Judicial Decision

Every reflecling person is aware of the grent effect of Judicial decisions in establishing public opinión. A single decisión in England exterminated slavery. A similar decisión made Massachusetts a free State. Tlio decisión of ! a Judge in Ohio, that mulattoes tvho are ! er white than black may be legal voters, is of greaf practical hr.portance. The following is a noíice of a recent decisión in Missouri. - Should it be confirmed il will nullify some of the oppressive laws of several Slave States. RlGHTS OF COLORED PeOPLE - Judt'citll j cision. - The St. Louis, (Missouri) Organ, of! the 6th instant, says: - 'YVe lenrn that Jiidge j Mnllanphy made a decisión in Court i day which may be regarded as very important, if the law as laid down by him shall be confirmed by the Supreme Cosirt. The qneslion rose upon an nppcal taken frorn the Recorder's Court bv a free Negro who was anprohended and fined for living iu the State without a licens-e. It will be recoüected ihat the Statute of 18S5 requires certain free Negroes to obtain a ücense to live in the State, and compels others to remove out of the Stale if they do not comewithin the terms reqnired for a hcense. An exception is mode in favor of 'the citizens' of any other State who shall come here. "Judje M. rlecided thnl the word 'citizens,'' as used in the Constitution of the United States and in our Lnws, is equivalent to(5i6ject,' as used under the British Constitution, and includes all persons who were bom in the United States. It will be seen that, if the decisión stnnds, it strikes a death-hlow at once to the contemplatcd rffect of our Lawb i prohibiting free blacks from entering 'ording in the State, and grants free access into our State to all persons who vvcre bom in the United Stntes, no matter what their complexion. The Judge may be wrong; but we do not see how it is posnble to limit the signification of the word to a more reBtricted tense than that given ir. Judge M., we are told, will publish his Opinión at length." Anotherexchangenotices the decisión tlius: "The court considered that all difficulty on the subject of what constitutes a citizen of Illinois, or anv otlier State of tbis Union, has arisen out of the prevalent error fprodiced by reading the grcat political privileges of an exclusive charactei possessed by a limited nuniber of persons called "citizens,"' in ancient and modern democracios and republics,) that tinder our institutions, citizenship essentially includes political privibges, meaniníj íhereby I a share in the government of the country.- The Court held that citizenship in the Uiiiied States, does not essentially include any right to a share in the government of the country; that it includes no more than reciprocal right and duty of allerjiance and protection, and that it is acquired by birth. That a cnizen with us, is just what a subject of Great Briiain was under the colonial system and no more.:1