The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-04-01

The race of Dogberrys has not yet out. AS
companion incident to that we published ysster-
day, of the arrest and Imprisonment of little
orange boy for pedding fruit about the streets
without license, we extract from the columns of
facetous contemporary, the following illustration
of the same spirit of petty tyranny which seems to
characterize, almost without exception, the whole
administration of justice, civil and criminal, on
the part of magistrates. morning paper under
the comcal caption of IA Bad African says
Lawrence Hi colored, was arrested yesterday
by officer Graham, of the Eastern District for
breaking city lamp. His excuse was he did not
see it. He was taken before Justice Griffin, and
panes taken to convince him that it was not cor
poration moonlight night when the act was com
mitted brit broad day, when the lamp was easily
discoverable. In default of payment he was com
mitted. .. -
We need not call the attention of the apprecia-
tive reader to the exquisite drollery shown in this
mode of narrating an incident which, after the ex-
posures we have made of the impunity which great
crimes and great criminals enjoy, only illustrates
the more strikingly the injustice and inequality of
the government under which we live. DOR ne
gro breaks city lamp, and does damage to the
amount, say, of fifty CENTS he is forthwith appre-
hended by the vigilant Graham, and committed to
Jail by the memorable Griffin. How funny We
do not wonder that our contemporary treats this
unwonted display of vigilance and rigor on the
part of Graham and Griffin as a rare Joke, and
tells it in its own gracefully ocular STYLE
Had this fracture been of mans skull instead
of pane of glass, we doubt whether there would
have been any arrest, or any commta; unless
perchance the offender had been negro
The capture of black fellows and small bows.
mot more than ten or. twelve years of age" isa
feat which can be performed without any great de-
gree of personal risk or any danger of offending
anybody, and is one therefore of which the police
are fully capable. But this is not ALL In the
police report in the Exchange the affair was de-
cribed somewhat differently. The arrest of Hill,
which was credited, not to the valiant Graham, but
to the not less doughty Freeburger, was 'for run
ming his wagon, loaded with hay, against one of
the city lamps, and thereby breaking it." For no
act therefore of wanton or malicious mischief but
for what may have been an unavoidable accident,
or at worst piece of mere awkwardness resulting
in breaking pane two of glass in street lamp,
or perhaps the lamp-post ITSELF a poor negro is
dragged before magistrate, and because he has
not in his pocket money, with which, in all of our
courts, high and low, Judge Stumps or Justice
Grifin's, guilt may be atoned for and ceases set
tied, " he is sent to Jail. We should like to know
by what authority Mr. Justice Griffin visits the
commission of trifing and probably accidental
injury to the property of the corporation, with
the punishment due to criminal offence? i If
there be nothing more in the case than the
published particulars disclose, it was an act
of unmitigated tyranny and abuse of power on
the part of the committing magistrate, and is a
fair sample of the petty vexatons and expressions
to which the poorer and more defenceess classes of
our community are daily subjected by justices of
the peace, and their underlings the constables and
policemen who hang about their offices, and prey
upon the unlucky flies whom the web of the law
catches in its meshes and whom it is strong enough
to hold while wasps break through. Few persons
have any conception of the abuses to which the urs
diction vested in magistrates gives rise, or the ras
caities, the robberies and extortions to which ii
affords convenient cover. 1t is subject which
will bear probing and from some of the iniouities
which lie hid therein we to lift the veil ,r In
the meantime, we can only suggest to officer
Graham or Freeburger, to whichever of them be-
longs the honor of having arrested the breaker of
street-amps, to fly at some higher game, and try
to arrest some breaker of the laws If there are no
greater criminals incarcerated in the city Jail than
the little fruit-peddler, Kennedy, and this black
fellow, HILL we would suggest the propriety of a
general gaol-devery, of letting out all small boys
mot more than ten or twelve years Of age'' who