600 



NEW JERSEY. 



kind, of the right of suffrage. Members of the 

 Legislature shall be elected on the first Tues- 

 day in November, and they shall receive $500 

 annually during the time for which they are 

 elected, and no other allowance or emolument, 

 for any other purpose whatever, shall be al- 

 lowed them. No law shall be revived or 

 amended by reference to its title only, but the 

 act revived or the section amended shall be 

 inserted at length, in the bill. No general 

 law shall embrace any provision of a private, 

 special, or local character. No act shall be 

 passed which shall provide that any existing 

 law, or any part thereof, shall be made or 

 deemed a part of the act ; nor shall any act be 

 passed which enacts that any existing law, or 

 any part thereof, shall be applicable, except by 

 inserting it in such act. The Legislature shall 

 provide for the maintenance and support of a 

 thorough and efficient system of free public 

 schools for the instruction of all the children 

 of the State between the ages of five and 

 eighteen years. The assent of three-fifths of 

 the members of each House of the Legislature 

 shall be required for the passage of every law 

 for granting, continuing, altering, amending, 

 or renewing charters for banks or similar cor- 

 porations ; and all such charters shall be lim- 

 ited to twenty years. 



The Legislature shall not pass private, local, 

 or special laws, regulating the internal affairs 

 of towns and counties, appointing local offices 

 or commissions to regulate municipal affairs, 

 impaneling grand or petit jurors, or granting 

 to any corporation, association, or individual, 

 any exclusive privilege whatever, but may pass 

 general laws providing for all such cases. 

 Property shall be assessed for taxes under gen- 

 eral laws, and by uniform rules, according to 

 its true value. If any bill passed by the Legis- 

 lature and presented to the Governor contain 

 several items of appropriation of money, the 

 Governor may object to one or more of such 

 items while approving other portions of the bill. 

 The Governor of the State shall not be elected 

 by the Legislature to any office during the term 

 for which he shall have been elected Governor. 

 Judges of the inferior Court of Common Pleas 

 shall be appointed by the Governor. The 

 State Treasurer shall hold office three years. 

 The keeper of the State-prison is to be nom- 

 inated by the Governor. Sheriffs and coroners 

 shall be elected for three years, and sheriffs 

 shall annually renew their bonds. No county 

 shall be divided, or have any part taken from 

 it, unless a majority of the people of the county 

 so consent. An elector must be a resident of 

 the district in which he lives for thirty days 

 prior to an election before he can vote. No 

 member of the Legislature shall, during his 

 term, be nominated or appointed by the Gov- 

 ernor or the Legislature to any civil office in 

 the State which, shall have been created, or its 

 emoluments increased, during the time for 

 which he was elected. No act of the Legisla- 

 ture shall limit the amount to be recovered for 



injuries resulting in death, or for injuries to- 

 person or property. No act shall prescribe 

 limitation of time within which suits may be 

 brought against corporations for injuries to 

 person or property, or for other causes, dif- 

 ferent from that fixed by the general laws. 

 No trust funds shall be invested in the bonds 

 or stock of any private corporation, unless such 

 investment be authorized by the person creat- 

 ing the trust. The Legislature may establish 

 a court or courts with original jurisdiction over 

 all cases of condemnation of lands and assess- 

 ments for improvements. There shall not be 

 more than two justices of the inferior Court 

 of Common Pleas in any county in the State. 

 Not more than two justices of the peace shall 

 be elected in a township, nor more than one 

 in a city ward, and the Legislature shall pre- 

 scribe by law the qualifications necessary for 

 such justices to possess, and also provide for 

 the summary suspension of justices of the peace 

 for misconduct in office. No amendment to 

 the charter of any municipal corporation shall 

 be received by the Legislature after thirty days 

 from the first day of the meeting thereof, pub- 

 lic notice of which must be previously given. 

 No act of the Legislature shall take effect until 

 the 4th day of July next after its passage, un- 

 less by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses. 



By act approved March 27, 1874, the Legis- 

 lature authorized and directed the sale of the 

 famous iron war- vessel known as the Stevens 

 Battery, which has been in the course of con- 

 struction since 1843, and which was originally 

 designed by R. L. and E. A. Stevens, and left, 

 by the will of the latter, to the State of New 

 Jersey. The present dimensions of the vessel 

 are : Length, 400 feet ; beam, 45 feet ; depth, 

 24$ feet ; boilers, 10 feet ; engines, 4 feet ; 

 maximum horse-power, 6,000. The battery 

 was nearly rebuilt by General George B. 

 McClellan. About $2,500,000 has been ex- 

 pended upon the vessel, and it is estimated 

 that about $300,000 more will be necessary to 

 complete it as a war-vessel, or $200,000 as a 

 mer ch ant- vessel. 



The vessel having been offered for sale, the 

 bids were opened November 2d, when it was 

 found that the highest sum absolutely offered 

 was $105,000. A conditional offer of $145,000, 

 however, was made by the United States Sec- 

 retary of the Navy, subject to the approval of 

 Congress, and their appropriation for the pur- 

 chase. An arrangement was thereupon made 

 with the highest absolute bidder, by which his 

 offer will be held in abeyance, in order to af- 

 ford the United States sufficient time within 

 which to secure the vessel. 



The Republican State Convention was held 

 in Trenton, on the 27th of August, when 

 George A. Halsey was unanimously nominated 

 as candidate for Governor. The resolutions 

 adopted are as follows : 



Resolved, That the Eepublicans of New Jersey, in 

 entering upon a local contest for the political control 

 of the State, at a time midway between two national 



