It seems to us that the public mind is growing
a great deal too compassionate to criminals and a great deal too indifferent to the sufferings of their victims. The suicide of Mr. Hilton Barker has, it seems, led to the withdrawal of all proceedings against Mr. William Barker on the ground that Mr. Hilton Barker was the leading spirit in the transactions by which so many persons have been defrauded. But, in the first place, that is not proved, but only conjectured on pima' facie evidence, by the prosecution; and, in the next place, even if it were proved, it would not show that a secondary part in a great fraud should go with the very light punishment of a painful public exposure, only because the primary criminal has ex(- ctited judgment on himself. We think that the Public Prosecutor has been very ill-advised in dropping this prosecution.
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