THE Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1891. THE MODERN BABYLON.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2264, 8 October 1891, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1891. THE MODERN BABYLON.

Recent cablegrams seem to indicate that neither Mr Stead’s exposure of the immorality of the wealthy, nor the disgrace of Captain Verney and Mr Cobane has had any deterrent effect on the viciousness of that class. We are told that a poor ballot girl committed suicide, that some person in very high position was implicated, and that consequently the inquest was kept quiet. This is really shocking. We are told that all are equal before the law, but evidently that is only a theoretical view of it. When the law comes to deal with individuals in a practical way, then it is discovered that there is one law for the poor and another for the rich. In this case a poor unfortunate girl has been driven to take her own life, and the name of her betrayer is screened from the consequence of exposure by the law. Here the law becomes the accomplice of the criminal, and thus secures to crime immunity from the consequences of evil-doing. And this has happened in frqa England, where every man is free the moment hfi plant® his foot on her soil according to popular boast, and where thousands sing daily, “ Brittons n#W shall be slaves.” Are they not slaves whop they permit such outrages as to be done PI the sacred name of justice. I® not their freedom a mockery, a delusion, and a s7? ai 'e. But this is not all. Xu the eaine issue was published a second telegram to the effect that young women were continually being decoyed by false promises made by pei’sons who traffic in them for purposes which must not be mentioned. This was the crime for which Captain Verney was punished, and is apparently a crime extensively indulged in. The haunt of titled ruffians was discovered in London a few years ago, who qscd to meet there for the purpose of .committing the most horrible crime, yet they wore allowed to escape. Thus it is that the authorities connive at the ruffianism of these wretches, and shield them from the consequences of their crimes. Ho>y long will the people tolerate this I Is it pot time that tiie country rose en masse and stripped these wretches of the means which enable them to follow their evil inclinations ? Wo hoar a great deal about

the confiscation and spoliation, and all that sort of thing, but did the great God intend that the miscreants, who are guilty of such immoralities, should have command of the fruits of the labors of the starving poor, so that they might indulge their evil passions 1 Is it not more natural and reasonable that He intended them to work for their living. Man cannot eat unless he or someone else works for it, then why should one man work while another who does nothing takes almost all the fruits of his labor I Is it reasonable 1 Is it just ? Is it honest '! We certainly say it is not, and by the fruits of the system which permits such a state of things we can easily see that it is opposed to Christian teaching. Mark the uses to which wealth is applied 1 Is there any wickedness of which it is not the main spring, and yet-hypocrites and fools have built a system of philosophy on the Holy Scriptures, which inculcates the doctrine, that to deprive these people of what they do not work for, contravenes Divine law. It is better perhaps that we should not carry this point farther. All we desire to add is that Socialism, Communism, Nihilism, or any other ism is justifyable when the present system is proved to be nothing better than a sink of corruption, so loathsome that it cannot be openly discussed. A recently published book entitled “ Caesars Golum,” pictures the world one hundred years hence, by representing the wealthy as living in the most frightful debauchery, and the poor reduced to the most abject slavery. And where does the author find the idea of the degraded condition to which the people are reduced,! from 1 Actually from the report of the British Commission on Sweating. He evidently cannot imagine any degree of misery even when the world has been going backwards for 100 years, more horrible, more' appalling than that which exists at the present time in “ Merry England.” No depth of wretchedness and poverty can sink below the level of the English sweater of the present day, yet Britons never shall be slaves. How unctuously preachers gloss over all this, and how eloquently politicians dilate on the wonderful progress of the present time, while thousands are being starved to death in this way by slow degrees. Who can say that this is right. If such a man lives we pity him. [Since the above was put in type a cablegram has arrived which says that the name of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales had been coupled with the girl who committed suicide, and also the name of Lord Charles Montagu, son of the Duke of Manchester. Evidently the papers have split on the thing. How many a miserable wretch is being starved so that these young blackguards may have the means of indulging in the'evil passions ?j