Herald Of The Times

Rhode Island License Law.—The Supreme Court of Rhode Island on Tuesday of last week, gave their opinion in the case of the State vs. Peckham, in which the defendant had maintained that the Acts of the Legislature of that State passed in January and June last, relating to the licensing and sale of wine and spirituous liquors, are unconstitutional. The Court held that these Acts, being passed by the Legislature to aid the police of the several towns in the preservation of good order and in the prevention of pauperism, were passed in the exercise of an authority which belongs to the State exclusively. It is a power, they say, which may be exercised when necessary, (and the Legislature is the only judge of that necessity,) upon all subjects which fall within the sphere of State legislation, and which are beyond the constitutional limits of the legislation of the General Government.

The constitutional provisions relied on by the counsel for the defendants, which forbid any State to impose duties on imports, and give to Congress exclusive power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the States, the Court did not consider infringed by these acts. The restraint imposed, for police purposes, on the seller of wines and liquors, after they are imported, they say cannot be deemed a tax upon imports, or a regulation of the commerce of the United States.

In reply to the argument, that these acts are an infringement of the treaty with France, in which the government binds itself to admit the wines of that country at a stipulated duty, the Court held that this stipulation cannot be construed to mean that the United States are bound to require of the States that the wines so imported shall be admitted to consumption, without restraint or regulation. They were, therefore, of the opinion, that the acts are not inconsistent with any provision of the Constitution or of any treaty, and that they are constitutional and the binding law of the land. Judgment was therefore rendered against the defendant. The Providence Courier, in which paper this opinion is published, states that the breach of the license law, on which this suit was founded, was committed for the purpose of trying the validity of the law, and that in pursuance of this purpose, he will carry the question to the Court of the U. States.