still our success has been owing more to acquiescence in the will of the majority than in the character of the government itself.

Other Republics have failed, even when founded upon our forms and Constitution, only because of the resistance of the vanquished contestants for rule, by rebellion against the laws and the executive power appointed to enforce them. We understand Republicanism differently, and hence have no such struggles. The generally-pervading common school educational system-the rigid principle of obedience instilled into the child by the parent, and the scholar by the teacher -the enlarged human progress, leading onward to the expansion of the heart and intellect, all founded upon an enlightened, unproscriptive, religious sentiment, furnish the platform upon which American liberty stands, and from which no calamity, save forcible resistance to the laws, can ever remove it.

It is not contended that minorities have not grievances, and that their grievances must remain unredressed. Their rights are fully protected. The same fundamental law that binds minorities to submit, points out clearly the road to relief against an illegal or improper exercise of authority upon the part of the majority. Even whenever fanaticism rules the hour, and covers the country with its baneful influence, to the exclusion of reason and justice, public opinion will soon correct the error, and restore the calm sense of mature, conservative judgment. What if the lawmaker proves recreant, and betrays the constituent he was chosen to represent? The wrong inflicted is not irremediable, though it may be a proper chastisement for a negligent or corrupt use of the franchise. Time repairs all the errors of legislation. Its evils and wrongs, however great, invariably recoil before public opinion and the decisions of the courts. Redress and relief can thus always be obtained. The legal tribunals and the ballot-box are never approached in vain for the maintenance of a good, or the overthrow of a bad cause. These are the only constitutional resorts—all

others are treason or rebellion.

Another marked characteristic of the American people is the universal submission to the governmental forms restricting the powers and duties of the three components of government, namely, the legislative, the judicial, and the executive. The first can only make the laws, the second can

only expound them, and the third has no discretion but to see them faithfully executed. It is my province to act as agent for the people in one of these departments. I am an executive officer. I aid in the execution of the laws, and have sworn to do so "to the best of my ability." With no part or responsibility in their creation, so far as State legislation is concerned, I have no option but compliance, as an instrument for their enforcement, and to require a compliance in others, as far as I have the ability. It is my duty to exact obedience, and yours to obey. The officer of the law is not accountable for the making of the law; he is bound to execute it, pursuant to his oath of office, though the responsibility of the people, as the source of all political power, can not be so easily denied. As Mayor, I have endeavored to fulfil this duty. Though sometimes painful, yet it has been performed diligently and impartially. I hope to continue without relaxation. The act relating to the prohibition of the liquor traffic and consumption is now a law, holding the same position as any other law, and until decided invalid by the courts, or amended or repealed by the Legislature, should command the same obedience. So far as its execution depends upon me, I have no discretion but to exercise all my power to enforce it. It is unneces sary for me to express an opinion in regard to legislation of this character, or of this law; for whatever that opinion may be, I can not, without dishonor, shrink from a faithful discharge of the trust confided, whatever shall be the personal consequences to myself. I now call upon the friends of law and order to aid in the performance of this obligation, and in sustaining the laws-a principle upon which rests the corner-stone of all our national prosperity and greatness.

Deeming my course with reference to this subject of interest to those whose occupations are to be affected, and especially to those whose licenses will expire with the year ending the first of May ensuing, I have felt it incumbent upon me to indicate it frankly. I have availed myself of the first moment after the adjournment of the Legislature, when all expectations of repeal or modification were hopeless, to thus make public my position, without having had time to examine it, or to receive counsel as to my duties under it, and without knowing whether I am called upon, or have power, as Mayor, to take any part in its execution. I shall inform

myself on these points without delay, and announce my conclusion to the public with the same candor that prompts this communication. FERNANDO WOOD.

ADDRESS FROM MAYOR HALL.

To the Citizens of Brooklyn :

MAYOR'S OFFICE, BROOKLYN, April 16, 1855.

The Legislature, at its session which has just closed, has enacted, and the Governor has approved, an act for the suppression of intemperance, and the same is now the law of the land, to take effect on the fourth day of July next.

Whatever honest difference of opinion may exist in the community, in respect to the propriety or the expediency of this enactment, it is the plain duty of every citizen to obey it; and all who have the welfare of the community at heart, and desire to see the supremacy of the laws maintained, will yield to it a cheerful and ready obedience.

There will be undoubtedly some rebellious persons, who, prompted by avarice and appetite, will either openly or covertly violate, or seek to evade, the provisions of this statute; but they must expect, if they are detected, to be dealt with according to the utmost severity of the law.

It is my intention to use all proper means for the strict and diligent enforcement of this law; for I believe that its benign provisions, if faithfully carried out, will tend more to advance the welfare and happiness of the community, than those of any other existing statute.

I advise all who are now engaged in the prosecution of the traffic so soon to become wholly unlawful and criminal, to make immediate arrangements to quit it, and not to continue under the delusive idea that the law can not be enforced or will be pronounced unconstitutional, for they may rest assured that nothing shall be wanting on my part, as I doubt not will also be the case with the other magistrates of the city and county, to secure a full and fair trial of its provisions; and I advise all those who may be prompted by appetite, or a spirit of opposition to the law, not to encourage its infraction, for they may also rest assured, that so far as they are known they will be used (unwilling though they may be) as instruments towards its enforcement. All licenses

how in force will expire on the second Tuesday in May and from and after that day, the traffic in liquor, as a beverage, will be unlawful, and punishable under the laws now existing, and all offenses will be proceeded against under the provisions of these laws. GEORGE HALL,

Mayor of the City of Brooklyn.

NEW-YORK, April 16, 1855.

MY DEAR SIR: Please inform me what will be the crimi. nal regulations affecting the sale of liquor in this city, after the first of May ensuing, and until the operation of the prohibitory law, and what evidence is required to enforce them.

At the same time please reply what will be the law governing the Sunday liquor traffic until July 4, 1855. Very respectfully yours,

A. OAKEY HALL, Esq., Dist. Att'y.

FERNANDO WOOD.

DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE, April 18, 1855. MY DEAR SIR: In answer to your inquiries in note of yesterday, I have the honor to state:

The excise provisions of the Revised Statutes never applied to New-York city. (See section 29, tit. 9, ch. 20, part 1.) Chartered privileges substantially regulated our excise to the year 1824. Until the recent act, the statutes of 1824, 1825, and 1833 provided excise regulations and penalties. (Hoffman's Treatise on Powers of Corp., pp. 54 and 62.) By acts of 1824 and 1825, a peculiar Board of Excise was established to give licenses for sale of liquor. They who were not "licensed as aforesaid," or according to the provisions of the act hereby amended," and who sold in defiance of that act, were liable to penalty and indictment. The act of 1833 (page 14) gave to Corporation ordinances which regulated licenses, etc., the effect of statutes; and raised their infraction to the grade of misdemeanors.

In the absence of prohibition, or of a license system with penalties attached, the sale of liquor is free. It is the necessity for the license, coupled with the ability, if one chooses, to obtain license, which creates the excise offenses.

Selling liquor-an act lawful in itself becomes unlawful when it is transacted contrary to prescribed forms and regulations, and in the face of declared penalties of the local Board of Excise.

Sec. 25 of the recent act (which is now in force) provides that no license to sell liquor, except as herein provided, shall hereafter be granted." There is prescribed no mode of license under this exception until May 1, (even if it be admitted that the permit of Sec. 2 is a license,) when the second section comes into effect. These two sections will constitute our excise law until the 4th of July, when the entire prohibitory law becomes operative. The penalties attached to selling without the permit of Sec. 2, are embraced by Sections 1 and 4, not to be in force until July. The penalties of our late excise laws attach to the neglect to take out the old specific license, (see Sec. 2 of 1824, and Sec. 2 of 1825,) and they can not be applied in place of the suspended penalties of the new act. It was, perhaps, an omission in the Legislature, when founding a new license, to give no immediate. penalty. I suppose the confusion and defect to have arisen through the change from the original reading of Sec. 25 (which gave the act effect May 1, and placed license and penalties in concurrent operation) to the present reading, which throws the prohibition and penalty sections necessary to give vitality to Sec. 2 until July. And this change was not material in respect to the penalty made in the State law, but only as it affected the local excises of New-York city.

You may well conceive that a naked abrogation of pilot licenses, ferry licenses, peddler licenses, etc., etc., without a substitution of new ones, or if substituting new ones, in no wise aiding them by penalties, would have the effect to make those privileges as free as by the common law they were before license regulated them.

I am of opinion, that as the law will stand from May 1 to July 4, with the old licenses expiring May 1, and no new ones permitted upon the old system, to which the late pains and penalties attached, these latter are defunct. Until July 4 shall come, there exists by law no prohibition against selling; and not until this date are the new and suitable penalties to be in force. The new permit of Sec. 2 is yet bald, and bestows no privileges.

The ordinances of the Common Council operate upon the