SAN FRANCISCO AND NEW ORLEANS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 420, 12 November 1856, Page 3

SAN FRANCISCO AND NEW ORLEANS.

(Prom the " New Orleans Dnlta.")

The progress of rowdyism in the United States—its gradual development into regular organisation, the immediate object of which is violence and murder, for the purpose of securing plunder the ultimate object—is the most painful of those indications which insph-e the fear that the Republic, Avhich has gone up like a rocket, is about'to come down like a stick.

The era of reason, eloquence, and forethought has passed away, and that of violence and lawlessness is too clearly in the ascendant, —north and south, in the free States and in the slave States, in the populous city or in remote country village. In New York the Short Boys are invincible, and Ned Buntline becomes a hero, second in rank only to Bill Poole. Forty thousand people accompanied the coffin of the latter —a vulgar bully—a " course renowner" (as the Germans would say) who used to fight rats with his teeth and on his hands and feet, for the edification of his disciples —forty thousand 'people followed his coffin to the grave. And this deed was done, remember, in the 19th century, when' the symbol of Christ's doetrino pierces the clouds from the summits of innum-

crable churches, and -the thousands of loudtongued bells every -seventh day summon humanity to a worship which is caricatured by the actualities of social life. In Philadelphia, the Schuylkill district is continually at war with the Moyamensing, and the broad hat of the Quaker covers the most subtle schemes which are realised by utterly unscrupulous means. In Boston—model Boston—the whited sepulchre, fair without indeed and beautiful, but within nothing but rottenness and corruption— we have negro riots, massacres of United States officials and the " higher law of robbery, overruling the legitimate courts of law and justice, and mocking their authority with impunity. In New Orleans, the Mayor of the city acknowledges on the witness-stand, in a public court, that the police of his own selection are utterly " disorganised," and no good citizen is secure either in'property or life unless he carries weapons of defence about his person-. In San Francisco a horde of gamblers and thieves have controlled the public elections, have driven the honest voters from the polls, and, jn the characteristic phrase of one of their own papers, have " stuffed the ballot-boxes," so that the foundation of justice is poisoned at its source, and the people are compelled to return to the first principles of society, and avenge themselves.

The people of San Francisco acted well. The murdered editor, James King, of William, (that is, son of William,) was an honorable and hightoned gentleman, who was strenuously opposed to the progress of the gamblers and thieves in San Francisco. Some of the light-fingered fraternity had been elevated to the most distinguished judicial positions, and Mr. King exposed their antecedents with vigor, fearlessness and determination. In other words, he made war on the Thugs of San Francisco, and brought them to condign punishment. He showed how the ballot-box could be " stuffed" by the false friends of the sacred institution; how its warmest supporters had the best opportunity to dishonor it, —precisely as a son has the most obvious facilities to disgrace his parentage —and held up to public scorn the swindlers and murderers, some of them in high places, who degraded San Francisco, aiid rendered her almost as despicable as New Orleans. For this he^was shot—shot by an ex-inhabitant of the prison Sing Sing—a man named Casey, who was the most fearless representative of the gamblers of San Francisco. In new Orleans the murder would remain unpunished : a sham examination before Eecorder Bright' would wipe away even the faintest recollection of it and all the concomitant circumstances. But in San Francisco it is different. The people are stronger than the bullies and the gamblers, and accordingly the respectable citizens—the merchants and property-hold-ers—turned out, and demanded the New Yorker who murdered King, from the hands of the Sheriff, and have probably hung him before now. They did right. When the formal judiciary and executive are not capable of decisive action, the populace does the work, and does it well. In New Orleans it is different; the murderer can go ahead with impunity. The people " lie down like a bastinadoed elephant, and receive paltry riders."