Show THE IRE DEFUNCT GRAND grand jury for the february term is discharged they wound a report which appears elsewhere in this paper the labors of 0 that body have been chiefly devoted to inquiries into cases against one class of the community and some indictments have been found on testimony that in any other kind of cases would not b be counted worthy of a moments consideration era tion the grand jury divided itself up into committees for the investigation of some things that come within its purview and others that are not alluded to in the law one part was formed into a nosing committee to sniff the aroma from certain bog bolor pens stables and other stift still more unsavory receptacles for waste matter confining their olfactory exercises however hp wever to fixed limits not making the smelling excursions general beany means another committee visited a private asylum for the insane for the purpose of finding fault with anything assailable others Other made an investigation of the prisons in the vicinity the last fast named were within the provisions of the law the others entirely outside of statutory requirements nuisances exist no doubt which ought to be abated but it is is not the province of the grand jury to nose them out and certainly not to pick out but a few instances for special notice and animadversion the law requires the grand jury to inquire into all public offenses committed or triable within the district and present them to the court by indictment I 1 I 1 into the case of every person imprisoned in jails ails of the district on a criminal charge and not indicted into the conduct and management of the prisons and into the wilful and corrupt misconduct of public off officers leers of every description within the district this comprehends their duties if there is a public offense committed that is indictable they should investigate it and report to the court by indictment if there is no indictable offense committed have no busi ness to stigmatize the parties against whom they have not proceeded by reporting their names to the court and holding them up to public censure if they know of any crime committed they should indict the criminal or supposed criminal on evidence sufficient to warrant a trial if they have not evid evidence enbe sufficient for that they transcend the law themselves in attacking the par ties through the medium of a public report the grand jury have gone out of their way to io do things that they have no authority to meddle with and have neglected other things which the laws of can congress fre and of the territory say they must perform A crime has been committed in the district that they have not attempted to ito enquire into altho although tigh it has been called to their attention and means of investigating it were within easy reach A letter was stolen from the mails and published in a disreputable sheet in this city and the crime ime became notorious if the dar district arlet attorney through fear of the blackguard paper or favor of the creatures who published the stolen private epistle neglected to bring the matter before the grandeury gran grand djury jury it was nevertheless their duty to investigate the of tense Ifor for it is one that is indictable and triable in this district they have also neglected to inquire into the wilful and corrupt mis con duct of deputy marshals in forcing their way into peoples domiciles domiciled domi ciles examining women and children as thou though they had judicial authority givina giving people the lie and exceeding their legitimate e 11 I 1 powers in various ways te these e important duties have been ne elected while some of the grand jurors have been poking their noses into nasty things which the law does not lylice place within their supervision or nas nasal investigation vesti gation the city authorities have already instituted measures for the removal and suppression of such nuisances as the grand jury have taken upon themselves in a few invidious instances to report and future grand juries would do well not to tread in the wake of the recently defunct body but to attend to their duties and mind their own business we say nothing of the obscure sentences and execrable english in which the alleged report is couched but merely criticize the doings of the inquisition which have been partial and extreme delinquent on one hand and excessive meddling and impertinent on the other |