516 



MARYLAND. 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



the mortgage of the Susquehanna and Tide- 

 water Canal paid by the Philadelphia and Read- 

 ing Railroad Company. 



State Institutions. The Deaf and Dumb Asy- 

 lum at Frederick has been receiving an annual 

 appropriation of $25,000 for its support. Its 

 last report shows 119 pupils in attendance. 

 The House of Correction is a large annual 

 charge upon the treasury. It promises, how- 

 ever, financial improvement. There were 179 

 inmates Sept. 30, 1881 ; 276, Dec. 1, 1883; and 

 340 at the close of the year. The Penitentiary 

 is self-sustaining. The average annual number 

 of prisoners has been as follows : 1876, 727 ; 

 1877,815; 1878, 939; 1879, 813; 1880, 648; 

 1881, 545; 1882, 510; 1883, 532. 



Conduct of Elections. On this subject Gov. 

 Hamilton says : 



The late registration of voters was conducted with 

 general satisfaction. By the act of 1882, chapter 22, 

 section 2, Baltimore was divided into groups of three 

 precincts in each ward, with a register assigned to 

 each group, making in all sixty registers for the gen- 

 eral registration, and for the revision the year follow- 

 ing, and to continue until the present session, when 

 the Governor is required to appoint one register for 

 each ward with a yearly salary of $500 ; thus supersed- 

 ing the group or precinctal registration and returning 

 to the old ward system. The objections to making 

 this a salaried office are apparent and forcible, and a 

 return to the old system will soon and certainly re- 

 sult in the accumulation of names upon the registra- 

 tion-books, and with them all the old abuses of which 

 so much complaint was made. I recommend that the 

 law be so amended that the group system for revision 

 be re-established. 



The law for the general conduct of elections should 

 be revised and amended. 



Every person elected or appointed to office, before 

 taking it should be required to make oath that he had 

 not, either directly or indirectly, been guilty of brib- 

 ery, and in all its forms to be prescribed in the oath ; 

 and it is to be regretted that the present Constitution 

 omitted even the qualified oath of the kind contained 

 in the old Constitution. 



(Ml-Serviee Reform. On this subject the Gov- 

 ernor says : 



The civil service in the State requires distinctive 

 reformation. All assessments upon office-holders, 

 whether State or national, for political purposes, 

 should be prohibited ; all interference by office-hold- 

 ers in primary meetings, conventions, and in elec- 

 tions, except to vote, should also be prohibited, with 

 penalties and measures for conviction sufficient to en- 

 force an observance of the law. This prohibition 

 should be especially applied to the oyster, the in- 

 spection, canal ? and school services for the State, and 

 to the police ot the city ; and in addition to the other 

 penalties prescribed by law, that there be added dis- 

 missal from such service for a violation of the law. 



Party Conventions. The Democratic State 

 Convention met in Baltimore on September 

 19th, and nominated the following ticket: 



For Governor, Eobert M. McLane, of Baltimore; 

 State Comptroller. J. Frank Turner, of Talbot ; At- 

 torney-General, Charles B. Eoberts, of Carroll. 



The Republican State Convention also met 

 in Baltimore, on the 27th of September, and 

 nominated the following ticket: 



For Governor, Hart B. Holton, of Baltimore coun- 

 ty ; Comptroller, Washington A. Smith, of Dorches- 

 ter county ; Attorney-General, R. Stockett Mathews, 

 of Baltimore city. 



Messrs. Smith and Mathews subsequently 

 declined nomination, and the executive com- 

 mittee placed in nomination James C. Mulli- 

 kin, of Talbot county, and Frank H. Stockett, 

 of Annapolis, for the respective places. 



Election Returns. At the election in Novem- 

 ber, the Democratic State ticket received a 

 majority. The following is the vote: 



The Legislature, to meet in 1884, will con- 

 sist of ]4 Democrats and 12 Republicans in 

 the Senate, and 63 Democrats and 28 Repub- 

 licans in the House. 



In the city of Baltimore a Republican sheriff 

 was elected on a fusion ticket by a vote of 27,- 

 839 against 26,542 for the Democratic candi- 

 date, while the regular Democratic candidate 

 was chosen Superior Court Clerk by a vote of 

 28,445 against 27,858 for a fusion Democrat. 

 In October Ferdinand 0. Latrobe, Democrat, 

 had been re-elected mayor over the citizens' 

 candidate by a vote of 29,147 to 25,669. For 

 members of the City Council a majority in 

 sympathy with the reformers were chosen. 



MASSACHUSETTS. State Government. The fol- 

 lowing were the State officers during the year : 

 Governor, Benjamin F. Butler, Democrat; 

 Lieutenant- Governor, Oliver Ames ; Secretary 

 of State, Henry B. Pierce ; Treasurer, Daniel 

 A. Gleason ; Auditor, Charles R. Ladd ; At- 

 torney-General, Edgar J. Sherman ; Secretary 

 of Board of Education, John W. Dickinson ; 

 Secretary of Board of Agriculture, John E. 

 Russell ; Insurance Commissioner, Julius L. 

 Clarke, succeeded by John K. Tarbox ; Rail- 

 road Commissioners, Thomas Russell, Clemens 

 Herscbel, and Edward W. Kinsley ; State Li- 

 brarian, 0. B. Tillinghast. Judiciary, Supreme 

 Court : Chief-Justice, Marcus Morton ; Asso- 

 ciate Justices, Waldo Colburn, Oliver Wendell 

 Holmes, Jr., Walbridge A. Field, Charles Dev- 

 ens, William Allen, and Charles Allen. 



Legislative Session. The Legislature convened 

 on January 3d, and adjourned on July 27th. 

 The session was the longest on record. On 

 January 18th George F. Hoaf, Republican, 

 was re-elected United States Senator by a vote 

 of 148 against 36 for John D. Long, Republi- 

 can, 88 for Samuel W. Bowerman, Democrat, 

 and 5 for others. 



The acts approved by the Governor num- 

 bered 235, those approved by the Lieutenant- 

 Governor 4, those becoming laws without sig- 

 nature were 40, the number enacted being 279. 



By the requisite votes, a majority in the Sen- 

 ate and two thirds in the House, the Legis- 

 lature passed a resolve providing for such an 

 amendment to the Constitution that, beginning 

 in 1884; State elections shall occur but once in 

 two years, and that, beginning with 1885, the 

 Legislature shall hold biennial sessions ; it also 

 provides that a person shall be eligible as Treas- 



