CHAP. VIII.] PAMPHLET ON GARROTTERS. 85 



and garrotter. What a powerful evidence of design to fill the stomach 

 of the infant and mother is here to be traced to the presence of the 

 burglar and garrotter ! The public, strong in their own conceit, say they 

 will not be robbed, they will not have their houses invaded at night. 

 For resistance they are now arming themselves with guns, pistols, and 

 swords, to enter into combat with their opponents. As a Friend, I 

 naturally make acquaintance with these people, and my acquaintances 

 tell me that " they go for plunder, not for bullets and bayonet wounds." 

 For this object they parade in twos and threes, and their system is to 

 half -kill their victim before he ' knows he is attacked. One man said, 

 " Would he not like to poke a man's weapon into his own torso ? " a senti- 

 ment worthy of classical times. That man told me that " the gun and 

 pistol dodge would soon come to an end, for they would be shooting 

 the wrong man, and what a lark it would be to make one victim shoot 

 another, a circumstance which would frighten the public, and render the 

 garrotter safer than ever." 



Besides, said he, " our noble judges are so good that they never allow 

 the hair of a garrotter to be ruffled." He must be taken by the police, that 

 is, if they can catch him at all, as tenderly as a lover handles his sweet- 

 heart. Our considerate law administrators sometimes have men more 

 severely punished for resistance than they have the robber. Nobody can 

 doubt but the burglar simply desires to possess something the other man 

 has. Would it not be a proper Christian act to give at once what is desired, 

 when the possessor might dispense with fire-arms, and be spared the chance 

 of an attack ? 



Hope and Anxiety Argument. 



4. Untrained minds indulge continually in the lower feelings. How 

 grovelling was that picture at the International Exhibition of a young 

 mother with an infant in her arms drawing aside the blind to look after 

 the lost husband, the prop and support of the home. What an untrained 

 mind does the mother show to be anxious! For the father is either 

 alive or dead : if he is alive, she ought to exhibit hope, not anxiety ; and 

 if he has been proved to have been garrotted and past all hope, then she 

 ought to exhibit resignation. To my female friends say I, Train thou thy 

 mind, and when thy husband is proved to be garrotted, then exert thy- 

 self and get another. What a blessed instrument in mind-training might 

 the burglar and garrotter become, and how great ought to be our exertions 

 to prevent their being hung ! 



The Fog Argument. 



5. During the severe fogs of November persons are now fearful of leav- 

 ing their homes because fog gives to the garrotter an easy chance of carrying 

 out his plans. This is surely a most unreasonable accusation against 

 garrotters, because, in this instance, they do a positive benefit by keeping 

 people out of the influence of a fog, which is known to be extremely bad 

 for their constitutions. Such, however, is the perverse character of the 

 human mind that they would use the liability of being maimed or killed by 

 robbers during the prevalence of a fog, as an argument for hanging them, 

 as a terror to other evil-doers. During great fogs in London gentlemen 

 are watched from their clubs, when there are scamps who think it great 



