Inspector Melville's Career

MELVILLE'S GREAT RECORD.

Daring Deeds of Scotland Yard Superintendent.

LONDON, Dec. 25. - No thanks to the revolutionaries who have so often attempted his life, Superintendent Melville, the man who broke the back of anarchy in England, has closed in good health his official connection with Scotland Yard after thirty-two years of splendid service. The record of his career, should Mr. Melville ever be prevailed upon to write it, would form a volume which, without disparagement of Sir A. Conan Doyle, would put Sherlock Holmes entirely in the shade. The whole fraternity of conspirators dreaded the name of Melville, the man of indomitable courage and ingenuity, whose eyes ranged Europe for political fanatics and desperadoes and who was the protector of crowned heads.
Of all his stirring experiences, Mr. Melville regards as his most perilous adventure a fight he had with Francois, one of the anarchists concerned in the blowing up of the Cafe Very in Paris. Having tracked this man from Soho to Poplar, he and some detectives burst into his bedroom at midnight. Francois snatched up a revolver and a dagger that lay on the table, fought desperately, and fired three shots point blank at Melville, missing each time. When the detectives overpowered Francois his wife caught up the revolver and fought like a tigress. Eventually the lively couple were pinned to the floor, the detectives literally sitting on them. Occasionally anarchists had the cool impudence to visit Mr. Melville at the Yard. While talking there with one of them he observed the muzzle of a revolver gleaming in his visitor's breast pocket. Taking no apparent notice, Mr. Melville waited his opportunity, seized the weapon, administered a sound thrashing to the astounded anarchist, and bundled him into the street, not troubling to prosecute. Later he received a letter of thanks.
It was Melville who, in 1892, discovered the nefarious plot in London to follow men from the clubs and chloroform them in trains. While at work on this conspiracy he arrested a man at an anarchist club in Soho, and a model for making bombs was found at this culprit's lodgings. Through this arrest the Walsall Anarchist bomb factory was discovered, and an English anarchist was convicted of inciting to murder the home secretary, Mr. Justice Hawkins, and Mr. Melville himself. It was Melville and his men who made the memorable raid on the Autonomie club, when there fell into the hands of the police a mass of information whereby anarchy in this country has since been practically under the heel of the law. Ten years ago, while going home with his wife, Mr. Melville recognized the French anarchist Meunier on the platform of Victoria station. The anarchist fled, but the alert detective soon secured him. Meunier was a fellow-conspirator of the notorious Ravachol, and both had to do with the Cafe Very outrage. Into his well-earned retirement, Mr. Melville carries what the forces of anarchy may well be pardoned for regarding as a charmed life.

Source: The Quincy Daily Whig, December 26, 1903, Page 6

DETECTIVE TO RETIRE.

Melville Has Been Known as the Protector of Kings.

New York, Nov. 10. - The most distinguished detective of the day, Supt. Wm. Melville of Scotland Yard, is about to retire, says a cable dispatch to The Herald from London. Melville has had a wonderful career in detecting criminals and has been for years known as the "Protector of kings" because of his activity in running down anarchists. It was he who arrested the assassin Ravachol.

Source: Winona Republican-Herald, November 10, 1903, Page 1

NOTED POLICE CHIEFS WILL GUARD MONARCHS.

Preparations to Insure Safety of Edward and the Czar.

LONDON, Aug. 23. - It is now understood that the forthcoming meeting between King Edward and Emperor Nicholas will occur in Fredenborn, Denmark. It is asserted that the chief of the Russian secret police will go from Paris and Inspector Melville of Scotland Yard from London to Fredenborn to insure the safety of the august visitors.

Source: San Francisco Call, Volume 87, Number 85, 24 August 1901

PLOT TO ASSASSINATE RUSSIA'S DOWAGER EMPRESS.

COPENHAGEN, Nov. 10. - Three Russian anarchists, who were under the surveillance of the international police, arrived here last week to carry out a plot to assassinate the dowager empress of Russia. Before they arrived the Danish secret police received telegraphic information from St. Petersburg, and Russian detectives went on board the anarchists' steamer and inquired the object of the men's visit.
This polite reception surprised the anarchists, but their astonishment was increased when the detectives told them what their business was. The anarchists were then told that if they landed they would be arrested and sent back to Russia under special escort. If they preferred to return at once they were at liberty to do so, and to inform their comrades that nothing could be done at Copenhagen.
When one of the Russian detectives was asked why they had treated the anarchists in this courteous way he replied that the retired English detective, Inspector Melville, when he was in attendance on King Edward, always adopted these methods with anarchists. The latter were so astonished that, as a rule, they abandoned forever the plots which were thus foiled.

Source: Los Angeles Herald, Volume 34, Number 41, 11 November 1906

Anarchist Haunt Raided.

LONDON, March 15. - Inspector Melville, with a posse of detectives made a raid this evening on the International Toilers' Club, in Bennett Street, on an anarchist haunt. All the occupants of the place were searched, and a young Frenchman was arrested. A large amount of anarchist literature was also seized.

Source: Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 87, Number 20, 16 March 1894

VICTORIA AND HER GUESTS GUARDED.

Activity of the British Police During the Jubilee.

Revolutionists Had Been Boasting and Threatening All Sorts of Things.

Agents From Every European Capital Aided Scotland Yard in Checking Plotters.
[Copyrighted 1897 by the New York Sun.]

LONDON, ENG., June 26. - The public may never know the details of all the arrangements of the British political police for safeguarding the Queen and some of her royal visitors against criminals and cranks on jubilee day. They were on a prodigious scale, and included the use of police agents from every capital in Europe. Inspector Melville was in charge. He admits that he never worked harder nor had a more anxious time.
British revolutionists had been boasting and threatening all sorts of things. Rumors of dynamite preparations had been current for a couple of months. The impression prevailed that the explosion by which a train on the underground railroad was wrecked a month ago was a rehearsal of a jubilee plot. There were grounds for believing that something of the kind was contemplated, but that the plan was abandoned because men were not found with courage enough to take the risks involved.
Then it was decided to flood the line of the procession with revolutionary literature. This wild scheme was given up because there was no funds to do business upon a flooding scale, and comrades in the printing business were so lost to a proper sense of duty as to require payment in advance.
As far as the police were able to ascertain only one man ventured to distribute leaflets. He had only just started when grabbed and hustled to Scotland Yard. He had several hundred leaflets poorly printed. On one side was a jubilee hymn in glorification of rebellion. On the other side was a proclamation signed "London Revolutionists." It unpolitely speaks of the Queen as a "fat old woman evidently destined by nature for the wash tub, but elevated by fortune to the throne." It then proceeds to say nasty things about her Majesty's guests and visitors.

Source: San Francisco Call, Volume 82, Number 27, 27 June 1897

DOINGS OF DYNAMITERS.
Anarchists, Nihilists and Fenians Joined in the Daring Plots.

CROWNED HEADS THEIR INTENDED PREY.
Visit of the Czar and Czarina to Victoria the Time Set for the First Explosion.

SCHEMERS ARE TRACKED FROM THE UNITED STATES.
Scotland Yard Detectives Discover the Plans of Assassination in Time to Prevent Them.

LONDON, ENG., Sept. 14. - A communication of a semi-official character was issued this afternoon, touching the arrest of the alleged dynamite conspirators. The communication says, among other things, that the Scotland Yard officials have been fully aware for some time past that a gang of desperadoes has been engaged in America in preparing the details and arranging the ramifications of an extensive and diabolical plot to perpetrate a dynamite outrage in England and establish a reign of terror.
Chief Inspector Melville of the Metropolitan police has had charge of the Scotland Yard arrangements for frustrating the designs of the conspirators, and gradually and with great secrecy drew a network around the plotters. The fact was known to the police that the conspirators were in close communication with prominent Russian nihilists in the United States, and through this information the police were enabled to discover upon almost undoubted evidence that the conspiracy had recently developed a scheme to perpetrate an outrage upon the Czar upon the occasion of his visit to England. The prime movers of the plot were Fenians in America, and when they had carried their conspiracy as far as they could in the United States Tynan and the other principal agents were sent to Europe to put the designs of the plotters into execution. They left America as secretly as possible, coming by different routes. Their arrival was known, however, and their every movement was dogged by the Scotland Yard detectives.
After treating of the arrests of the dynamiters and the capture by the police of all of their documents, etc., the communication adds that Bell was designated to go to Scotland Yard to direct a series of outrages there, the necessary explosives to be sent to him from Belgium as they might be required. When Bell was taken into custody he had between 300 pounds and 400 pounds in cash upon his person, together with American letters of credit.
The Central News says that the plot in which it is charged Tynan, Bell and Wallace were implicated, was hatched in the United States, and that it was widespread in its ramifications not only in England but in various Continental countries. The conspiracy was started months ago and although those connected with it thought they were working with the utmost secrecy so far as the authorities were concerned there were among the plotters two or three agents of the British Government, who kept the London police advised of every move that was made or proposed by the conspirators from the very inception of the plot.
The police here knew even the names of the men who were selected by the American Revolutionary Society to cause explosions here and on the Continent. It was well known that ever since the defeat of the Irish home rule bill the physical force party had been active in the spread of its propaganda, and steps were at once taken to closely but secretly watch those who it was anticipated would be likely to enter a conspiracy against the Government. Thus the fact of the conspiracy was learned, the British agents in the United States completely deluding the chief plotters into the belief that they were bitter enemies of the British Government and would go to any lengths to secure the freedom of Ireland. It was learned that the conspirators were in alliance with the Fenians, anarchists and nihilists, and that they were all working together. The nihilists, who do not appear to have been specially interested in freeing Ireland from the British yoke, subscribed funds and dynamite for the leaders, but only on the express condition that "business" should be done on the Continent.
The visit of the Czar and Czarina to the Queen at Balmoral and their subsequent journey to France were deemed by the nihilists to be the most suitable occasion on which to attempt the lives of their Imperial Majesties. The donors to the funds in America, however, insisted that a blow should first be struck at England. It can be stated in this connection that Inspector Melville recently went to Paris, where it is supposed he conferred with the police as to the best means of circumventing the plans of the conspirators. At that time the English papers were not aware of the existence of the plan, and in their comments on the inspector's journey to Paris they stated, while pointing out the existence in London of a large anarchist colony, that the Czar would, without doubt, be far safer in England, without any police protection than he would be in Paris with all the safeguards that might be adopted by the police of that city. The result of the knowledge obtained by the police does not appear to bear out the claims made by the newspapers.
It is stated that the conspirators before they left the United States were taught how to mix chemicals to form high explosives and to use clockwork to cause explosions. The teacher was a Russian professor. Through him the Nihilists and Fenians were brought together and it was due to his efforts that the alliance between them was entered into.
The police here in their investigations early learned that the magazine of the plotters was located at Berchiem, a suburb of Antwerp, and when the plans for the arrest were complete the authorities of that city were notified and an attempt was made to arrest the men in the house where the explosives were stored.
This, however, failed, but it is thought certain that Kearney and Hains, alias Wallace, who were arrested at Rotterdam, are the Irishmen who lived in the house at Berchiem. Kearney sent Bell to Glasgow for the purpose of sounding the physical force party there as to their willingness to resort to the use of dynamite.
It has been learned that while Tynan was in Paris he consorted with notorious anarchists and nihilists. He always had plenty of money, which he spent freely among his associates. He was voted a "good fellow," but there were those among his companions who did not approve of this air of braggadocio and threats of violence against England.
It was thought that he did altogether too much talking and he was several times warned that his tongue would get him in trouble with the police if he did not put a curb upon it. It is not expected that the man will be extradited until the conclusion of the Czar's visit to France.
Great praise is awarded to Inspector Melville for his work in shadowing and arresting the conspirators.
It is believed that his work has put a quietus on a plot that, had it been successful, would have been far reaching in its results and which would have made matters worse for Ireland, instead of bettering her condition. The leading members of the Nationalist party emphatically deny any sympathy with the physical force party, whose ideas they characterize as chimerical and tending to undo whatever progress has been made in the Irish cause.

Source: San Francisco Call, Volume 80, Number 107, 15 September 1896

Inspector Melville's Smart Arrest of the Anarchist Meunier at Victoria Station.

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Inspector Melville has for many years made Anarchism and Anarchists a specialty. He is one of the ablest members of the Scotland Yard force, gifted with a sang-froid in moments of danger which is to be envied, and one of the most genial of men even in his dealings with criminals. He has had the great advantage of a long residence in France, and speaks French fluently. His arrest of Meunier, the Anarchist, is one of the most brilliant feats in the records of the English police. For two years past this alleged disciple of Ravachol had been anxiously sought for on account of his supposed share in the blowing up of the Cafe Very, but both the French and English police failed to affect his arrest until one day last week, when Inspector Melville received positive information that his man was going to leave London for Antwerp. All the stations accordingly were watched. At Victoria Inspector Melville recognised on the evening of April 4, his man by means of a photograph (just as Consul Bridgett arrested Jabez Balfour by means of a P.I.P. photograph of the "Liberator"); and the gallant inspector at once closed with him, a desperate struggle ensuing before the Anarchist was overpowered. Meunier was slightly disguised, but was easily identified, owing to a certain malformation of the chest. A man named Ricken was arrested for attempting to assist Meunier in escaping. As Meunier was known to be a most desperate ruffian, it was a plucky act on the part of Inspector Melville to seize him, and, as a matter of fact, he was found to be in possession of a loaded revolver. He is an old offender, and ever since the issue of the warrant for his arrest the Scotland Yard authorities have been in possession of his portrait, and the full means of identifying him, furnished by the Bertillon system of personal measurement, which, by the way, is likely to be adopted in this country. According to the Courrier de Londres, Inspector Melville is to receive the decoration of the Legion d'Honneur from the French nation for his services to the French Government. A responsible official connected with the Ministry of Justice in France has arrived in England to undertake the prosecution of the Anarchist Meunier, whose extradition is demanded by the French Government on a charge of murder arising out of the bomb explosion at the Cafe Very, in Paris.

Anarchism In London

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The death of Martial Bourdin from the explosion of a bomb, which he was carrying for some purpose up the slope of Observatory Hill, at Greenwich, has aroused the greatest interest in the doings of the Anarchists in this country. Martial Bourdin was only between twenty-six and twenty-seven years of age, and was a journeyman ladies' tailor, working for his brother in a small and dingy workshop in Great Titchfield Street, one of those streets which serve as workshops for the big establishments in Oxford Street. On Wednesday, it is stated, he was looking for work, and a day or two before had been very hard up. On Thursday he dined with some friends at his usual cafe in the Tottenham Court Road district - a district which swarms with foreign residents, many of whom are Anarchists. In the afternoon he was seen speaking to a man in Hanover Square. The two parted, and Martial Bourdin went towards Charing Cross, where he took a train.
The theory which finds most general acceptance is that Bourdin was provided with a bomb and his expenses to Paris by some one he met in the course of the day. He was to take a ticket to Dover, where luggage would be provided for him, which would serve to make the French authorities unsuspicious, and from there he was to cross to Paris and use his bomb. At Charing Cross, as he was an excitable, nervous man - a temperament which predisposes to timidity - he fancied he saw a detective near him, and took a ticket for the first place which came into his mind - Greenwich, with which he was already familiar. At Greenwich it might chance that he got another fright. The same man might have got out at that station. Whatever it was, it induced him to enter the Park, and there finding that he might not be able to get to New Cross in time for the Dover train, which would be partly his purpose when he got out at Greenwich, he resolved not to waste the bomb, but to try it on the Observatory walls.
Going up the zig-zag path to the first bend, he produced his bomb and began to prepare it for use. This would be done by dropping into a glass tube filled with cotton wool a few drops of sulphuric acid, and inserting the tube in the hole prepared for it in the mouth of the bomb. The method is one very commonly employed, the idea being that the sulphuric acid, soaking through the cotton wool, gradually reaches another substance, with which it sets up a sudden and violent combination - an explosion, in other words - and this in turn caused the ignition of the chief explosive in the bomb. The facts lend themselves to the theory that he had just restored that acid bottle to his pocket, still holding the bomb in his left hand, when the acid worked its way through the wool sooner than he expected, and the bomb burst.
Though terribly wounded, he had sufficient strength of body and mind left him to beckon to some boys, who came running up on hearing the explosion, and to ask them to fetch a cab. But a park keeper named Sullivan was one of the first arrivals on the scene, and he, summoning assistance, succeeded in getting the man conveyed to the Seamen's Hospital. His tenacity of life was astounding. His face, his chest, and legs were all torn by portions of the bomb, yet he lived for half an hour - till, in fact, he had been taken to the Seamen's Hospital, where all that could be done was done for him. An examination of his papers revealed almost at once his real character. He was a member of a little group of Frenchmen who made the Club Autonomie their chief haunt; he was an enthusiastic Anarchist who belonged unquestionably to the Individual Action Section of that body. This seciton is one which believes in propaganda by deed. Its members act on their own initiative. No other Anarchist need know at what his colleague is aiming. Their plans are locked up in their own breast, and they are thus protected from all risk of informers. There is, of course, the great question of means. Money is provided from some source which has not yet been ascertained to "comrades" who have conceived a scheme by which they can terrorise the bourgeoisie.

THE RAID ON THE CLUB AUTONOMIE.

The surprises of the day were not done with the news that a violent Anarchist had blown himself to pieces. The Club Autonomie, centre of the whole Anarchist organisation of the metropolis, itself suffered "insult" from the hands of the police. Chief Inspector Melville and his body of trained detectives - whose sole duty is to look after the expounders of the sacred right of outrage by explosion - quietly walked down to the club premises in Windmill Street on Thursday night. They might have been members of the club going there to talk over Bourdin's death. First came Chief Inspector Melville and one or two subordinates, including Sergeant Walsh. They knocked in the peculiar way of the club members at the door, which was at once opened. They walked in and promptly took possession. Sergeant Walsh sent the doorkeeper away in a fashion which surprised that eccentric personage, and took his place himself to admit almost at once the full body of special detectives.
The club was not crowded at the moment. There were comparatively few persons there, and these were one and all discussing with much warmth the unexpected intelligence. It is a club which is always full of excitement. Not even while the hot suppers, which the notice-board over the fireplace announces are served every evening, are in process of assimilation is the club quiet. There is always stormy debate, and in the midst of discussion on the method and the causes of Martial Bourdin's death, a man who had been one of themselves the previous night, in walked Chief Inspector Melville and his merry men, all armed, and all big enough to overawe any two of the club! The members saw they were in a trap, but they did not realise for some time quite what the police meant to do. They were not left long in doubt. The members who were present in the bar-room were swiftly examined for arms, and then ordered downstairs into the large hall in the basement. They then began to appreciate the fact that the police were not only going to search the Club premises and the clothes of the members found in it, but they were going to make use of it again and again as a trap to capture every man who knocked at its door.
It was a position in which even an Anarchist could only be indifferent happy. Many of them were sincerely miserable, for they had made a big stride from total immunity from police supervision to a perquisition as minute as if it were taking place in Paris. They remained downstairs and had to grin and bear it, while comrade after comrade, probably with the most compromising documents upon him, walked with childlike innocence into Mr. Melville's hand.
The more interesting members of the Club were just beginning to arrive when I reached the Club, and was admitted by Sergeant Walsh. A few words of explanation from Mr. Melville and I stood aside to watch in full progress one of the best planned raids the English police ever carried out. The Club is an ordinary house, slightly modified by the creation of an underground hall for its special purpose. In the narrow lobby stood Walsh - a man showing no ear-marking of the police in walk or dress - and when a knock came to the door he swiftly opened it. From the gloom of squalid Windmill Street the Anarchist walked gaily into the well-lighted hall to suddenly realise that he would have been better outside. The door was as swiftly closed behind him as it had opened to his knock, and the man behind the door, with a sharp gesture, and often an imperious push, said, "In there, please," and the Anarchist was shoved into the bar to meet the shrewd eye of Mr. Melville, and probably be hailed by name. This went went on till between seventy and eighty men were captured. Some of the special police had meanwhile disappeared from the Club, and it began to flash across the minds of several of the men that the police were most likely paying domiciliary visits to their lodgings and the result might not be pleasing to them. This made them restless, and one began to resist. He was seized with a knack due to some experience, thrown down, and threatened with the handcuff. After that he remained quiet. Another saw the trap as soon as he passed the doorposts, but it was too late. Walsh had dragged him in and closed the door before he could give warning outside, and his cry of "Vive l'Anarchie!" was merely laughed at indoors.
While Mr. Melville was making his preliminary investigation upstairs, in the hall below a detective sergeant from Scotland Yard had been going into more minute details of the past lives and present occupation of the refugees. It is worth remarking that he found not one English name in the whole gang. There were many Germans, a good many French, and a fair sprinkling of other nationalities. They told readily enough their names and addresses, and where they refused they were convinced that it would be more to their interest to tell the whole truth. The club premises had been searched also in the most thorough fashion. The men who did the work even rummaged the cellars and cupboards and the small rooms upstairs, and took away with them many batches of documents from which much may be expected in the near future.

RECOLLECTIONS OF ANARCHIST CLUBS.

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ANARCHISM IN LONDON: SKETCHES AT AN EAST END CLUB
DRAWN FROM LIFE BY PAUL RENOUARD

M. PAUL RENOUARD'S drawings of the London Anarchists were made nearly at the period when "Comrade" Nicholl was sentenced to a term of imprisonment for exercising the "inalienable right of free speech" a little too freely in his journal - The Commonweal - in other words, for advocating the assassination of Mr. Justice Hawkins. The larger part of the drawings were made at the Berner Street Club. Berner Street, E., is a typical Whitechapel street, in which the Board School and the Anarchist Club face one another like cause and effect, and of which the inhabitants are mostly Poles or Russian Jews. The Berner Street Club, indeed, not so long ago was a place which existed mainly for conversaziones, or at which the Germans and Poles of the Yiddish colony used to meet to play dominoes and talk alcoholic Socialism. There was also a club in the City Road, which called itself Anarchist, and which, failing for want of funds (or principles) was asked to join the Whitechapel Club. The alliance, however, had more of the characteristics of the mechanical mixture than of the chemical composition, and eventually a number of the fierier spirits drifted to the much more thoroughgoing institution in Windmill Street, which had become notorious as the Club Autonomie. Meanwhile, it is only fair to say that the English Anarchists (as distinguished from foreign Anarchists resident in London) have dwindled and dwindled like the Jews in Shushan. Death has taken away some, defection has taken away more. The name of Anarchist has been too much for a few ( a great poet of the democracy amongst them); the principles too powerful for others, inasmuch as they have had to go to prison for them; and it is doubtful if there are now a dozen Englishmen who are Anarchists, though some, it is true, hang about the skirts both of the club in Whitechapel or the Autonomie partly for entertainment, partly for the satisfaction to be gained from the consciousness of feeling themselves to be daring outcasts from Society. The entertainments both at the Autonomie and the Whitechapel Club are very harmless, and sometimes amusing affairs. They generally take place on Sunday nights; they are called concerts, and are mostly dances; and they are very largely attended by children who are too young to know better. Other nights, however, are devoted to the propaganda. One of these at which M. Paul Renouard made sketches, was thus described in The Graphic at the time. The principal speaker at it was Louise Michel. "In a few minutes every seat is taken. There is a bustle to open a skylight, for the smoke of Hamburg cigars and much inferior tobacco has made the room intolerable. Some of the members take their coats off; all prepare to listen; most are also prepared to speak.....Then - a desert, a wilderness, a continent of talk. Speaker follows speaker to denounce in English, in French, in German, the dominating classes which rob the toiler day by day, and thrust him into an early grave. Speech follows speech to call for "Revenge," or for the destruction of the Molochs of civilisation.....Then, of a sudden, appears an orator: it is the guest of the evening, Louise Michel. Not half a dozen sentences, but she has set her audience aflame. Her hawk eyes, her curving fingers, her eager, ugly face thrust out at us, gripped a hold on us before she uttered a word. "Mes freres!" - her harsh voice was lost in a responsive shout - "Vive l'Anarchie!" she shrilled, and "Vive l'Anarchie!" rolled back to her in a hoarse yell. Never have I seen an audience so entirely, so quickly, change the character of its attention. She was a firebrand in our midst. Perhaps it is as well that so many of those who follow her "are wet blankets."

Source: The Graphic (London, England), Saturday February 24, 1894, Issue 1265

Arrest of a Suspected Paris Dynamitard in London.

A P.I.P. Artist delineates Jean Pierre Francois, alias Johnson and Brou, who was brought up under the Extradition Law at Bow Street Police-Court on Friday, Oct. 14, charged with having been an accomplice of Ravachol in causing the explosion at the Cafe Very, Boulevard Magenta, Paris, when the keeper of the restaurant and other persons lost their lives. Prisoner's wife was in court. That active and intelligent officer, Inspector Melville, of the Criminal Investigation Department said that on the previous afternoon, soon after four o'clock, he was in North Street, Poplar, accompanied by Sergeant Walsh McIntyre and Police-Constable Hester. He saw the prisoner coming along the street, and from the description he identified him as the man wanted for the explosion at Paris. Prisoner ran away, but was followed and seized by witness and the other officers. Witness, in French, told him he was a police inspector, and must arrest him. Prisoner struggled very violently, and it took the united efforts of the officers to get him to the station. Prisoner during the struggle said, "It is lucky for you that I was not at home, for I should have sold my life as dear as possible, even to the last drop of my blood." In answer to the charge, prisoner said it was false, and that he had eleven witnesses to prove that he was not with Ravachol when the explosion took place. Witness explained to him that the charge was with being an accomplice before the act. Witness afterwards went back to 106, Hind Street, where the prisoner was living under the name of Johnson. Immediately he entered the room the prisoner's wife rushed to the mantelshelf and seized a five-chamber revolver. All the chambers were loaded, "I," said the witness, "had to take the weapon from her by force. I found a cartridge on the mantelpiece, and in a cupboard a case containing twenty-five cartridges. Among the other things wer found were a pair of blue spectacles, apparently used for disguise, and a dagger." Prisoner stated that the knife or dagger produced was what he cut his food with. In the course of a long, rambling statement, he asked why he was arrested. Inspector Melville: "For being an accomplice of Ravachol." Prisoner: "I have eleven witnesses to prove that I was dining that night at a wine-shop. I have done nothing, and wish the case settled as soon as possible." Sir John Bridge: "The papers have not yet arrived from France, and you must be remanded until Thursday."

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Chief Inspector Melville, of the Criminal Investigation Department at Scotland Yard, is a tall, prosperous-looking man, with fair hair and moustache, and just the slightest suggestion of a stoop. His glossy silk hat and neatest of umbrellas only add to the general effect of City merchant, that is, no doubt, part of his stock-in-trade. His acquaintance with the French language has served him well in his pursuit, first of the dynamitard and then of the Anarchist. He was promoted to be Chief Inspector after the conviction of the Walsall Anarchists two years ago, and keeps a keen eye on London Anarchists. He led the raid on Autonomie Club in Windmill Street.

Great Scotland Yard and Plotters Against the Czar.

Chief Inspector Melville, a day or two before Christmas Day, gave ample proof at Bow Street Police Court that the heads of the Metropolitan Police keep a keen eye upon all foreigners who meditate the assassination of foreign Sovereigns - surely a species of craven crime that can help no desired reform, but is, on the contrary, likely to arrest ameliorative measures. A P.I.P. Artist was present in Court, and sketched Vladimar Bourtzeff, thirty-three, who was again charged with having on Dec. 14 and preceding days solicited, encouraged, and endeavoured to persuade diverse persons to murder His Imperial Majesty the Emperor Nicholas II of Russia. A second prisoner, Clement Weirzbecki, an elderly man, shabbily dressed, was charged on a warrant with a similar offence. Chief Inspector Melville, of Scotland Yard, said that at 5:30 on the 16th ult., after the first hearing of the charge against Bourtzeff, he went with other detectives to 70, Grafton Street, Tottenham Court Road, the address given by the prisoner. The door was opened with one of the keys found on the prisoner, and the witness went upstairs to a room on the second floor, the door of which was unlocked with the second key found on the prisoner. In the room were a portmanteau, a bed, and a cupboard. These were searched, and, in all, 1330 copies of the pamphlet, "Narodovoletz," were found. There were 580 copies of No. 1, 679 of No. 2, and 71 of No. 3. There was also a large quantity of letters, postcards, books, pamphlets, newspaper cuttings, etc., mainly in Russian, but some in Polish and some in French. The witness found as well a large number of cuttings from the English newspapers, most of them relating to Nihilism, and some referring to the death of the Emperor Alexander II (the grandfather of the present Czar), the accession of the present Emperor, his Majesty Nicholas II, and the death of Stepniak. The prominent Nihilist and Anarchist events were marked with pencil. A man named Halturin (referred to in the information) was the author of the dynamite explosion at the Winter Palace at St. Petersburg on Feb. 6, 1880. Among those who were present at and took part in the assassination of the Emperor Alexander II in the streets of St. Petersburg on March 13, 1881, by the throwing of a dynamite bomb, were a man named Jeliabov, who arranged for the explosion, and Sophia Perovskaya. They were convicted of the part they took in the assassination.
Cross-examined: You know all this by hearsay? - By reading.
Well, that is hearsay? - Yes
Mr. Grant applied for bail for Bourtzeff, saying that he was prepared with substantial bail, and added, amid some laughter, that there was not the least likelihood of his running away, as England was the only country in which he was safe from arrest. In fact, on one occasion the Russian police had endeavoured to arrest him while he was on an English ship at Constantinople. Bail was refused for him, but granted for his companion in two sureties in 30 pounds.

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HOME NEWS

ANARCHISTS IN LONDON.

Another important capture was effected on Sunday morning, the man Carnot, who is said to have been the employer of Polti, being arrested by Inspector Quinn in the East End of London. Carnot's real name is Giuseppe Farnara, and Polti informed the police that he was chosen to direct operations in England at the conference held at the Hague two years ago. He was the paymaster of the Anarchist gang, and distributed money, which was always brought from abroad in specie, to his many agents in this country. Carnot is said to be responsible for the bomb which exploded in Greenwich Park, and to have employed Polti to get bombs made in London. He described himself as the "Financial Organizer of International Anarchy," and on the way to Bow Street said that had it not been for Polti's arrest he would have stabbed Chief Inspector Melville for capturing Meunier. He also declared that he had intended to use the bomb to blow up the Royal Exchange, and boasted that in two or three years there would not be a Government existing, either here or elsewhere. On Tuesday he was placed in the dock with Polti.

Source: Penny Illustrated Paper

The Alleged Anarchist Carnot was cleverly arrested on Sunday morning by Police-Inspector Quinn and Sergeants Sweeney, Walsh, and Maguire, while

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asleep at 41, Church Street, Stratford, at the extreme East End of London. The capture swiftly succeeded Chief Inspector Melville's skillful arrest of Polti, portrayed in last week's P.I.P. This week Carnot is sketched. Before Mr. Vaughan, at Bow Street Police Court, Giuseppe Farnara, known as Carnot, was on Monday charged with being concerned with Francis Polti in the possession of certain explosives. He is short and of sallow complexion. Farnara was arrested by Detective-Inspector Quinn and the three sergeants named, who entered a room in Stratford where the accused and six other men were sleeping. On the way from West Ham to Bow Street the prisoner told one of the officers that when Meunier was brought up he went to Bow Street Police Court to see Inspector Melville, with the intention of killing him in a few days. He meant to use the bomb ordered in the Blackfriars Road at the Royal Exchange. Carnot, or Farnara, was remanded. At Bow Street Police Court, the same day, Edward Falkner, a clerk, was remanded on a charge of killing his wife in Spring Gardens on Saturday night.

ANARCHISM IN LONDON.

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A young Italian named Francesco Polti was arrested in the Clerkenwell Road on Saturday night by Chief Inspector Melville, and soon afterwards his lodgings were searched. In them was found a large quantity of sulphuric acid and chlorate of potash, besides several other chemicals, which were all seized by the police. Polti, who has been under surveillance for some days past, is about eighteen years of age, and belongs to the Individualist section of the Anarchists. He was charged at Bow Street with the possession of explosives on Monday, and formal evidence was given by the police. The bomb which he was carrying at the time of his arrest is of a shape well known on the Continent, and must have been made from drawings. It was cast for Polti by a factory in the Blackfriar's Road, but the manager, becoming suspicious of Polti and the "cylinder" he was so particular about, communicated with the police, who, after examining the bomb, put a detective in the shop. When Polti visited the factory again he was followed home to his lodgings, and when the bomb was delivered to him he was arrest as he was carrying it home. The bomb could have been loaded and placed in position in a few moments, but Polti's intentions with regard to it are not known. On Monday night another bomb was discovered by the police, an iron-founder in the Waterloo Road having called their attention to a casting ordered by a young foreigner who gave the name of Carnot. The cylinder was evidently another bomb, and Carnot is supposed to be an alias of Polti, who is said to be of pleasant appearance and to speak English remarkably well. He is married to an English girl, and has been cook's assistant in some London restaurants.

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M. COCHEFERT, the new Chef de la Surete in Paris, has made every amends in his power to Inspector Melville for the way in which the latter was treated by the French Criminal bureau before he, Cochefert, took office. M. Cochefert is as great a terror to the French Anarchists as his coadjutor, Mr. Melville, is to the lawless conspirators who plot in London. He does not boast, but he has shown that he knows the whereabouts of every dangerous Anarchist in France, more or less, and it is due to his splendid exertions at a time of much personal peril, that the present nefarious gang, whose trial has just ended, have been brought to justice, and received condign punishment. M. Cochefert is just forty-five, and, like his predecessor, M. Goron, is an old soldier, who served his country well in the war of 1870. He has occupied several excellent organising positions, and his invariable success and systematic arrangements called the attention of his superiors to his undoubted merit, which has culminated in his promotion to the first post in the criminal bureau of France.

A SPY ON THE STAND.

HEARING OF IVORY IN LONDON DEVELOPS A SENSATION.
CLAN-NA-GAEL SECRETS TOLD.
"JONES," THE SPY, JOINED THE ASSOCIATION TO LEARN THEM.

Dramatic and Exciting Scenes in Court While the Spy Was Telling of Organizations of Alleged Dynamiters - Discredited.

London, Nov. 13. - The final examination of Edward J. Ivory, alias Edward Bell, the saloonkeeper of New York and alleged dynamiter, at Bow Street police court today, developed into a sensation equal to the excitement caused by the revelations of the spy, Le Caron, some years ago.
The weekly examinations of Ivory have been going on at Bow Street on Friday ever since he was brought to London after his arrest at Glasgow, some two months ago, on the charge of being concerned, with P.J. Tynan, Kearney, Haynes and others, in a conspiracy to blow up public and other buildings with the use of dynamite. Hitherto the testimony has been of the usual monotonous police court description, but today the crown, represented by C.E. Gill, sprung a sensation in the shape of the testimony of a government spy, known only as "Jones," a native of Armagh, Ireland, who seems to have succeeded in becoming a member of secret Irish organizations in New York, "under instructions," and to have possessed himself of secrets of the Clan-na-Gael Association.
Ivory has hitherto behaved in a most unconcerned manner, as if confident of acquittal, but today, when "Jones" was placed in the witness box, the prisoner's face showed consternation. He was completely staggered by the appearance of Jones under such circumstances, and great, though suppressed, excitement prevailed in court when a rumor was circulated that the prosecution expected the mysterious witness, whose real name is kept secret, to unravel the secret history of the "physical force" movement in the United States.
When Jones first appeared on the witness stand, Mr. Gill asked the presiding magistrate to stop all sketching in court, exclaiming that it was of the utmost importance that nothing should be allowed to transpire to identify the witness in the future. But "Jones" caused more excitement during the proceeding by suddenly addressing Magistrate Vaughn, saying: "A reporter is taking a sketch of me. I fear for my safety."
The magistrate, Mr. Vaughn, then ordered the reporter to desist, but a prison attendant soon afterwards said to the magistrate: "A reporter is writing a description of Jones."
The magistrate thereupon sternly remarked: "I will not allow even a written description of the witness to be made."
Chief Inspector Melville, of Scotland Yard, who was present in court, took an active part in suppressing the taking of descriptions of "Jones."
Jones is a tall, insignificant looking man, about 5 feet 5 inches high, with a brown beard and mustache and hair a shade darker. He has a bulging forehead and black eyes, pale complexion and has a furtive, shifty look. He was very nervous while in court and was constantly pulling his beard. He spoke with a pronounced brogue. He delivered his testimony as if in fear of his life, and seemed to be scared of the sound of his voice. In fact, at the close of the proceedings, a jailer remarked to a representative of the Associated Press: "Jones is a dead man; I am glad I am not in his shoes."
When Ivory's counsel asked Jones to give the initials of his name, the witness refused, but the counsel insisted, and also demanded to know the address of Jones in New York, whereupon the witness replied: "I fear for my safety and decline to give the particular location."
The magistrate upheld Jones in his refusal, and then followed a dramatic incident.
Counsel for the prisoner solemnly asked: "Did you take the oath of the Clan-na-Gael?"
Upon hearing this question, Jones turned lividly pale, hesitated for a moment and then feebly answered, "Yes"
Ivory's counsel thereupon said: "You were intending, at the time, not to observe it."
To this question Jones replied: "Yes, I did not intend to observe it."
Counsel thereupon said: "Have you any respect for the oath you have given here today?"
"Yes," replied Jones, in a weak voice.
This incident caused the deepest impression upon all present in the court room.
Replying to questions upon the part of Mr. Gill, who prosecuted for the treasury department, Jones said he was a native of Armagh; that he was employed by the British government to make inquiries at Manchester in 1890, and that in 1891 he was sent to America, where he resumed his inquiries.
In November, 1891, Jones continued, he entered the employ of wholesale grocers of New York city and remained with them until 1895, when he opened his own business.
Jones, it appears, remained in New York until September of the present year, all that time apparently "making inquiries" for the British government.
He added that early in 1892 he met William Lyman, president of the Irish National Alliance, and Boland, of New York city, and learned of the existence of the Irish Nationalists' organization, known among its members as the "United Irish" or "T.H." whose executive body, Jones further states was known by the letters "D.A."
Continuing, Jones said that "on instructions" he joined the organization and was initiated in to a camp known as the "Shamrock Club," among those present at his initiation being Lyman, Boland, Gallagher, Kearney and Tynan.
They afterwards, Jones added, formed a new camp, which was called "The Nally Club," the membership of which included Mearns and Nolan, who had been connected with an explosion in Dublin.
Jones further stated that he was elected treasurer of the Nally Club, whose meetings, it appears, were of the most secret description, the secret "district orders" being burned after read. After the initiation, the members of this club were known by numbers. Part of the subscriptions, the witness also testified, were contributed to a revolutionary fund, and calls were made for money to pay for celebrations of the death of the "Manchester martyrs," and to aid the convicted dynamiters.
Answering further questions, Jones said that while on his way to the Chicago convention of 1895, Kearney introduced the prisoner, Ivory, to the witness as a "brother."
P.J. Tynan and Donovan Rossa, according to Jones, were present and Tynan said Ivory belonged to his "camp" and had been known to him in Dublin previous to 1892.
Jones' mention of the Chicago convention of 1895 refers to the "new movement convention" which was attended by a number of confidants of Lyman, who, during the convention time, it was stated in court, held secret meetings with them.
Later, it seems, Jones joined a "camp" under the name of Thomeric Jones.
Continuing his account of the visit to Chicago, Jones said he arrived there September 22 of last year, and was met at the railroad station by St. John Gaffney. He stayed at McCoy's hotel, where the committee of the secret organization met.
Ivory, Jones stated, attended the meeting, at which the names were chosen to be submitted to the public convention as officers of the "new movement," the object being that an open movement might be controlled, as it is, according to Jones, by a secret organization.
In another portion of his testimony, Jones said he saw Ivory two or three weeks before the latter left America, in Cody's saloon in New York, which, he further stated, was largely frequented by members of the organization.
Jones then produced a document purporting to give the constitution of the society up to 1895, and also typewritten copies of the constitution and ritual of the Clan-na-Gael.
Jones further said that anyone convicted of a dynamite outrage was described in the proceedings of the organization as "a soldier of Ireland." The witness afterwards produced a mass of documents giving "camp" instructions, passwords, signs, etc., and a copy of the report of the secret convention at Chicago in 1895, in which an item of the expenditure was $3,500 for "merchandise," which, Jones explained, meant dynamite.
The cross-examination of Jones did not shake his evidence, but counsel for Ivory submitted that it was not a case to go to trial.
The magistrate, however, emphatically declared there were "ample grounds" to send the case to trial, and Ivory was formally committed.
Mr. Carter, Ambassador Bayard's secretary, was present in court today as representative of the United States embassy in order to watch the proceedings in behalf of the United States officials here.
The afternoon newspapers of this city make great spreads of the evidence further furnished by Jones and have scare heads reading "Le Caron, the Second," and "Secret of the Clan-na-Gael," "Startling Disclosures of an Irish Spy," etc.
The Globe says of the testimony of "Jones" today that the most sensational developments are expected, eclipsing those of the time of Le Caron.

DISCREDITED IN AMERICA.

Secretary McLaughlin Says "Jones" Is Selling "Gold" Bricks to Scotland Yard.

NEW YORK, Nov. 13. - The news of the production of an informer in the Ivory case in London today created quite a sensation and was productive of considerable comment in Irish circles in this city. "Jones" held several positions in this city, but some time ago he started in a stationery business of his own at 63 Amsterdam avenue, where he lived. He was frequently heard advocating wild schemes, and claimed to be a very advanced physical force man. In this city he was recognized by several men a North of Ireland Irishman, but as the alliance is non-sectarian in its principles, Jones' religion was no bar to his becoming a member. The last heard of him in this city was about ten weeks ago, when he left here, telling his acquaintances he was going to the North of Ireland to secure some property which had been left to him through the death of a relative.
C. O'C. McLaughlin, secretary of the Irish National Alliance, when asked what he knew of Jones, replied:
"Whether Jones is a friend of Tynan or Kearney, I do not know, but I am satisfied that if he knows anything of the so-called dynamite plot, the whole thing must have originated in his own brain. According to the cable reports, he says himself that has been employed by the English authorities since 1890, and to my mind it is very evident that he is delivering "gold bricks" to the Scotland Yard people in return for a fat remuneration. This trumped up evidence is another part of the old-worn-out scheme of Scotland Yard when its sleuths want to secure the conviction of any Irishman who may be unfortunate enough to fall into their hands."

Source: Kansas City Daily Journal, Saturday, November 14, 1896

POLITICAL DETECTIVE'S RETIREMENT.

Superintendent Melville, who was to retire at the end of last month from the position of chief of the political branch of Scotland Yard after 31 years' service in the force, has had few more exciting experiences in his long and distinguished career than the one by which he gained the Legion of Honour of France.
In common with other headquarters of criminal investigation, Scotland Yard one day received particulars of a political murder that had been committed in Paris, and a description of the man was was suspected of being the author with a request to keep a lookout for his arrival in England. The matter was at once taken in hand by Superintendent Melville personally, treated as an urgent case, for under the perfect mutual arrangement which exists between most Continental countries and England no question of nationality enters into the tracking down of a criminal. Throughout the length and breadth of the country the information was distributed to the force, and no stone was left unturned to make sure that the cunning Munier, who was the man wanted, should not leave England a free man if he once entered it.
"Acting upon information received," as the detective would put it, Superintendent Melville one afternoon detailed off men to watch every railway terminus in the metropolis. He himself selected for observation the direct Continental train from Victoria. He went alone. It was a bit of a surprise when he caught sight of the long-lost and anxiously-wanted individual making for the train. There was no mistaking him from the description he had received from the French police. The man, realising that he had run his head into a noose this time, attempted to escape, but Superintendent Melville caught him, and one of the most desperate struggles that ever an officer had with a prisoner followed. Munier made violent efforts to regain his liberty. He attacked Mr. Melville in the most savage way, and in the struggle the two fell to the floor. The detective was more powerfully built, but Munier seemed for the moment more than a match for the officer. They rolled over and over, now one on top, now the other. No one seems to have seen the encounter until the two were on the ground. The station officials, as soon as they realised what was going on, at once rushed to the detective's assistance. Munier was secured, and, to paraphrase Scott, "unwounded from that dreadful close, but breathless all, Melville arose." The man was handed over safely to the French authorities, and Superintendent Melville was rewarded for his services by being made an officer of the Legion of Honour. Since then Mr. Melville has been the recipient of many donations and gifts from Royalty and heads of states.
In the course of his career the great detective has been closely associated with France. During the Fenian outrages in the eighties, and while he was as yet a detective-sergeant, he lived the best part of three years amongst our nearest neighbours. He was charged with the mission of watching the movements of the members of the Clan-na-Gael in France. His work was part of a gigantic spy system which Scotland Yard established in those troublesome times. At every port in the United Kingdom detectives were stationed to shadow new arrivals of the gang, and in order that the arrangements for detection should be as complete as possible men were sent abroad to notify Scotland Yard of any departures for this country. His splendid work at that time signalled Mr. Melville out for promotion. With the retirement of Mr. Melville only one officer remains at Scotland Yard who took an active part in the Fenian scares - Detective-Inspector Quinn, who is mentioned as Mr. Melville's successor. - Exchange.

Source: Examiner, Monday 4 January 1904, page 3