NIHILISM AND LIBERTY.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 82, 22 March 1883, Page 2

NIHILISM AND LIBERTY.

TO THE EDITOK OV THE FBILDINO BMB. Siß,-The sudden shock that is given by the startling telegraphic intelligence that is published in the papers day by day of murders, assassinations, and all kinds of hideous outrages done in the name of Liberty, is only surpassed by the horror felt when full details reach us of the various crimes. Hank, age, sex, poverty, or childhood afford no protection. A King is slain, and by his side falls • ' beggar— a victim to the same missile of death. A Duke is foully murdered, and a pleasant family is exterminated, all in the sacred name of Liberty. Foul perjury drags innocent youth into the felon's dock, from whence they only depart with a death sentence ringing in their earsall for Liberty ! For such a paltry bribe ■ as sixty shillings and a set of harness a man is found who will do "mnrder moat foul" on the person of a gentleman whom he never saw, and had only heard of as a benefactor to his race. For a few more shillings a man is found to betray the murderer and his accomplices, who are all too ready 'to betray each other for t> " few more shillings,"*— all in the name of Liberty! It seems necessary before we can have freedom that somebody* throat must be cut. Christ had to be crucified before there was any religion, and thousands had to be murdered before even Christianity obtained liberty to exist, and then in but few countries. At the end of last century France was deluged with the blood of her bravest and best, while the lowest and vilest rerelled in the blood of the slain, and called. themselves the Children of Liberty. . Little children even babbled the sacred* word, while they toyed with the gouts of blood gathered in the gutters from the carcasses of the dead. France won her freedom for a time but at the cost of a second slavery under Napoleon— who conquered nations to make them ** Free," while people watched the smoking ruins of their cities and hamlets, in which all that was mortal of their nearest and dearest was consumed to ashes — all for Liberty ! America, first colonised by bigots and convicts, or rather slaves, sold by Free England to the plantations, sought for complete freedom and won it, after the usual amount of slaughter — only for a few years to pass when she sought to be free of herself br internal commotion. More bloodshed in the name of Liberty, and then the troubled nation settles down into a sickly calm to lick its wounds like a dog, .and yet very little more liberty was gained, except that given to the colored man who is not sure yet that Freedom is an unmixed blessing. The other day a noble lady whose deeds of munificent charity have made her name famous in every part of the world, was nearly assassinated by two hired ruffians, whose employers had eaten bread from her hand — in the name of Liberty. To what does all this tend P Surely there must come a time when men ... may call themselves free without being assassins. That time can only come . when men will act on the principle of mutual concessions, and by doing unto others as we would be done by. Let the preachers and those in authority act up to these doctrines, and universal freedom would reign supreme, without a crown of bloodguiltiness on its head to make hide* ous her otherwise lovely face. — I am, &c, Bbvtto.