New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-05-24

| hidden by law. 1nS Leg4sldbuf0 ntu I0f-
| hidden the drawing of lotteries within the
! State. In defiance Of this law, lot
| terry was projected. The plaintiff offered
his services to the projectors of the lottery,
/ and brought suit subsequently to recover
| for his services $500. The decision of the
| court under the law was undoubtedly cor
rect. 1t evidently, however, is not the case
! at bar
| In Dyatt vs. Pendleton, 8 Cowan. 727. the
Court of Errors and Appeals of the State
of New York decided in case of lease. mat
ters that bear some analogy to the case at
bar. Plaintiff had leased portion of a GER
tain house to defendant for the term of two
years. Pending the lease, it was shown
that he admitted into the other portion of
the house occupied by himself, certain lewd
and abandoned persons, and allowed them
to remain there, to the scandal of the neigh
borhoOd and the utter ruin of the reputa-
ton of the house. The court decided that
this was such violation of the lease made
to Pendleron, through the act of plaintiff,
as to annul 1t, and make impossible the col
lection of the rents. Crazy, Senator one of
the judges, giving his opinion in the case,
quoted the case of Girardy vs. Richardson,
Esp. Rep. Is, where Lord Kenyon ruled
that when house was let and known to be
used for purposes of prostitution, no action
was maintainable for rent, because contra
eSftSY
dering his decision, the memorable words
of Lord Wilmot in another case: " All
agree in the sentiment that no polluted
hand shall touch the pure fountain of JUS
tice," and Judge Crazy, while admitting the
plea of defendant as a fitting one under the
great law of morality, says that, in such
case, were statute law silent, and the com
mon law, yet he would admit the great
principle Of morality, on which both are
founded, as governing the case.
These are decisions which we do not wish
to shut out from the the eyes of the court,
and they are noble expressions of judicial
authority and uprightness; but under sys-
TENS Of law foreign to ours. Here the
statute law is not silent, and we invoke its
protection.
1t may be suggested that the great laws
of morality which govern the universe are
the same everywhere, in all times and under
all circumstances This may be true as
general principle in ethics, but we see that
here, under a system handed down from
remote ages, and copied largely from the
laws in force in France, we permit certain
things to exist which the experience of
rulers and magistrates have found it i'm
possible to eradicate. They exist here I'M
der rules and ordinances, and NAV be said
to be authorized by law, thus making map
plicable decisions under other systems of
jurisprudence.
Your hOnors have recently decided, in the
case OF Kaufman VS. Walters, % Ann. "a,
that an intervenor claiming rent of house
to be used as brOthel, sued upon con-
tract reprObated by law, and that his claim
was properly rejected" We of course, are
not aware of the facts brought to the notice
Of the court in this case. The defendant
may have kept disorderly house, subject
ing her TO fine and imprisonment, under the
u%af T7Fo hot tod hsv,r 49,
have been within the prescribed limits |
Your honOrs' attention may not have been |
called GO the statute Of 1855, or to the de- |
cision interpreting this statute of your pre- |
decessors in the Costello case, Ia Ann 49, |
or the ordinances of the city based upon /
this statute, and her act of incorporation; |
or it is likely, nay certain, that in the case
referred to there was no written contract, |
having the binding force of law between /
the parties, and which the parties alone
could abrogate or modify, and to which
courts are bound TO give legal effect, ac-
eOrding TO the true intent of the parties.
We respectfully suggest that the contract
under which the present suit is brought is
a legal one, under existing laws and ordi-
nances, and whatever may have been the
reasons Of the court which led to the de-
cision in the case of Kaufman vs. Walters,
it can not affect our right under the laws
and decisions cited by US in the case.
The equities in this case, as respects the |
parties, are such as to call into force all the
sanctions of article 1860 of the Civil Code, |
'the Christian principle, not TO do unto
others that which we would not wish others
10 do unto US, and the moral maxim of the
law that no one ought to enrich himself at
the expense of another"
Prostitution, says Parent Duchatelet, in
his admirable work upon the subject, is an
3vil of all countries and of all times He
races it through the annals of Rome and
he Byzantine Empire, under TheOdosius
md Constantine, and gives an account of
he severe laws made for its suppression bv
hese emperOrs. He shows how, in the
lines of Charlemagne, similar laws were !
passed, but that the severity Of the laws, |
o far from accomplishing any good results, |
erved, by rendering the malady more con-
called, a fearful pest of society He saws |
hat St. Louis on his return from the Holy
and, though first following in the footsteps
f his predecessors, finally changed his
node Of treating this social evil. He per-
litted prostitutes to remain in the city of
'aTis, and to exercise their trade in as
lgned quarters of the city, which were only
flowed to be opened by day, and were
Iosed at six o'clock in the evening.
This tolerance was rendered necessary in
be opinion Of king noted not less for his
7lsdom than his piety. He tolerated this
WI because experience showed him that
e could not destroy it, This tolerant spirit
GEMS to have continued for three centuries,
bout the middle of the sixteenth century
D this was changed, and again edicts Of
le greatest severity, as in the times of the
rst kings Of France, were used to suppress /
10 mischief in Paris, and these continued
force till the close of the eighteen tn
,ntury.
When the revolution came restraints of
7ery description were removed from this a
ass, and unbridled license, scandal with Q
1t example, became the order of the dav; I
II was it till the present system was es- G
blished, with its sanitary rules and regu- i
tons as to localities, etc, that anything v
re order prevailed. u
On the subject of impOsts, this author L
so tells US that the taxation put upon Il
ese people is not modern invention; that p
existed in Athens and Rome; that by the d
nperOr Alexander Severus the proceeds
ere employed in keeping up the drains of a
me Ia proper application, we think) The u
Zes collected in Paris, say from 1916 to p
q, averaged about $4,000 francs a year, j.,
lich were employed (if we rightly under u
md i'll in the payment of physicians en- pi
ged in visiting these people. r
1t will be perceived that we, in these DAYS d
advancement and civilization, have made
[ little progress in this country toward
ting an end to an evil that seems to have
en- coeval with che first collection of men
20 cities. Our laws, however, recognize
existence Of a state of things that can
I be ignored or disregarded. We have
such system, it is true, as the enlighten-
INT OF modern times has established in
rls ana other great cities of Europe
rough the agency of such men as the one
'm whom we have so largely quoted; but
IS hoped that with the progress of time tt
may achieve in this, DIS in other things,
lat the age demands, and thereby extend
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