San Mateo County Gazette Redwood City, San Mateo County, California Saturday Morning, February 18, 1860, Vol. 1 No.46 In Probate Court, San Mateo County In the matter of the Estate of PATRICK LANGAN, deceased. Pursuant to an order of this Court, made this day, notice is hereby given that on Tuesday, the sixth day of March, A.D. 1860, at 2 P.M. of said day, at the Court-room of this Court, at Redwood City, in San Mateo county, has been appointed for hearing the application of HONORA LANGAN, praying that a document now on file in this Court, purporting to be the Last Will and Testament of Patrick Langan, deceased, be admitted to Probate, and that letters testamentary be issued thereon to said Honora Langan, who is named therein as Executrix, at which time and place al persons interested therein may appear and contest the same. Witness my hand and the Seal of said Probate Court, this thirteenth day of February, A.D. 1860 B.G. LATHROP, Clerk SAULMANN'S COFFEE SALOON AND RESTAURANT - When visiting San Francisco, do not fail to visit the Restaurant of the old San Mateoan A.J. SAULMANN. The best that can be procured in the market may always be found upon his table. See his advertisement in another column. MADAME TOUCHARD'S HOTEL - The attention of residents of this county is directed to the advertisement of the Union Hotel in another column to to-day's paper. Many of our people already know the lady proprietress, Madame Touchard, and therefore, but little need be said of her establishment. Those who patronize her house will find therein as good accommodations as can be met with in San Francisco. INSANE - We have received the Seventh Annual Report of the Trustees of the Insane Asylum. This report shows the affairs of that institution to be in good condition, and a glance of its tables will convince any one of the necessity and importance of such an Asylum in our State. From it we learn that there were on hand on the first day of December 1858, two hundred and seventy-three patients, and admitted during the year ending December 1, 1859, two hundred and seventy-nine. During the year there were discharged one hundred and twenty-four, - died forty-nine, eloped six, leaving in the Asylum, December 1st 1859, three hundred and seventy. Of those admitted during the past year, there were - married - males fifty - females thirty-two - single, males one hundred and fifty-one; females nine - not known whether married or single - male thirty-two, females two. These patients were sent thither from almost every county in the State - San Francisco sending seventy-nine - Sacramento thirty-six, San Joaquin twenty-three, El Dorado twenty-two - Petaluma seventeen - the other counties sending each seven or less, many of them having only one each - San Mateo having three. These patients also represent at least twenty-four of the different States of this Union, and almost every foreign country which has contributed to make up our general population. The highest number from any one country is Ireland - fifty-seven, France furnishes twenty-five, China seven, &c. The highest number from any one State is New York, twenty. It is also interesting to look over the causes given, so far as they can be ascertained, for the fearful malady with which these patients are afflicted, but we will not enumerate them. Suffice it to say that of the two hundred and seventy-six received during the year, the cause is unknown in one hundred and thirty-four cases,, leaving one hundred and forty-two accounted for, and of these at least sixty-one is attributed to dissipation and the lowest vices. LEGISLATIVE LITTLENESS - The Legislature of our State sometimes lets itself down to a very low ebb, and dabble in exceedingly small matters. A remarkable instance of this occurred a few days since, in the hurrying through both houses of a bill requiring the transfer of dueling cases from Courts of Sessions to District Courts. This bill was evidently gotten up for the special benefits of Judge Terry, whose case in San Francisco, was to have been tried at an early day. Had no case been pending, the action of the Legislature might not have appeared so strikingly singular, but even then it would have been difficult to have found a sensible reason for such a souse. As it is however, the course pursued by that body seems disgusting in the extreme, and almost leads us to believe that when a man has once entered the halls of a Legislature, he is no longer worthy of the confidence or respect of his fellow men. Not that we believe, however, with many of our contemporaries, that it will make any material difference with the result of Terry's case - for we cannot subscribe to the doctrine that justice is not as well, or even better done, in the District Courts than in Courts of Sessions. But it is the principle we find fault with - this low stooping, for the gratification of a single man to meddle with that with which the Legislature had no business - it being already in the courts under existing laws. Terry and Broderick both violated the law of the land with their eyes open - with a full knowledge of what the law was, and whichever of them survived, after having "for honor's sake" set himself up as a mark to be shot at, ought to have had sufficient moral courage to hold himself amenable to the law as it existed. Terry was indicted in San Francisco, and tried to get his case transferred to the District Court. He has applied for and received the decision of three different courts, one the Supreme Court, of which at the time of the commission of the offence he was a member, upon that point. It has been uniformly against him - his own pet court, if we may use the expression, told him that under the law he must be tried in the Court of Sessions. He then goes to the Legislature and asks for a change of the law, and the members of that body, like a set of schoolboys who deserve flogging for their sneaking duplicity, make great hast to do his bidding. Judge Terry, late of the Supreme Bench, has rendered himself liable to prosecution for one of the minor offences known to our criminal code, but having once occupied an exalted position, he has conscientious scruples against being so belittled as to be tried in a low court like the Court of Sessions, and so the Legislature help him our of the scrape, by establishing it as a rule that hereafter the grade of Court in which a man shall be tried shall depend, not on the magnitude of the offence with which he is charged, but on the dignity of his person! "Oh shame! Where is thy blush?" We can see no other reason for this dirty intermeddling - certainly the Legislature would not have passed that act for the benefit, (or rather gratification, for we do not believe it is a benefit) of any common man, and certainly Terry could have had no other object in asking it than a gratification of personal pride. The same cause that would entitle him to a change of venue in the District Court would do it in the Court of Sessions - every right that he could have in the one would be his in the other, and we will not believe that any baser motive than the one alluded to could have actuated him, or would avail him any thing. We have said more about Judge Terry's case than we intended to, but we have carefully avoided a discussion of its merits, or the expression of an opinion thereon. He is yet to be tried by a jury somewhere, and we desire to see him have a fair and impartial trial, and would not do aught to prejudice him in this respect. We think he will ultimately be tried in this county, for we believe no other has jurisdiction, and so far as the simple question of courts is concerned, we would as soon it should be in the one as the other, for in either we believe justice will be done between him and the people, but we do not believe in having one man meet with greater favor at the hands of a Legislature or a court, than another. If he has sinned like other men, let him meet the consequences like other men, and let not the highest authorities of our land crouch and cringe at his feet, more than they would at the feet of his servant. Let nor, for the sake of gratifying his or any other mans whims, the criminal code of our State present the anomaly of having cases punishable by seven years imprisonment, placed in the same category of those punishable by death, and tried in a high court devoted more particularly to civil cases, while those of a greater magnitude, and punished with many times the severity, are tried in the common criminal courts of our county. In a work - change not the system of a whole government for the accommodation of one man. We have not seen the vote on this bill, but trust that none of our members voted for it. To see other old newspapers, visit http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/index.php