The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-01-13
For the National Era
A CHRIsTMAs MEMORY
BESSY ::
BY HARRIET N. MOVES.

Our annual festivals bring with them sorrow
full memories There is a vacant seat at many
board; there is voice the less in the iestal
song there is a smiling face gone, even from
our own ireside, for which we look vainlv. for
getting for a moment that the grave has shut
1T IN from our sight forever Few indeed are
they for whom the merry Christmas is not the
less merry for it's memories of the absent or the
dead; few are they to whom it is not the holer
for the yearnings that come with it for the
loved and lost; to whose hearts it brings no
deeper feelings than are their won't, and no
more earnest looking toward the better coun-
try twas the festival of my childhood, when
Saint Nicholas was verify established beyond
question to my simple faith by the gifts which
he left in the chimney corner for many years.
Ii is a festival TO be kept sacred still hallowed
by the memory Of brief, beautiful life, which
came, and went whittier it had come. long,
long ago, of whose influence upon my heart |
would fain give you trace to-day
| remember of being awakened unusually
early by old Elsie one Christmas morning
when was five years old There was pecu.
liar smile on her broad Scotch face, and
queer twinkle to her eyes, which had learned
that she always wore When she had something
Then | remembered that had hung my
stocking in the chimney corner the night be-
fore, for good Santa Claus to gu 49, -
"He said the meaning of these two claus,
was that in civil causes trial by Jury is to
Q had in those classes of cases in which it ha
n been practced down to the time when the Co
!, stitution was framed, and such trial is to
substantially in accordance with such mod
: OF proceeding as had then existed, or mig
e thereafter be devised by the Legislature, wit
n out impairing the right itself But in q
criminal cases the right to trial by iurv. a
companied by the other privileges enumerat,
and defined is absolutely to exist
> After stating the substance of sections
= IL, and 10, of the Act for the Suppression
o Drinking Houses and Tipping Shops,
o stated that they were in conflict with the Co,
stitution in several particulars. The cond
tions of appeal were an infraction of the rigf
Z to trial by jury. In order to obtain trial b
t jury, the party must give security in a su,
! not less than 5000 with two sufficient sur
= ties, to pay oil fines and costs which might I
adJudged against him, and must subject hin
self to the hazard of having the fine inficte
' by the justice of the peace increased fiyefold
the quantity of liquor seized should exceed.
: in this case it did exceed, five gallons. In Il
constitutional provision that no person shall
deprived of life, liberty, OR property, unless
the Judgment of his peers or the law of Ii
7 land the phrase the law of the land ha
been construed to mean 'hy due process
law
This provision of the act also conf1icte
with section 14th of the Constitution. ever
man being presumed innocent until he is prS
nounced guilty by law, no act of security whic
: is not necessary to secure an accused perso,
shall be permitted The act also conflicts
with the clause requiring that the accuse,
should be informed of the nature and caus
OF the accusation This act did not REQUIRE
that any particular person should be charged
and in the case at bar the complaint charged
no one. The process was defective also fo
want of certainty in specifying the liquors t.
be seized
at was also defective in not charging fully
the crime upon which trial was TO be had The
accused had not only an absolute right to a
trial by jury, but also right to be 30 charged
that when that trial takes place the jury should
pass upon the whole charge. But the act pro.
vided, in the case of an appeal, where the
liquors seized shall exceed five gallons, if the
final decision shall be against the appellant he
shall be adjudged common seller and be
sentenced az suoh, 30 that he might be convict
ed of this higher offence without being charp-
ed with it, and without trial by jury of one Of
the facts essential to constitute IT, But even If
the proceedings against the person and the
property were repairable, and the only result
was forfeiture of the property, the complaint
would be still so deficient in the requisite GER
tainty as to be bad for that cause
He consequently held the order of forfeit
ure invalid; first because there was no suff-
cient complaint; and secondly, because the
plaintiff was deprived of his property by a
criminal prosecution, in which he neither had
nor could have trial by jury without sub
hitting to conditions which the Legislature
had no constitutional power to impose The
Court also thought the order not imply voida-
BILE but absolutely void, the magistrates hav-
ing no jurisdiction over the proceedings And
they gave judgment for the plaintiff on the
demurrer with nominal damages
"Judge Pitman concurred in the opinion"
FROM EUROPE