Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-11-11
la,lrastcr ftltelllgenrer.
FRIDAY EVENING. NOV. II. 1881.
Publishing New Laws.

The INTELLIGENCER, we believe, sim
gular among the newspapers Of the state,
has been steadfast in directing public at
tention to the present insufficient
method of making known to the people
the new statutes of the commonwealth.
All legal commentators agree that one
property Of statute is that it
be duly" prescribed" 1t is requisite
that the resolution of the legislator,
says Blackstone, be notified to the people
who are to obey it by sDle external sign.
But if it was, as he says, in his
day, "a matter of very great in
difference - how this notification
was to be made it certainly is matter of
some consequence now, when the log
rolling of legislatures and the caprices
or corruption of unfit lawmakers make
all kinds of laws possible, and when it is
not even certain that a law is sent to the
governor or enrolled in the code as it
was adopted by the Assembly. " 1t is
incumbent OH the promulgators to do it
in the most public and perspicuous
way - but to all intents of the law
makers, and for all purposes Of the COM
mon people, our new laws might as well
be promulgated like those of Caligula who
wrote them, in very small characters
and hung them upon high pillars the
more effrctually to ensnare the people. I"
Hundreds of laws have been passed by
our state Legislature, signed by the gov
ernor and became operative forthwith,
of which the people generally had no in
formation at the time, nor did they get
any in many cases for months and even
years afterwards. Especially is this true
of penal acts, the first knowledge of
which often comes from prosecution OF
some unwilling offender against them.
The hardship of this measure becomes
readily apparent from the application
of the stern maxim that Ignorance
of the law is no excuse for a
violation of it. When the subject of
the law is one of that class of offences
known as nalo prohibita, or wrongs only
made such by legal prohibition: rs dis
tinguished from mola per Sc, evils in
themselves, the hardship of furnishing the
commission of them by those who were
ignorant of them, and had no reason to
suspect them from public information
OF in the natural order of things, be-
comes the more apparent.
C!ty ordinances, which are much more
matters of local notoriety in the com
mun;;ics affected by them than state
laws are to the whole state, have to be
;lnly l.Hbiished. We are aware that 8
genera! advertisement of state law:
wOulu be expensive, and such patronage
Of the printers would he subject to seri
Gus abuse, but certainly the rights o.
the people and a proper respect for thu
personal liberty of the subject--the dis
tinguisliing mark of free state-de
mands that new laws he promulgated il
some better way than by the tardy dis
tritGtion of statute books among
county officers aud country squires.
We have frequently illustrated by loca
example the force of this suggestion TO
instance, in calling attention to sucl
atrocities of penal legislaiian rs the re
Quircment that milkmen must lavi
the;r names ard that of their dairies in
letters of Il certain size on their wagons
tina; doctors must register tEemselve
and their diplomas, and that nobod!
shall set up a booth or hawk victual
within Il mile of campmeeting with
ont the assent Of any set of peOpl'
who choose TO call themselves a CAM
meeting association and pitch thei
tents where they list, to convert souls o
make money-or both. Now again W.
have an instance in this law prohibitin.
anybody TO sell firearms or explosives t
anybody less than 1G years of age unde
penalty not exceeding $500. 1t may b.
awise regulation, it may be otherwise
Certainly it IS law that nobody wOu,'
suspect the existence of without notice
And yet 4 Lancaster dealer isprOsecute'
under 1t and is under bail to answer Il
court. In the case pending The mOVlni
cause of the prosecution seems to be
desire to get back the price paid for tn
gun, upon its proffered return, and IT,
dealer might reasonably have accepte'
the proposition, and the squabblc thu
have been kept cut of the court. But i
its appearance there and its issue shal
call attention to the present utterly in
adequate means of prOmulgating he,
laws it will have served that useful pur
pose at least.
TIE administration is reported to b
dissatisfied with the newspaper supper
which it receives, or fails to receiv
rather, in New York, and new organ
with 4 half million dollars capital be