Foreign Commerce [pp. 268-269]

268
FOREIGN COMMERCE.
kind may be made to give place to one of a different character, of more enlarged
utility. Great and acknowledged public improvements lead to corresponding
changes in the rights to be aflfected by them; accompanied, however, with the just
condition of nmaking compensation.
This case difl'es from that of the Lexington and Ohio R. R. Co. us. Applegate
et al., 8 Dana, in two essential particulars. The corporation there gave its assent
to the use of' the streets of Louisville by the railroad-2d, the owners of the lots
there claimed compensation. In this case the corporation has not given its assent;
and the owners of the lots are not before us. The right to the streets in this case
being in the corporation of Jackson, they cannot be subjected to the use of the
railroad, without the consent and contract of the corporation; or without the assessment and payment of damages according to law.
At present, we are strongly inclined to the belief, that the owners of lots adjacent
to the track of the railroad, will have no claim to compensation. They have no
right of soil in the streets; and the charter of the railroad company restricts the
use to such bounds as will not interfere with the passag of the streets. Moreover the salutary maxim will apply to the company, that "they must so use their
own rights, as not to injure another" (31 Eng. Comn. Law Rep., 97; Dud(ley's So.
Car. Rep., 138); this point, however, need not be decided. See 6 Peter's Rep., 5141,
Ba,iclo/y vs. Howe'll.
We have no doubt that the corporation has the power to regulate the mode of
propelling the cars wNithiin its limits, to say whether steam or horse power shall
be employed, and to prescribe the rate at which they may move. This results
frotn the same principle, which authorizes it to control the speed of carriages and
of horsemen; the principle of necessary protection to the safety of its citizens and
their property.
The defendant having failed in his attempted justification, the judgment is
affirmed.
Mr. CHIEF JUSTICE SHARKEY, concurred.
Mr. JUSTICE THACHER, dissented.
FOREIGN COMMERCE.
1.-CONSUMPTION OF WINES AND SPIRITS IN ENGLAND.
[From7 a paper prepared by Alderman W. Thtomnpson, M. P.]
A return, showing the annual consumption of wines and spirits in England, has been
procured by Mr. Alderman W. Thompson, M. P. It appears that last year (1846),
7,711,309 gallons of foreign wine were imported, of which 6,740,316 gallons were retained
for home consumption. Thie quantities remaining under bond on the 5th of January,
1847, amounted to 9,386,262 gallons. It will be interesting to ascertain the relative qulalities of difierent foreign wines which are consumed in this country. The 6,740,316 gallons
of wine retained for home consumption last year included 365,867 gallons of Cape (this
inferior compound, it is to be featred, is almost exclusively bought up for the purpose
of adulterating other wines); 400,506 gallons of French wines, of all sorts; 2,669.798
gallons of Portuguese; 2,602,490 of Spanish; 94,580 gallons of Madeira; 64,578 gallons
of Rhenish; 25,312 gallons of Canary; 283 gallons of Fayal, an(l 508,002 gallons of Sicilian and other sorts. It hence appears that the anly three kinds of wvine consumed to
any great extent in England, consist of Port, Sherry, and Marsala (this last is Sicilian
wine, grown on the Bronte estate of the Iate Lord Nelson), the large cotnsutniption of
which is to be accounted for fromt the fact that it strikingly resembles Sherry. The smnall
demand for Madeira will excite some surprise on the part of all who are acquainted wNith
its exquisite flavor; nor do the quantities of Rhenish and French wines appear so large
as might be expected from a consideration of their increasing consumption in this country. The total quantity of s)irits retained for home consumption last year amounted to
4,254,237 gdallons, out of 6,827,043 gallons imported, including 2,362,784 gallons of British colonial rurn, 192,331 gallons of East India rutm, 129,478 of mixed, 10S gallons of
foreign rumt (in all, 2,683,701 gallons of rum), 1,504,465 gillonsofbrandy, 39,883 gallons
of Geneva, 7,281 gallons of other foreign and colonial spirits, and 8,907 gallons of Channel Island spirits; 5,310,148 gallons of all sorts remained in bond on the 5th of January,
1847, including 2,997,149 gallons of rum, 1,854,962 of brandy, and 89,302 of Geneva.