LYNCH LAW.
Lynch Law. By S. E. Cutler. (Longmans and Co. 6s.)—Mr. Cutler has gone very carefully into the history and statistics of lynching, and the facts relating to the early use of the term. Circumstantial evidence, indeed the best evidence, points to a Virginian origin, to the exercise of summary jurisdiction by a family of the name of Lynch, and, if it is to be narrowed down to an individual, one Colonel Charles Lynch towards the end of the Revolutionary War. Attempts to trace a more ancient use of the phrase cannot be supported ; and the endeavour to derive it from some locality, though we have the analogy of Lydford law, will convince no one. The modern derivation, it may be remarked, has a striking and comparatively recent analogy in the term " boycott." The charts and statistics have, so says Mr. Cutler, a negative value, and that, too, is our reading of them. Frequency of lynching bears no proportion to illiteracy, and is by no means always in proportion to the negro population. The only real correlation is that of the percentage of persons lynched who were negroes, and the percentage of negroes in the population. The necessity of summary justice was very pressing at one time in America, and still lingers on the frontier; but its use in the negro States is obviously dictated by the dislike of the negro. Nor has it been shown that capital punishment in this brutal form has a deteirent effect on many criminals ; it affects negroes little. Mr. Cutler, while explaining the early necessity for. Lynch-law, makes no apology for it now. It is a disgrace attach- ing to America, and waits for that public sentiment and that sense of duty which shall render it unnecessary. Courageous sheriffs who know their duty have been able to save their prisoners. Lynchings have slightly decreased of late years, yet the practice of burning victims has spread, and Mr. Cutler is by . no means hopeful. Where the remedy for lynching is to be found is unhappily
THE CAT.
Animal Autobiographies : the Cat. By Violet Hunt. (A. and
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