Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1855-01-19
WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP.


The District Of Columbia Judiciary BE.
form Bill.-Some two or three weeks ago, this
bill was submitted to the confederation of our
City Councils; and by some mistake, or some
management, it was referred by one of the
Boards to the Corporation Attorney IAN avow
cd enemy of the measure) for his opinion. On
Monday night last, he transmitted his answer;
wherein, after declaring that "we need new
organization and a new fabric" he proceeds
to object to the plan already proposed on &C.
count Of what he terms 'the futility of reli-
ance on Congress- and he illustrates this po-
sition by refer. ace to the codes of 1916 and
1888 intimating that their unhappy destiny
awaits the code proposed by this bill.
The fallacy Of all this is too glazing to de
ceive. 1t is of piece with all tho other ar
guments that have been used by the enemies
OF the bill. Does not the learned Attorney
know schy Congress never acted upon those
codes? Does he not know wherein consists
the essential difference between them and the
one now proposed? Does he not know that if
a code of laws should be framed in accord.
ance with the provisions of the present bill, it
will come before Congress invested with all
the dignity Of the popular sanctiom-an ad-
vantage not possessed by the codes to which
he refers? Such is the fact; and Jet upon this,
which is the very gist of the whole matter, he
observes guarded silence.
1t is omission to state tie truth which has
characterized everything that has emanated
from the opponents of the bill. We have an
instance of this in the performance of another
writer on the same side Of the question, the
author of the pamphlet signed "a Native Cit
izen of the District Speaking of the plan
of monthly rules which the bill proposes to
introduce into our system of procedure, he
says that the judges attempted the same thing
thirty years ago; that the people rebeHed
againatit; and that the judges were compelled
to yield. That may all be very true, as far as
it goes. But he entirely passes over one cir
cumstance which candor ought to have in
duced him to state, and which would have
utterly destroyed the force of his argument
namely, that thirty years ago Imprisonment
for debt was in force in this District
We earnestly entreat our readers to investi-
gate this whole subject for themselves, and not
to submit to imposition in a matter of such
vital interest to every one of them.
The Unemployed in New York, seem to be
fatally bent on fixing the synpathies Of all
NJ ha in hat 49,.
shipowners and owners of cargoes in that city,
at late meeting of those engaged in that
business, after calculating their losses by the
change of the times, the decrease in prices of
freights, wares and merchandise, concluded
that they could not afford to pay more than
$3.50 per diem for labor performed in loading
and unloading ships, &c. The laborers so
engaged ''struck" in body. One person
who required 500 men in such work, sent
agents, with placards, to meeting of the IN
employed in the Park, Offering $3.50 for the
services OF able bodied men. Though there
were full 5000 unemployed persons standing
around there, not one of them could those
agents induce to 90 to work at those wages
The Commissioners of Emigration at once vol
unteered to furnish them at those rates, while
the men at the meeting were resolving tina
sooner than work for such wages, they and
their families would subsist on the charity of
the dispensers of soup to the Toor. No SCORER
had the men sent down by the Commissioners
got to work, than they were attacked by those
who had struck, and compelled to desist from
laboring. The police were called in, and the
rioters were dispersed. Similar scenes occu..
red for day in different quarters of the city.
So far those essaying to interfere with the
right to labor, have been summarily nut
down, and very strong feeling against them
Is being generated among all in New York
who have anything whatever to lose by thu
prevalence Of anarchy around them. We
await the result Of the existing condition of
things in that quarter with no little interest
The Special Message has had the happiest
possible effect. 1t was generally thought last
night that both Houses of Congress would at
length really listen to the recommendations
Of the President and Secretary of War with
reference to the absolute necessities of opr
suffering frontier. 1t has always appeared to
us the strangest thing imaginable that up this
time Congress should have seemed determined
to legislate with reference to frontier protec-
ton, as though it required actually no more
than twenty years ago, Notwithstanding the
vast increase of territory rea ly in the pos
session of the savages we have acquired since
that nme' and the vast increase Of tho voy-
aging Of our fellow-citizsns to and fro through
that territory. Matters on the frontier have
at length come to such a pass, as the Presi-
dent explains, as that we must now give up
all pretence of frontier occupation and pro.
tAefiOn ra1iovo fbo