A Murderer Like Musolino, Crowned With An Aureole Of
Saintliness, Would Be An Anomaly In England.
We should think it rather
paradoxical to hear a respectable old farmer recommending his boys to
shoot a policeman, whenever they safely can.
On the spot, things begin
to wear a different aspect. Musolino is no more to be blamed than a
child who has been systematically misguided by his parents; and if these
people, much as they love their homes and families, are all potential
Musolinos, they have good reasons for it - excellent reasons.
No south Italian living at this present moment, be he of what social
class you please - be he of the gentlest blood or most refined
culture - is a priori on the side of the policeman. No; not a
priori. The abuses of the executive are too terrific to warrant such an
attitude. Has not the entire police force of Naples, up to its very
head, been lately proved to be in the pay of the camorra; to say nothing
of its connection with what Messrs. King and Okey euphemistically call
"the unseen hand at Rome" - a hand which is held out for blackmail, and
not vainly, from the highest ministerial benches? Under such conditions,
the populace becomes profoundly distrustful of the powers that be, and
such distrust breeds bad citizens. But so things will remain, until the
bag-and-baggage policy is applied to the whole code of criminal
procedure, and to a good half of its present administrators.
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