THE EXPLOSION IN TILNEY STREET.
THERE is little to be said about the attempt to blow up Mr. R. Brett's house in Tilney Street beyond the sayings which every competent reader has thought of for himself. It seems more than probable, from the shape and make of the bomb deposited on the doorstep, that the miscreant who manufactured it was a Frenchman, and from his care in getting away, that he was an agent of Anarchists rather than a fanatic like the man, also French, who planned an explosion at Greenwich Observatory. It is also probable that the house attacked was selected by mistake, the Anarchists having no ground of quarrel with Mr. Brett or any one in his household ; and most probable of all, that the victim intended was Mr. Justice Hawkins, who has condemned Anarchists, and whose stern characier at once overawes and irritates those who defy the law. A manifesto savagely denouncing Judges and juries has been recently in circulation. among Anar- chists, and, moreover, they may have a motive other than hate for an individual. In spite of all their experience, they rely on terror as their instrument, and believe that if they can place Judges and jurymen in actual danger of their lives, the Courts, whatever the evidence may be, will hesitate to find verdicts against them. It is a curious blunder to be made by men who ought at least to understand their enemies ; but it is made, and conse- quently creates at least an impression that Mr. Justice Hawkins was the object of attack. The name of Mr. West, who also lives in Tilney Street, has been sug- gested as an alternative, but the theory attributes to the dynamitards a superfluity of silliness. They cannot so misread Mr. Asquith as to suppose that they would frighten him by blowing up his private secretaries, who, again, can have no more to do with the refusal to pardon Anarchists, which would, we presume, be the charge against Mr. Asquith, than any man in the street. We may, we think, be sure that the Anarchist employed eit her meant to blow up the most feared of Judges, or that he intended only to create a scare, and hit upon Mr. Brett's house because, from the shortness of its distance from a great thoroughfare, any house in Tilney Street is easy to get away from. In London no man is noticed who does not run, or do something unexpected, and of course the actual carrier of the bomb may have been a woman, who would not in comparison be even an object of suspicion.
We see no reason whatever for blaming anybody in connection with this incident, except those who planned or executed the crime. The law is quite strong enough if only evidence can be obtained ; and evidence we must -have, even if we try assassins by Court-martial or before a 'tribunal of Judges only sitting in camera. The police are as watchful as they can be made, and are thoroughly in earnest, if only from professional pride ; but they cannot make evidence, and except from confederates, they have, in some cases, no means of getting any. The criminal, whoever he was, probably made the bomb himself, out of a piece of gas-piping, and if he had no confederates, can be betrayed only by himself. The plain truth of the matter is, that the chemists have done mankind an ill turn in inventing an explosive which the bad can use more readily than the good, and which while exploding gives the criminal time to make his escape from the scene. To use a dagger or even a rifle, the assassin must accompany his weapon ; but when he knows how to make a bomb, he leaves his weapon behind him, to kill, as it were, automatically and of its own accord. It may not prove as efficacious as intended, the energy of dynamite diminishing with distance to an extraordinary degree, so that unless it shoots some- 'thing out of a confined space, it is hardly as dangerous as fine gunpowder, but it also may prove so ; and in either case society is alarmed or irritated, which is the ultimate object .of the explosion. One may wish that the secret of dyna- mite had remained a secret still ; but as it has been dis- covered, we cannot see that there is any preventive which ingenuity could devise, except patient watching ; or any repressive, except the steady justice by which we contrive to limit murder. The crime is in fact very like rick-burn- mg ; you cannot stop it except by showing it to be futile. Anybody with a match can burn a rick, and rick-burning, once a terrible crime among us, only stopped when the incendiaries found that their victims cared little or nothing about their ricks. The farmers were insured, and though they grew savage over the good corn burnt to waste, they were personally rather insulted and fretted than seriously injured. We cannot insure men into carelessness about their own lives, but it is in fortitude that the only hope of remedy lies. That reads horribly priggish ; but it is true, and, moreover, the only truth that is of the smallest value. The community having done all it can to check a new method of attempting murder, must harden its heart and take its chance with all the resignation it can muster. The English are always impatient of the remark, but there are many situations in which nothing can be done except wait calmly until the danger or the annoyance of itself passes away. That this one will also pass away in its turn we have no doubt whatever, though of course it may not disappear until some striking catastrophe has occurred. No form of crime ever lasts which brings no advantage to the criminal, and Anarchists gain nothing out of Anarchical acts. Take, for example, the case of Barcelona. They succeeded there in carrying' through "a great act" of terrorism, executing many persons solely for the crime of being prosperous and well-dressed; but the result was absolutely nil. Society was not shaken, order did not perish, and Anarchism, as an opinion, became less popular than before. There is just as little chance of any great social change in Spain as there ever was, and this though the social conditions of Spain are in some respects more favourable to Anarchy than those of any other country. In the face of perpetual ill-success, those who are raging against society will turn not from their rage, for that may be enduring, but from such a fruitless method of dis- playing it ; and will seek, possibly in agitation, possibly in insurrection, possibly in founding Icarias, more complete relief for the passion which possesses their souls, a passion compounded of malignity and pity. At least that is the hope we gather from the history of Anarchism in all ages ; for through all ages the principle which governs it can be perceptibly traced. The only new feature in the modern development—the only peculiarity which dis- tinguishes it from. the Peasant Wars of Germany or the Ta,cqueries of France or our own Jack Cade uprisings—is that the new Anarchist insists on the isolation of the individual. He gives up combination wholly, in theory at least, and of course that is for his cause a source of weakness, not of strength. Anybody can kill anybody else, if he will run the risk of the gallows ; but to con- quer even a village takes an organised company of men.
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