The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1858-09-10

for another term. Now is the time to look
to it.
| The Quarantine charlottesville Staten
| Island Vigilance Committee.
The recent forcible abatement Of what the
legal authorities at Castleton, Staten Island,
deemed nuisance, naturally excites pretty
VAIN Discussion. That the Quarantine station
has been SO considered by the Legislature Of
this State, by the Grand Jury of Richmond couu-
ty, and by the Castleton Board of Health has not
been denied; and it has not required the ac-
ton of these separate bodies to make out a case
fer years familiar to every body who has had
anything to do with the bay and harbor Of
New York. The abatement Of o nuisance,
according to the English law-which in this
instance is a part of our owns literally
its beating down or destruction; but with
this proviso-that no more injury is done
to the thing which Is nuisance, than
is necessary in abating 1t. Ifa gate or obstacle
is built across road, any man may pull 1t
down: and If one builds wall TO Distract an
ancient light, the party injured may level it to
the earth. That the Quarantine station has
come within this category, is generally asserted
the great question is how far its abatement was
such breach Of the peace as to affect the rights
and property o innocent individuals. Wedonot
hear ss yet of any violation Of private rights.
Dut leave ,heso a~sasivns VI Ian w DC decided
by the proper forum, since there are others
| which address themselves to common sense and
equity, and may be discussed without reference
TO the authority of any law tribunals, and espe-
cially such as have within q few years past
wrapped themselves in q bastard ermine.
II If maintained as historical and philosophic
truth that most popular commissions have had
their origin in some gross outrage or oppression
of the people, and though the outbreaks may
have been suppressed they have only been go
after proper concessions to the outraged party.
He is but poorly read historian who does not
know how Magma Charta was obtained The
law was one wsy, but the barons and the people
went another, and from that day to the present,
popular connections have always preceded any
concession to public liberty. There are no gov
ernments In the world 90 fond Of the
maxim stare decisis as those which are des-
potic-none so profoundly impressed with the
propriety Of obeying the laws. When bad men
| get possession OF power, none can equal them In
the violence Of their legislation, nor their vene-
ration for the saying "Thus II Is written The
| English courts of law, until very late period,
have been remarkable for tightening the rens
| upon the people. Modern English lawyers ad-
NIT that the doctrine Of treason was stretched
out by the courts to cases totally inconsistent
with its original design. The doctrine OF pre.
| munire, originally relating to the introducing
and admitting foreign jurisdictions became at
last extended to other matters, having no
| affinity whatever with them. On the other
hand, the most necessary and salutary
reforms have been Of the slowcst growth,
and until the act appointed a Law CON-
mission for revising the criminal statutes of
Great Britain, practices and decisions were dog
| gedly maintained In defiance Of humanity aud
| justice. And in our own country we have seen
the same things. We, too, have had our Jeffrics
on small scale, who could, under the color of
law, perpetrate the greatest outrages and as
Madame Roland Indignantly exclaimed on her
way to the guillotine, the greatest crimes are
committed in the name Of liberty. 1t Ia
argued that II Is not for the New Workers
to condemn all these gatherings and tn
mults Of the people. On the LIST Of November,
1865, large number of their ancestors went
to Governor Colden's residence, broke open his
stables, carried Of bis coach and burned 1t at
the Bowling Grctn, and BY violence compelled
Major James, the stamp distributor, 10 surrender
his documents, which they committed to the
flames. In 1913 the same New Workers. went on
board the vessels which lay In the harbor loaded
with tea and threw II overheard contrary to
law The MohawlSs, as they styled themselves,
did not even pretend that tea was a nuisance.
There is discontinued, evidence enough that
popular connections most usually arise from
the conviction that the existing laws afford no
redress and in country like ours, where the
peorle are sovereigns, and rule merely for their
convenience by deputy II s not surprising that,
with there convictions they sometimes en-
desvor TO right their own wrongs As we
have before intimatcd, the greatest stick
lers for law are those who gain most by
their severity. We are ground to death in this
city BY taxation, but IL Is almost hifb treason
to think of resisting l.. Tire agry aud cor
tupt legion rho I'VE vi,eip ~ -'saow Of the