The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-06-22

AGADA1 OONA 80 AOOs
Organisation or tho Antr Fanatics.
Anumber OF delegates from various societies
organized throughout the State for the purpose
of opposing the Prohibitory law, assembled at
Albany on the 10th inst to form State Or
papization. The prospect is, that they will
organize powerful and united body. The
liquor dealers may be week in the interior, but
the interests they control in the large cities are
quite important enough to give so any party
which they lead a preponderance over mere
s.ctarisn faction. In New York, Albany, Troy,
Buffalo, and the other important cities, they
will constitute majority of the voters. And
il is almost certain, as there will be three par
tics in the field this fall, that the balance of
power VIII rest with them.
At the same time we notice meeting called
by sundry persons for the purpose of taking
measures to enforce the Prohibitory law. This,
il must be confessed, is at least very Singular
proceeding. The people of this State have Sc
veral officers of various authority aud designs
ion whose sole or special business it is to see
that the laws are executed. Have these officers
abdicated? Have they declined to perform
their functions2 Have they asked for the
posse comitatus? Nothing Of the kind On
the contrary, from the Mayor down to the lest
policeman, every body pretends to be depirous
Of doing his duty. The Mayor says be will ex-
ecute the law SO far as his legal advisers counr
sci him. Not an officer Of the executive
has expressed either unwillingness or ina
bility to carry out the law Whence, then, the
interference Of these people in matter spe-
cially delegated by the citizens of this State to
officers who are paid foy doing it !? What if
they take it into their heads to see to the ex-
cution of other laws, to institute prosecutions
right and left against this or that man, whom
they choose to consider an offender against the
laws? We should be in pretty state Of con-
fusion before they had gone far; and as to the
District Attorney and Attorney General, their
vocation would be gone.
But if they were halfa million instead of half
dozen mischievous busybodies, the law would
none the less be nullifed. 1t is perfectly amaz-
'rg 20 think that in the middle of the nineteenth
century, people SO intelligent as the Legisla-
ture of New York should need to be told that
large city like New York cannot be governed
by the same rule as country village. They
seem never to have perceived that in the vii
lage there is but one grogshop or perhaps two,
and halt q dozen topers at most, whom every
one knows, and whom it is easy to watch !:
whereas in q city like New York. it would be
easier for the moderate drinkers to keep
watch over the teetotallers than the latter over
them. An army Of detectives would not bring
to light all the quiet tipping in this city. AL
the spies the Carson League could hire-evenif
twice the forty thousand dollars it asks for were
paid into it's chest-would not answer the pur-
pose. And at this moment, when the Liquor
law is to 60 into effect in fortnight, there is
not householder who entertains the smallest
fear of being able to recruit his cellar "a
formerly.
Excessive drinking is bad, unquestionably:
and we must prevent it if we can: but we can
no more attain that end by prohibitory law
than we could check the growth Of infidelity by
reviving the Inquisition, or destroy the passions
Of human nature by laying q fine on anger or
deceit. Lies are a.great source of crime. Save
crimes Of violence, almost all crimes resolve
themselves at bottom into lie; and it would
be an unparalleled blessing il we could get rid
Of lying Yet should we gain ything by
making law against lying2 We have tried
the experiment in one or two similar cases, and
know what fruit it has borne. We have made
laws against disorderly houses and year by
year they increase on our hands We have
made laws against lottery offices and gambling
houses, yet no one is ever at loss to find
ticket for q lottery, or table of faro or brag.
We have laid the heaviest penalties on seduc-
ton and adultery-are we any the more virtu-
GUS in consequence? Let him who doubts read
history. There can be little question but
the most strait-iaced communities have been
those where sin has fourished the most
vigorously; and Boy opd doubt it is, accord
ing to the nnmistakable verdict of expert
ence, that though the seventies of the law
may in some few countries operate to restrain
certain crimes, there never was a law yet in
any country opposed to the gen US and wishes
of the people which attained its object. Gre
gorovius in his book on Corsica, laments
eloquently that Notwithstanding the severity
Of the French laws it has been found impossi-
BILE to check the Uendetta; because it was of
the nature Of Corsicans to Kill each other
just in the same way, the Liquor law and
others which are intended to put down prac-
tices which are in CURVATURE, will fail, aud the
quieter the failure is the better it will be for
the country.
The SILLY Know NorHING EDITOR AT WASH
NaroN.-The Know Nothing newspaper OF Wash
ineton, conducted by Vespasian Ellis, has for
some time past exhibited increasing symptomso Of
progressive folly and imbecility, until at length