THE LESSONS OF THE TAMMANY RING.

Dunstan Times, Issue 508, 12 January 1872, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE LESSONS OF THE TAMMANY RING.

(Montreal Weekly Herald) — a —

Evidently the exposures of the Now York Ring have fluttered the dovecots of the jobbers who have so long plundered the citizens more ruthlessly than highway robbers. There is tremour among the robbers, and a strong disposition on the part of each to provide for his own escape by throwing Ihe rest overboard. In the meantime the agitation is kept up by shot of various kinds poured in by the Press One day it is shown that the lady of one of the gentlemen, not many years ago a bankrupt trade man, h;s been able to transfer bonds to her son-in-law t > tho value of hundreds of thousands of dollars ; and then, to convert the official alarm into something lIIe personal fright, the Tribune gives a history ol the celebrated Vigilance Committes oflSan Francisco, and shows how men have been hung by outraged citizens for less crimes than those of tho New York gang. Lynch Jaw is no doubt a very effective restraint upon bad men, when all other checks fail; and we must presume that our neighbors in the United States know how to work their system in its last and severest ex 'gen cies. Yet it cannot but be thought that the same illegal energy widen is required to bo exerted for a few weeks in order to suppress crime by spasmodic action, might if Hghtly app'ied, continuous and steady, produce the same good in accordance with order and with law. Be that as it may, if there were any good in recrimination, we might very fairly retort upon our American friends the sneering criticisms which they are so fond of filing at other forms of Go vernment. Wo might ask them if there is any other Government within th it- acquaintance, even in countries wir'd; abound in ignorance and poverty, where the public daily record of frauds and ciime is equally shocking with that which the American Press lays before the public every morning and evening. Where are the bloated aristocrats, who rob the people as meanly and shamelessly as these foreign adventurers, who, a few years ago, were in the lowest positions of Societal Where aie the cities of the civilised world where it is unsafe for man or woman to visit places of public entertainmentin the open air, lest, if it bea female, she may be exposed to insult;' a”d, if a male, io murderous assault 1 We are not disposed, however, on account of these disorders—which certainly are unheard of elsewhere—to decide that Republicanism is a foim of Government inconsitent with j honest adminstration, and with that i degree of restraint upon individuals i which is necessary for the gencial j safety; though we think that no om; ; can look at the course of affairs in the great American cities, without seeing the deteriorating influedee of tin ir political institutions, as now worked. Everywhere the bonds of wholesome authority are relaxed—for one leason, because officials hold office for such short terms, and on such precarious tenures, that they disappear from the scone with their plunder le'brcthe blow of justice can reach them. They area body so fluctuating in character that to strikeat them islike strikingat. air;and without any permanent hold of their offices, they are influenced neither by a feeling of official honour nor by any esprit Ju corps. Another reason, of course, is ’he great power which the criminal and vicious classes have in the choice of judges and those other officers whose business it is to keep these clashes in order. We shall not here affect to point out in detail the methods by which reform could be effected. To state tho form of the evil itself serves to suggest the remedy which is required. But the great lesson which we draw from it is this —that no patent form of government has yet been discovered which will automatically secure, as sanguine politicians have sometimes thought, tho integrity and disinterestedness of rulers and the safety of society We look upon Republicanism as one of those forms of Government into which communities in certain stages mould themselves, as Darwin would perhaps say, by natural selection. li, is, probably, for such communities the best, and it is the only possible, form of Government, and it is one which appears likely to be very wide spread in the immediate future. But it las its peculiar dangers, and these . must be watched and contended against, if the commonweal is to bo protected, with at least as much zeal and obstinacy as was requisite to put down the despotism ot former regimes. Tho moral of all this scene of tumult and disorder—tho moral which other communities as well asA meric an may profit by—stands out very prominently. It is the very old one, that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Had not the respectable portion of the community long exhibited the most utter indifference to what was taking place under their eyes, things could never have proceeded to such a pass. The millions of which the citizens'of New York have been plundered are gone irrevocably ; but if the lesson has taught the honest and intelligent tax-payers not to take for granted that tilings will go right of themselves, hut to keep their eyes upon the acts of the administrators of their affairs, the loss of the money will haveserved some purpose,