ALABAMA. 



The French Government in 1879 seized the 

 island of Matagong. The French claimed it 

 from the fact that, being situated between the 

 mouths of the Rio Congo and the Mellacoree, 

 and near a coast undoubtedly French, it ought 

 logically to be French also. In a map, how- 

 ever, of Senegambia, drawn up in 1864 by or- 

 der of General Faidherbe, then Governor of 

 Senegal, it is depicted as English, as well as 

 the Los Archipelago, more to the north ; but 

 this might arise from its being then the private 

 property of a British subject, and the Paris 

 merchant who represents the present proprie- 

 tors has produced a declaration of 1855 by Sir 

 George Grey, Colonial Secretary, refusing to 

 aid Mr. Isaacs on the ground that Matagong 

 was not British territory. 



AGRICULTURE. (See UNITED STATES and 

 the STATES respectively.) 



ALABAMA. The regular session of the 

 Alabama Legislature commenced on Novem- 

 ber 12, 1878, and terminated on February 8, 

 1879. In the Senate W. G. Little was chosen 

 President; and in the House David Clopton 

 was chosen Speaker. 



One of the earliest measures of the session 

 was a joint convention of the two Houses to 

 count the votes for State officers. As there was 

 only one ticket, the results were announced as 

 follows: Total vote for Rufus W. Cobb for 

 Governor, 89,571 ; total vote for W. W. Screws 

 for Secretary of State, 87,673 ; total vote for 

 Willis Brewer for Auditor, 87,315 ; total vote 

 for I. II. Vincent for Treasurer, 88,231 ; total 

 vote for II. C. Tornpkins for Attorney-General, 

 88,204. The vote for members of Congress, 

 which was canvassed too late for insertion in 

 the "Annual Cyclopaedia " of 1878, was as fol- 

 lows: 



District. 



T t T. H. Herndon, Democrat 



I W. Bailey, Opposition 



TJ j H. A. Herbert, Democrat 



' j J. P. Armstrong, Opposition 



TTI j W. J. Sanford, Democrat 



' ) P. Strange, Opposition 



TY j C. M. Shelley, Democrat 



' j Jer. Haralson, Republican 



Y I T. Williams, Democrat 



) Theo. Nuron, Opposition 



Yj j B. B. Lewis, Democrat 



Y1 - I W. R. Smith, Opposition 



-TT-TT j W. H. Forney, Democrat 



' " 1 W. W. Garth, Democrat 



VIII. W. M. Lowe, Opposition 



Of the members of Congress seven 

 Democrats and one opposition. 

 . The Legislature was divided as follows 



6.677 

 2.1(41 

 8,364 

 6,505 

 6,199 

 676 

 S,514 

 ti.545 

 6,637 

 2,784 

 7,642 

 8,201 

 2,663 

 8,279 

 10,324 



were 



On December 10th the Legislature took a 

 recess until January 15, 1879. 



An act was passed requiring the execution 

 of criminals to be in an inclosure which is 

 hidden from public view. 



A joint resolution was adopted which de- 

 clares that the act of Congress imposing a tax 

 of ten per centum on the issues of State banks 

 creates in the national banks an unjust and 

 odious monopoly, and is an unwarrantable 

 abridgment of the power and authority of the 

 State, by appropriate acts of incorporation, to 

 provide its citizens with a lawful currency, 

 suitable to their needs ; and the Senators and 

 Representatives of Alabama in Congress were 

 requested to use their untiring efforts to have 

 the same repealed. 



A memorial requesting Congress to establish 

 a system for a national quarantine against 

 yellow fever and other infectious diseases was 

 also adopted. 



A bill to limit or prohibit the sale of seed- 

 cotton was extensively discussed in relation to 

 its constitutionality. Seed-cotton is the name 

 given to the article as it is in the field. If it 

 is stolen and sold, the owner can not distin- 

 guish his property from that of others. The 

 extent of the stealing is such as to be consid- 

 ered a great evil. One member in his remarks 

 said : 



There arc many roads -which lead from the rich farm- 

 ing lands into the city of Montgomery, but to illustrate 

 it I will only refer to one, say the Lime Creek road. 

 During the busy picking season, a gentleman of my ac- 

 quaintance concluded that he would make some obser- 

 vations ; so he posted himself upon the road between 

 midnight and daylight, and not less than thirty vehicles 

 of all descriptions, from a four-horse wagon down to 

 the diminutive cart with the diminutive steer or calf, 

 passed him, and, from the movements of the parties 

 having the cotton-seed and the purchasers of the cot- 

 ton, there is but little doubt that two thirds of all the 

 cotton on these vehicles, besides that of the innumer- 

 able foot-passengers loaded with sacks of all sorts and 

 sizes, were stolen ; for all these parties with the cotton 

 so graduate their movements that they reach the city at 

 or before sunrise ; and, as soon as the first rays of the 

 golden sunshine touch the dome of this Capitol, the 

 doors of the innumerable shops which before sunrise 

 were closed, and the premises as silent as death, fly 

 open as if by magic. The cotton-sack is hurried upon 

 the scales, hurriedly and many times, perhaps, falsely 

 weighed, then hurriedly spirited away to the back 

 rooms t where at leisure it is carried and sold to the 

 pickerics. Pass over any of the roads leading to the 

 city between the hours of midnight and day, and 

 about the suburbs, and you will find them filled, as I 

 Baid before, with vehicles of every description, meet 

 hordes of tramps with sacks and baskets, all watching 

 for the first rays of the sun to dispose of their ill-got- 

 ten gains. I say ill-gotten, for, if not so, why this 

 unseemly time to bring their wares to maket ? Why 

 this haste ? For this army of wagons, of carts, of 

 tramps with sacks, is soon, like the snow, dissolved 

 by the rising sun ; and the 9 or 10 o'clock passer-by 

 has no idea of what had occurred only a few hours 

 before. 



In support of the constitutionality of the 

 bill, it was urged that it was based upon the 

 proposition that no man can either use or dis- 

 pose of his property to the injury of his neigh- 

 bor ; and it is for the Legislature to say how 

 far one citizen may go in the use of his prop- 

 erty to prevent injury to his neighbor's. The 

 bill was upon the same principle as the measure 

 which prohibits the sale or giving away of spir- 

 ituous liquors, or that which provides for the 



