The Press., 1890-05-29
4 BATCH OF NOTABLE DECISIONS.

It isn't once in decade or generation that the supreme court of the United States hands down at one time four decisions of such exceptional interest and importance as those of this week in the Virginia cou- pon cases, the Mormon church ca.e, the Minnesota dressed beef case, and the Fiske will case.
 The coupon agit .tion, in Virginia h 8 been long fight against paying the states debt. The reason given was that the peo- pie couldn't, which assertion some of them have all along declared to be untrue. But the fact stands that the Virginia debt was incurred for money borrowed and used al d hasn't the excuse of carpet bag legisl;.- tions, and that the obligations of con tract rest upon the state in the matter. Questions of state rights in abul da zee have come up during the long struggle of the state to repudiatc, and there have been dreadful threats of what the people would we do not anticipate an earthquake. The decision is triumph for honesty.
 The decision in the Utah case is equally interesting, though in a widely different way. The so-called "Edmunds act" dis solved the corporation known to law as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, annulled it's charter, provided for the appointment of a receiver, and escheat- ed to the United States all but an exempt ed $50, 900 worth of its real estate. The Mormons contehded that this law was un- constitutional, and took the question into court. When the supreme court at Salt Lake City decided against them, they ap- pealed to the supreme court at Washing ton. which now affirms the judgment of the territorial tribunal. Congress" says MT. Justice Bradley, delivering the opin- ion of the court. ''had before it contu. macious organization welding by its re- sources an immense power in the territory Utah, and employing these resources in constantly attempting to oppose, subvert and thwart the legislation of congress and the will of the goverernment of the United States. Under such circumstances we have no doubt of the right of congress to do as it did," The chief justice and Jus tices Field and Lamar dissent on the broad ground that congress has not the power to seize and confiscate the property of corpo- rations because they have been guilty of crime. The value of the real estate in. volved Is estimated at about $75O ,0OO.
 The question in the Minnesota case was as to the constitutionality of 8 statute of that state popularly known as the dressed beef law. The court pronounces this en- actment unconstitutional. Here is the in- teresting part of the opinion
 It is one thing for state to exclude alto gether from it's limits cattle, sheep or swine actually diseased, or meats that by reason of their condition or the condition of the ani- malls from which they are taken, are unfit for human food, and punish all sales of such ami malls or such meat within its limits. It is quite another thing for state to declare, as does Minnesota by the necessary operation of it's statute, that fresh beet, veal, mutton, ,lamb, or pork-articles that are used in every part of this country to support human life-shall not be sold at all for human food within its limits unless the animal from which such meats are taken is inspected in that state, or, as is practically said, unless the animal is slaughtered in that state.
 With the Fiske will case Courant read CTS may be presumed to be familiar. By the decision of the court Cornell Univer- sity loses Gin consequence of the charter limitation on its ability to hold property) the sum bequeathed to it for library pnr- poses by the late Mrs. Jennie McGraw Fiske, but this loss is already substantially made good, we are told, by the muni6cence of the university's old benefactor, MT. Henry w. Sage. .-Hartford Couront