Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1877-04-25
War Begun,

Russia made Monday what may be con-
sidcred formal declaration of war against
Turkey, and at once began moving her
troops across the Pruth into Turkish terri
tory. The Pruth is small river which
forms the southern Russian boundary. 1t
empties into the Black Sea sixty or seven
ty miles north of the Danube.
The Province of Roumana lies between
the Pruth and Danube, being quite narrow
from north to south in its eastern portion,
but much wider towards the west. 1t has
population of several millions but few oil
whom are Turkish, and the sympathy oil
the Roumanians must be with Russia in
stead of with their nominal ruler the
Porte. The interests of Roumania too de.
mand that the war should have its field
south of the Danube. So it is not to be
wondered ut that her forces withdraw be-
fore the Russians allowing them as swift Il
passage to TO the Danube rs possible.
Turkey will not only have to hurry troops
to her north eastern provinces to meet
the Russian army, but will have 10 take
care of her rebellious subjects towards the
west who have already given so much
trouble, and also to look out for Russian
advance in Asia along the southern shore
of the Black Sea. Altogether the Turk in
Europe is man with great deal of &C.
tive business on his hands that requires
immediate attention. But whatever else
may be said of the Turks, cowardice can.
not be truthfully alleged against them
They fight well, and there will he good
deal of blood shed before Russian army
can occupy Constantinople.
We publish, elsewhere, an article from
the Montpelier FREEMAN, in reply to an
article of our own on the governors right
to reprieve. We agree with the FREEMAN
that its construction of the constitution
or, to be more exact, the logical result of
that construction" would be MS wild as
the one under which Gov. Holbrook exer-
cised the pardoning power" and that the
only question is what is the meaning of
the words, "next session of assembly,
rs used in the constitution.-Rm
Globe.
Well, if Phair was unlawfully repricved
everything about his case is illegal; in
Guiding his being alive, his continued I'M
prisonment and any execution of the SEN
tence Of death upon him. A writ of ha-
beaS corpus would get the ruling of a
judge of the supreme court on the point
in issue between us and the Globe, unless
the judge should refuse to recognize Phair's
existence at all, holding him to be dead
man. Perhaps, however, even in that
case Phair's administrator could enter and
get the corpus " in that way. Or, Phair
being in law already dead and presumably
buried, he might be considered us real
estate and have bill in chancery brought
by his heirs TO recover possession of him,
meantime getting an injunction against
the Windsor County Sheriff from dispos.
ing of him by hanging or otherwise, but
if cremation instead of burial were the
Vermont custom Phair might have diff
Guilty in maintaining that form of action.
If there is really any difficulty about
hanging Phair now, it is The fault of the
Legislature instead of the governor. The
latter has the right to reprievc given him
by the constitution; the legislature has
perhaps tried TO take it away, but have
done nothing in fact except to give Gun.
vict the possible chance of applying to
two Legislatures instead of one for par.
don. When the legislature undertook tc
step in and do the governors work they
had no right to stop him from doing il
over if their performance of it was moi
satisfactory to him. Power is always AT
war by its own boundaries " and acts Of
the Legislature intended to supersede the
constitutional action of the executive de.
serve to come to grief