The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1874-07-15
AailgYerala
d. @. McLURE, Editor.
LEaIsLATIyE OMIssION.


lawspripted, or written, IN very small
alIasastdsA, and exposed them on high
plsces whore II wac imposlble thatthe
Heoile could rad them, and then, with
"A tlIe cgncI icliglitof b tyfant Inflicted
the seyerest penalties upon those who
violated the provisions OF his edlcts,
This has always been Justly regarded
M one OF the most odlous and lndeion'
slble acts Of tyrenny % be found on
record. NJ hW
The action 81 the recent legislature
In reference tothe publication of the
laws enacted by II, approximates TO n
certain degree TO the policy Of Gesler
The legislature met early In January
last sis ,nonths ago; II Is fair 70 pre-
u,sppio that ltwcnt TO work on legIsla-
ton, and that during the FIST month
some laws of general Interest were
adopted. II NO the chances are that
many citizens have been living for
Ave months In daily violation of laws
of which they have no knowledge
whatever. For instance, we have been
Informed that n game law was passed,
making IL n penal offence TO kill birds
Ofa certain kind In certain specified
months. IL our informant IL correct
M TO the provisions Of the law, II hes
been ilagrantly violated by parties
about here, who we see coming In reg
ularly with strings Of birds said to be
under the protection OF the law. These
sportsmcn are ignorant Of the fact that
they are making themselves amenable
to prosecution In the criminal court
yet they were broughtup for trial ID
that court their honest plea of ignor-
ance would avail them nothing For
the universal rule, and wise and nee
essary one-itis, is that Ignorance Of the
law excuses no man. Would the state
however, be doing strict justice In
Furnishing man under the circum-
stances suggested? We hardly think
any ono of our legislators would an
swer this question afllrmatively. it
The legislature, W. we understand II,
made no provision for having the gem
eral laws publshedin any of the news
papers II the state. They viii be pub
=. l.. . d l.. ~
lished some time or other IN book form
by the public printer, and can be pro-
cured from him at Houston ut the mod
crate price Of two dollars per single
copy. This, In effect, amounts to a
prohibition upon the mass Of the peo-
Pile ever knowing what the laws are
unless, perchance, they may happen
to be dragged up for the violation OF
some Of them. y Y =
Why Is thise Why did not the leg
islature make provision to have the
general laws published by the press of
tha,statees The answer Of those who
profess to be acquainted with the cause
il that It would have cost too much (;
that the state could not afford to make
the outlay necessary for the purpose.
The legislature that reasoned this way
must have had very poor opinion Of
the laws they passed; they thought
they we're not worth publishing.
But II the state Is really so poor, this
very necessary expenditure, as we re-
gard 1t, could have been met by econo-
mizing in something else. For in
stance, If the legislature had hurried
up its work a little, and cut It's session
ten days shorter, which could very well
have been done, there would have been
o saving, of atleas twelve thousand dol
lars to the. state, That amount would
have snfilced 70 secure the publication
ofthe general laws ID at least fifty pa
pers in hesitate, unless the volume Of
laws is much larger than we appre-
bend it to be. Or the amount paid to
the colored assistant doorkeeper of the
senate, who kept door mostly down in
the basement, would have sutliced to
publish the most important laws of the
session In at least one paper, from
which the other papers of the state
could have copied them for the infor-
nation of their readers.