Ancestry [excerpt]

     On 14th September 1901 we were all shocked to be informed by telegram of the assassination of President M’Kinley by an anarchist, and that two bullets from a revolver had entered his body, and in a few days more we heard of his death, much to the grief of the nation over which he presided, as well as of the whole world. He had acquired great regard and respect as a great and good man, and proved on his death-bed that he was a sincere Christian, resigned to God’s will. His murderer has been tried and condemned to execution by electricity in October next. In this country there is such a strong feeling as to freedom and liberty, that the law is not so strict as to the treatment of anarchists and socialists as it is in continental nations, and they come and go amongst us with with [sic] greater freedom in numbers from all nations. The police watch their move- [171][172] ments, and the movements of our King and Queen and other members of the royal family are closely guarded, and the number of guardians have been largely increased, not only in England, but in all countries. The law should be made firmer and stricter. This, however, is a difficult matter to be generally adopted, but the number of rulers lately assassinated over the world has compelled Governments to adopt all precautions possible for the protection of those in power likely to be attacked by these miscreants, who are opponents of rule, justice, and legality. We have numbers of Radicals among the working-classes in England, Scotland, and Ireland, but few so wickedly disposed as in the continental countries of Europe.