NEW YORK. 



597 



money or rewards of any kind for preference in 



tliu distribution of water." 



The receipts for the two years 1878-'75 were 

 $92,658.65; expenditures, $90,839.90; total 

 indebtedness, $98,812.'Js (x.v.t,:>nti funded ut lo 

 per cent.). An undue portion of the public 

 funds is expended for fees of officers, a fact to 

 which the Governor directs the attention of 

 tho Legislature. In 1876 Trinidad Romero, 

 Republican, was chosen Delegate to Congress 

 by a vote of 9,591 to 7,418 for Valdez, Demo- 

 crat. The Legislature has 8 Republicans and 

 6 Democrats in the Council, and 19 Repub- 

 lic ins and 7 Democrats in the House. 



NEW YORK. The annual session of the 

 Legislature of New York began on the 4th of 

 January, and came to a close on the 3d of 

 May. The two amendments to the constitu- 

 tion proposed by the Legislature of 1875, pro- 

 s' i ling for a Superintendent of Public Works 

 and a Superintendent of State-prisons, were 

 agreed to, and a joint resolution was adopted 

 submitting them to a vote of the people at the 

 next election. A new amendment was also 

 proposed, to be added to Article IX., and is as 

 follows: 



SECTION 2. Free common schools shall be main- 

 tained throughout the State, forever. The Legisla- 

 ture shall provide for the instruction in the branches 

 of elementary education, in such schools, of all per- 

 sons in the State, between the ages of five and 

 twenty-one years, for the period of at least twenty- 

 eix'lit weeks in each year. 



SKO. 3. Neither the money, property, nor credit of 

 the State, nor of any county, city, town, village, or 

 school-district, shall be given, loaned, or leased, or 

 be otherwise applied to the support or aid of any 

 school or instruction under the control or in charge 

 of any church, sect, or denomination, or religious 

 society ; nor to or in aid of any school in which in- 

 struction is given peculiar to any church, creed, 

 sect, or denomination, or to or in aid of any such in- 

 struction ; nor to or in aid of any school or instruc- 

 tion not wholly under the control and supervision, 

 and in charge, of the public school authorities. This 

 section shall not prohibit the Legislature from mak- 

 ing such provision for the education of the blind, 

 the deaf and dumb, and juvenile delinquents, as it 

 nviy deem proper, except in institutions in which 

 instruction is given peculiar to any church, creed, 

 sect, denomination, or religious society j nor shall 

 it apply to or affect the Cornell University endow- 

 ment-fund, hitherto pledged and appropriated. 



A joint resolution was adopted proposing 

 another amendment to the constitution, which 

 provides that no county or city shall become 

 indebted to an amount, including existing in- 

 debtedness, which shall exceed five per cent, 

 of the assessed valuation of the real estate of 

 the city or county subject to taxation. Any 

 city or county whose present indebtedness ex- 

 ceeds five per cent, of the assessed valuation 

 of its real estate, the amendment provides, 

 shall not be allowed to become indebted to any 

 further amount until such indebtedness is re- 

 duced to the prescribed limit. 



Among the important acts passed was one 

 for the equalization of assessments. It regu- 

 lates the proceedings of State Assessors, and 

 the forms and methods of making appeals from 



their decisions. A final appeal to the Supreme 

 Court is provided for. An act amendatory of 

 the law of 1874, relating to the care and cus- 

 tody of the insane, contains a provision that 

 whenever any person under sentence of death 

 shall be declared insane and irresponsible by a 

 commissioner duly appointed for that purpose, 

 the Governor may in his discretion order bio 

 removal to the State Lunatic Asylum for In- 

 sane Criminals. The amendment further de- 

 clares that the criminal shall u there remain 

 until restored to his right mind, and it shall 

 be the duty of the medical superintendent of 

 such asylum whenever, in his opinion, said 

 convict is cured of his insanity, to report the 

 fact to the State Commissioner in Lunacy, and 

 a justice of the Supreme Court of the district 

 in which said asylum is situated, who shall 

 thereupon inquire into the truth of such fact, 

 and if the same be proved to their satisfaction, 

 they shall so certify it under their official 

 hands and seals to the clerk of the court in 

 which such convict was sentenced, and cause 

 him, the said convict, to be returned to the 

 custody of the sheriff of the county whence 

 he came and at the expense thereof, there to 

 be dealt with according to law." 



An act was also passed providing that in 

 criminal trials and examinations before trial 

 a husband or wife may be examined as a wit- 

 ness in behalf of the other, but shall not be 

 compelled to testify against the other. An- 

 other act provides that in a suit for criminal 

 conversation the wife of a plaintiff may be a 

 witness for the defendant, but shall not dis- 

 close any confidential communication had with 

 her husband only. Among other acts passed 

 was one prohibiting the employment of chil- 

 dren under sixteen years of age as acrobats, 

 gymnasts, peddlers, beggars, or in any im- 

 moral or dangerous vocation ; one repealing 

 the act of 1871 incorporating the Sisterhood 

 of Gray Nuns, and one making it an offense 

 punishable by fine to alter a ballot at a town 

 or county election with a view to deceiving 

 the voter. Several bills which occupied a good 

 deal of attention were defeated, including a 

 new apportionment act, distributing the rep- 

 resentation in the Senate and Assembly. A 

 commission consisting of Sinclair Tousey, Geo. 

 R. Babcock, Archibald C. Nevin, and Louis J. 

 Pillsbury, was created to investigate the con- 

 dition and management of State-prisons, and 

 report to the next Legislature. 



No new action was taken in the matter of 

 canal reform. The twelve special reports of 

 the Investigating Commission, made in 1875, 

 were submitted, together with a general report 

 summarizing the results of that inquiry, and 

 recommending certain changes in manage- 

 ment. Governor Tilden also submitted a spe- 

 cial message on the 24th of March, recommend- 

 ing several measures of canal reform, but noth- 

 ing was done on the subject during the session. 



The Prison Commission spent several 

 months in investigation, and made a report 



