DELAWARE. 



DENMARK. 



221 



Supplement to the charter of the Delaware Railroad 

 Company [authorizing a consolidation with the Del- 

 aware, Maryland, and Virginia Railroad and with the 

 Eastern Shore feeders, and the absorption of the link 

 between Rodney and Wilmington, with power to build 

 a branch between Dover and Milford]. 



Empowering the State treasurer to collect claims 

 against the United States Government on a commis- 

 sion of 25 per cent, of his collections. There are three 

 of these claims. One for $300,000, one for $175,000, 

 and one for an amount undetermined. 



Concerning presidential electors [constituting the 

 Superior Court of Kent County a tribunal for the 

 hearing of contests between electoral candidates]. 



Accepting grants of money by the General Govern- 

 ment tor the establishment of agricultural experiment 

 stations. 



For the protection of minors [to keep boys under 

 eighteen out of pool-iooms and similar places]. 



Regulating the conduct of caucuses and other pri- 

 mary elections. It provides that every election held 

 by any political party, for the purpose of nominating 

 or selecting candidates by ballot to be voted for at 

 any subsequent election, or for the purpose of select- 

 ing delegates or representatives to any political con- 

 vention, shall be held by one presiding officer and 

 two judges at each voting precinct. These officers, 

 as well as the clerk of the meeting, shall take a pre- 

 scribed oath to perform their duties impartially. The 

 procedure at such meetings is determined, and heavy 

 penalties for fraud in the balloting or the counting of 

 votes are fixed. The act applies to Newcastle County, 

 which includes half the population of the State, and 

 is especially directed against frauds in the city of 

 Wilmington. 



Railroad Taxes. A decision rendered by the 

 State Supreme Court in March had the effect 

 of invalidating all city and county taxation of 

 railroads. The question at issue arose upon 

 the interpretation of the act of 1873, which 

 permitted the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and 

 Baltimore Railroad to commute all taxes by 

 the payment of $40,000 annually, the benefit 

 of which had been extended by subsequent 

 legislation to all railroads in the State. The 

 court decided that this payment, under the 

 words of the statute, was in commutation of 

 all taxation, State, county, and city, on all 

 classes of railroad property. As this result 

 was not contemplated by the framers of the 

 act, who had in view only commutation for 

 State taxes, the Legislature nullified the future 

 effect of the decision by an act permitting tax- 

 ation by cities and counties of such property, 

 the road-bed excepted. But all back taxes 

 were lost. 



Education. A radical change was made in 

 the public-school system of the State, by an 

 act that vacates the offices of State superin- 

 tendent and assistant superintendent of public 

 schools, and substitutes therefor a superintend- 

 ent for each county. These commissioners are 

 to be appointed by the Governor, and to hold 

 office for one year. By the same act the busi- 

 ness of furnishing text-books for the schools 

 was taken from the State, in whose hands it 

 has proved a losing transaction. 



The Delaware State College has been crippled 

 in its work during the year by the hostility ex- 

 isting between its president and members of 

 the faculty. The board of trustees has been 

 unable to settle the difficulty, being itself near- 



ly evenly divided between the friends and op- 

 ponents of President Caldwell. At a meeting 

 in July, the Caldwell faction succeeded in post- 

 poning action on the president's resignation 

 till March, 1888. There is danger that this 

 deep-seated quarrel may wreck the institution, 

 which, at its best, has never had much pros- 

 perity. 



The report of the State actuary of colored 

 schools for the year ending July 1, shows that 

 the work in these schools, though making little 

 advance, is still equal to that of previous years. 

 The total number of schools for the year was 

 70, an increase of one over the last report, and 

 the total number of pupils 3,347. 



Constitutional Convention. The following is an 

 extract from the bill passed by the Legislature 

 on this subject : 



Whereas, The subject of a convention to revise and 

 amend the Constitution of this State has been agitated 

 among the people ; and, whereas^ this General Assem- 

 bly, without expressing any opinion as to the neces- 

 sity of a convention, deems it to be right and proper 

 to "aiford an opportunity to the people to make their 

 sense known : Therefore, be it enacted, On the first 

 Tuesday in November next a special election shall be 

 held for the purpose of ascertaining the sense of the 

 people of this State upon the question of calling a con- 

 vention to change, alter, and amend the Constitution 

 of the State. 



The grounds of dissatisfaction with the pres- 

 ent Constitution are numerous, the clauses giv- 

 ing each county, regardless of size, the same 

 representation in the General Assembly, and 

 providing that the whole county shall vote for 

 all the Senators and Representatives nominated 

 in each of its districts being especially objec- 

 tionable. The election in November resulted 

 in a vote of 14,450 in favor of the proposed 

 convention, to 464 against ; but, owing to a 

 peculiar provision of the State Constitution, 

 which requires that the vote to call a conven- 

 tion shall be a majority of the highest number 

 of votes cast at any one of the last three pre- 

 ceding elections, the result was practically in 

 favor of the anti-convention party. The nega- 

 tive vote was not a fine test of the strength 

 of the latter party, as its members generally 

 refrained from voting, in order to bring the 

 total vote below the 15,640 votes required to 

 make a decision possible. The present Consti- 

 tution dates from 1830. 



DENMARK, a constitutional monarchy in 

 northern Europe. A new constitution was 

 adopted on July 28, 1866. The representative 

 and legislative assembly is called the Rigsdag, 

 and consists of two chambers. The Landsthing 

 is composed of 66 members, of whom 12 are 

 appointed for life by the King, and the rest are 

 elected for eight years by indirect suffrage. 

 The city of Copenhagen has 7 representatives; 

 Bornholm, 1 ; the Faroe Islands, 1 ; and the 

 electoral districts of the towns and rural com- 

 munes, 45. The Folkething has 102 members, 

 all elected directly for three years. The n-ign- 

 ing sovereign is Christian IX, born April 8, 

 1818, who ascended the throne in 1S63. The 



