New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-03-12
OUR BEST AND WORST SOCIETY.

We do rot recOilect q picture either more
shocking in i.self or more suggestive of pro6ta-
be reflection 20 all who have the public welfare
at heart tban the brief Geographic portraiture
U lich was given, in Saturdays TRIBUNE, OF the
Nor, notorious leaders Of the ruflan hordes of
tbi. City. We hope that none of our readers has
tsleO 10 read that account and that every one
has iaitiously bound his soul, while reading, to
do bencttorib what he can to abate this intolera-
bic uUsaDce Of row 1yism. Il lie perfectly idle to
TAX OF Police preventions and restraints The
Police il with US only the reflection OF popular
sentiment ard unless that sentiment be strin-
gently and bsbtualy exhibited on the side Of
order and DE- coruw, the Police Themselves, like
this skublDg scoUndrel Baker, will be found in
league " ii The rufiisns. aud abettiog, If not ac
tualy aiding their nef4rous enterprises. It
conceded On 81 bahos tina. this Internal horde
owes its origin, Sno It's long IMMUNITY, to the coun-
finance OF the two great political parties. Ofcourse
the mass OF either psIty il always Ignorant OF ghe
cha scter of the tools whereby their triumph in
q particular emergency may have been secured;
but the party leaders the gentlemen who divide
the spolls' when the contest is over aud the
victory achieved, are too patriotic to neglect so
potent preliminary OF success as these vulgar
brayos present. We go past the politicians,
therefore, and appeal directly to the psople them
selves, when we AK whether they will any longer
continue to be supne and Indifferent! to our public
morality!
Tie theory of our national existence is ths.
the people are capable of self government, aud
we have seen as yet no reason to abste one jot OF
hesrt or hope in that great truth. We only wish
that the people could be got to confde little more
in themselves, and SO be Induced TO withdraw
their reliance upon cozepiDg politicians. The
two great parties which divide the people do
not, for that very reason, truly represent the
people. They represent the divergent opinions
which the people entertain concerning public
policy or the policy Of the United States with
respect 10 other Ststes. But neither Of them
pretepds to represent, much less to carry out
the strictly united sentiment of the people 10 re-
gard to their own domestic or internal economy
in regard to their purely social well-beiDg We
have our own cherished opinions upon the Tariff
question, and believe that the political independ-
etce of this country is intimately bound up in
that issue. But we could live and die quite CON-
fortsbly, though We should never see any lkeli-
hood of the public policy shaping itself to our
convictions ia this behalf. We have No doubt
tbas the country will survive, aud eventually
purge itself Of any amount of merely political
NAL administration. But We confess 10 the
ers,est social anxieties. We desire while we do
live, to live in the society of human beings, and
not in den of wild beasts; aud when We die,
we wish to leave our innocent children to virtu.
GUS and wellordered community, which shall dill
ieen,ly foster all that is noble and gentle and
manly in them, and rebuke and correct wba.ever
is opposite to these things. And here precisely
it is that our anxiety hinges. When We see the
almost unbridied lust Of money which rules