Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/505

 IN as TIBUBCIO PABROTT. 497 �attempted the course supposed, would have failed, it must foUow that any other mode of producing the same result must equally fail. The provisions of the federal constitution in- tended to secure the liberty of the citizen cannot be evaded by the form in which the power of the state is exerted. If this were not so — if that which cannot be accomplished by means looking directly to the end can be accomplished by indirect means — the inhibition may be evaded at pleasure. No kind of oppression can be named, against which the f ram- era of the constitution intended to guard, which may not bô effected." i Wall. 320. �The application of these pregnant words to the case at bar is obvions. Fewwill have the hardihood to deny the purpose and effect of the article of the constitution -which has been cited. It is in open and seemingly contemptuous violation of the provisions of the treaty -which give to the Ghinese the right to reside here -with ail the privileges, immunities and exemptions of the most favored nation. It is in fact but one, and the latest, of a series of enactments designed to accom- plish the same end. The attempt to impose a special license tax upon Ghinese for the privilege of mining, the attempt to subject them to peculiar and exceptional punishments com- monly known as the Queue Ordinance, have been frustrated by the judgments of this court. The attempt to extort a bond from ship-o-wners, as a condition of being permitted to land those whom a commissioner of immigration might choose to consider as coming within certain enumerated classes, has received the emphatic and indignant condemuation of the supreme court. Chy Lung v. Freeman, 93 U. S. 275. But the question -which now concerns us is: Does the la-w under consideration impair or destroy the treaty rights of Ghinese residents? For it may be a part of a System ob- viously designed to eiïect that purpose, and yet not of itself be productive of that resuit. Its practical operation and effect must, therefore, be adverted to. �The advantages of combining capital, and restrieting indi- vidual liability, by the formation of corporations, have, from �IWeno.8— 32 ��� �