New-York daily tribune., 1858-09-07

l. the populous shore Of Staten Island, but sA
or seven miles from the Battery-its teeming PcPu'
la,on in hourly or halfhourly communication with
the city-directly opposite suburb OF our near
neighbor Brooklyn, on the shore of Long lsishd-
a locality, in the very nature OF the case suburb
Of our own-s Fl spot for the e-tabli' 'hineh' VI
Lazaretto by which the great commercial eaP''"
of the country, with all its thousand interests y
10 be- protected from the importation OF Infectious
and contagious diseases There can be- we thinS'
but one answer from al rejecting men to such
question. The Legislature OF the state nave
aread, decided that the Quarantine was IN u'l-
gerous proximity TO the city of Ncw-fork ana had
provided the men and the money for t- relho'Ai'
In the decision of the Legislature there und"uo'r"
was universal scGuieSence, excepting Only OH tue
part of small and interested, bat powerful c's's;
and but for the efforts Of that class Just Is uii-
doubtedlv. the behest Of the Legislature would
have been obeyed TO the eminent satisfaction con-
tentment and relief of the public at large ShVuiu'
then q thing which was 81 dangerous that tle pup
lie safety required It's removal be recrested when IL
exists no longer II is Of nO consequence 10 the ar
cument what destroyed il. The simple question
is. shall We voluntarily, with our eyes open ana
our senses about us. reestablish danger vi hch we
/ had invoked the heavy machinery of State leglsa-
ton to rid us Of which it would have done, had
not its action been anticipated by the swless pro-
! ceedings of a mob
/ There are. we know. persons and journals who
who to all this will reply, that the majesty OF the
law must be established; that the incendlary AMI
/ the ruffian must be made to understand that such
/ deeds az last week lit up our whole bay with the
red glare Of con6agraton cannot 90 unpunlshed; and
that the mob must be- taught that riot aud dcyasta-
ton are not only wicked but unwlse: and that the
end which these madmen of Staten Island hoped
to gain is further of than But consider tor
moment the mode of punishment, and on whom
that punishment will fall. Shall we bite Oh our
own noses to spite our own faces Shall We cry
ont like the unfortunate Frenchmsn, who was the
victim of neglected education, " | riH drown, and
"nobody shall help me ?" Shall we Obstinately sit
down in -ullen and solemn sef-sacrifce, and swear
that we will have the yellow fever, if We can pos
sbly get it, every Summer; that III Winter We
will keep up our virtue and our spirits with the
hope of an epidemic shp-feycr; that We prefer the
risk of decided, conlucnt slnall-pox all the year
round; that cholera, we hope, will have good and
fair chance at us, when it next comes along; ana
that if any curious doctor, anywhere Ill the world
has discovered any new disease, the character OF
which he is desr0us of testing by its introduction
10 large population we shall warmly advise him
to ship il TO Ncw-York and market. Is tins
furnishing mobocracy To say nothing of the
spirit in which such retaliation is advocated, II Is
clear that the probability of the defamation
of Staten Island, at some future time,
BY epidemic. would he secured by such
policy, and sll who aided and abetted the mob, or
who approved of it's proceedings would stand. at
last, chance of being terribly punished Bnt as
these guilty wreiches are only about one thousand
persons to the other nineteen thousand OF the III
habitants who quietly in their beds on We'd
nesday and Thursday nights of last week, we sub-
nit whether the real ends of justice would be, in
that case, compasscd. But letting Staten Island
90 as Sodom. nineteen-twentleths OF whose Inno-
cent people might justly perish TO atone for the
terrible guilt of the other fraction, II viii be wise
for us to consider whether the method OF punish
ment viii not cost us too much. \ pestlcncc on
Staten Island is a pcstilcncc in New-York-a pesti
ence in Brooklyn, in W liamsburg, in jersey City,
in Hoboken, in Newark in EGzabethtown-a pes
thence, in short, that Will sweep like a typhoon
from north to south from south TO north, from
west 10 east, from east 10 west. IN and about,
over and over, through aud through million Of
people. II is this danger to which the people of
this city have been alive for years past this dan
ger which Summer after Summer has driven trade
AWAY from and 10 our neighhors; this danger
which prompted the Legislature to provide for the
removal of the Quarantine, and this which has
twice caused that Institution to be presented as a
nuisance by Grand JuIies of Richmond County
IL Is folly to say that the people must leave dan
gerous locality. There are a thousand interests
Ia prevent it-ties that bind the native population
f, To the soil of their brth-ntercsts created when
the Quarantine was not dangerous to compare
lively sparse population. Besides, where could
they gol If danger on Staten Island is danger in
New-York which no reasonable man can deny,
then flight avails little. As well perish of yellow
fever at Port Richmond or Clifton as IN the First
Ward or the Twentieth. 1t is only question of
time and indeed may not be that, for quiet family
in the country, two or three miles from the hosp.
tails on the Island, may really be in less danger
than the citizen in our dense and putrid streets.
Shall there, then, be no punishment for this deyas-
tation and nhumanity Perpetrated by the mob
That is for the authorities 10 answer. Let the law
take lis course Punish the miscrednts. Hang
Ray Tompkins if you can convict him. Bring all
the statutes possible TO bear upon his case and that
of his fellows for their crime. But We and We in