The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-15 00:00:00

The public statutes of the United States have now been
accumulating for more than sixty years, and, intertpersed
with private acts, arc scattered through numerous volumes,
and, from the cost of the whole, have become almost inac-
cessible to the great mass of the community. They also
exhibit much of the incongruity and imperfection of hasty
legislation. As it seems to be generally conceded that
there is no " common law" of the United States to supply
the defects of their legislation, it is most important that that
legislation should be as perfect as possible, defining every
power intended to be conferred, every crime intended to
be made punishable, and prescribing the punishment to
be inflicted. In addition to some particular cases
spoken of more at length, the whole criminal cade is now
lamentably defective. Some offences are imperfectly de-
scribed, and others are entirely omitted ; so that flagrant
crimes may be committed with impunity. The scale of
punishment is not in all cases graduated according to the
degree and nature of the offence, and is often rendered more
unequal by the different modes of imprisonment, or peoiten•
fiery confinement, in the different States.
Many laws of a permanent character have been intro-
duced into appropriation Bills, and it is often difficult to
determine whether the p articular clause expires with the
temporary Act of which it is a part, or continues in force.
It has also frequently happened that enactments and pro-
visions of law have been introduced into Bills, with the

tit'e or general subject of which they have little or no con-
nexion or relation. In this mode of legislation so many
enactments have been heaped upon each other, and often
with but little consideration, that in many instances it is

difficult to search out and determine what is the law.

Tile Government of the United States is emphatically a
Government of written laws. The statutes should, there-

fore, as far as practicable, not only be made accessible to
all, but be expressed in language so plain and simple as to
be understood by all, and arranged in such method as to
give perspicuity to every subject. Many of the States have
revised their public Acts with great and manifest benefit, and
I recommend that provision be made by law for the appoint-
ment of a commission to revise the public statutes of the
United States, arranging them in order, supplying deficien-
cies, correcting incongruities, simplifying their language, and
reporting them to Congress for its action.
An Act of Congress, approved :50th September, 1;50, con-
tained a provision for the extension of the Capitol, according
to such a plan as might be approved by the President. and
appropriated ono hundred thousand dollars, to be expended
under his direction, by such an architect as he should appoint
to execute the same. On examining the various plans
which had been submitted by various architects, in pur-
suance of an advertisement by a committee of the Senate,
no one was found to be entirely satisfactory, and it was
therefore deemed advisable to combine and adopt the advan-
tages of several.
The great object to be accomplished was to make such
an addition as would afford amiase and convenient halls for
the deliberations of the two Houses of Congress, with suf-
ficient accommodations fur spectators, and suitable apart-
ments for the Committees and officers of the two branches of
the Legislature. It was also desirable not to mar the har-
mony and beauty of the present structure, which, as a speci-
men of architecture, is so universally admired. Keeping
these objects in view, I concluded to make the addition by
wings, detached from the present building, yet coonected
with it by corridors.
This mode of enlargement will leave the present capitol
uninjured, and afford greater advantages for ventilation and
the emission of light, and will enable the work to progress
without interrupting the deliberations of Congress. To
carry this plan into effect I have appointed an experienced
and com; etent architect. The corner stone was laid on the
4th day of July last, with suitable ceremonies, since which
time the work has advanced with commendable rapidity,
and the foundations of both wings are now nearly complete.
I again commend to your favourable regard the interest of
the district of Columbia, and only deem ,it necessary to re-
mind you that, although the inhabitants have no voice in the
choice of representatives in Congress, they are not the less
entitled to a just and liberal consideration in your legislation.
My opinions on this subject were more fully expressed in my
last annual communisation.
Other subjects were brought to the atteution of Congress,
in my last annual message, to whom I would respectfully
refer. But there was one f more than ordinary interest to
which I again invite your special attention. I allude to the
recommendation for the appointment of a commission to
settle private claims against the United States. Justice to
individuals as well as to the Government imperatively de-
mands that some more convenient and expeditious mode
than appeal to Congress should be adopted.
It is deeply to be regretted that in several instances
officers of the Government, in attempting to execute the
law for the return of fugitives from labour, have been
openly resisted, and their efforts frustrated and defeated by
lawless and violent mobs; that in one case such resistance
resulted in the death of an estimable citizen, and
in other serious injury ensued to those officers
and to individuals who were using their en-
deavours to sustain the laws. Prosecutions have
been instituted against the alleged offenders, so far as
they could be identified, and are still pending. I have re-
garded it as my duty, in these cases to give all aid legally in
my power to the enforcement of the laws, and I shall con-
tinue to de so wherever and whenever their execution may
be resisted.
The Act of Congress for the return of fugitives from la-
bour, is one required and demanded by the express words of
the Constitution.
The Constitution declares, " That no person held to service
or labour in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into
another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation
therein, be discharged from such service or labour, but shall
be delivered up on the claim of the party to whom such ser-
vice or labour may be due." This constitutional provision is
equally obligatory upon the legislative, the executive, and
judicial departments of the Government, and upon every
citizen of the United States.!
Congress must, however, from necessity, first act upon the
subject, by prescribing the proceedings necessary to ascer-
tain that the person is a fugitive, and the means to be used
for his restoration to the claimant. This was done by an
Act passed during the first term of President Washington,
which was amended by that enacted by the last Congress,
and it now remains for the executive and judicial depart-
ments to take care that those laws be faithfully executed.
The injunction of the constitution is as peremptory and
as binding as any other; it atunds exactly on the same
foundation as that clause which provides for the return of
fugi ives from justice, or that which declares that no bill of
attainder or as post
,facto law shall be passed, or that
which provides for an equulity of taxation, according to
the census, or the clause declaring that all duties shall be
uniform throughout the United States, or the importrnt
provisions that the trial of all crimes shall be by jury. These
several articles and clauses of the constitution, all resting on
the same authority, must stand or fall together.
Some objections have been urged against the details of
the Act for the return of fugitives from labour ; but it is
worthy of remark that the main opposition is aimed against
the constitution itself, and proceeds from persons and
classes of persons, many of whom declare their wish to see
that Constitution overturned. Thoy avow their hostility to
any law which shall give full and practical effect to this
requirement or the Constitution. Fortunately, the number
of these persons is comparatively small, and is believed to
be daily diminishing, but the tissue which they present is
one which involves the supremacy and even the existence
of the Constitution.
Cases have heretofore arisen in which individuals have
denied the binding athority of acts of Congress, and even
States have proposed to nullify such acts upon the ground
that the constitution was the supreme law of the land, and
that those acts of Congress were repugnant to tbat instru-
ment ; but nullifications is now aimed, not so much against
darticular laws as being inconsistent with the constitution,
as against the Constitution itself; and it is not to be disguised
that a spirit exists and has been actively at work to rend
asunder this union, which is our cherished inheritance from
our' revolutionary fathers.
In my last annual message I stated that I considered the
series of measures which had been adopted at the previous
sessions, in reference to the agitation growing out of the ter-
ritorial and slavery questions, as a final settlement in prin-
ciple and substance of the dangerous and exciting subjects
which they embraced ; and I recommended adherence to the
adjustment established by those measures until time and
experience should demonstrate the necessity of further legis-
lation to guard against evasion or abuse.
I was not induced to make this re commendation because I
thought those measures perfect, for no human legislation can
be perfect. Wide differences and jaring opinions can only
be reconciled by yielding something on all sides, and this
result had been reached after an angry conflict of many
months, in which one part of the country was arrayed against
another, end violent convulsion seemed to be imminent.
Looking at the interests of the whole country. I felt it to
be my duty to seize upon this compromise as the best that
could be obtained amid conflicting interests, and to insist
upon it as a final settlement, to be adhered to by all who
value the peace and welfare of the country. A year has
now elapsed since that recommendation was made.
To that recommendation I still adhere, and I congratu-
late you and the country upon the general acquiescence in
these measures of peace which has been exhibited in all
parts of tqe Republic. And not only is there this general
acquiescence in the measures, but the spirit of conciliation
which has been manifested in regard to them in all parts
of the country, has removed doubts and uncertainties in the
minds of thousands of good men concerning the durability of
our popular institutions, and given renew( d assurance that
our liberty and our union may subsist together for the benefit
of this and all succeeding generations.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
Washington, Dec. 2, 1851.

TATTERSALL'S.-T HIS EVENING

Six o'cLocic.

DERBY.
S to 1 agst Hobbie Noble
17 to 1 agst Augur—taken
100 to 6 agst Clavorhouse
20 to 1 agst Kingston
25 to 1 agst King of Trumps
25 to .1 agst Orelio
25 to 1 agst Wormesley
25 to 1 ogst Elcot
25 to 1 agst Lapidist
25 to 1 agst Daniel O'Rourke
33 to 1 agst Vortex
40 to 1 agst Kingfisher
500 even between Augur and Claverhouse.

RAILWAY SHARE MARKETS.
BRISTOL, Dito. 13.
STOCK EXCHANGE.—The share market was firm to-day,
but business rather slack. The only transactions reported
were—Great Western, 85—Taff Vale, 1491,x.
LIVERPOOL, DEc. 13.

Srocs ExcaterZi.—The improvement which has mani•
fested itself in the share market for the last few days was
well supported on the opening of 'Change this morning. The
transactions were as follow :—Blackburtr (late Blackburn,
Clitheroe, and West Yorkshire), 434—Caledonian, 153/4
Lancashire and Yorkshire, 57 London and North-Western,
11-04—Ditto, New Quarters, 3% p.—Manchester, Sheffield,
and Lincolnshire, 3234—Midland, 56%—Ditto, New Pre-
ference, 4LA per cent., 9-16 dis.--North British, VA—North
Staffordshire, B'4 dis.— South-Eastern and Dover, 21—
NO3), guaranteed by London and North-Western
Union
and Yorkshire, 177—Reading, Guilford, and
and or t
Lancashire
Reigate, 21th—York and North Midland, 22.
MANCHESTER, DEC. 13.
STOCK EXCHANGE. —A fair amount of business has been
done to- day, without material alteration in prices. The
transactions were as follow :—Blackburn (A), 43/4—Cale-
' donian 1558—Eastern Counties, 6 11-IC—East Lancashire,
151 Ditto, Preference, Ffths, 514 Lancashire and York-
shire,s634 —Manchester, Buxton, Matlock, and Midland, 2'4
—Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire, 323/4—North
Staffordshire, 8 dis.

CLYDE, DEC. 12 —Acrd. Ntistoria, Gobling, Smyrna;
Prince Albert, Malta. Sid. British Princess, New Or-
loaus; Zephyr, Boston; Dante, Newfoundland.
WEXFORD, DEC. 13.—Wind N.B.—Sid. Brothers, Sa-
vannah.