The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-05-01

ccrdiDg to the law passed last session, no liquor
licenses can be sold this day or hereafter
Some difference Of opinion exists between the
temperance party aud the public on the legal
consequences of the termination Of the license
system. The former seem to think that, the
right to sell liquor removed by the stoppage Of
the licenses total abstinence will follow as q
matter of course, and that people will not sell.
In other words they argue that the right 20
sell liquor is not natural right but an artii-
cial or legal one, limited to certain persons aud
on certain conditions by express grant: which
grsnt being revoked, the right ceases, and the
mere sale of liquor becomes an offence at COM
mon law.
The public on the contrary (and the authori-
ties) reason that the grape was given to MN
for his use, and that therefore the traffic in Its
fruit or the juice thereof is obviously, by the
laws Of nature, open to all, and cannot be re-
stricted or limited without express statate.
That, as TO the argument that spirituous liquors
are q nuisance, why almost every good thing
may be nuisance if used in excess: printing,
gunpowder medicine, animal food, DC. may all
prove nuisances, if Unused; but no one would
think Of indictipg them as such. That, ct COM
mon law, the right to sell the juice of the grape
has always been considered so clear that it has
always, both in England and here, been re-
stricted by special statute. In this country,
indeed, the point was settled long ago in the
State of Pennsylvania, at the time of the
Whiskey riots; had the right to sell Ii
quor been an artificial right, and not a
natural one. there could have been no contro-
versy in that case. The pretension raised by
the distillers was that their right was 30 clear,
so natural that government could not even tax
their stills; to which Washington's answer was
that, clear as was their right to make and sell
whiskey, the right of the government to tax
that or any branch of industry was equally
that the sale Of liquor was in itself a crime, a
thing forbidden by nature or common law, this
position would never have been assumed. He
would have taken the shorter course of treating
them as offenders against the law, and dealt
with them accordingly.
But we apprehend the teetotallers will find
very few in their own body to argue for any
after this day any restraint whatever on the
sale of liquor. They will in all probability
make feeble show of resistance to the inevita-
BILE course of events. The Lieutenant Governor
will deplore the result, and prepare to weigh
the chances whether it will pay better to be a
teetotaller or not at the next session of the
Legislature. Meanwhile nothing but great
c11fo pfro1 in fho
save the city from the saturnalia.
SECRETARY MARCY, THE CUBA QUESTION AND
THE VIRGINIA ELECTIoN-MoRE TREAcHERY.-
We are privately informed from Washington,
from highly ssspectable source, that Secre-
tary Marcy has been playing the traitor to
Henry A. Wise and the Virginia democracy
upon the Cuba question. It will be remem-
bered that shortly after the return of Mr.. Soule
rom Spain, Tammany Hall took very bold
stand upon Cuba, and one object Of this was
to give Mr. Wise lift in Virginia as diver
sion against the Know Nothings. The Union
at Washington, and the Richmond Enquirer
took the hint, and have kept up the war cry
against Spain in full blast, till the recent ex-
traordinary and mysterious backing down of
the Union in reference to the naval mission Of
Commodore McCauley.
Now we have the solut on of this mystery
1t is Marcy. During the administration of Van
Buren,, as every body knows, Henry A. Wise, of
Virginia, was the most violent and persevering
Of all the opposition members of Congress
against Van Buren,, Marcy and all concerned.
Marcy remembers it. He may forget his friends
but he never forgets an enemy. So now, as
we are Informed, by a preconcerted arrange
ment in Washington, between Marcy and that
staunch Van Buren, democrat, Extra Billy
Smith, of Virginia, and some others, the Cuba.
question has been suddenly turned against
Wise, in the official confession of that milk and
water policy, which in Virginia is exactly cal.
culated to throw the administration democracy
into public contempt. The first objectof Marcy
in this is revenge; the second is to kill off Hun
ter, of Virginia, as Presidential or Cabinet
afpirant, as he has killed off Pierce, Buchanan,
Mason and Soule.
We are also assured that Marcy has sworn
that, in the event Of the defeat of Mr.. Wise in
Virginia, he shall not be rewarded for his trou-
bles and labors with the mission to France.
We call upon Mr.. Cushing to say whether he
has or has not heard Marcy declare, in the pre-
sence Of q third person, that mo such puolic
BLACKBOARD as Henry A. Wise made himself
against Mr.. Van Buren's administration caa
expect any favors of this, as long as the friends
Of Mr.. Van Buren, ca n prevent IT,"
The Virginia election is only some four
weeks off, and it is about time that Marcy posi-
ton towards Mr.. Wise were fairly understood.
Depend upon it there is treachery afoot, and
Mr.. Wise is upon FOOLS eirand. Was he not
at The Baltimore Convention of 1852, and did
he not lead off for Buchanan? Inquire of Ex-
iro piux Cyrith