The Trial of Leisler cies. The best human agencies can only be secured by attaching confidence and honor and dignity to the office. A few laws easily understood are of more
value than a thousand laws impossible of comprehension. Remember the ad vice that Don Quixote gave to Sancho Panza for his guidance in the government of the island of Barateria:— Make not many proclamations; but those thou makest take care that they be good ones, and above all that they be observed and carried out; for proclamations that are not observed are the same as if they did not exist; nay, they encourage the idea that the prince who had the wisdom and authority to make them had not the power to enforce them; and laws thatthreaten and are not enforced come to be like the log, the king of the frogs, that frightened them at first, but that in time they despised and mounted upon.
It will be many a day before our people as a body can lay aside their
business occupations and meet in the marketplaces, like the Athenians, to
debate on matters of public concern,
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and to enact into law or executive order the result of their deliberations. Indus try and commerce will long continue to engross the attention of the majority. As education continues to be widespread, the people will continue to take an active, intelligent interest in public affairs. But the business of governing a highly com plex modern civilization, to be con
ducted with the best results to the greatest number of the people, will always require the absolute devotion and entire attention of an increasing number of men. Temporary abuses may be corrected, but effective government
cannot be conducted through the spas modic intervention of popular uprisings. You cannot expect to secure competent men for the conduct of public affairs if they are to be commissioned as untrust worthy, subjected to constant hackling and misrepresentation, and turned out branded as unfaithful ‘servants at a moment’s notice for temporarily un popular acts.
The Trial of Leisler for High Treason BY ARTHUR WAKELING [With appropriate exercises conducted by the United German Societies of New York, two oaks were planted in City Hall Park, New York City, on March 23, 1911, not far from the spot where Jacob Leisler was put to death on the charge of having usurped the powers of the British Governor. The saplings were sent over as a gift from Frankfort-am-Main, the native city of Leisler. Timeliness is therefore given to the following account of the trial of this brave and law-abiding man whose name has since been clared of all disgrace. —Ed.]
HE culmination of a period of New York history that for dramatic intrigue and sheer romance rivaled the
On the 17th of March, 1691, New
York resembled a warlike camp. Three hundred armed men under Jacob Leisler
Pine and Wall streets, in what is now the very centre of the New York law
were holding the blockhouse and fort against five hundred “country soldiers," two hundred regulars and other militia. The streets leading to the fort were
ofiices.
blocked with infantry and cumbered
most thrilling novel of Dumas, was
fought out in a court room not far from
