MARYLAND. 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



475 



been given to similar taxation as takes this case out 

 of the claimed exemption. 



The decision of the court was against the 

 State on all these points. 



A case involving the validity of the local- 

 option law was decided by the Court of Ap- 

 peals in May. The appellant had been indicted 

 for selling liquor in a district where a majority 

 of the citizens had voted against permitting 

 such sale, and claimed that the law was uncon- 

 stitutional and void because it delegated to the 

 legal voters the power of making the law. 

 The court admitted that the Legislature was 

 the sole law-making power, and presented, as 

 the point to be settled, whether the local-op- 

 tion law did delegate any part of that power. 

 Chief-Justice Bartol said : 



The voters have by the act neither power to make 

 nor repeal laws. Their opinion is merely expressed 

 on the subject-matter to which the law relates. 

 They declare no consequences, prescribe no penal- 

 ties, and exercise no legislative functions. The 

 consequences are declared in the law, and are ex- 

 clusively the result of the legislative will. The act 

 is a perfect and complete law, as it left the halls of 

 legislation and was approved by the Governor, but 

 it was made to go into operation in any district upon 

 the contingency of the approval of its legal voters. 

 The question resolves itself into this : May the Leg- 

 islature constitutionally enact a law and make its 

 operation depend upon the contingency of the pop- 

 ular vote? The court says that it has never been 

 denied that the Legislature can provide that an act 

 shall take effect at some future day, or until the hap- 

 pening of some particular event, or in some contin- 

 gency thereafter to arise. 



After referring to various precedents the 

 court further said that it could " discover no 

 sufficient reasons to declare the act in question 

 unconstitutional or inoperative. To pronounce 

 so would, in their judgment, be contrary to 

 sound reason, as well as at variance with the 

 previous decisions of this cour." 



The arbitrators appointed to settle the boun- 

 dary-line between Maryland and Virginia held 

 several meetings during the year, the last be- 

 ing at Saratoga Springs, in July and August. 

 The proceedings were interrupted by the death 

 of the Hon. William A. Graham, one of the 

 arbitrators on the part of Virginia, which 

 made it necessary to await the further action 

 of the Legislatures of the two States. 



JOHN LEE CAREOLL, elected Governor of Ma- 

 ryland for the term of four years from January, 

 1876, is a great-grandson of Charles Carroll of 

 Carrollton, one of the signers of the Declara- 

 tion of Independence, and resides in Dough ora- 

 gan Manor, in Howard County, which has been 

 the property of his family since the Revolution, 

 and comprises 12,000 acres. He was born on 

 his grandfather's estate of Homewood, near 

 Baltimore, in September, 1830. He began his 

 education at St. Mary's Seminary, whence he 

 went to Georgetown College, and then to Mount 

 St. Mary's, near Emmittsburg. Afterward he 

 spent a year in the Law School of Harvard 

 University, and, returning to Baltimore, entered 

 the law-office of Brown & Brune, and was ad- 



mitted to the bar in 1851. He subsequently 

 went to New York to practise law, and accept- 

 ed the position of Deputy Clerk and ex-officio 

 United States Commissioner under Judge Betts. 

 His father, Charles Carroll, died in 1862, leav- 

 ing him sole executor of his estate. He then 

 returned to his old home, after residing two 

 years in New York. He began his public career 

 in 1851, when he was a candidate for the Legis- 

 lature, but was defeated by the Know-Nothing 

 party. He was first elected in 1867 from his 

 county to the Legislature, and, after serving 

 four years, was reflected in 1871. He was presi- 

 dent of the State Senate at the session of 1874. 

 Mr. Carroll is a man of rare intelligence and 

 cultivation, and has interested himself in all 

 measures of public improvement. 



MASSACHUSETTS. The regular session of 

 the Legislature of Massachusetts began on the 

 6th of January, and occupied 134 days, coming 

 to an adjournment on the 19th of May. Two 

 hundred and forty-three acts and 78 resolves 

 were passed, all of which received the approval 

 of the Governor. Of the acts 186 were of a 

 public and 57 of a special character. Very 

 few were of general interest or importance. 

 The subject which occupied the largest share 

 of attention was the repeal of the acts pro- 

 hibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors, and 

 providing for a State constabulary force. This 

 had been the leading issue in the election of 

 1874, in which the prohibitionists had been 

 defeated. The two propositions before the 

 Legislature on this subject were a bill repeal- 

 ing the constabulary act and providing for a 

 State detective force ; and another repealing 

 the prohibitory law, and providing for the 

 regulation of the liquor-tramc under a license 

 system. The former was passed and received 

 the approval of the Governor on the 13th of 

 February. It provides for the appointment by 

 the Governor of thirty State detectives, under 

 the charge of a chief of the State detective 

 force. These detectives have the powers of 

 constables and police throughout the State, 

 and are required to aid in the detection of 

 crime and the pursuit of criminals. The Gov- 

 ernor is authorized to call upon them to sup- 

 press riots and preserve the peace, and is also 

 empowered to invoke the aid of the constables 

 and police of towns and cities for the same 

 purpose within their respective towns and 

 cities. Other acts relating to a State police or 

 constabulary are formally repealed. > The act 

 to regulate the sale of intoxicating liquors 

 prohibits all such sale without license, and au- 

 thorizes but does not require the mayor and 

 aldermen of cities, and the selectmen of towns, 

 to grant licenses to such persons as they may 

 deem fit Among the conditions of the license 

 are these : that no liquor shall be sold between 

 the hours of twelve at night and six in the morn- 

 ing, or on Sunday, except by innholders to their 

 guests ; no liquor shall be sold or kept except 

 of good standard quality and free from adul- 

 teration ; no liquor shall be sold or given to a 



