New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-03-29


Our State Legislature has now been some
eighty-fve days in session out Of the one
hundred to which ito term is restricted by
the Constitution-that is, to which its pay
is restricted by way of relieving the People
of its valuable services for, though it is
rot yet conclusively settled that a Church
can or can't exist without Bishop, it is
practically settled that body of ever so
fervent patriots will not continue legisla-
ting without pay. Six-sevenths Of the
session have thus passed; but that any
thing else has passed we cannot now re-
member. Reams Of reports and bills are
on the general orders of one House or the
other, some Of them of great importance
and value-eeveral have been sent to Com
mittee of the Whole or to Select Commit
tees to report complete; but two.thirds of
the proper business of the session remains
Enacted on; nine tenths of it undisposed
Of Above all, the MAINE LAw-for which
more citizens have peItioned than for every
thing else added together-has barely been
Get dswn for discussion at future day in
one House and not looked at in the other
and il 10 exultingIy proelaimel by its enc
mics that this great measure Of protection
and reformation is to be pitched overheard
under pretense of ,oant Of time for its due
consideration Meanwhile day after day is
spent ON the subject Of Canal Contracts,
which we see announced as the topic for
this day s consideration in the House.
We protest against this abuse of au-
tho1ity and waste of time. The Canal
Contracts are aot properly subject for
legislation at all. The People have seen
fit to confde that branch of their service to
body specially elected to control it and
named the Canal Board. OF that Board,
the Members of the Legislature are nsi-
Their cemponents nor (m their legislative
capacity constituents. They have no more
to do with pronourcing on the legality of
alleged Lettings or Contracts than Con-
vention Of EDITORS or Forwarders would
have. If they pronounce any Judgment in
the premises, we do not see how they are
to enforce it, nor what is to render it any.
thing but sheer waste-paper. The Canal
Board may be stupid, perverse, incompe-
tent or corrupt; but that is the business of
the People who filled its seats. We cannot
see why the Canal Board might not as prop
erly instruct the Legislature to pass such
and such laws as the Legislature direct the
Canal Board to confirm or reject such and
such awards. But that the Legislature,
perfectly aware that it will not find time to
dispatch its own business, should devote
weeks to the direction of other public SER
wants in the discharge Of their especial
duties, seems absurd beyond even Legisla-
tive precedent.
We say this with no regard to the right
or wrong Of the personal controversy which
has sprung up respecting the validity of de
late Canal Lettings. Our opinion that those
Contracts were as fairly awarded - usual.
more equally divided between parties than
has hitherto been common, and that they
are quite a. favorable to the State a. almost
any Of their predecessors have been, has
already been repeatedly expressed. That
personal favoritism had considerable influ-
eRce in their apportisnment is also plain to
our sight. But We are not the legal Judge
Of their validity, nor is the Legislature.
The duty Of recognizing or repudiating,
executing or annulling them, rests with the
Canal Beard, without appeal save to the
Courts of the State. Let the Board do its
duty in the premises; let the Courts, if ap-
pealed to, do theirs; but what the Legis.
lature can legitimatsly do about it. we can.
not imagine.
We enteat the Legislature to do its own
work promptly and faithfully. and let other
peoples alsne. 1t is not enough to show
that thing ought to be done it must be
shown that they are empowered to do it, be-
fore they can properly undertake it. And
mat they, in the last fortnight of the Ses-
son. with all their own business to do,
sno0ia 'save 1t untoushea while they spend
days n wrangiing over matters pertainins
wholly to the duties of another body Of
public servant'' is to the last degree pre-
posterous-
20! the Legislature viii get through
with all it, business somehow y sav, ona
Yes, Sir but the how is the vital matter.
In the annual crush Of . hundred or moro
bills At the heel Of the Session. maasures