SUPPRESSED CRIME.
[To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Mr. John Morley at Oxford, on the last day of last month, urged once more the favourite Gladstonian contention that "Coercion only drives disaffection beneath the surface," the insinuated conclusion being that, as suppressed measles is more dangerous than the same disease when it "comes out," so crime unsnppressed is innocuous ! But what ground is there for supposing that concealed cannot coexist with open criminality ? Or, on the other hand, that murder in broad day- light does not destroy life P Sensible men will prefer that vice should still pay to virtue the hypocrisy of attempting conceal- ment. They will rejoice, indeed, when the attempt is unsuccess- ful, but will hardly seek to render the very attempt superfluous. And wise legislators will recognise that while it is impossible to extirpate violent passions from the human breast, it is no contemptible achievement, by insisting on their subordination to even the most sordid prudence, to prevent their acquiring strength by unchecked indulgence. Success is never assured by even the most high-minded policy ; but our Unionist Fiat justitia,ruat coelum. ("Justice, though the heavens should fall"), is a far better maxim of conduct, even though " Home- rule" should be the upshot of the present struggle, than the perversion which Gladstonians seem anxious we should substitute for it,—Rust juditia, fiet avian?. (" Down with justice, and heaven will be here "). Ours is but human justice, it is true, and not that divine equity for which we pray ; but does it follow that man's injustice merely let loose will forward in any way the kingdom of righteousness and peace upon
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