It is difficult to find words of indignation strong enough
to express oar loathing of this senseless and brutal crime. The murder of a reigning King or of a Prime Minister is explicable enough, but at first sight it seems incredible that any one should have wished to murder a person so harmless as the unhappy Empress,—the victim of a restless melancholy which kept her constantly wandering through Europe, but which admittedly never prompted her to an unkind or offensive act. This was apparently the first thought of the Emperor, who, when he heard the news, exclaimed : "It is incredible how any creature could have laid hands on such a woman, who never hurt a soul, and only did good all her life." Yet do not these pathetic words in reality show an utter misunderstanding of the Anarchist movement ? The Anarchist is not a person who acts from motives of personal hate, but a mad fanatic whom the sense of misery has rendered a wild beast. He kills because he imagines himself to be engaged in a vendetta against Kings and Queens. We do not think that because he is mad he should not be punished, for the dread of punishment restrains this type of semi-lunatic almost as much as it does the perfectly sane man, but it is not to be expected that he will kill only the Royalties who rule. He wants any Royal blood, and that of an Empress will suit him almost as well as that of an Emperor. It is worth noting that all the recent Anarchist assassins have been Italians. The men who murdered Carnot and Canovas, and now the murderer of the Empress, were all Italians. It is what one might expect. First, the pressure of taxation in Italy has pro- bably made the condition of the population of the great towns more terrible than that of any poor population in Europe. Next, the Italian easily takes up such abstract ideas as Anarchy. Lastly, the Italian when unhinged by misery and vague aspirations is specially prone to the vendetta of the dagger. When he hates deeply, from whatever cause, he cannot rest till he kills, and in order to kill, will run any risk, and will use the dagger,—the only weapon which is really effective as an instrument of political assassination.
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