Murder, Considered as One of the Fine Arts

Sir,--We have all heard of a Society for the Promotion of Vice, of the

Hell-Fire Club, &c. At Brighton, I think it was, that a Society was formed

for the Suppression of Virtue. That society was itself suppressed--but I

am sorry to say that another exists in London, of a character still

more atrocious. In tendency, it may be denominated a Society for the

Encouragement of Murder; but, according to their own delicate [Greek:

euphaemismos], it is styled--The Society of Connoisseurs in Murder. They

profess to be curious in homicide; amateurs and dilettanti in the various

modes of bloodshed; and, in short, Murder-Fanciers. Every fresh atrocity

of that class, which the police annals of Europe bring up, they meet and

criticise as they would a picture, statue, or other work of art. But I

need not trouble myself with any attempt to describe the spirit of their

proceedings, as you will collect _that_ much better from one of the Monthly

Lectures read before the society last year. This has fallen into my hands

accidentally, in spite of all the vigilance exercised to keep their

transactions from the public eye. The publication of it will alarm them;

and my purpose is that it should. For I would much rather put them down

quietly, by an appeal to public opinion through you, than by such an

exposure of names as would follow an appeal to Bow Street; which last

appeal, however, if this should fail, I must positively resort to