far as financial legislation is concerned, the legislatures are subject to very precise rules. These are intended to prevent a disordered and lax management of the finances, and as they attain their aim as far as constitutional provisions can do so, they present no occasion for unfavorable criticism. The unconditional obligation, when a public debt is contracted, to make arrangements at the same time for its redemption - sometimes the redemption must take place within a very limited time- unquestionably deserves all praise. A very peculiar impression is made, however, by the fact that the constitutions fix the maximum of the permissible state debt, and in fact fix it so low that even a small city could bear the burden without peril. The extraordinary instances of a war, of sedition or of an invasion are always excepted, indeed, and

states for their winter's work has attracted fresh attention to the machinery of legislation and produced many suggestions on the subject. All of these rest generally on the idea that most legislative work in the United States is defective and slipshod; that the laws are badly drawn; that they are passed without proper reference to and comparison with statutes already in force; that they are frequently jobs disguised as statutes. Governor Hill, of this state [New York], in his first message, recommended that a lawyer be appointed as permanent legislative counsel, to draft bills, to advise the members and committees with reference to proposed legislation, and to inspect the various bills before their final passage, so as to detect errors and imperfections and to suggest neccessary amendments. The necessity of taking some such step, he thinks, is shown very clearly by the fact that, during the session of 1883, in this state, some forty-five bills were recalled from the executive chamber after their final passage for necessary amendment and correction, while during the session of 1884 there were fifty such instances (!). The critics of the governor's recommendation can only say in reply to this that such work ought to be done by the legislative committees themselves; but the evil to be cured is the fact that the committees will not do it. The only machinery for preventing bad legislation at Albany is the veto of the governor, and the governor now has to do the work of legal adviser to the legislature, through the veto power, in a very clumsy way; i. e.,

the American states are rich enough to make their ordinary taxes meet their ordinary wants by honest and half-way reasonable economy without difficulty. But a refusal, except in the cases when the very existence of the state is more or less threatened, of the right to negotiate a loan,- for the right of borrowing a few hundred thousand dollars is but a nominal one,- such a refusal can be justified only on the supposition that certain tasks which are ordinarily performed by the civilized states of the old world ought not to be undertaken by the American states, if these tasks require the expenditure of more money than the current revenue can supply. In such matters, the states cannot go to work in a far-sighted way for future benefits. They must limit themselves to a policy of to-day and to-morrow. It is evident from the he has in most cases to correct defects by killing the bills, when, if the legislature could have been properly advised at the outset, amendments might have been made which would have enabled him to sign them." These circumstances are the more significant because in all legislatures lawyers form the most prominent element. These evils appear in their worst form in the so-called "private bills." Of these the article quoted says: "As soon as business begins, a great crop of bills is introduced, most of which are designed to give some person or corporation a special privilege under, or exemption from, the operation of laws binding on the community. These bills are drawn up, not by the legislators who introduce them, but by lawyers privately retained and paid by the special interests behind the bills, and who, naturally enough, as long as they get what their clients want, care very little what the effect on the general body of the law may be. When the bills, thus prepared, get into committee, there are no rules of any value governing the procedure with regard to them. Those interested adversely have not necessarily any notice to appear; there is no attempt to take proof judicially, but counsel' are permitted to make any statements they please." As a remedy the procedure is proposed, the introduction of which, more than half a century ago, put such an effective end to similar confusion in England. In Massachusetts this approved method has already been introduced to a certain extent.

provisions cited as to internal improvements that this was more or less consciously the intention of the framers of the state constitutions. In this they have found themselves on the whole in accord with the character of the actual development of the relations of life in the United States up to the present time. Americans— viewed from the stand-point of the most highly civilized states of Europe — are still obliged to apply the greatest part of their strength in working out of the rough and in laying broad and deep the foundations of a civilized state of the highest order. They have not the surplus of time, of intellect and of capital needed to extend the state's activity as far and place it on as sure a footing as in the oldest civilized states of Europe. Hitherto, too, they have had no occasion to give up the fundamental idea of their policy, for the result has proved that the peculiar problems of civilization, with which they have been brought face to face, will be soonest and best solved by the state's retiring into the back-ground. In that event, the organization of society and its organic work result in the freest possible action; and in society the initiative and power of the individual is given the widest scope. The duties of the state are much more limited, and therefore general law has not only a different but a much smaller field; but the (strictly speaking) constitutionallaw side of general law is far more developed than in any nation on the European continent. Even the language shows this. It contains no word that fully corresponds to our German idea of general law. It is therefore scarcely surprising, that at least as far as my knowledge extends-there is no work which treats of general law as we would understand this in Europe. All the books worth consideration treat only of constitutional law or particular parts of it. They simply touch here

and there upon those points of general law which are not in the narrower sense of the word constitutional. This and also the great scarcity of monographs on this part of general law indicate, in fact, that there is no proper interest in such questions. But this is partly explained by the fact that from lack of material many chapters must be written in as many lines as pages would be required in which to treat the subject in a European state.

The United States have immense, and some of the states have very considerable, expanses of public lands. But they do not cultivate them. They simply sell them. These public lands hide mineral treasures of every kind. But the state does not mine them. It simply passes laws as to how private persons can acquire the right of mining. As to how the mining is carried on, it concerns itself little or not at all. There are no mining-officials just as there is no administration of the public domain. Legislation on mining is practically restricted to the point named. The products of agriculture are so enormous that they have become one of the most important factors in the world's economy, but agriculture is so far outside the domain of the federal government that it can do little more than gather statistics about it.' The separate states on the whole adhere to the principle that the farmer, like the shoe-maker and tailor, must find out for himself what is good for him. There is a series of

1It seems, therefore, foolish to try at the present time (January, 1885) to create an agricultural department at Washington.

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2 Some attempts have been made to promote the improvement and development of natural resources by state aid. Thus, for instance, the constitution of Maryland provides that a superintendent of labor and agriculture" shall be elected by the people to serve for four years and leaves it to the legislature to determine whether the office shall continue to exist. His chief duties are to be to "supervise all the state inspectors of agricultural products and fertilizers" and to

questions in which the general good imperiously and urgently demands the interference of the state (for instance in the management of forests) to lead public opinion to such a point that it will allow or demand the setting aside of the doctrine of laisser faire. With absolutely criminal laxness all energetic measures to prevent the forest fires caused by carelessness, which annually destroy millions of property, are still neglected. And although de-foresting has already become a public calamity and danger of terrible magnitude, nothing has yet been done to prevent it except offering rewards of different kinds for tree planting. Neither the United States nor the states, therefore, have taken any especial care about natural products. As far as trade is concerned, the federal govern

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enquire into the undeveloped resources of wealth of the state of Maryland, more especially concerning those within the limits of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, which belong to the state, and suggest such plans as may be calculated to render them available as sources of revenue." His duties, moreover, embrace those of the former commissioner of immigration and the immigration agent. (Many states have officials who are charged with the advancement of immigration and everything connected therewith.) In Alabama, the constitution of 1868 created a bureau of industrial resources with similar but still more comprehensive duties. Even where the constitutions provide nothing of this kind, something has sometimes been done by legislation here and there. The federal government does a great deal for the discovery and improvement of natural resources by its very exact geological surveys. These show in detail all other particulars about the districts examined. Even the preservation of the wealth of fish in the ocean and in the lakes has been the care of the federal government. The act of February 9, 1871, created a commissioner of fish and fisheries for the study of the questions involved.

1 In this respect the federal government does more than the individual states. If a man plants trees in a certain way for eight years upon ten out of one hundred and sixty acres, and at the end of the eight years has at least six hundred and seventy-five vigorous trees on each of the ten acres, he becomes the owner of the entire tract.