A serious riot has occurred in Cincinnati. Juries have con-
stantly of late refused to find verdicts of murder, and last week a man named Berner, who confessed to a murder for gain, was found guilty of manslaughter only. A body of citizens accord- ingly made an attack on the jail, with the object of lynching the 'murderers, twenty in number, there confined. They were beaten off by the militia, but burned the Court-house, a new and valuable building, almost to the ground. The rioting lasted four days, the citizens facing the militia with determined -courage; but the Governor of Ohio at last sent five batteries and parts of seventeen regiments, and, after losing 250 men in killed and wounded, the e.meutiers desisted. The riot was most formidable, and, of course, the Government was bound to defend the laws ; but the rioters, as we have shown elsewhere, had a genuine and serious grievance. So corrupt are the criminal lawyers, the summoning offi- -cers, and some jurymen, that it is impossible to secure adequate punishment to any criminal, and murders multiply till the United States becomes as unsafe for decent citizens as Ireland was for landlords. It is believed that a reform will now be secured in Ohio, but we should be more sanguine of that if the crowd had tried to lynch the lawyers, instead of the wretched prisoners. The masses are sound in America, where- ever the Irish are weak ; but in spite of their votes, they seem unable ever to correct an abuse protected by any form of law. They are protesting just now against huge municipal " steal- ings " in Philadelphia, but the plunder goes on all the same. The State Legislature is packed away in some. village beyond reach of hanging, and no lighter remedy has any visible effect.
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