New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-04-15
THE DODGE AT ALBANY.

We believe there il no State in the Union which gets
its legislation done cheaper per capita than our own and
We hope there ia no one that gets poorer penny worth
in that shape than this same Empire.
There ,cas a time-nay, there have been times-vhen
such men as David b. Ogden Henry Wheaton, Gulan
c. Verplanck. Willis Hall, Samuel B. Ruggles Dudley
Selden &C. were among City's representatives at
Albany: we have another kind now and really
not consider the change improvement Tastes dit
fer we know and opinions asoif any disagree with us
on this point we have 10 desire to quarrel with their
conyiction-we merely state our own.
The Reformed Constitution OF $40 was framed for
the most part BY men of legislative well az general
experimentation who knew what time is fairly requisite
for the annual legislation of State and provided ac-
cordingly They knew that our previous legislatures
had generally remained sitting too long, and they deter
mined to guard against that abuse for the future Care
fully providing for general instead of special laws OF In
corporation &c, they decided that any reasonably In
dustrious Legislature could make many laws in One
Hundred DAYS as the People could read mark, nwardy
digest and faithfully obey in all the balance OF the
year. So they prescribed-not that each Legislature
should be restricted One Hundred Days but that the
daily pay should stop at the expiration of that term,
leaving the Legislature disposed 20 close up It's unfinished
business rather rapidly thereafter. They said in sub
stance "YOu shall be paid but for One Hundred Days,
gentlemen if you fail to complete your business in that
time, you shall finish it ct your own cost"-And this
Constitutional provision was ratified with scarcely
nurmur of dissent by the People.
Yet now we see a Legslature-the seventh sitting I'm
der this Constitution and sworn to obey and uphold it
deliberately evade circumvent and violate this portion
of IT, and put their hands into the Treasury in defiance
Of IFS restraining Injunction Alas that the Governor
20 ha +bair accnnnlicpi
There has been no former session under present
Constitution where the pretexs for proongng the term
we're more fimsy and preposterous. This Legsla-
ture bad comparatively little to do and has hardly
touched even that little The Liquor Traffic, the Re-
formed Code of Practice and sun1ry other important
subjects have either been surred over, just taken up
TO be set down again The Canal Enlargement is the
only important subject which the Legislature has really
devoted ITSELF and even on that it has brought nothing to
pass At last having trhed away twO.hrds of its al
lotted time and misimprOved the residue it adjourns
without day as soon as its SO stipend is cut off, leaving
the Canal question undecided, the Appropriation bill
unpassed and every thing at skies and seyens The OBJ
cct of course was to coerce the Governor into calling an
Extra Session. in order to enable the gentlemen to go
on with their soldering and pocket So each per day
1t is the mcanest strike for wages ever heard OF
And worst Of ALL it has through the GO7ernors weak
ness proved successful. The confederaes pocket the
money and laugh at the Constitution. They have
doubled Point Stop-Wages and may now go on egslat-
ing for another hundred days il they think proper.
Gov Seymour has done very wrong The same game
had been'tred on Of his Wing predecessors
without success They always met with decided in
timation that it wouldn't DO and so nipped the con-
spiracv in the bud Had Gov Seymour done likewise
one little week ago. the seeming necessity for this Extra
Session would have been obviated And even if it had
not he ought not TO have given way lie shond have let
the gentlemen gone home to explain their conduct to
their constituents and sent them there meet
again about the middle ofJune whenever they would
be likely to 90 on with their labors most assduOusy
Whatever temporary Inconvenience would have been
experienced in consequence the permanent good would
have more than balanced it, 1t would have saved fu-
ture Governors much bother and the State no little
expense.
One of these days. it will begin to be suspected
that a man may be quite shrewd horsejockey or
seryiceabe tapster without being exactly the man for
lawmaker IL may come to be asked whether an am-
bilious youth who spent singe day in studying
and rejecting on the principles of Legislation is hit to
make laws merely because he is in with the keepers
of two or three popular gcg shops, aud so is sure to
"put through" his ticket at primary meeting lt
NAV even be suspected that the State cannot afford &c
take the greenest of apprentices to the awmakng
business even at the low price OF 50 per day We
know such day is yet at some distance in the future
but this Albany dodge has brought 1t much nearer than
il seemed week ago. Work and wait.