The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-06-03

LAW FOR THE LIQUOR MEN.--Hitherto the
temperance fanatics have boosted that they
have had all the law on their side; bat it seems
that the liquor dealers turn has come. In
Fridays Tribune appears an appeal from the
Carson League to the people Of the city and
county Of New York, to raise "not only $40, 900,
but larger sum" for the purpose OF prosecut-
ing those whom the managers of the league
may choose to consider offenders against the
Prohibitory statute. The appeal alleges that
the liquor dealers have raised $4,000; and
bases on this statement its demand for larger
sum, in order to employ counsel and bring all
the machinery Of the law to bear to prosecute.
Considering the motley ingredients OF which
the population of this city is composed this
appeal might be formidable. Forty thousand
dollars and "a still larger sum" can achieve
much. Few men would care to have the blood
hounds Of the Carson League on their heels, with
forty thousand dollars to back them. Indeed,
almost all OF us, in our private experience,
have been witnesses to the persecution and ruin
of some unfortunate wight who had the i'll luck
to involve himself in lawsuit with an adver-
sary whose means-though less, perhaps, than
forty thousand dollars-were quite sufficient to
enable him to crush poor man. Forty thou
sand dollars judicious)y invested in lawyers
fees and spies fees, could infict intolerable
inconvenience upon, if they did not procure
the ruin, of any man of moderate fortune in
the city. We say, therefore, that the appeal Of
the Carson League, addressed to a community
containing many men with more money than
brains, as well as many hardened fanatics,
might have been formidable.
Happily for the city, the common law has
wisely provided for such cases. All the com.
mentators, from Blackstone downward, concur
in affirming the principle OF law, that he who
excites a malicious prosecution against his
neighbor is guilty of the misdemeanor called
barratry, and must be punished accordingly by
fine and Imprisonment. We find that the offence
was specially noticed and penalty provided
therefor, in consequence of the trouble ex-
perienced from the knavish wiles of certain
English attorneys, who set their neighbors by
the ears in order to get fees for conducting the
suits.
These attorneys appear to have been the lineal
progenitors Of the Carson League. They strove
to get up prosecutions against their neighbors
for breaches of this or that law, just as the Car
son League does for imagined breaches of the
Prohibitory act But we do not hear that the
attorney of Westminster ever appealed to their
fellow countrymen for $4,000 or larger
sum" for the purpose of fomenting litigation.
This difference, however, is not material, and if
any thing, aggravates the offence of the New
York lawbreakers. We therefore expect that
the liquor dealers will lose no time in melting
out to others the measure that will be melted
out to them that they will instantly take steps
for the institdtion of criminal proceedings
against Thomas L. Carson, S. A. Beers, Fl.
Roys, J. G. Burdick and as many other men,
bers of the League as can be discovered, on a
charge Of barratry. There can be no question
Of the result and it canno: but be beneficial to
teach these gentlemen that the law, which they
desire to use as an instrument Of tyranny, is a
two-edged weapon which can be turned against
themselves