Review: Murder and its Motives
| DOI | 10.1177/002201835301700111 |
| Date | 01 January 1953 |
| Published date | 01 January 1953 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
REVIEWS 95
collection of articles previously published in various periodicals and while
the
chapters follow each other smoothly and coherently
they
suffer
from a fault commonly contained in such
collections-the
same points
tend
to be repeated although in different words.
Professor Keeton is much concerned about
the
transference of
power from Parliament to
the
Executive.
"The
Departments," he
observes,
"having
to an important and increasing degree emancipated
themselves from
the
control of Parliament and
the
Courts now enjoy
astranglehold on
the
economic life of
the
country". The learned
author
sees Britain on
the
edge of dictatorship due to
the
completeness of power
possessed by
the
Government of
the
day, and
the
absence of
any
real
checks, such as
the
terms of a written constitution or
the
existence of
an effective second chamber. His only hope for
the
future lies
in
the
British
habit
of tolerance and
the
continuance of a powerful opposition.
Having such a viewpoint he cannot fail to quote so powerful an ally as
Lord Justice Denning whose dissenting judgment in Earl Fitzwilliam
Wentworth Estates Co. v. Ministry of Town and Country Planning
(1951)
receives prominence.
This is unquestionably a book
that
needed writing, although
it
may
be said
that
the
thinking
man
is already aware of
the
situation
it
depicts.
Where Professor Keeton, in common with
the
critics of
the
system, fails,
is in pointing
the
way of averting
the
dangers. Perhaps
the
impending
Government inquiry on delegated legislation will find
the
answer.
l4U1U>ER AND ITS MOTIVltS, by F. Tennyson Jesse. George G.
Harrap
&Co., Ltd., London. Price 12s. 6d. net.
"It
has been observed," writes Miss Tennyson Jesse, in
the
Intro-
duction to this new edition of her book,
"that
everyone loves a good
murder. The person to whom
the
very word 'murder' does not give a
certain
not
unpleasing thrill is so rare
that
he may be ruled out for
the
purpose of discussion." Well, chacun Ii son go/it; here is one person
who does
not
love a "good" murder and who does
not
get a
"not
unpleasing
thrill"
out
of its details. However, he is clearly in an objectionable
minority
and
therefore his opinion of this work may
not
be
that
which,
according to
the
author, is to be expected from
the
majority of his fellow-
men.
For
some purpose, which does
not
clearly emerge,
the
author has
grouped murders into six
"natural"
divisions, according to
the
motives
that
prompted
them-gain,
revenge, elimination, jealousy, lust of killing,
conviction-and
in a long, carefully written introduction she cites ex-
amples of
the
various divisions. The main
part
of
the
book consists of
a re-telling of six murders each of which illustrates one of
the
divisions.
The
tales are written in a narrative form so
that
each is really a short
story,
the
conclusion of each being murder.
It
is possible
that
in her desire to create a scheme of things
Miss Jesse has over-simplified things.
For
example William Palmer
who "operated" in
the
1850's committed,
it
is said, fourteen or fifteen
murders-c-one of
the
purest examples, comments
the
author, of murders
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