Commissioner of Agriculture. 9 



tion shall not apply to any of the military department bureaus 

 or military offices of the State. 



2. Whenever required by the governor, attend in person, or by 

 one of his deputies, a court of oyer and terminer or appear before 

 the grand jury thereof for the purpose of managing and conduct- 

 ing in such court or before such jury such criminal actions or pro- 

 ceedings as shall be specified in such requirement; in which case 

 the attorney-general or his deputy so attending shall exercise all 

 the powers and perform all the duties in respect of such actions 

 or proceedings, which the district attorney would otherwise be 

 authorized or required to exercise or perform; and in any of such 

 actions or proceedings the district attorney shall only exercise 

 such powers and perform such duties as are required of him by 

 the attorney-general or the deputy attorney-general so attending. 



§ 2. Section fifty-five of said executive law is hereby amended 

 to read as follows: 



§ 55. Additional counsel.— The governor or attorney-general 

 may designate and employ such additional attorneys or counsel 

 as may be necessary to assist in the transaction of any of the 

 legal business mentioned in section fifty-two of this act and such 

 attorneys or counsel shall be paid from the treasury a reasonable 

 fee upon the certificate of the governor and attorney-general, 

 the amount thereof to be audited and allowed by them or may be 

 paid by the attorney-general out of the costs recovered by Mm. 



§ 3. This act shall take effect immediately. 



An act similar to this was passed as a part of the appropriation 

 bill in 1894 and was ve+oed at that time by Governor Flower 

 in a well considered message to the Legislature. After the 

 passageofthepresentact,andbefore its approval by the Governor, 

 I took pains to file in the Executive Chamber my emphatic protest 

 against the adoption of this act as far as the work of this Depart- 

 ment was concerned. I have not changed my views on the subject 

 during the past season in which we have been under its workings. 



I believe that this Department should be left free at all times 

 to employ its own counsel, as the necessities of the work require, 

 unhampered in any way. The relations of the Department and 

 the Attorney-General's office during the year have been the most 

 cordial at all times, and our applications for the appointment of 

 counsel have uniformly met with prompt attention from that office, 

 but as we are required in all cases before commencing a prosecu- 

 tion to first make a case and then report it to the Attorney- 



