The Evening Mail. MONDAY, JULY 15, 1878.

Oamaru Mail, Volume III, Issue 726, 15 July 1878, Page 2

The Evening Mail. MONDAY, JULY 15, 1878.

There are few people in the Colony who are not aware of the circumstances which have Ititl ti> the incarceration «»f Mrs. Crocker for arx months, and if everybody is not acquainted with the details of tF'ft past life <>f that unfortunate woman ud her family it is" not the fault of a section of the Colonial Press. Was the bare narrative immediately connected with the case not sufficiently shocking to provide sensational reading for the gratification even of those who are afflicted with a morbid craving for sensationalism without going into what have been published as the incidents of the unhappy ■woman's career ! What can be advanced in palliation of the action of those newspapers who have pandered to one of the worst traits of which humanity is possessed, even if the circumstantial narrative, spun out to a column or two, should be entitled to credence f It is scarcely likely that it is anything bat a bogus statement, after the fashion of the lowest class of American journalism. At least, we have a right to assume that it is colored, for it is obviously not the work of a friend. Whether trne or false, what bearing has it npon the trial? Mrs. Crocker was adjudged to have obtained goods under false pretences. Without desiring t»> say one word against the decision of the Court which consigned the accused to gaol, there was some show of reason in her statement that she had made the purchases that worked ill for her in anticipation of receiving money from Home. Even if, in an evil moment, she gave way to temptation, that is do

reason why she should be painted almost I aa wicked as it 13 possible for a woman to j ■ be, and hounded down until perhaps V driven to despair and irretrievable ruin. Was it not sufficient that she was suffering the penalty of the crime she is supposed to have committed when that which was put forth as the story of her life was fint published 1 Common chanty would lead us to believe that the cell is made doubly dreadful in the case of such * prisoner by the pangs of remorse ; and common d.cency should have arrested the pen of th>- calumniator. Why add to ; her by the publication of a tale v.-hieh iu.i <>i- may not be true, and the reeit.d of which, as it has no connection with the charge of which she was found guilty, was gratuitous and illnatured ? It is, of course, bad enough to be "iiiltv of the sin for which Mrs. Crocker is now suffering ; but it is quite another thin? to be unchaste. A woman who, from constitutional causes, might violate the eighth commandment, would perhaps sacrifice her existence in order to protect her chastity. It is not our intention to attempt a defence of the character of Mrs. Crocker as a wife and a mother, because it is no more outbusiness to do so than it was for her slanderers to do their best to blacken it : but we contend that if a woman happens to commit an offence, that is no reason why a ma3s of thegravest offences of winch a woman can be guiltyshould be laid to her charge. Ko one has any right to pry into the private life of another and publish abroad the sius and follies of which he or she may have been guilty. How many are there whoso antecedents would bear strict scrutiny, not excepting those who have endeavored to heap up the measure of Mrs. Crocker's disgrace. Let them call to remembrance the Scriptural injunction about casting the first stone. We have known some of the same journals that have just attempted to increase the dishonor and misery of a woman who may be comparatively innocent, pretend to be very solicitous to protect what was as a compliment called the reputation of a public man, against journalistic attacks made in the interests of the public. The extent of their sincerity can be properly appreciated now that we find them attacking a defenceless woman. It is, no doubt, within the kuowledge of many of our readers that the errors of past crimes have not unfrequently caused the perpetrators keen suffering and penitence, and have been condoned by those whom they have more immediately concerned, resulting in the adoption of resolutions for amendment bravely carried out. The antecedents of such people should be held to be as sacred as though they had never sinned. But there is another phase of the subject. Mrs. Crocker has a family, some of the members of which are resident in New Zealand, whilst a daughter is in England. We know that there are two daughters in a convent in Duiiedin, one at Home, and a son somewhere in the Colony ; and we believe that there artothers. Should not the feelings and prospects of these have been considered I Win. can imagine the poignant sorrow that the events of the past few nionri.s have engendered in their breasts? By the catch-penny and probably truthless story of their mother's life, published by our contemporaries, three daughters of exemplary diameter, and a si.ii" who is lighting his way iu the world, have been cruelly treated. Of course, the evils arising i>nt of tinpublication "of the specious narrative cannot be entirely undone. It may, however, afford some consolation to tlio.se whose feelings have been wounded, to be reminded that uncharitablencss is no more a f> ature of the public now than it has been in the past, and that there- a)-.-not a few who, so far from dciiri.-ig to aggravate their stiff rings, sympathiswlth them in the hour of their trial. This subject yet preseuts another and important aspect. We would not have much sympathy with those who could read the harrowing detai'.s refewod to without being pained ; and who can say that such a horrible tule was fit reading for mothers, daughters, and sisters. If the public representation of Jack Shei'pard and kindred plays has been suppressed by legal measures, because of their contaminating effects, how much more should such articles as that which appeared in several Colonial journals, under the heading of " The Romance of Crimes—Mrs. Major Crocker" be suppressed for the sake of public morality. We venture to think that the effect of the terrible tale told by our contemporaries as true will have a far more injurious effect upon society than the representation of incidents upon the stage which niav operate upon the feelings for the moment, but the injury arising from which is greatly neutralised by the circumstance that they are, after all, but the representations of ideas and not facts.