St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1867-11-15
For the CalcdoRian.
The Legislature.
MONTPELIER. Nov. -, 1861

bradford. in regard to justices OF the
peace and town representative, have oc-
cupiel considerable time, and elected
some questions of law which may serve
rs prccedcnts hereafter. The case of the
justices of the peace went before the cam
wasting committee provided for in the
constitution, and whose duties are there
defined to be, "to examine the consta-
ble's certificate and ascertain the num-
Der of votes given for each candidate, and
the persons receiving the largest number
of votes for the respective offices shall be
declared duly elected, and by such COM
,nittce be reported to the general assem-
bly,"
The conStable's certificate showed Ger
tain persons elected The first question
was whether the committee could 90
back of this certificate, and see if the
parties casting these votes were all legal
voters. The committee decided they
could Tie next question was whether
tbs committee could revise the decision
of the board of civil authority in admit
ting persons to Or rejecting them from
enrolment upon the check list under the
registry law. The committee decided
hey bad that power, if it could he shown
that the board had ti1tmluLptIy admitted
or reei,:erct any person, but the com
nittee found 10 such fraud. There Wa
but one copy OF testimony taken to be
used in boil! cases and this was first Of
fired for use before the committee OIL
elections. 1t WIS objected that it could
no, be used before the canva>-ing COM
mitee. or in other words. that dpposi-
tons could not be taken So they could
he used III two different cases. The Oh
jtc!ion WAS sustained, but the committee
allowed thc contestants 10 bring the wit
uesscs before them, as there is no >tatu-
taFy law regarding testimony before that
1t resulted in the committee
finding that none OF the persons who ap-
pearcd by the constable's certificate to
have received the largest number OF votes,
were elected, and but two of rhe other or
republican ticket, other candidates hay
ing received the same number of votes.
The joint assembly elected two more
justices OF tie peace who are republicans
AMI three who are democrats. The
same Or nearly the same questions have
arisen before the committee on elections.
in regard to the representative, and de-
cided in the same way, but no final re-
suit has been reached
The hearing on the application for the
Burden railroad is still progressing. The
evidence was closed this evening and two
arguments made. 1t is hoped the COM
ni;tee will be able to make their report
the last OF the week The committee
on railroads are full of business. They
still hold the various town enabling acts,
80 the legislature has thus Tar taken no
action on this class Of legislation except
ing ON the act enabling towns to aid in
the construction of the I.amoile valley
railroad. 1t is expected that opposition
will be made TO all acts of the kind in
The house. The senate passed the act in
the Lamoille valley case by larger ma
Jority than lis friends anticipaied-the
vote standing 2! for TO Q agains. it. The
Governor returned the bill. with his ap-
prevail, to the house to-day.s
A bill repeating the usury law of the
state. and providing that where no con-
tract Is made regarding interest. it shall
be as Row, SIX per cent, but allowing
parties to contract for any rate of inter-
est, was reported by the committee Of
ways and means as q substitute for bill
raising the legal rate to eli ght per cent.
Ihat came up as Il special order in the
house this afternoon and was debated at
len4th, but no vote was taken. 1t comes
up AGAIN Tomorrow. | hear no estimate
made as to the probability or otherwise,
Of lis passage. 1t Is generally conceded
that the law as it now stands is almost
universally violated lis advocates claim
that the price to be paid for the use of
money, like the price Of every other COM
mcrcial commodity, has its market value,
which is regulated by the supply and de-
mand and the risk of the lender and the
need of the borrower, and that all at
tempts to Iegi>late on the subject, fail to
accomplish the object aimed at; that our
law as it now stands tends to lock ND all
surplus capital in government bonds, or
drive it to other states where the rate IS
higher, for investment and that if this
law was repealed, and the use of capital
so be governed by the usual laws of
trade, the supply would be more plenty,
and thus the borrower favored. The op-
ponents of the measure claim that the
borrower does not stand on an equality
with the lender in making a contract for
the use of capital that the unmerciful
capitalist will take advantage of the
pinching necessities of the borrower. to
the ruin of the latter, and therefore the
law should step in to protect the bor-