The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1857-07-08

JUDGE RusstLL's CHARGE TO THE GRAND JURY.
We publish, in another part of our columns,
full report Of the charge delivered yesterday to
the Grand Jury by the City Judge 1t appears
to have been well considered aud elaborated, and
is. as an exposition of the duties and powers of
Grand Jury, very valuable juridical document.
1t is which, especially in these days of excite
ment, will not fail to he extensively read and
commented on
Passing by Judge RuEsell's learned review of
the history of Grand Juries, of the powers they
exercise, the responsibilities which they incur to
society and the restrictions by which their powers
are limited, we come to the practical part Of this
address. Il may be recollected that month
ago we bad occasion to criticiss the charge of
the Recorder to the same body, to'refute his az
sertons that crime was vastly on the Increase in
the community, and to show that if this could in
any sense be said to be true, the cause was pro-
perly assignable to the culpable remissness
of that functonary himself, of the District
Attorney, and of other officers OF justice.
We ird the same thing referred to in the charge
which We are now discussing, and we find the
opinions which we then put forward endorsed by
the Recorders associate in the Court of General
Sessions. Judge Russell Gays, in aliusion to the
extraordinary assertions of the Recorder that if
ruffiansm does rule in the city, if the desperate
does defy the law, if the peaceable citizen is
abridged of his rights, if the arm of the criminal
law has been palsied and its mandates treated as
waste paper, if the departments of government
are overturned. disorder iubilant and anarchy
firmly seated on its throne that the Court of Gen
eral Sessions, with its Judges, Grand Juries and
prosecuting officers, must bear its proportion of the
blame The Judge might very safely, We think,
make that admission before this community, trust
ing to ts generosity and sense of fair play to de.
clare that 20 far as he and the Grand Juries
were concerned they had done their duty impair
tally and efficiently; but that as regarded the
other officers of the Court their supineness, or
something worse, has done more to encourage
crime in this city than probably any other single
cauee.
Judge Russell, in this charge to the Grand
Jury, devotes q considerable share of attention
to the very important matter of the recent change
effected in our police system by partizan Legis-
lature He had been Police Commissioner
under the abrogated law, and having, from a
sense Of duty, co-operatcd with the Mayor in
testing its constitutonality, he was right in thus
justifying his conduct before the people OF New
York. He chances at the salient points of the
question, defends and justifes the course he
adopted and like an honest Judge and good
citizen, declares that the new law having been
sustained by the Court of Appeals, nothing now
remains but to obey it.
Among the other points Of interest in this able
charge, attention is called to that sore OF long
standing in our criminal courts, known as
sbysterism--a system of extortion and robbery
practised by gang Of discreditable Tombs
lawyers, with the aid Of police and other officers
to the violation OF the laws for the preserva-
ton of the public hcalth--to violations of the
Election law, and to the extensively practiscd
crime of adulteraIing liquors with poisonous or
dcleterlous drugs, or selling the same. To these
and other crimes the attention Of the Grand Jury
is directed, with the observation that IL virtue
and morality are dying in our midst, and if
obedience to the law is becoming an obsolete
idea, the Grand Jury and the Court can do much
to resuscitate the one and restore the other
The charge, which we have thus hastily re
viewed, is a clear anil able production, and re-
fleets much credit on our City Judge.