PROCLAMATION.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 568, 24 September 1851, Page 4

PROCLAMATION.

To the Citizens op San Francisco. We have arrived at an important crisis in the civil and social condition find prospects of our city. A voluntmy associntion of men has been formed under peculiar bonds to each other, and assuming most extraordinary and irresponsible powers, and have undertaken to institute extra-judicial proceedings in forms not known to the In we. 'I his association claims and exeicises the right to inflict penalties upon those adjudged by them guilty of cnmo, even to the penalty of death, and has publicly and boldly inflicted that penalty in two instances. 'Ihey claim and exercise the right of domiciliary visits, without any acconntability, o\ a character not Known under any other than Inquisitorial governments. The great and sacred writ of habeas corpus has been rendered by them ineffectual, and tho authority of the highest tribunal of the State disregarded. The circumstances in which the authorities are placed, in consequence, seem to demand of me, as the constituted Chief Magistrate, some action by which the views and purposes of the. city government, over which I have be^n called to preside, may be indicated to the citizens, to the country, and to the woild. Tho people of the United States, of whom we are proud to be considered a part, have always attributed their eminence above almost any other people, in the scale of freedom, and security in their rights, to the fact that they live under a government of laws of thenown voluntary adoption. The people of California have t.iken perhaps a more conspicuous place than those of any of the sister states, under a full recognition of that Republican medium of public authority and of common protection. The sevpi.il departments of the only Government which any man among us can possibly acknowledge, have been created by the constitution mid laws, towlncli you as well as the public oificeis have given a common assent. These departments have been committed to the administration of men taken from among youi selves, and they have enteied upon their tiusts, doubtless, with a firm reli.ince upon the loyalty of their fellow citizens to the constitution and laws, for a steady support in the exercise of their lespective functions. The obligation of such a loyalty on the part of the people is unquestionably as imperative upon them as any of the obligations of the laws can be upon those who are entrusted with their public administration ; and the violation of obligation on the one side is as disastrous to the community as the abuse or perversion of oflicial station can be on the other. The idea that any defects in the law or any incompetency of its execution, can be remedied by voluntary associations of citizens assuming a superiority to the tows, is not only preposterous, but implies an abrogation of all law, and resolves society into a state of periect anarchy. The result is inevitably the same, however intelligent may be the minds, pure the motives, or tempoiarily beneficial the acts of those who become so associated. In a community like ours, where the institutions of government have just been established, any combinations of citizens for pui poses not authorized by law, and whose proceedings are not controlled by law, or subservient to the support of constituted authority, can have no other than an insurrectionary tendency throughout the commonwealth ; and must, to an abao» lute ceitatnty, inflict disgrace upon us, in the estimation of our countrymen in other parts of the Union, and ruin the confidence which is of the first necessity to our prosperity to secure throughout the commercial world. With these views, I feel impelled, by the strongest sense of official duty, and by every consideration for our common welfare and public character, to call upon all citizens to withdraw from such associations, and to unite hi a common effort to support the laws, and to sustain a prompt and energetic administration of them in their proper application and action. In addition, I deem the present a proper occasion to announce in the iiiost distinct terms, that I s'mll not shrink from a prompt discbarge of the duties which the statutes of the state and the oidinances of the city have made imperative upon me ; and that there may be uo misapprehension in respect to what these duties may be, I have to call the attention of all citizens to the provisions of the " Act to regulate proceedinga in Criminal Cases," chap. W. 1, however, appeal to tho good sense and deliberate judgment of my fellow citizens, to relievo me, and the other public functionaries of the city, by their common submission to public order, from tbe necessity of any application of the i equipments of that act. C. J. BRENIIAM, Mayor. Mayor's Office, July 11, 1851.