nd the people."

The following from "One of the W. C. T. U.," appeared in the Home
Department of the _Witness_ of March 23d:

"DEAR EDITOR HOME DEPARTMENT,--Though I enjoy reading the Home
Department, I have never before written anything for it, as
writing is not my forte, but I feel almost compelled to send this
to express my indignation at the light sentence passed on those
three men in the Smith assault case. I think it perfectly
outrageous that they should get off so easily. Such a crime,
perpetrated in cold blood; even a man hired and brought from a
distance to do the diabolical work! Ten years in the penitentiary
for each of them would have been quite light enough. But to give
them one month at hard labor, they might about as well have let
them go free. If Mr. Smith had been killed I wonder if they would
have got two months? It seems to me this is the way to encourage
crime. How is it that for so much lighter crimes, so much heavier
sentence is often pronounced? Is it because the people are afraid
of the liquor men? It seems like it.

"I am heartily thankful that the _Witness_ stands up so nobly for
truth and right. I know I will see a scathing article from the
editor on this very subject. I hope it will do all the good he
intends it to do.

"We may be sure of one thing, and that is the liquor men never
did the cause of prohibition so much good before. Their brutality
in this case will likely win many to our cause who would
otherwise not have joined us."

The following protest, signed "A Lover of Right," was published in the
_Witness_ of April 5th:

"SIR,--Would it not be feasible to have a public meeting in the
matter of the gross miscarriage of justice in the case of the
would-be murderer of Mr. W. W. Smith, of Sutton.

"Shameful as of late years the decisions of some juries and
judges have been, never has a more shameful acquittal been known
in this Canada of ours. One man gets six months for stealing an
ash barrel, probably really ignorant that it was not anybody's
who chose to take it; another man 'one month with hard labor,'
that man by his own confession a would-be murderer. But that such
sentence should be allowed without public protest! Surely the
soul of righteousness is dead in a people if it be so."

Now that the assault case