not to be modified or changed on a hearing of the evidence on both sides, intelligence and reflection, the very qualities needed to pronounce a righteous judgment, would disqualify most of our citizens from serving as jurors when a murder is to be tried. Under the act passed at the last session of the legislature a jury has recently been empanneled without unreasonable delay, and it is to be hoped that this enactment will prove in practice a remedy for the difficulty referred to. The further obstacle to the prompt punishment of crime, after conviction, through the interposition of legal technicalities needs to be removed by some proper and effective provision of law.

In framing our system of criminal jurisprudence the merciful purpose of protecting the innocent from unjust conviction was kept chiefly in view. It is worthy of consideration whether in carrying out this purpose we may not have created impediments to the punishment of the guilty and given a rein to crime through its impunity.

PROTECTION AGAINST FIRE.

The conflagration of large portions of the cities of Chicago and Boston, involving an immense sacrifice of property and the loss of many lives, suggests the necessity of revising existing laws in regard to the construction of buildings, and the deposit of combustibles within our principal cities. It is due to the security of property and life that the provisions of law in respect to both should be of the most stringent character. Under the existing law, the superintendent of buildings, in the city of New York, is authorized to modify its requirements, with the consent of the supreme court. It is not to be expected that the members of this body, from the nature of their functions, will be so competent to form a correct judgment in regard to the propriety of such modifications in special cases as others, whose connection with the subjects of fires and insurance, gives them to some extent the character of experts. I therefore recommend that no modification of the law pre

scribing the mode in which buildings are to be constructed shall be made without the consent of a board to be jointly constituted by the New York board of fire underwriters and the commissioners of the fire department, the first as having, beside their special knowledge, a large pecuniary interest at stake, and the other from their familiarity with the causes of conflagration and the best modes of contending with it. With these the American Institute of Architects might, perhaps, be advantageously united for the appointment of such a board as I have referred to

HARBOR MASTERS.

There have been continual complaints for many years in regard to the conduct of the harbor masters, in the city of New York, in assigning vessels to places in the docks, and the extortionate charges of the masters of steam tugs, employed in towing ships, with whom the officers first named are alleged to have, in many cases, a collusive connection; and from the partial examination I have been able to make, I am satisfied that these complaints are well founded. Much of the abuse, which has grown up of late years has, no doubt, arisen from the appointment of individuals. from the interior of the State, having no knowledge whatever of nautical affairs, or of the wants of the mercantile community, and who are, of necessity, dependent for a time, in the discharge of their duties, on persons whose aim it is to make the largest profit possible out of their services to merchants and shipmasters. They thus become, without evil design, perhaps, at the outset, engaged in a system of extortion, which they find too profitable to be relinquished. To such an extent have these exactions been carried, under the pretence of extra service, that a committee of the legislature, after a careful investigation, did not hesitate to denounce them as "a system of extortion, which may not inappropriately be characterized as organized piracy upon the commerce of New York." The term of the present incumbents, who are now holding over,

having expired in March last, I shall deem it my duty to nominate to the senate men of character and tried integrity, who are qualified by their familiarity with the service required of them to perform it intelligently and efficiently. The service was confided to such persons in former years, and it is only since the practice has been discontinued that the present system has come into use, to the great dissatisfaction of the mercantile community and the serious injury of the commercial interests of the city and the State.

These officers are now paid by fees, which, together with receipts from other and not legitimate sources, amount to very large sums. I recommend that their compensation be limited to a reasonable remuneration, and that the fees in excess of the amount be paid into the State treasury for distribution among the hospitals in the interior of the State for the support of sick and disabled persons engaged in navigation.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL COMMISSION.

The Constitutional Commission to be reconvened to-morrow, will be charged with the gravest of all duties in reporting amendments to the Constitution of the State, to be submitted to the people for their consideration. Not the least important of these is to provide for relieving the legislative department of the government from passing laws for objects other than those in which the State at large is interested. Of 887 acts passed at the last session of the Legislature only 126 were of a general character. The other 761 were private or local. It would greatly diminish the labor of legislation, if in all cases, where a general law could be made applicable, special laws should be prohibited; and certainly, as a rule, special privileges or immunities should not be granted to any class of citizens, which, upon the same terms, should not equally belong to all others.

I trust suitable provision may be made to give to the members of the Legislature a remuneration adequate to their responsible

duties. The present compensation was fixed more than half a century ago, and in the meantime the expenses of living are more than doubled. It is neither just nor creditable to the State that its legislators should be kept at a distance from their homes to labor for the welfare of the people, and to protect the interests of their constituents, and be compelled to have recourse to their private means to meet their personal expenses. Superfluous offices should be promptly and unhesitatingly abolished; but all who give their time and talents to the State, should receive a compensation for their services, proportioned to the importance of their duties, and to the expenditures which they must necessarily incur in performing them.

ALIENS.

In more than half the States of the Union aliens are allowed to take, hold and convey real estate. In New Jersey this privilege has been accorded to them with the natural result of attracting foreign capital for investment. In this State the ancient disability is continued, and with the opposite effect of excluding such investments. If foreigners are willing to come among us with their capital to improve our real estate, stimulate our productive industry and aid us in bearing our burdens of taxation, is it not unwise to repel them? The spirit of the age is adverse to the continuance of all illiberal and unneighborly restrictions; and it is respectfully submitted for your consideration whether these disabilities should not be removed. In England, France and other European countries our citizens are placed in this respect on the same footing as their own citizens and subjects; and, apart from the injurious influence of these personal restrictions upon our material interests, it is hardly in consonance with the liberal spirit of our institutions to adhere to ancient prejudices, which have been renounced elsewhere as unworthy of political systems less advanced than our own.

THE USURY LAWS.

I suggest for your consideration whether the time has not arrived to repeal the usury laws, leaving the established rate of interest to apply to cases, in which no contract or agreement has been made. It is believed that their continuance at the present advanced stage of civilization, and in a State so highly commercial as ours, cannot be defended on any logical grounds. It has been feared that their repeal might in agricultural districts, subject borrowers to the extortion of greedy lenders; but this apprehension has in other communities proved unfounded. In ruder conditions of society, when the laboring classes were, to a great extent, dependent on capitalists, there was a plausible argument in favor of limiting the rate of interest. But at the present day, when the eagerness to lend is quite as prevalent as the desire to borrow, and when labor has become independent and powerful, it needs no protection, direct or indirect, against capital in competing with it for the profits of production. In most of the neighboring States restrictions on traffic in money have been removed, and I believe there is good authority for saying that no practical inconvenience has ensued. It is quite clear that in the city of New York, but for scruples on the one hand and fears on the other, by which conscientious and timid capitalists are restrained from lending at prohibited rates, the enormous interest paid, under the pressure of extraordinary demands, for the use of money could not be maintained for a single day. It is only by establishing an arbitrary and fixed standard of value for it, when such value will, in spite of all legal limitations, conform to the fluctuations of commerce, that borrowers are made to suffer through the necessity of paying unscrupulous lenders a premium for violating the law Should you not be prepared to follow the example of Massachusettts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and other States by an absolute repeal of the usury laws, I can conceive no possible objection