Can people hate mankind or their neighbours generally as they
hate their personal enemies ? It would certainly seem so from two cases recorded this week. In one a woman was accused of setting fire to letter-boxes. It appeared that some letters she had expected had not reached her, and that she, as she said, " was determined nobody else should have any." In the second and graver case a man named Samuel Jenkins endeavoured to commit 1,000 murders in order to avenge his suspension by a railway com- pany. He deliberately placed three heavy obstructions on the railway outside Kidderminster, just as a train with 1,000 Volun- teers on board became due, and then seated himself at a window in a neighbouring beershop to gloat over the collision. Fortu- nately some platelayers had been watching him, and removed the obstructions before the train came through. The man had no -quarrel with the Volunteers, or indeed with the railway company, who had not dismissed, but only suspended him, and there is some hope that he is insane. If he is not, he is as much a murderer in intention as if he had employed poison.
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