The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-06-02

The Results and the Prospect G0r
Reform.
On Friday morning last at four o'clock,
after an all-night session, with the rush and
hurry and noise and confusion of Bedlam, and
after protracted existence of one hun
dred and forty-four days. our 'Long Parlia-
ment' at Albany finally adjourned and dis
persed. In its results. compared with many
of its predecessors it has been success; but
measured by its boastful trumpetings, its lofty
promises and the ''great expectations" OF a
confiding people, We may justly affirm that It
went up like rocket and came down like the
stick. All things considered, it has done, per-
haps, as well as could be expected; but hold
ing it to rigid accountability, its record will
not without many scratchings, pass an honest
inspection. Experience had taught us not to
be over-sanguine of great things from this
Legislature when coming in, and so We are not
among the disappointed on its going out
''You may polish the Russian" said the great
Napoleon, "but if you scratch him you will
find him still Tartar" BY this token we are
not greatly surprised that this extraordinary
not for its straightforward commencing its
labors in January with all the gravity of the
Joint High Commission, closed its delibera-
tons on the verge Of June, with all the buff
foonery of circus.
While such important measures were pend
ing in the Assembly as the Supply bill and
the bill in relation to the Elmira Reformatory
"a bill singularly appropriate to the occasion)
the House was engaged in q provincial bur-
lesque Of ''Humpty Dumpty." Brimming over
with youthful hilarity, many Of the members
had provided themselves with small tin
trumpets, ''squawkers," penny whistles, fish
horns and children's Christmas rattles-these
rattles being very convenient because the
member possessing one while looking the
Speaker honestly in the face and calling for
'order," could, with one hand under his
desk, keep up distracting din without detec-
ira of rattles, squawkers, whistles and fish
horns, combined with the chorus of sOld
Bob Ridley" Indian warwhoops, crowings,
cacklings, barkings calls to order and uproar-
ious laughter, accompanied by the incessant
rapping Of the Speakers hammer, was doubt
less exceedingly amusing, but it was q dis
graceful spectacle. 1t was scene, moreover,
strongly suggestive of Indifference, reckless
ness and unfitness for their duties on the part
of our lawmakers at the very time when the
closest attention to the public business was
demanded From Washington to our remot-
est Territory the lobby jobbers, from the con-
fusion and abandon of the last night of leg
islative session, seldom fail to gather profit
able harvest, while measures of great moment
are CONTEMPORARY cast aside. But these
scenes at Albany of Thursday night and Fri
day morning last apart from any schemes of
spoliation which they may have served to
cover, are scandalous and calculated only to
bring the laws themselves, with the fountains
of the law, into public contempt and derision.
We did not anticipate, on the meeting Of
this "Long Parliament" this incongruous
assemblage Of reformers, that they would
inaugurate the millennium in the Albany State
House or in our City Hall and we are not
surprised that, as a rule, in Senate and As
sembly, bill which would not pay could not
pass. After many trials and tribulations and
much wrangling between the two houses and
the several cliques and coteries of reformers
thereof, we have secured new city charter
and its supplements, in which there are some
practical reforms but it must be confessed
that we are indebted for these things not so
much to patriotic devotion to the public
interests by our legislative servants as to the
necessities for compromise between the
contending factions for the offices and the
spoils If the general result is piece Of
mosaic patchwork marvellous to behold there
is yet something in it that promises to stick
We must, however, await the test of fair
trial before we can safely pronounce Judgment
upon this new charter. Let it have fair
trial, and meantime let us not forget the
good old maxim that Half loaf is better
than no bread" Our lawmakers, like other
men, labor for the profits Of their vocation.
They consent, yea, they seek to serve, the
State at Albany, because they expect to make
it pay, and many of them do make it pay
handsomely. A fixed compensation to the
legislator which does not cover his board bill
is not in this view very powerful incentive
to vigilance against measures that have
money in them, and should he, on his short
rations, prefer divide or dividend to a
retrenchment or o reform, we need not despair
Of the Republic. In the good old times Of
'the Forty Thieves" every man of them was
charged as feathering his own nest through
any ring or combination that would serve.
Things have been bravely altered since that
day, but still 'sNumber One is the law para
mount, the supreme law Of the land, and the
grand idea even of reform in every legislative
body.
We hold therefore, that our "Long Parlia-
ment' at Albany, considering what it might
have done in Jobs and rings and such good