606 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



in 1877, published in April, 1878, it would ap- 

 pear that the present county system, especially 

 as compared with the previous town system, 

 is most beneficial to all concerned, being the 

 least expensive, and affording to the poor the 

 greatest amount of comfort and general welfare. 

 In order to ascertain the truth in the case, the 

 Legislature of 1878 appointed a special joint 

 committee, with power to hear testimony and 

 the parties interested. The committee reported 

 " that, alter many hearings and much consid- 

 eration of the subject, the system of county 

 support is found to be the best possible system 

 for our State to sustain, and is giving reason- 

 able satisfaction in all the counties of the State 

 except Merrimack ; and that in this one county 

 alone is a demand made to return to the town 

 system." 



Besides inquiring into the best method of 

 supporting State paupers, the Legislature of 

 this session has attended to the subject of va- 

 grancy, and taken decided action to put it 

 down by passing a law entitled "An Act to 

 punish Tramps," as follows: 



SECTION 1. Any person going about from place to 

 place, begging and asking or subsisting upon charity, 

 shall be taken and deemed to be a tramp, and shall 

 be punished by imprisonment at hard labor in the 

 State Prison not more than fifteen months. 



SEC. 2. Any tramp who shall enter any dwelling- 

 house, or kindle any fire in the highway or on the 

 land of another, without tlie consent of the owner or 

 occupant thereof, or shall be found carrying any fire- 

 arm or other dangerous weapon, or shall threaten to 

 do any injury to any person or to the real or personal 

 estate of another, shall be punished by imprisonment 

 at hard labor in the State Prison not more than two 

 years. 



_ SEC. 3. Any tramp who shall willfully and mali- 

 ciously do any injury to any person or to the real or 

 personal estate of another shall be punished by im- 

 prisonment at hard labor in the State Prison not 

 more than five years. 



SEC. 4. Any act of beggary or vagrancy by any 

 person not a resident of this State shall be evidence 

 that the person committing the same is a tramp 

 within the meaning of this act. 



SEC. 5. Any person, upon view of any offense de- 

 scribed in this act, may apprehend the offender and 

 take him before a justice of the peace for examina- 

 tion, and on his conviction shall be entitled to a 

 reward of ten dollars therefor, to be paid by the 

 county. 



SEC. 6. The mayor of every city and the selectmen 



r every town are hereby authorized and required to 

 special constables, whose duty it shall be to 



>pomt , 



st and prosecute all tramps in their respective 

 cities and towns. 



mn F ; 0< 7- J hi8 act gha11 not apply to any female, or 

 blind 1 " TrBon ^ f 8eventeen years, nor to any 



' ? P n n the P a * 9a e of t1lis act, the Secretary 

 shall cause printed copies of this act to be 



8cveratown and c ' fc y clerks > wh 





t c 'y cers > w 8a i 



s wine to be posted in at least six conspicu- 

 ' Whl h 8ha11 be on the 



ut W 1 take effect on and a < 



iarSS an . da11 L ;ct8 and P art8 of acts incon 

 it with this act are hereby repealed 

 Approved August 6, 1878. 



The art passed at the preceding session 

 aommonlY termed ' The Referee S 



by small causes are taken out of the judicial 

 proceedings in the ordinary courts, and al- 

 lowed to be heard and decided by a referee, 

 appears from its practical operation to be a 

 great benefit to the people; the Governor 

 stating in his message, " I am informed from 

 the highest authority that the small suits which 

 occupied so much time in the courts, and cre- 

 ated so much expense to the counties and the 

 litigants, are rapidly disappearing from the 

 dockets." 



The annual expenditures for the geological 

 survey of New Hampshire, begun in 1868, and 

 continued to the present year, are now at an 

 end, that work having been completed. The 

 last of the three volumes exhibiting the pro- 

 gressive operations of the survey with their 

 results, and a separately bound atlas represent- 

 ing the configuration of the State, have been 

 published. 



Both before and after the meeting of the 

 Legislature for the June session of 1878, the 

 doubt raised as to its right to elect a United 

 States Senator in the place of B. Wadleigh, 

 whose term expires on March 3, 1879, has 

 caused an unusually great excitement within 

 the State and at Washington ; the question 

 being, whether he should be elected by the 

 Legislature which was chosen in March, 1878, 

 was organized in June the same year, and is to 

 continue in office till June, 1879; or by the 

 next Legislature, which, in pursuance of a pro- 

 vision of the new State Constitution lately 

 adopted, is to be chosen in November, 1878, 

 organized in June, 1879, and continue in office 

 for two years thereafter. Both of these Le- 

 gislatures have found advocates, asserting the 

 elective right of either to the exclusion of the 

 other ; the uncertainty of the case apparently 

 arising from the laws enacted by Congress in 

 1866, whereby the right to elect Federal Sen- 

 ators is vested in " the Legislature of each State 

 which is chosen next preceding the expiration 

 of the time for which any Senator was elected." 

 This statute the disputants in the present case 

 not unplausibly interpret so as to make it des- 

 ignate, on the one hand, the Legislature organ- 

 ized in June, 1878, because this is the only 

 Legislature of New Hampshire actually in office 

 on the day when Senator Wadleigb's term ex- 

 pires, as well as before and for months after 

 it ; on the other, the Legislature chosen in 

 November, 1878, because this is the Legisla- 

 ture of New Hampshire "chosen next preced- 

 ing the expiration of the time for; which Sen- 

 ator Wadleigh was elected." A number of 

 letters advocating either side of the question, 

 written professionally as opinion in law and 

 otherwise, and bearing the signature of well- 

 known persons, have appeared in the news- 

 papers since the State election of March, 1878 ; 

 and with a view to settle the matter, in regard 

 especially to this case of New Hampshire, a 

 bill was introduced in the United States Senate, 

 its title and object being, to declare the true 

 intent and meaning of the statute, as before 



