Political Assassinations.

It is not too much to say that the man who recommended political assassinations and the use of poisoned weapons (poisoned daggers and poisoned bullets); the man whose schools were dens of immorality, Atheism, and Anarchy; the man who taught thousands of children for a long series of years that religion, patriotism, and justice were all lies, and that government, politics, and militarism were based upon lies:—such a man was one of whom society should have rid itself at the earliest opportunity.

Among those who acted as Ferrer's accomplices in this deadly Anarchist propaganda was Morral, who made the dastardly attempt to assassinate the King and Queen of Spain by hurling a bomb at them. Ferrer himself was arrested, and accused of complicity in the crime, but after a patient trial the court held that the evidence was insufficient for a conviction, and ordered his release.

Writing in the "Contemporary Review," Mr. H. A. Gibbons very justly says that if Governments could only bring themselves to go after the propagandists of Anarchism, and the instigators of lawlessness and assassination for political ends, with the same relentless energy, and punish them with the same relentless severity which they employ against counterfeiters, these disturbing elements in the peace of a community would disappear. We make no greater error than when we allow individuals or societies which conspire against life and property to assemble, and talk, and publish their criminal tenets unmolested, because of the fear we have of infringing upon personal liberty, the right of public speech, and the freedom of the Press.