidence having been he not had the misfortune to kill her. If sufficient to satisfy the judge and the jury Hunt had stolen a small object more any one is competent to say whether the "precious in the eye of the law," namely sentence is a fair one or an unfair one. a sixpence, he would probably have had The home secretary argued, too, that it to suffer loss of liberty for a longer periwas unreasonable to suppose that judges od. In June, at the Surrey sessions, and magistrates were less humane than Michael Murphy was tried for taking a the mover of the resolution, and that, purse containing nine shillings quietly out therefore, their judgments should not be of the pocket of a woman who was looking criticised. into a shop window. He had been previ The following cases will show the impu-ously convicted, and the sentence was ten nity with which brutal injury can be in-years' penal servitude. It is but fair to flicted upon the person, and the terrible Hunt to say that the one with whom he consequences to the criminal when his might have lived happily was the first wife crime has been the abstraction of a few he had killed. On the 11th of the same pence or shillings from the pocket or the month, William Dean, described as "a till. The first to which I ventured to call brutal husband," was tried at the Guildthe attention of the home secretary last hall for brutally assaulting and kicking his session was the case of a man named wife. He was a violent man, and ill-used Hunt, tried before Lord Coleridge on the her, drunk or sober. He struck her sev26th of May. This man was indicted for eral times in the face, knocked her down, the wilful murder of his wife. He was and while she was on the ground kicked seen chasing her over a field, and having her savagely in the face. It was not his thrown her down, kicked her with his first offence, and he got three months. heavy boots either on the head or the On the 11th of July a man of the name of back of the neck. The woman never William Harcourt was charged, at Westmoved, and when reproached by some minster, with assaulting a woman who was neighbors, he said it "served her right." most justly described as an unfortuShe died almost immediately, and when nate." The prisoner, without the slightthe police came they found the prisoner est provocation, beat her most unmercicalmly smoking his pipe. The man was fully about the head and face. The in a state of intoxication, and stated that magistrate said the prosecutrix was as they had had a thousand quarrels. The much entitled to the protection of the jury convicted him of manslaughter, a ver- law as any one else, and gave the prisoner dict in which the judge concurred. The one month. At the Middlesex sessions learned judge then said "there was no in December a man was convicted of crime which varied so much in its moral stealing two shillings worth of coals, and aspect as manslaughter, in one case it was sentenced to eight months' hard might nearly approach murder. In this labor. At the same sessions another case the prisoner had wilfully deprived man was indicted for wounding his wife. himself of the guidance of reason, and had The police found the woman bleeding been the means of causing the death of from the leg and hand, and the prisoner this young woman with whom he might with an open razor, wet with blood. He have lived happily. While giving effect said "he wished he had cut her head off." to the recommendation of the jury he A previous conviction was proved, and he must pass upon the prisoner a sentence to had frequently been charged with similar show that human life was a precious thing offences, but was acquitted because his in the eye of the law, and could not be wife would not appear against him. He taken without punishment. He sentenced was sentenced to twelve months. The him to six weeks' hard labor." next case was of watch-stealing, the watch being valued at thirty-five shillings. One

The solemn address of the judge about

mit outrages from the exuberance of their own brutality must be taught by the experience of bodily pain that which they are certainly not taught at present, and that is to dread the consequences to themselves.

ruffian who is before the magistrate may | up, without appeal, until their senses have be, for all his brutality, the bread-winner returned, and the number of such people of the family, and to lock him up may will sensibly diminish. Those who comresult in sending them all into the workhouse. Although this is a difficulty, it is not greater in the case of violence to the person than in cases of attacks upon property. It will not therefore afford any explanation of the disparity of the sentences, to which I am referring, although it is well worthy of consideration when any change in the law is contemplated. There is a strong feeling in this country, and it is a natural and commendable feeling, against the use of corporal punishment, except in very extreme cases. But is not such wife-beating as we see almost daily in the papers an extreme case? It is bad enough for a man to assault his own wife, but I hold it to be even worse to assault another man's wife, or daughter, in the public streets. And then to plead, as is so often done, that drink was the cause. One disgusting crime is pleaded as a set-off against another, and the plea is allowed. This would be, to a great extent, checked if drunkenness in the street, or any other public place, constituted an offence in itself, without waiting for the too common homicidal development of it. A night in a police cell, or a small fine, might be a sufficient punishment, but persons who are obviously drunk should not be permitted to go at large in public places. Lunatics are not allowed to walk about the streets, and drunken men are temporarily lunatics, and very dangerous lunatics too, as many poor people have found. If the streets were periodically swept by the police, and all persons found drunk were conveyed away to the cells, the effect would be most salutary, and many a loathsome scene would be avoided and many a brutal and bloody crime averted. But when drunkenness is not treated as an offence, but is daily held, in our courts, to be an admissible plea in mitigation of the punishment due for other crimes, committed under its influence, it is no wonder that it is common. An intelligent criminal who has made the literature of the police courts his study, must see that if he has made up his mind to commit a crime it may mitigate his offence if he can plead that he was drunk. He will find no instance, in all the records he may search, in which drunkenness has increased the punishment. Let every drunken man or woman, no matter what their position may be, who are found walking, or staggering, or lying in a public place, be locked

I have reserved one case because it is recent and very important, owing to the serious nature of the crime. In this case the victim was more or less under the influence of drink, and the criminals were sober. A widow, named Anne Jacques, was in the neighborhood of Tooting on the night of the 7th of August. She was knocked down, outraged, and maltreated to such an extent that she died on the 14th of October from peritonitis, resulting from the injuries she received. Five men were put upon their trial for the wil ful murder of this woman, at the Central Criminal Court on November 23rd. The prisoners were acquitted on the charge of murder. They were then put upon their trial for an indecent assault, and three were found guilty. Sentence was postpoped, but ultimately one got sixteen months' and two others six months' hard labor. Mr. Justice Hawkins "commented on the atrocious aspect in which the case presented itself against one of the men, and also upon the unmanly and unfeeling way in which he had behaved." He finally expressed a hope that the sentences would "serve as a warning to the prisoners for the rest of their lives." I quote from the Times report, which states that the circumstances were "unfit for publication." It is difficult to comment freely upon a crime, the circumstances of which are unfit for publication, and which the Times report further states were of "a very horrible and revolting nature." The learned judge called the crime "atrocious," and regretted that he had not the power to send the worst of the ruffians into penal servitude. Surely then he gave the maximum sentence that the law allowed. On the contrary, he took into consideration the circumstance that the prisoners had been put to some inconvenience in having to wait from August to November before being tried! If the learned judge could not punish as severely as he desired, he need not have gone out of his way to give credit for the detention during the three months preceding the trial. Surely if the crime merited penal servitude, which owing to the nature of the charge could not be

given, the highest punishment the law sacred rights of property were not inallowed, under the circumstances, should fringed, and so sixteen months' imprisonhave been imposed. One may reasona- ment sufficed. Ten years would have bly ask how it happened that the second been the least if a purse had been concharge against the prisoners was not for cerned, but a poor woman's property in rape, instead of indecent assault. This her own life and honor are apparently not last may be of the most trivial nature, but vested interests. This case has attracted in this case it ended in the death of the some attention, but it is now nearly forvictim. gotten. It will be the fault of the public and of Parliament if scandals such as I have quoted are allowed to continue, and if a revision of the criminal law, and a proper, reasonable classification of crime is not insisted upon. Lawyers describe the things that ordinary people consider discreditable, if not actually disgraceful to the country, as "anomalies of the law." The sooner law and common sense and common justice are made to coincide the better. DONALD H. MACFARLANE.

Once more, let me ask, what would have been the sentence upon these men if, instead of outraging this wretched woman in such a manner as to cause her death, they had only knocked her down and robbed her? And if in robbing, they had killed their victim, is it not certain that if the crime did not amount to murder, it would have entitled the prisoners to a sentence just short of the capital one? And they would have got it. The

Temple Bar.

dried or

AGRICULTURE IN THE CRIMEA TO-DAY. birthday in the emperor's family is quite Rich as the land is, the crops by the roadside enough to make a prasnik. Of the actual are few and paltry, the chief being rye, maize, church fêtes there are one hundred and twentymillet, and sunflowers. The sunflowers are eight. The best agriculturists here are the cultivated for their seed, which is either used German colonists, whose neat homesteads refor making oil, or more is generally sold in a mind one for the moment of lands nearer home. dry state as zernitchkies. Zernitchkies fur- Even the Tartars are better than the Malonish the Malo-Russ (folk of Little Russia), Russ, but they have lately been leaving the male and female, with one of their most favorite Crimea in large numbers to escape the commeans of wasting time. Go where you will, at pulsory military service which Russia seeks to any time, in Kertch, you will find people crack-impose upon them. Everywhere the army ing these sunflower-seeds, and trying to make seems to be the worst enemy of the State. two bites at the kernel. At every street corner you find a stall where they are sold, and you rarely come in without finding one of the little gray shards clinging to your dress, spit upon you by some careless passer-by or sent adrift from some balcony overhead. Besides CARNE SECA. This carne secathese crops, you come across long strips of jerked beef-is exported to the amount of watermelons, the principal food of the Malo- thousands of tons yearly from Montevideo, Russ in the summer, and one of the chief Rozario, and other parts of Uruguay and the sources of the Asiatic cholera sometimes so Argentine Republic. In some of the saladeros prevalent here. But for the most part the or factories over a thousand head of cattle are land is untilled-left to its wild flowers and killed daily in the season, one man being usuweeds. The peasant of the Crimea makes but ally the executioner of the lot, and killing them a sorry agriculturist. The Malo-Russ is lazy by puncturing the spinal cord at the back of - good-natured ne'er-do-weel - his days being the head. The animals are cut up and the more than half prasniks, (saints' days), he de- flesh piled in great heaps with layers of salt by votes their holy half to getting drunk on vodka, semi-naked savages, half Basque, half Indian, the other half to recovering from the effects of who have a peculiar knack of causing the flesh the day before. One day you may see him in to detach itself in flakes from the bone by long boots and a red shirt, with his arms giving it a slap with their broad cutlass-like round another big-bearded mujik's neck in the knives. Wonderful quickness and dexterity drinking-den, or husband and wife, on the are exhibited in every department of the procbroad of their backs, dead drunk in the high-ess, but the whole forms one of the most disway. The day after you'll find him in a moralizing mood, seated on his doorstep, smoking the eternal papiros, or nibbling sunflowerseeds. Russians have told me that there are more holy days than calendar days in the year. To be holy a day need not be a saint's day-a

gusting spectacles imaginable. Mixed with black beans and fariña, or cassava-meal, jerked beef becomes the staple food of the lower orders throughout the coasts of South and Central America.

Chambers' Journal.