NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



NEW JERSEY. 



549 



remove thereto its present boilers and en- 

 gine." 



" Providing for the erection of a New State 

 Prison with all the necessary offices, work- 

 shops, and other appurtenances, at a cost not 

 to exceed $200,000, and of sufficient capacity 

 in all its parts and apartments to accommo- 

 date and employ 200 convicts." 



" Making an annual appropriation of $5,000 

 for the support and maintenance of the State 

 Normal School at Plymouth." 



" To increase the revenues of the State of 

 New Hampshire." This act lays a specified, 

 differently proportional tax, to be paid by the 

 parties concerned, on every private act here- 

 after passed by the Legislature, " incorporat- 

 ing, chartering, renewing, or extending the 

 corporate powers of savings and other banks, 

 railroad, insurance, water-power, gas-light, 

 express, steamboat, or any other company, 

 which has for its object a division of profits." 

 Religious, charitable, or educational institu- 

 tions, agricultural societies, and other asso- 

 ciations specified in the act, are declared ex- 

 empt from its provisions. 



"To fix the time when the constitutional 

 amendments, adopted in March last, shall take 

 effect:" for the second amendment, relating 

 to the trial of causes in which the value in 

 controversy does not exceed $100, and the 

 title to real estate is not concerned, without 

 the intervention of a jury ; the seventh, abol- 

 ishing the religious test as a qualification for 

 office; the tenth and eleventh, authorizing the 

 General Court to provide that appeals from 

 a justice of the peace may be tried without 

 the intervention of a jury, and to increase the 

 jurisdiction of justices of the peace to $100 ; 

 and the thirteenth, prohibiting money raised 

 by taxation from being applied to the support 

 of schools or institutions of any religious sect 

 or denomination. The act appoints the 1st day 

 of August, 1877, as the time in which they 

 shall go into practical operation. 



For the several amendments " relating to the 

 change of time for holding the State elections 

 from March to November, and providing that 

 the elections shall be biennial, or only once in 

 two years," the act ordains that they "shall 

 take effect on the 1st day of October, A. D. 1878, 

 and the first election under the said amend- 

 ments shall be held on the Tuesday next after 

 the first Monday in November, A. D. 1878." 



The act further ordains that "all the re- 

 maining amendments of the said Constitution, 

 which have been legally adopted, shall take 

 effect on the first Wednesday of June, A. D. 

 1879 ;" to which it subjoins the following ex- 

 planation : "The true intent and meaning of 

 this provision being that these constitutional 

 amendments relating to elections, and the terms 

 of office, shall take effect at such times as there 

 shall be an annual election in March next, 

 under the old Constitution, and that the offi- 

 cers then elected shall hold their offices for 

 one year as they do now ; and that at the 



election in November, A. D. 1878. all the offi- 

 cers above enumerated shall be elected under 

 the amended Constitution for two years, and 

 shall take their places on the first Wednesday 

 of June, 1879 ; and that upon the said day all 

 the amendments to the Constitution shall take 

 full effect." 



The same act provides " for compiling the 

 Statutes of the State." For this purpose it 

 empowers the Governor, with the advice of 

 the Council, " to appoint and commission three 

 persons learned in the law as soon as may be," 

 specifies the duties of the commissioners in 

 detail, and enjoins them to have their work 

 ready for publication " before the next session 

 of the Legislature in June, 1878, and make 

 report to the said Legislature." 



NEW JERSEY. The Legislature of this 

 State met for its regular session at Trenton, on 

 the 10th of January, 1877. The Senate was 

 promptly organized. In the House of Assem- 

 bly, composed of Republican and Democratic 

 members in equal number, the organization 

 was delayed till the following day. The roll 

 having been called by the Clerk of the last 

 Assembly, and all of the members found pres- 

 ent, a resolution was adopted, "That a ma- 

 jority of all the members should be necessary 

 to elect the officers of the House." Two com- 

 petitors were then put in nomination for 

 Speaker, Rudolph F. Rabe, of Hudson Connty, 

 Democrat, and Alden C. Scovell, of Camden 

 County, Republican, and the ballot resulted in 

 a tie, 30 votes having been cast for each. 

 Three more ballots were taken, and ended also 

 in a tie. An organization was finally effected 

 on the second day, which gave each party a 

 share of the offices. 



BTATE SEAL OF JJKW JEBKET. 



Action was taken by the Lepslnture at this 

 session for the election of a United State* Sena- 

 tor for the full term of six years, to commence 

 with March 4, 1877. The election wa effected 

 by the two Houses voting in joint convention 

 on the 24th, when, a motion for that purpose 

 having been made and agreed to, the joint roll 



