The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-04-27

believe not only that Christianity is the best
and safest Of all religions but that no other re-
lgion can secure either peace on earth or hap
piness in heaven. With this belief, they are
undoubtedly entitled by all fair and moderate
means to prevent the overthrow of Christianity;
and when they see glazing attempt made to
engraft infdelity on our collegiate institutions,
they are fully justified in frustrating it, and
preserving to their children the faith on which
they have themselves so implicitly relied
On whatever motives it was based, the rejec-
ton of DR.. Gibbs will always be ascribed to his
Unitarianism. AS such it will take rank as an
important event in the history Of infdelity in
this country. We bear no i'll will to Dr. Gibbs !;
but we trust that his rejection may be the first
Of a series Of checks under which the progress
of infdelity in this State at least may be ar
rested for time
The Disaster In BroadSvay-More Fruits of
| Anarchy.
Ifan thing will rouse the people of New York,
the sight Of ell mangled corpses of fire.
men dug out of the ruins Of Tuesdays fire must
have induced those to think who have never
thought before. So horrible death, encountered
in the discharge of one of the most arduous and
noble duties that devolve upon man, cannot be
contemplated with indifference by any. And if
ever there was proper and fit occasion for
stern resolves and indignant rebellion against
the system under which we live, it is now when
we see clear as MONDAY, that the deaths of these
men might have been averted by proper NUM-
| cipal laws.
| The fremen who were killed and their
comrades now grooming on a sick bed, would
have been as hale and hearty young fell
lows as could be met in days walk if the
government of New York had done its duty
Its victims they are; they and those who have
gone before them, like those who will follow
after, were sacrificed to the spirit of mob law in
force in New York. In any other city, the
walls which fell and crushed Keyser, McNulty,
Diegan, and Mckay could not have fallen; nor
the floors given way under which so many other
brave fellows were mangled. In London, Paris
and other civilized cities, such disasters as that
Of Tuesday are foreseen and guarded against:
walls of high houses are required to be so thick
that they cannot fall in or out, and floors are
built with sufficient solidity to sustain ordinary
weights. There, as well as here, architects
would economist at the expense of human life:
but the laws interfere, and such house as
stood at No. 23l Broadway could not be built
The police would not allow foot of such
wall to be raised or such floor to be laid
Here, we have no laws that could secure US
from such accidents; and when we see how the
laws we have are executed, it is almost futile to
demand fresh legislation. The awful catastrophe
recorded in another column is only another
fruit Of the thorough decentralization which So
cialism, rampant license, and grogshop politics
have wrought in New York.
There are those who, in view OF the murders
Of Tuesday, call for some provision against
the placing of safes in upper stories. Others
suggest that the firemen should offer no assis-
lance to house where such accidents can oc-
cur. These remedies are of no use whatever
People will place safes in their offices if they
please. in spite Of ordinances to the contrary
and though it would undoubtedly be better that
such objects should be stored in the cellar, men
will not place them out of their own keeping if
they can possibly avoid it. As to telling the
firemen not to render assistance to house, be-
cause the effort would be attended with risk, no
one who knows the New York firemen would
ever think of such thing Warnings would
only stimulate their reckless daring.
If we want to hear no more of firemen being
crushed to death at fires, we must build our
houses better and more solidly. A house five
stories high must be so constructed that the in
side may be burnt without the she'll cavng in \;
and that the fall Of one story will not necessarily
precipitate all the stories beneath to the earth
Even this law will be Of no use unless the
whole system of our city government is altered.
To effect any serviceabe reform we must begin
at the root Of the evil. We must first dvest the
people of all the authority they now possess
in the way Of electing subordinate executive
officers. That we must place in the hands Of
the Mayor, who, with the slightest care on the
part of the people, may always be a jealous
energetic man. On him will then rest a double
responsibility that of appointing efficient
officers under him, and second that of seeing
that the laws are executed. For, to us New
Workers, it is a matter Of far more Importance
| to see that the laws we have are obeyed, than
to enact fresh ones. Hitherto, our municipal
statute book has been dead letter; any one
who chose might break any law he chose with
perfect impunity. This state Of things has
grown out of the mob-law condition under
which we have been living for the last twenty
years. Bad men.have engrafted upon our in
situations socialist branches, called from abroad
or rather kicked out of every other civilized
country on earth. These socialist theories
taught thai all power was and ought to be in
the people; and as in all countries when 1.-The
people" are called for, no one answers but the
rabble; all power in New York has been vested
for nearly twenty years in the rabble. This
rabble, being impatient of all legal restraint,
has managed, by controlling all our elections,