New-York tribune., 1876-05-04
TIE JEGJSL4TTRE.

II is the usual verdict when q Legislature OF
this State adourns that the most credtable
act of its career was the resolution to dlsperse
and 60 home. The body which disappeared
from practical politics yesterday offers TO ex-
ception to the general rule. We cannot say
that much was ever expected OF 1t. WIN
some good elements it contained the material
for a great deal of mischief and scandal, and
it's bad propensties were aggravated by the
neculiar character of its internal diSsensiOns.
Not only were the two Houses habitually mt
cross purposes with the Governor, but there
were ugly family quarrels in the majority in
each. and among them all q pretty effective
determination was evinced to thwart whatever
reform tendencies may have appeared. The
Legislature therefore began work badly, ana
persevered in doing ill up to the last moment,
ACCOMPLISHING little or nothing of what was
promised and vowed for it by its political
sponsors during the campaign. but organizing
an efficient Ring of honorable strikers, whose
operations, though quite visible to outsiders,
the Legislature itself WAS unable TO discover
According to custom, the most important
measures Of tn, session were purposely left
for the last noisy and confusing hours when
it was impossible to consider them. The APP
portionment BILL the NewYork City Charter,
the Green bill, and the Rapid Transit bill
we're thus among the projects which tie mem
Jers were asked to pass upon after they had
cmptied their desks, sorted out their railroad
passes and begun the uprOar which always
precedes the final adjournment. II will be
some days before we learn how many JoDs
were pushed through one House or both III the
midst of disorder which resembles the riot
Gus small end of fast ball but some, we are
clad to know, were defeated. Here the dis
cord between legislators proved the good for
tune of the people. The failure of an Appor-
tionment bill, however, is serious matter.
The Constitution positively requires that the
State shall be redstricted by the Legislature
of 1876, and nothing but the persistent
dawdling and incapacity OF the Legislature
can explain the neglect to do it. Some OF the
most Objectionable features yet remaining IN
the Woodin charter were fortunately changed
in the last moments by the action OF the
Judiciary Committee; but the bill was rushed
through in hot haste that rendered careful
legislation impossible. These amendments
wero fully described in yesterdays TRIBUNE.
The defeat of the Rapid Transit bill was
probably the worst deed of the session, be-
cause it was most clearly caused by corrupt
influences. The people of New-fOrk have
been for half o generation trying to get de-
cent system of transporting passengers
through the streets of the metropolis, and
they have been constantly thwarted by n
Legislature which neither represents them,
nor knows what they need, nor cares for their
interests At last, after enormous difficulties,
n fair beginning is made, and when Dill Is
introduced to cure some minor defects which
the courts have discovered in the law author
izing the roads, tho horse-car companies go to
Albany with money in their pockets, and the
bill is killed. This is one of the most daring
wrongs upon the City of New-York which the
Legislature has ever committed. That an
assemblage of village lawyers, back-country
farmers, and rustic politicians up the Hudson,
many of whom never saw town till they
were sent to Albany, should be empowered to
regulate the internal concerns of the
nyincipal city of the Western Hemisphere,
decide how our police shall be organized and
Governed. prescribe tho material for paving
our streets (they passed an act the other day
forbiddng us to use anything but stone), de-
clare that q local officer whom we have elected
for certain term shall go out or stay in, just
as they think best, and poke their mcddlins
and pilfering fingers into affairs with which
neither they, nor the people of tho State at
large, nor anybody whatever except the resi-
dents and taxpayers of New-York City have
any concern, is o hideous anomaly for which
it is high time to seek remedy. The Com
mission which is now at work upon report
on municipal systems will probably give the
whole question of local self-government q
careful study, and we trust will point out the
road to the much needed reform. Every year