NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE recent statement by SirHamar Greenwood to the effect
that the situation was improving in Ireland, and that the power of tho assassins would be broken before long, has been followed by the most terrible succession of murders we have yet known. Seven policemen were assassinated in a single day. We can call to mind many occasions on which we have written lathe Spectator of murder as a crimo quite apart from all other crimes, and much more terrible. It is because we take this view that we have always strongly supported capital punishment not so much because we want to see the criminal punished as because We want to see the community protected. This protection is essential because society is obviously conducted on the assumption that murder will not be committed. We are surrounded by various forms of protection against burglary and fraud, but it is not possible to match these kinds of protection in dealing with murder.
