New-York tribune., 1874-05-22
IMPELSIVE LEGISLATION.

1t was upon generous impulse that n mem
Der of the Connecticut Legislature the other
day moved an appropriation of $4,000 from
the State Treasury for the benefit OF the Mill
River Valley sufferers in Massachusetts, 1t
was under the influence of the same i'm
pulsvc generosity that the House of Repre-
sentatives passed It and hurried it to the Sem
ate, where it was also passed and sent to the
Governor, who signed it without delay, so
that the money was made Immediately avail
able for those whom it was intended to sue
cor. 1t was quite right to hurry the measure
through with as much rapidity as was con-
sistent with reasonable discussion of it, if
it was right to pass it at all. The circum-
stances were such as called for prompt and
speedy action in the offering of aid, and if it
was right and proper for the State of Con-
necticut to take money from its treasury for
that purpose, it was best to do it Immediately.
But, after all, public treasures are trust
placed in the hands of legislators, in the ad-
ministraton of which they are not supposed
to act upon impulse, generous or otherwise.
1t is hard to critcise a generous act like this
but it should be remembered that the highest
humanity consists in that far-reaching and
cear-seeing sagacity which, at the risk of
being misrepresented and misunderstood, re-
ssts the generous impulse OF the moment in
the interests of safe precedent and ultimately
greater good for the greater number.
Whether the mover of the resolution would
have been carried away by the same gener-
GUS impulse to appropriate from his own
funds propOrtionate sum, or whether the
members of the Legislature would have acted
so impulsivey had theirs been meeting of
stockholders, and the proposition one to ap-
propriate to charitable purposes the money of
a company in which they were pecuniarily in
teIested, are questions which it might be con-
sdered impertiDent to discuss. And yet they
point to considerations that are very proper
to be taken into account and carefully
weighed.
1t is SO easy to be liberal with other peoples
money or the money of the State. Men who
turn over their own money very carefully and
thoughtfully before burdening contribution
box with it, are ready to vote away other
peoples money upon mere impulse. and with
scarcely any delIberatiOn. There is a risk
that the member of the Legislature who op-
poses such generosity takes, that he will be
charged with meanness and ilhberality, and all
that, but that is risk which men do not
hesitate to assume when the contribution is to
be from their own funds, and the legislator
should not fear it. The ease with which Con-
gress and State Legislatures vote away money
is one of the crying evils of the times. The
case in point is an illustration of the manner
in which precedents for such action are estab-
Ished. 1t is an ungracious task to make even
suggestion of opposition to the generous act
of the Connecticut Legislature for it was
hearty, earnest, and sympathetic. But we are
in the midst of political period marked by
prevalent inseDsbility to the sacred character
of public trusts. The times are foul with
scandals arising from the practice which has
grown up among men in official stations of
treating National, State, aud Municipal treas