86 MEMOIR OF ALFRED SMEE. [CHAP. VIII. 



fun to seize suddenly their hats and bolt with them without fear of pursuit. 

 This fooling pastime and small robbery is checked by the garrotter, for 

 many who do not care for the mere chance of losing a hat, are kept at 

 home when they fear to lose their lives, and then their wives and children 

 know where they are. 



The Over -Population Argument. 



6. Nobody doubts that the country has plenty of people to take any 

 place which may become vacant, when its present occupants are killed. A 

 great fuss was made last year, because an M.P. was strangled in Pali Mall, 

 when returning from his parliamentary duties. What could it have 

 mattered if he had been so far garrotted as to have lost his life ? There 

 would be still too many in Parliament to transact its business properly, 

 and not only too many, but a hundred applicants for every vacant place. 

 What is true of a Member of Parliament is true of any other occupation ; 

 for there is not a clergyman in the country who would not delight to take 

 the office of a bishop, if one should unfortunately be garrotted, though, as 

 Friends, we must consider that bishops are altogether superfluous. Under 

 the present system there is not a person in the kingdom who may not be 

 destroyed by the burglar or garrotter; and should one be so destroyed, 

 there would be plenty delighted to take his place. Now, Friend, I would 

 ask thee this question, Why should we hang a garrotter or burglar who 

 may, in pursuing his usual avocation, give delight to any person in this 

 over-populous country ? 



Timidity Argument. 



7. When a burglar enters a house at the dead of night, and kills the 

 inmates, such as was done at the celebrated Frimly murder, it is a vulgar 

 fashion for other people, neither killed nor attacked, to take on great fear. 

 In secluded houses the inmates remain sleepless all the livelong nights, 

 fearing each noise, and listening to every rustle of the leaves, and spending 

 their lives in terror and trembling. Other persons witnessing these results, 

 revile the burglar and wish him to be hanged, that their friends may enjoy 

 their homes in peace and conlfort. Now, in these cases, as members of 

 the advanced thinking community to which we belong, we should like to 

 put the burden on the right shoulder, and, instead of punishing the burglar, 

 would severely reprimand the nervous sufferers, and command them to 

 sleep soundly, even when they are conscious that burglars have broken in 

 the front door. 



Assurance Argument. 



8. Assurance Companies are frightened out of all propriety by gar- 

 rotters and burglars, because they say that lives are lost, and claims arise 

 therefrom. It is quite clear, however, that there would be no assurances if 

 there were no deaths ; and, surely, Accidental Death Assurance Companies 

 must derive business from the knowledge which the public possesses, that 

 no person can tell whether he will be attacked on any given day, and 

 maimed. Nothing can more completely show that the complaints of the 

 Assurance Companies are quite groundless, and not to be entertained for 

 a moment, when the great social problem of petting great criminals is at 

 stake. 



