SIN AND CRIME.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 227, 23 September 1872, Page 2

SIN AND CRIME.

CFrom the London Times.) A crime so terrible in itself and in its circumstances as the murder just committed in Berraondsey has seldom been reported. Early on Sunday morning loud screams were heard from a house inhabited by a man named Taylor, well known in the neighborhood for his violence. A woman living three doors off called a policeman, into her back garden, and they could there hear the noise of blows, followed by the screams of a boy. The policeman, it is said, declined to interfere s '' as the man was in his own house, and was chastising his own son." At the same moment the wife of the next-door neighbor heard a boy cry out, "Oh ! don't, father ; dont ! you have nearly killed me already," and this appeal was followed by the sound of heavy blows. At length the cries ceased ;in a few moments Taylor rushed out of the house with his throat bleeding from cuts so frightful that he was unable to speak. He only pointed to his house, and the police entered it. In a back room on the firstfloor the light of their lanterns revealed a horrid butchery. On the bed lay the body of the woman with whom Taylor lived, covered with blood, and fearfully wounded. At the foot of the bed lay the For remainder of news see fourth page.

dead body : ip£^he^wothan^s little girl, only five years old, with" her skull beaten in ; . and < near: by^ the ; boy; whose cry for mercy had -been ! heard, with his skull ; fractured. - The little'girl was quite dead, the woman died in a few minutes, and at the Infirmary to which .the boy was taken, it was yesterday reported that he was dying. Taylor himself was taken to Guy's Hospital, and it. was said on Sunday ,there was no chance of his recovery ; but he retained sufficient i strength ;to threaten another outrage; A few hours after his admission he suddenly jumped out of bed, evaded the constable and nurse who were in charge of him, rushed into, another ward and menaced : the nurse, who escaped by springing from the second floor window to the ground. He then dashed about the ward and the corridors, wrote in blood on the wall an appeal that he might be put out of his misery, and at length jumped out of a window to the ground beneath. Taylor was at last "secured, and, though in a pre^ carious condition, he still lingers. This extraordinary scene indicates, no doubt, that Taylor was under a paroxysm of delirium Iremens, and the crime seems ; the final issue of a career of drunkenness. The police have twice had him in custody for violent assaults, and he was once sentenced to imprisonment for beating his ■wife on the head with his fists. She refused afterwards to return to him, and he persuaded the unhappy woman he has now murdered to live with him. They have: had constant quarrels, and only last Thurs-; day he rushed out of the house drunk, ex-, claiming that helia.d stabbed his wife. The, woman was found insensible from a blow on the head which Taylor had given her, but she was not stabbed. Taylor was. then taken to the police court, where the; magistrates fined him ss. for beinsr drunk, and discharged him. One cannot but wonder whether this magistrate acted on the principle, lately laid down by a judge, that the law ought not to be too hard on men for beating their wives provided they abstain from the use of deadly weapons. At all events, if Taylor had been punished as he deserved for the brutality of Thursday, he would not have been able to commit the crime of Sunday. On Friday he was sober, but on Saturday lie is said to 1 have drunk a pint and half of rum. He then became furious, and the murders were probably committed in a paroxysm of rage. He must have beaten his wife and two children to death with a bar of iron. The strangest circumstance is that his own skull is said to be fractured by a blow which must have been given with some weapon like an iron bar. In his rage, he may have endeavoured to kill himself by a blow before he resorted to the clasp knife with which he cut his throat. Or, since the room presented the appearance of a struggle, it may be that the unhappy woman tried to defend; herself. Taylor volunteered a statement in the hospital that he had had a struggle with a man named Coe; and it is possible this may be one of the delusions which are characteristic of delirium tremens. This, however, was the tragedy which was being perpetrated in Taylor's house while two policemen were standing outside listening to screams, and doubting whether they had any right to prevent a man from " chastising his own boy," and while neighbours could overhear piteous appeals for mercy. There were two deaf people upstairs in the very house where the, crime was being committed, who heard nothing ; and three of Taylor's children, " hearing the row," had run upstairs and locked themselves in another room. We would not condemn conduct ■which has not yet been explained, but, in any case, it is dreadful to think that a man may commit this whosale and furious butchery within the very hearing of policemen and neighbours, and that no one should deem it his duty to interfere. Whatever the law on the subject may be, such non-intervention is absurd. An Englishman's house v is not his castle for purposes of violence and cruelty, and policemen ought to ; be empowered, if they are not already, to force an entrance where such sounfda are audible as proceeded from Taylor's house. No wild beast could exhibit more ferocity than Taylor. His death, may save him from the judgment of the law; and, doubtiess^should he' survive, and even if. th'eTfacts/as'tliey.'iipw: .appear, be substantially proved, an attempt will be made to palliate his action : the ground of temporary; insanity. ; : Np; ydpubt;, he, was- mad a t the moment, but '■. he had : made 1 himself mad;/ and^aßTesponsiM^ self i^arststein which>he waVnjpj6nger| . masteri.of >4aß^ : ac.Uons^ • 'by 'i yh^^^^- :^M^^:^p^i!i'[^^tD^ ; : :jpiy, ;drin^'^ ;^p|he^ the ■ ,'deitipn^fiU^ 'jtfa^hlile^s^ilfa^ : ci?e ; £tinwly^^ <leg«iatißfe?So^^ ; fa^^sitiohl^

be imposed on publichouses. He is said to have carried; on, an extensive business as a wholesale, dealer in old iron,, and such, a man could have found means to get Kis rum if all the publichouses in the neighborhood had been shut. But, so far as we have heard, it ia by no means clear that the existing law had been applied to Taylor's previous offences qs effectually as it ought. If the present agitation does but induce magistrates'to deal far more severely than is their wont with cas^s of violent drunkenness and wife-beating, it will do good service. Such offences may end in murder any day, and they should be treated as brutal and dangerous crimes. It j'b to be feared the cruelty and the fero city displayed every day in some quarters of London would be appalling if brought to light. But it is deemed almost a matter of course, until, as we see in this instance, neighbors look on as though they had no right to prevent it.