The Portland daily press., 1870-02-12

The person who ffom a sense Of daty reads
The dairy reports of legislative proceedinss
eAnnoi taA 10 h. imPFsssel b. the nsignih-
eancs 81 TIE iapics xhich occapY the greater
part ef he tiss and atteuiion q the House
sud senzts. These hodics assembled On the
sth 0f January. I've wesks snd haif aso.
Maanshiie ever hody has bo-n siFsek sy the
psrsisienry with whioh thoss marrow
riaasd whesis+ have Fuluhed and jolted over
he stseris 81 CierrJ acld. conspicuous As the
sbarlsf 81 Aehiiles while he was dragging
naaorh body round the walls Of Tfoy ar
lhss q AAeEander whca be treated a con-
saaFea cnrmy to an unpleasant experience Of
tAs same kind Of transportation. Nor does
"a Legislature on any day neglect 10 provide
N smith o. Jones may construct fish-wiers
a. sone Foint Of the 5000 miles Of Maine's
east me. Indeed, this fish question, inelud-
'ns The great eebaie on the porgie, receives as
mach attention as II every member were a
aiscip'e Of Agassiz, and was determined TO in
crease his brain power by the assimilation Of
tas phosphorus that the great naturalist be-
heses to be so valuable a constituent elemen.
IN the hnny tribe. Every piekerel in every
pond has bis representative at Augusta, and
beng by no means free trader, he demands
Protection Second vuiy 10 piscatorlaI ques.
uons tn Importance is that of "throwing slabs
and edgings into the brooks and rivers OF
oar good State-a thing which friends in hui
man form seem always to be doing while the
Legislature is ever forbidding. II we add to
our list OF prominent topics of Legislative
consideration the case of the man who wants
to build mill on an Aroostook plantation,
the man who wants to extend wharf into
Il lie waters, and of that other troublesome in
dvual who insists on making valid the extra
Judicial acts of some justice of the peace
and the name of each of these three is legion
we shall have nearly summed up the doiugs
Of both honorable bodies during the first five
weeks and a half of the session. Perhaps we
ought not to forget that the attempted usur-
patton Of regal authority by Mrs. Thu1ston
was successfully resisted, and that there was
much eloquence evolved in the course of the
discussion on coming to Portland to witness
the Peabody solempities. So that the legal
-, ~ "s"ss"sso HOHe CQfUt teI Gall no
longer be operative in Maine.
To do the Legislature justice and take
more serious view of the case, most of the
work OF the session so far has been done in
committee, where matters are being digested
for proper presentation to the two Houses.
No doubt, after important measures are re-.
ported they will receive prompt attention.
But it is obvious to everybody that private
and special legislation consumes ridiculous
ly large proportion of the time. When some
body's ingenuity has devised plan by which
the scope Of general laws shall be enlarged,
the Legislature will be spared the loss of
much valuable time and also the infliction of
lobby. An effort in the proper direction,
we are glad to see, is already made. The gen.
eral railroad law and the general law for the
formation of corporations, if passed, would
eliminate large amount of private business
from the legislative proceedings of each win
ter. OF course 1t is impossible to exclude all
trivialties, and there will always be men who
will want "a bounty on hawks"