BLACKMAIL.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1623, 17 October 1873, Page 3

BLACKMAIL.

The following extract from ah excellent article in " All the Year Round " on what; is variously : called " blackmail " ori "dumalafong," but whiat in extreme cases might be recognised as wharfage rates,': may .with propriety, and, of course, with jail respect, be dedicated to the majority .oi'the. .Borough Council who so readily l&pphe&lphe new tariff. (The illustrations l^oijthev writer may not in all cases be paraliely but they point a moral which is not very hard to detect :— ;..'•■: '

• ''Blackmail; like other evils, : has a wonderful tenacity of life." .It' is indeed no n'byeltyj 1 although its changes of • shape are 'woirtiy'pf Prbteus.' Illicit payments and ■^egai, demands, or quasi- demands, have, no'doubt existed vi all ages of ithe.world. l^tortion, is coeval, with . human society. In its rudest and earliest form it jwas levied by wholesale, and with a simple directness of action that might be understood by a child. A petty principality paid > tribute to some mighty kingdom hard by. A peaceful people bought off the hostility of aome'clan of warlike 'barbarians. The Danegeld—^the sword of gold by the aid of which England r so often 'purchased a ¥r6ca2rioua trufce frfcm the 'j>a_gaiis pf the ttb'M— was identical in principle witllthe ignominious ransoms from. Rome, first by' the' Gaul and then by the Goth. The by which: Rob ' Roy and his cateraris were induced to • spare the cattle of their Lowland neighbors, were akiu to" ifcnpjse regarding ' "which , the tourist who Ventures .beyond Jordan has to haggle with the greedy sheikh who is to protect him frdm the rapacity of other tribes. exaction of Arbitrary tojls is oue of the oldest and most general impediments to travel. . Amediseval merchant, for example, resembled a sheep forcing its way through briers, and leaving on every thorn a scrap of torn fleece. All along the Rhine each mountain peak had its strong castle, whence a robber-baron surveyed the broad river and the rocky road^ ready to pounce on boat or train of packmuieal ,with ,'the swoop of a hawk that ißspies^ some incautious covey, of . parjtridges. ?, The trader.; whose route lay pmpng-Fiemißh" meadows ; and. corn-fields fared^ little; better, .for were there not lying, in /his path frequent- frontiers, where Jhis.' Grace' of Guelders, and my iidrdof Olevesj and the Prince Bishop of Liege; and his Highness of Brabant, and Ms ' of; Burgundy, and the ifree 'Cities of the" Holy EbmariEmpire, teqiiireiii per proxy of intendants^;and!' Bwaggering 1 ' .m'en-ai-arms, a slice of every commercial .cake, that was carried: across , the .(.boundary.? /In, the feast, Mecca and Samarcand, and Bagdad were ( to be reached ;onlyj by those who had coaxed; and feed Bedouin, Turcoman, and Kurd into tolerant good humor, whUe in Africa f .caravan has ever' been considered^ in the expressive jargon of 'the. Soudan, as { Dummalafohg/a thing for prey ' and plunder, ■mulcted'to-day by a negro king, and subject ion the mortbw to . a tar enifbrced at ih© point of the spear by Moslem marauders. '„ ..; . .'( ■'. ;■ ; " In comparatively-civilised countries, and especially under a system of centralised despotism, , blackmail naturally changes its character. Small tyrannies and tyrants are swallowed up i by the, imperialiGargantua,: and satraps, procon- . sulsj and mandarins are 1 presumed to be ' ifierely the passive instruments of the one sovereign will that sways the destinies of the nation. Of #6urae this method, from inherent faults, has never worked smbothlyin practice. The jack-iri-officej by whatsdever sonorous name he may be called, whose business it is to plunder for his master, is perfectly certain to rob still more unscrupulously on his own account, And to' his greed must be added the hunger iof all his deputies and ; < led captains, his satellites, •■ . . , henchmen, and hangers-on. It is a Persian proverb,; that when -the shah asks for an egg, ' His , servants, demand a cow, and, indeed, the snowball of exaction grpwsj^with the multiplication: rof those who are; the willing tools . of '■ power. The Turkish soldier, .after living at free quarters/ modestly requests to be ; paid jn hard cash forth* wear and tear of his

teeth, and, in many European and Asiatic countries, the privates iv that great host of civil placemen which the government retains in its service must choose between a: .lingering death by -famine, and the raising of unlawful contributions from thbse with whom they have to deal. " readily extirpated in a strongf and Healthy state, finds favorable conditions of growth where the moral standard is low, and the public conscience dull."