The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-25 00:00:00

LEGISLATION BY MACHINERY.

Of the many strange things done in the 'United State,
nothing is more strange than the style in which the LegiS-
lature of New York does its business. On the 7th install
it adjourned, having been in session just sixty-five work-
ing days, and in that time it had passed the enormous
number of 1,498 bills. The whole number introduced into
the House was 2,168, of which 2,118 were got through
the Senate, and nearly 1,500 presented to the
Governor for his approval. These bills dealt with
.
a very large amount of public and private Pre'
perty—canals, railways, parks, thoroughfares, buildings,
&c. ; and as the State of Pennsylvania is four-fifths
as large as England, and had a population at the
census of 1868 equal to that of Scotland, the interests in
the hands of the State Legislature are second only to
those of the State of New York. The following descrir
tion of the way in which the Legislature of this State
gets through its business is taken from the Philadelphia
Public Ledger :—" The session was distinguished by e
recklessness on the part of the majority of the members
which has found no parallel since 1852, when " omnibus'
legislation ' was in vogue. The system of passing
bills merely by reading their titles was onlY
tolerated in 1866-7 and 8, but adopted as
practice in 1870, and has proved itself to be the
most infamous fraud ever practised upon a community,
and the chief instrument of bad legislation and decep-
tion. The following is given as the entire process bYr
which hundreds of bills were transformed into laws in the
respective Houses :—Clerk (reading the title) : A supple-
ment to the Act incorporating the city of Philadelphia.
Speaker : There being no objection to this bill, it will be
laid aside for a second reading. Clerk : A supplement
to the Act incorporating the city of Philadelphia.
Speaker : Will the House agree to the bill :2
(Voices anywhere—' Aye, aye.') Speaker : Ww,
the House transcribe the bill, suspend the rule, and
read the bill a third time by its title? (Voices—`Aye
aye.') Speaker : The bill passes. It must not be our
posed that the Speaker and Clerk were responsible for this
hasty and reckless style of business. They were the mere
agents of the majority of the members, and fulfilled their
duties under the most aggravating circumstances.' The,
system had but one result—that members not only cheated
the public, but each other. No man could know what his
neighbour was doing. The agents of the newspaper press
being unable to hear the bills read, could- judge c 3
their contents only by the manual examination of each
of them (numbering 4,186). The interests of a great city of
three-quarters of a million of people were at the mercy
of any member who, to use the language of the
Speaker of the House, was sharper in legislative matters
than his neighbour.' The already complicated machinery
of legislation was thrown into chaos by bills being re'
ported from committees without ever having been coast
dered by such committees—by a score of bills being sent
into the Legislature with the same title, namely, a sup-
plement to the Act incorporating the city of Philo,'
delphia'—by the rapid substitution of new manuscript
bills for others regularly on the file, by hasty alters?
tions or amendments of the most important character
(the amendments not being read), and by numberless
devices that should never be tolerated in a dignified leg,'is•
lative body. The messages of the governor gave almost
daily reproof to this carelessness or corruption. He noti-
fied the House and Senate on April 1 that they had
passed two bills twice over, and sent the copies to him to
sign—that in two instances they had attempted without
justice to invalidate last wills and testaments—that the,
had (at least a dozen times) sent him bills whit
were plain violations of the Constitution, and
that they had in their enactments outraged both
English grammar and the rights of the people.
Some remedies are proposed. Among them are these
" That no bill shall be passed without recording the ayes
and noes, as required by the Constitution of New York.
That no bill shall be approved by the governor until ,pub-
lished for a certain length of time in the county to wide'
it is intended to apply. That it shall be a penal offence
for any legislator to have an interest (direct or indirect) in
any bill. "It is added that the citizens of Philadelphia have be,
come so much alarmed by some of the recent proceedings 01
the Legislature at Harrisburg- that the City Council has
been moved to petition the Governor to give no sanction
to any bill until the Council had had an opportunity of.
covei=a- t&f- ,effect ,v.--11be. The Governor has ills'
vetoed a bill described' by---o-eitatar-Bucka,low93
"a big steal." It proposed to make over six million dollars
of State bonds to a railway combination " which had
neither property nor credit, and scarcely any existence
except on paper." The bill would have robbed the State
of 160,000 dollars annually for three years at least, and
thereafter probably a great deal more. The Governor
describes it as "log-rolling legislation."

The Zukunft says the illness of Count Bismarck f 0
of a very trifling character, chiefly occasioned by the late
opposition he has met in Parliament. On the' other hand,
the serious illness of Herr von der Heydt is reported, and
it is said that since his return from Italy, the general
state of his health has been of a constantly alarmillg
character.

FIRE ESCAPES IN NEW YORK.—Since the passing
of the law requiring fire escapes to be affixed to the tene-
ment houses in New York city nearly 11,000 buildings
have been furnished with them. The superintendent of
buildings refers in terms of commendation to a plan
recently proposed—that of having a doorway markea
"fire escape, " constructed in the party-walls between ad-
joining houses.—The Architect.

General Garibaldi is said to have received from hi°
publishers, the Brothers Richedei, what the Italian nevi's'
papers call the remarkable sum of ten thousand lire, for
his novel; " Clelia' oil Governo del Monaco." The
.Rivista Europea for April notices the popularity of trans"
lations of English and French sensational novels pub-
li3hed in the Italian newspapers. Among others the
Corriere di Milano publishes the " The Moonstone" of
Mr. Wilkie Collins, and the Tempo of Venice gives the
same author's " The Woman in White." The Binnorw
mento of Venice contains a translation of Ponson du
Terrail's " Les Miseres de Londres ;" while La Stamps'
gives Emile Gaborian's " Le Proces Leronge."
DISCOVERY AT JERUSALEAL—An important die'
covery is said to have been made at Jerusalem. It is an
old stone bearing the figure of a god sitting on a throne
with priests on both sides, and a Hunyaritish inscription,
two lines in length, which had been brought from Yeman
and was offered for sale. Dr. Oscar Meyer, the Chancel'
for of the North-German Confederate Consulate, sue-
ceeded in obtaining an impression which is at present is
the hands of the Confederate Consul, Dr. Blau, who LI
residing for a time at. Berlin. The inscription is said to
contain the name of Athtar (Astarte).—North German
Correspondent.

REPUBLICAN PROCEEDINGS IN ITALY. —The
accounts in the Italian papers represent that the quail"
tity of ammunition. recently discovered in Milan was con'
siderable. The manufacture of this ammunition had gone
on for about a month in an inn on the Piazza del Duorao.
Some young men, who said they were engineer student°
preparing for examination, engaged five rooms in th@.
houie and immediately set about their work. They ken.
on unceasingly during the day, and sometimes even at
night, but no suspicion appears to have been aroused. At
last the police got scent of what was taking place, andl
broke into the rooms. None of the young men were fauna
there.

FORGERIES OF RUSSIAN NOTES.—A Pole named
Dombrowski, aged about 30, was arrested on Wednesday
at Paris, on s return from the Northern Railway Sta.
tion, to which he had gone to receive a parcel sent, from
Li6ge. The packet, which he had still in his possession,
was found to contain 421 forged Russian 50 rouble notes/
representing a value of about £3,200. The police hal
been watching this man for some days past. He had
been once before in custody on a similar charge, and
as his haunts are well known there are hopes °f
eventually capturing the entire band, by which an
mense quantity of false Russian paper money has been
put into circulation during the last few years in England,
France, Switzerland, and Holland. 72his is the ninth
arrest of the kind made since the commencement of the
year.

WASTE LAND IN NEW ZEALAND.—The Otago
Government have set aside 100,000 acres of land at PIT.
servation Inlet, West Coast, as a site for a settlement'
The ground is being rapidly taken up. The settlement
at Martin's Bay and Preservation Inlet are formed uncler
a special Act. Under this Act the Otago Government
was empowered to make free grants of 100 acres to 01
person over 15 years of age, on condition of at leas
two years' occupation, and a Crown grant to be,
issued at the expiration of the third year ; the pa*.
having, however, the option of purchase at 10s. an Abe
after the first year if ho desire it. The quantity to
disposed of in this way at each settlement, Martin's Dalt
and. Preservation Inlet, not to exceed 10,000 acres. ,
second class, amounting to 30,000 acres at each seal',
ment, is open for sale at ss. per acre ; and a third
60,000 acres, at an upset price of ss. at public auction, u°,,,
10s. Of sold 'privately: the holdings under this ele,e° "
age Person bell reeltricteci iio9X2r"
ditausincri