The  imposition  of  a  penalty  would  but  punish  the  offender ;  it
would  not  remove  the  source  of  danger.  This  latter  is  the  thing
which  the  necessity  of  the  case  requires,  and  immediate  abatement
is  the  only  competent  remedy.  It  is  admitted  by  appellee's  counsel,
an  admission  they  are  compelled  to  make  under  the  law,  that  if  the
erection  were  a  nuisance  at  common  law  the  city  authorities  might
abate  it.  But  what  is  a  nuisance  at  common  law?  Blackstone's  def-
inition is,  whatever  unlawfully  annoys  or  doth  damage  to  another
is  a  nuisance.  The  construction  of  this  wooden  roof  was  an  unlaw-
ful thing,  made  so  by  ordinance  prohibiting  its  construction.  That
it  was,  in  its  nature,  injurious,  and  a  source  of  constant  danger  in  a
populous  place,  experience  and  the  general  prevalence  of  this  sort  of
legislation  we  are  considering  teach  lis.  Such  was  the  view  of  the
Legislature  in  the  matter,  that  by  the  charter  of  this  city,  for  the
purpose  of  guarding  against  the  calamities  of  fire,  they  authorized
the  city  council  to  prohibit  the  erection  or  repairing  of  wooden  build-
ings within  the  fire  limits  they  might  prescribe,  and  to  declare  such
buildings  to  be  nuisances,  and  cause  the  same  to  be  abated  as  they
should  direct.
In  pursuance  of  such  authority,  the  city  council  established  fire
limits,  and  by  ordinance  declared  any  such  roof  as  the  one  in  ques-


Ch.  6)  ADMINISTRATIVE   EXECUTION.  249

tion,  which  should  be  put  upon  a  building  within  such  limits,  to  be  a
nuisance,  and  required  the  city  marshal,  under  an  order  from  the
mayor,  to  remove  the  same.
