SPIRIT OF THE WEEK.
THE State Legislature closed on Saturday last, after a session of one hundred and three days. During this period, they passed nearly eight hundred acts, many of which, we do not hesitate to say, had better been undone. Within the scope of this condemnation do we hold most of those relating to this city, and chiefly, the ones known as the New York Charter, and the Metropolitan Police Bill. Both of these laws, if laws they are, appear to have been conceived in that spirit of envy with which great cities are usually regarded by members from the country towns; a class of Solons who seem to be actuated by a constant desire to offset the insignificance of their own localities, by harassing and controlling the great constituencies which out-shine them. In this temper, it appears, these country members went to work at the city of New York, and we have nothing to rely on, at the present, but the hope, that in their superabund-ance of good will to take us by the neck, they have perpetrated error, from which we shall get constitutional escape. This is the view which is taken of the Metropolitan Police Bill by the Common Council of New York ; and in pursuance of it, they have passed resolutions directing the Mayor, Recorder, and City Judge, to pursue their duties as Police Commissioners, and to pay no regard whatever to the action of the new commis-sioners who have been sent down to us from Albany. To sustain themselves in this course, the Common Council have further directed the commencement of legal proceedings, at the expense of the city, to test the constitutionality of the Act, and have opened the cannonade with a gentle $5000-pounder, in the shape of an appropriation, to feed the modest maws of certain selected Hessians of the law. Following their lead, the liquor dealers, to the extent of five hundred, have met in solemn conclave, and the likelihood is, that they will resist all the pro-ivisions of the law, which applies to them, and sell on, without license. We have thus a nice little social war inaugurated in our midst; and if the result be not a new crop of public con-tempt for all legislation, and all law, we shall make a most fortunate escape from a most lamentable and lugubrious-looking business. We hope when all is over, our country friends will recognize the correctness of the principle, that localities and municipalities should be legislated for in accordance with the feelings of the people therein, and not according to the unsym-pathetic wishes or doctrines of an uncongenial and despotic majority. Commercial cities have very different requirements from country towns.
Of late, the garroters, so severely lessoned by Judge RUSSELL, have rested from their labors, and murder has broken out in a new place. Policemen are stabbed and shot at, by burglars whom they seek to take into custody, and Coroners are equally puzzled to know who thus stretched them in the highway, as when holding inquests over bodies, that from time to time, are put to sleep in the streets, by casual taps from some official club.
Apropos to this matter, we may mention, that the investiga-tions before the Surrogate, in the matter of the BURDELL estate, and before Judge DALY, in the matter of Coroner CONNERY, have been steadily progressing all the week, and much of that sym-pathy, which had a temporary life in favor of Mrs. CUNNINGHAM, on the subject of the physical examination she was subjected to, has left her, at the detection of the untruth of her accusations against Coroner CONNERY. The testimony, too, of several of the witnesses, who were called for the State, at the time of the in-quest is more direct and significant in these examinations, than it was before; and altogether, the case of the Bond street people looks worse from day to day. We are inclined to think, that the two movements, to grasp the dead man's estate, and to drive the Coroner from his office, will prove to have been injudicious. In some cases, audacity is genius; but when it glances from its mark, it usually proves more disastrous than ordinary folly.
In the way of morals, we have another startling revelation, on the wrong side of the account; and this case, like the clerical sensation of the Rev. Mr. KALLOCH comes from Boston. It is a contest for divorce between parties of the name of DALTON—parties who previously held the highest character in society—and it is enough for us to say, that the details are command-ing an attention that is quite equal in intensity to that excited by the case we have previously named. They are, however, of such a nature as to exclude them from most of the daily press, and consequently can find no admission to our columns.
In our own city, the most marked sensation that has been created by any domestic matter of the week, was the appear-ance, at the annual dinner of the Dramatic Fund, of the Rev. Mr. BELLOWS, as a guest. This indication of an alliance between the pulpit and the stage, for the joist communication of moral lessons to society, will doubtless excite a very wide discussion; the most animated portion of which will probably be borne by the clerico-dissenting side. "We do not care about plunging in the troubled waters of such a question at this moment; so, for the present, will content ourselves with the details of the jubilee, as related under our dramatic head on the last page.
We have received further corroboration of the seditions and crimes of Utah, and all that Judge DRUMMOND stated in his recent letter to the Cabinet, is not only substantiated, but exceeded. We wait patiently to see what will be done by the Government to correct this nest of adders, and in the mean time, suggest that the women of our country, against whom the abominations of Utah are a scandal and an abuse, turn their attention to the matter, and appeal to the Administration to take some steps to put an end to the dangerous example. It is a question which concerns them, as American women, more nearly than many which they are so ready to mix themselves up with, at the suggestion of every itinerant humbug who comes along. It is true that the Government cannot interfere with the local institutions of Utah ; but it is also true, that by placing it under proper government, and protecting virtuous families in a residence in that quarter, a nucleus may be made that will purify the sty, and check the evil from extending any further. It is essentially a woman's question, as we have said in other columns, and the women of America should make a move in it at once—if not for pride of themselves, at least out of pity for their poor, degraded, trampled, and abused sisters in Utah.
The news which has reached us from Nicaragua since our last, has agreed with all of our predictions. The San Juan river has been abandoned by the fillibusters; and the Costa Rican forces, whose attention had been so largely occupied in that quarter, are now free to unite with the allied generals in the neighbor-hood of Rivas, for the annihilation or capture of WALKER. At the last accounts, he was credited with a signal victory, but if we are to measure that report with the repeated bulletins of the capture of Castillo, &c., &c., we should hardly credit him with a very valuable triumph. According to all appearances, WALKER is nearly ruined ; but the next Isthmus mail will tell.
As for New Grenada, she remains as obstinate as ever against our demands of redress for the massacre at Panama; and the indications are, that unless she speedily change her mind, our government will take military possession of the Isthmus. As an approximation to this movement, the President has ordered the naval forces of the United States in the West Indies and the Pacific, to concentrate, at once, at Aspinwall and Panama.
From Europe, we have had three arrivals since our last, and together they give us aw eek's later details. These details, however, cannot be said to contain anything of commanding importance; though there is much in them of interest. Pal-merston's victory, in England, is confirmed to the extent of over one hundred majority, and on the strength of this approval by the People, of the war policy of the government, a large military force is to be ordered out to China. From the Celestial Empire, we have nothing really new. From Spain, we hear that Mexico has rendered satisfaction to that government; and from Turkey, that his Sublime Highness is pushing forward popular reforms, which are in triumphant accordance with Christian civiliza-tion. It is to be regretted that as much cannot be said in favor of the Emperor of France, who, by all accounts, has taken under his special patronage, the beautiful Countess Castig-lione, to the neglect of the once beloved Eugenie. After such an interlude as this, we should not be surprised to see the imperial imitation of mon uncle carried to the end, by a repudia-tion, divorce, and an ultimate monarchical alliance. The world is round.
