616 



NEW YOKE. 



NICARAGUA. 



The duties imposed must be discharged at whatever 

 cost. They can not be laid down, or abandoned, or 

 suspended, without the legally expressed consent of 

 the State. The trusts are active, potential, and im- 

 perative, and must he executed until lawfully surren- 

 dered ; otherwise, a public highway of great utility is 

 closed or obstructed without any process recognized 

 by law. This is something no public officer charged 

 with the same trusts and duties in regard to other 

 public highways can do without subjecting himself to 

 mandamus or indictment. We are not able to per- 

 ceive the difficulties that embarrassed the court below 

 as to the form of a writ of mandamus in such cases. 

 It is true the writ must be specific ^as to the thing to 

 be done ; but the thing to be done in tbis case was to 

 resume the duties of carriers of the goods and property 

 offered for transportation that is, to receive, carry, 

 and deliver the same under the existing rules and 

 regulations as the business had been accustomed to be 

 done. There was no necessity to specify what kinds 

 of goods should be first received or carried, or whose 

 goods, or, indeed, to take any notice of the details of 

 the established usages of the companies. It was the 

 people who were invoking the writ, on their own be- 

 hall, and not for some private suitor, or to redress in- 

 dividual injuries. The prayer of the petition indi- 

 cated the proper form of the writ. 



The Court of Appeals in October reversed 

 the decision of the General Term of the Court 

 of Common Pleas of New York city in the 

 case of Story against the New York Elevated 

 Railroad Company, and ordered a new trial 

 on the merits. The main point involved was, 

 the right of the owners of property abutting 

 on the line of the elevated railroad to recover 

 damage for the injury done to such property. 

 The question was examined at great length, 

 and the decision was in fa^or of the right to 

 recover. The conclusions in this particular 

 case were as follow : 



1. That the plaintiff, by force of the grant of the 

 city to his grantors, has a right or privilege in Front 

 Street which entitles him to have the same kept open 

 and continued as a public street for the benefit of his 

 abutting property. 



2. That this right or privilege constitutes an ease- 

 ment in the bed of the street which attaches to the 

 abutting property of the plaintiff and constitutes pri- 

 vate property within the meaning of the Constitution, 

 of which he cannot be deprived without compensation. 



3. That such a structure as the Court found the de- 

 fendant was about to erect in Front Street, and which 

 it has since erected, is inconsistent with the use of 

 Front Street as a public street. 



4. That the plaintiff's property has been taken and 

 appropriated by the defendant for public use without 

 compensation being made therefor. 



5. That the defendant's acts are unlawful, and as 

 the structure is permanent in its character, and if 

 suffered to continue will inflict a permanent and con- 

 tinuing injury upon the plaintiff, he has the right to 

 restrain the erection and continuance of the road by 

 injunction. 



6. That the statutes under which the defendant is 

 organized authorize it to acquire such property as may 

 be necessary for its construction and operation by the 

 exercise of the right of eminent domain. 



7. In view of the serious consequences to the de- 

 'fendant, we think no injunct'on prohibiting the con- 

 tinuance or operation of the road in Front Street should 

 be issued until the defendant has had a reasonable 

 time after this decision to acquire the plaintiff's prop- 

 erty by agreement or by proceedings to condemn the 



The general course of the argument in the 

 decision of the court sustained the view that 



the State could not grant privileges in the 

 streets of a city which should be inconsistent 

 with their use and enjoyment as such, and that 

 any injury to the value of property or restric- 

 tion upon its free and full use by the owner, 

 was pro tanto a taking of such property for 

 which compensation must be made. 



NICARAGUA* (REPUBLICA DE NICARAGUA), 

 one of the five independent states of Central 

 America. 



STATE OFFICERS. The President of the Re- 

 public is Dr. Adam Cardenas (successor to 

 Sefior Don Joaquin Zavala), inaugurated on 

 March 1, 1883. The Cabinet comprised the 

 following Ministry : Foreign Affairs and Pub- 

 lic Instruction, Sefior Francisco J. Medina (ad 

 interim) ; Interior, Justice, and Public Worship, 

 Licentiate V. Navas; and Finance, War, and 

 Marine, Colonel J. Elizondo. 



The President of the Senate is Sefior Don B. 

 Guerra ; and the President of the Chamber of 

 Deputies, Sefior Don J. G. Bolafios. 



FOREIGN REPRESENTATIVES. The Consul- 

 General of Nicaragua in New York is Mr. 

 Alexander J. Cotheal, and the Consul is Mr. C. 

 R. Flint. 



The United States Minister accredited to the 

 five Central American Republics, and resident 

 at Guatemala, is Mr. H. C. Hall; and the 

 United States consular agent at the port of 

 Corinto, is Mr. E. Deshon. 



ARMY. By the terms of the new military 

 code, all male citizens of the republic between 

 the ages of eighteen and fifty-five years are 

 compelled to serve in the army. The strength 

 of this last is reported at 703 rank and file 

 (regular troops), and 9,600 militia. 



PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. To the details given 

 in the volume for 1881, it may here be stated 

 that measures have been taken for the estab- 

 lishment of schools for females at Leon and 

 Granada, under the auspices of the Govern- 

 ment. The teachers in these, as is the case in 

 most of the schools throughout the country, 

 will be foreigners. A corps of French in- 

 structors was to arrive in the early months of 

 1883 for the School of Artes y qficios (arts and 

 trades}. The salaries of the director and four 

 sub-directors were fixed at $3,600, $1,600, 

 $1,500, $1,400, and $1,300, respectively. The 

 State Library at Managua (the capital) con- 

 tained, with recent accessions, 10,000 volumes. 

 It is only within the past six years that the cen- 

 tral Government has assumed the direction and 

 defrayed the expenses of this important branch,' 

 and the expenditure steadily increased in eachl 

 successive year, having amounted to $185,-| 

 816.44 for the biennial period 1881-'82, against 

 $111,215.90 and $61,546.99 for 1879 and 1880, 

 and 1877 and 1878 respectively. Military 

 schools were organized in Managua, Granada, 

 and Leon, where the instruction was to com- 

 prise reading, writing, arithmetic, and moral 

 militas. 



* See " Annual Cyclopaedia" of 1881 for statistics of area, 

 territorial divisions, population, etc. 



