icon by 5, troops and 400 pieces of ordnance, cost the fives of eleven Americans; one hour's conflict in the streets of New-York,

ASSUREDLY the great boast of our form of government, and that which constitutes its chief excellence over those of the nations of the old world, is that its laws emanate from the people themselves, are based upon public opinion, and are supported by a universal respect for their operation. There are no privileges or prerogatives vested in any order of nobles which would enable them to make laws not congenial to the people to whom they are applied, and to administer them by bloody means unknown to the statutes. An intelligent respect which the American people everywhere pay to the laws enacted by their sanction, to the rights of property and of individuals, forms almost the sole safeguard between republicanism and anarchy, and no more impregnable barrier could be devised. It follows, however, that the laws emanating from the people should be faithfully administered by the persons elected by the public voice to do so; and by the means provided and placed at the disposal of the chief magistrate. It is not enough that the majesty of the law should be jealously guarded, and its behests rigidly enforced; but it must be done by legal means. The object of law is to preserve life and liberty; to ensure safety in person and property to every peaceful citizen. When it answers these ends it is good; but when its enforcement is undertaken by illegal means, which are productive of more mischief to the peaceful many, than could possibly have grown out of the infringement sought to be suppressed, the responsibility of substituting illegal for legal means becomes fearful.

Deeply impressed as we are with the awful responsibility of preserving the integrity of the laws, it is with deep humiliation we have to record a most appalling deed of blood, alike disgraceful to the American name and injurious to the character of our institutions. Without a question at issue, or a principle at stake, New-York city has presented the appearance of a stormed fortress; and more American lives have been sacrificed in its streets than were requisite to ensure the most brilliant triumphs in Mexico. Nineteen days investment, siege, and capture of Vera Cruz, with its supposed impregnable fortress, defended by 5,000 troops and 400 pieces of ordnance, cost the lives of eleven Americans; one hour's conflict in the streets of New-York,

without an object, cost twenty-two lives of men and women! with some twenty more desperately wounded, and daily dying. In the crowded streets of New-York, in the heart of a population of 500,000 people, after the massacre, were more troops mustered with loaded weapons than entered the valley of the capital of Mexico under Scott; and guns, charged with grape, enfiladed all the streets leading to the bivouac, reckless of the consequences to the innocent many, of a discharge upon the guilty few. When we reflect upon the nature of our institutions, based upon popular opinion, and on the general respect for the laws which is everywhere manifest, we become horror-struck at such a terrible spectacle conjured up in our midst without notice. From a municipal riot the matter assumes a national importance; and the question at once forces itself upon the citizen-whether, indeed, the lives and property of all are at the mercy of a conflict between rioters and militia; if, indeed, the civil arm of our law is so weak, that a riot in our midst cannot be suppressed without means more dangerous to the friends of order than to the turbulently disposed. If it shall be found, after patient investigation, that the lives of a whole community were ruthlessly jeopardized by military violence, because the civil authorities were too negligent in the application of the means at their disposal for preserving order, thereby creating wide-spread devastation-then a fearful responsibility rests upon those who, forgetful of the conditions of the nineteenth century, have gone back to the customs of a barbaric age.

The events of the 10th May, at the Astor Place Opera, New-York, require to be carefully reconsidered and analyzed, because they involve most important questions, of which, that whether the military really forms a part of the government under which we live, and whether we are at all times under martial law-at all times liable to be shot down in the pursuit of our peaceful avocations, if distant rioters provoke militia-men to fire through crowded streets. In this view we have thought proper to depart from our usual custom, and to recount the events which have stained our municipal annals with blood, and our institutions with the crimes of absolutism. What is called the riot at the Astor Place Opera, is properly two distinct riots, growing out of separate causes, prosecuted by different means, and leading to very different results, although on the same scene of action. The first of these, and the one which was the immediate cause of developing the other, originated in the determination to hiss an actor off the stage, for alleged misconduct to an American abroad, and for gratuitous insults to an American audience here. The second was a manifestation against what is called the "codfish aristocracy" of New-York, of feelings that have been gradually engendered by an insidious press. The first of these demonstrations completely succeeded; the actor, although he went through his part in dumb show, violence being suppressed by the police, was not heard, but relinquished his engagement, left the city at two o'clock the next morning, by special conveyance, and the country by the first steamer. So far the mob triumphed. The appearance of the military to interfere with any popular movement, whether it be that of an unlawful mob or of a legal assembly, always excites anger in the American breast. The universal disregard in which the militia is held, is manifest in repeated modifications of the laws organizing it, until they have become nearly nominal. The uniform volunteer companies are for the most part composed of young men, whose inexperi

ence is flattered with the wearing of military baubles, and coats of fantastic hues and shapes. Many of the officers have the more substantial benefits of the system, in the expenditure of the revenues derived from fines and emoluments: a common sentiment of both officers and men is a pruriency of display, and is fruitful of those numerous military titles that have attracted the ridicule of foreign tourists, and been the basis of the charge, that at heart we are fond of distinctions of rank. When boys or men take pride or pleasure in the daily handling of murderous weapons, naturally the desire to use those weapons gains upon their better understandings; and their minds gradually become open to the conviction, even upon the most trivial occasions, that it is necessary to use them. A considerable portion of the elite of these companies is officered and manned by those who claim position in that class of society which for many months has been daily assailed in the diurnal press, as "exclusives," "cod-fish aristocracy," and with other opprobrious epithets; because it would seem that, in the exercise of an indefeasible right, a number of gentlemen had subscribed for the establishment of an opera in Astor Place, where they might indulge a taste for a high order of music, and at the same time encourage the art among us, by raising the standard of excellence, and rewarding those well who attain to it. This was certainly both a laudable and a lawful undertaking; and if it did not fully succeed, it is a matter rather to be regretted than ridiculed. Nevertheless, a portion of the daily press has unceasingly assailed both the committee and the manager; holding them up to ridicule, and exciting against them the prejudices of a large portion of the community of different tastes, and who would neither have known or cared for their existence, had they not continually encountered inflammatory articles against them. In this state of affairs, when the theatre-going public assembled to express disapprobation of an actor, they encountered, for the first time in the history of such undertakings, a body of militia to defend this "aristocratic opera-house" actor. From that moment all the prejudices against both " aristocracy" and "militia" vented itself upon the latter; the cry was no longer Macready, but "cod-fish guards," "aristocratic escort," and the riot swelled to a bloody issue. With every victim of the shot the popular mind received a new impulse. Sympathy with the wounded, and indignation at the atrocity of the murders, thrilled through the community, producing the necessity for the strong force mustered on the succeeding days. In this conflict the military conquered, as the mob had triumphed in respect to the actor.

We cannot in this consummation recognize any triumph of the laws, nor find any cause to congratulate the friends of order that the arm of the law has been sufficient for the emergency. The bayonet and cartridge are not elements in the administration of the American laws, and when we find them unwarrantably obtruded on occasions where but a moderate vigor on the part of the civil force would have sufficed, we can but regard it as a cowardly dereliction of duty on the part of the magistrate, and a bold stride towards that policy which enabled the Russian pro-consul to inform his chief, that "order reigns in Warsaw."

The immediate cause of the outbreak was the announcement of the appearance of Mr. Macready in the characters of Shakspeare. With the dispute, which has been the means of precipitating this bloody issue, our readers are acquainted, and we do not now propose to go into its merits.