writ of error, to review the decision of the Circuit Court remanding a cause to the State Court.

The other purposes referred to in the title of this act are developed in sections 2, 3 and 7.

Section 2 required receivers of managers in possession of property in any cause pending in any court of the United States, to manage and operate such property according to the requirements of the laws of the State in which the property is situated, in the same manuer as the owner would be bound to do if in possession.

Section 3 allows suit to be brought against a receiver in respect of any act or transaction of his in carrying on the business connected with the property in his charge, without the previous leave of the court which appointed him; such suit to be subject to the general equity jurisdiction of the court which appointed the receiver, so far as may be necessary to the ends of justice.

This section modifies the law as expounded by the Supreme Court of the United States, and it restores to suitors the right of trial by jury.

Section 7 is levelled at nepotism; it provides that no person related to any justice or judge of any court of the United States by consanguinity or affinity within the degree of first cousin, shall be appointed to any office or be employed by such court or judge in any duty in any court of which such justice or judge may be a member.

On March 3, 1887, Congress repealed the tenure of office act, which it had passed twenty years before. The repeal of this act is at least a recognition of the wisdom of our ancestors, who believed that the power of removal was incident to the power of appointment.

The act to regulate the counting of votes for president and vice-president, and the decisions of questions arising thereon, deserves commendation, because it contains a recognition of the principle, that presidential electors are State officers, whose appointment is to be determined by State authority; and it precludes the creation of extra-constitutional tribunals to determine a contested election.

The act to regulate commerce, commonly called the inter-state commerce law, is so well known, and has been the subject of so much discussion, I will not dwell upon its provisions. The interpretation of the long and short haul section seems to have given most trouble to those who are charged with the execution of the law, as well as to those who are expected to obey it.

To determine what are "substantially similar circumstances and conditions" is no less difficult than the definition of the special cases iu which the commission may authorize the common carrier to charge less for longer than for shorter distances. I cannot refrain from calling to your attention the phraseology of the sixth section, which provides for the issue against the offending carrier of a writ of mandamus "in the name of the People of the United States." I know of no other instance in which judicial process is issued, or judicial procedure is conducted, in the name of the People of the United States. The expression is calculated to arouse the attention of those familiar with the constitutional controversies which agitated the republic in its earlier days.

Congress also passed an act to provide for bringing suits against the government. It enacts that the court of claims shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine:

1. All claims founded upon the Constitution of the United States, or any law of Congress, except for pensions, or upon any regulation of an executive department, or upon any contract, express or implied, with the government, or for damages liquidated or unliquidated in cases not sounding in tort, in respect of which

claims the party would be entitled to redress against the United States in a court of law, equity or admiralty, if the United States were suable, but war claims and claims heretofore rejected by any court, department, or commission authorized to hear them, are excepted.

2. All set-offs, counter claims for damages, or other demands whatsoever, on the part of the government, against any claimant in said court.

But no suit against the government is allowed, unless brought within six years after the right accrued. The Circuit and District Courts are vested with jurisdiction concurrent with the Court of Claims, the Circuit Courts where the amount of the claim does not exceed $10,000, and the District Courts where the amount of the claim does not exceed $1,000; the causes are to be tried without a jury, and either party is allowed an appeal, or writ of error, as in other suits. A provision has been introduced into the act, whereby a party who is or has been indebted to the government, or his surety or representative, may by suit compel au ascertainment or adjustment of the debt, or a settlement of accounts, and obtain a final discharge.

The anti-polygamy act has been amended. In prosecutions for bigamy, the lawful spouse, although made a competent witness, cannot be compelled to testify without the consent of the other spouse; but confidential communications made by either spouse to the other during marriage are protected from disclosure. Adultery is punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary not exceeding three years; both parties are declared guilty of adultery if the woman be married, though the man be unmarried; but if the man be married and the woman unmarried, the man alone is to be deemed guilty.

Every ceremony of marriage in any of the territories of the United States, whether the parties be lawful subjects of such ceremony or not, must be certified by the person who performs it, and signed by the parties, and filed in the Probate Court. The laws of the Territory of Utah, which recognize the capacity of illegitimate children to inherit the estate of their father, are annulled. A widow in that Territory is endowed with the third part of the lands whereof her husband was seised during marriage, and women are deprived of the right of voting.

Congress also passed an act to establish experiment stations in connection with the agricultural colleges established in the several States, and an act to restrict the ownership of real estate in the Territories and in the District of Columbia to American citizens. The latter act makes it unlawful for an alien who has not declared his intention to become a citizen, or a foreign corporation, thereafter to acquire or hold real estate, except such as may be acquired by inheritance, or in the ordinary course of justice in the collection of debts contracted prior to its passage, but the prohibition does not apply to foreigners, whose right to hold real estate is secured by treaties now existing, so long as such treaties are in force.

No corporation, more than twenty per cent of the stock of which is owned by foreigners, is allowed to acquire real estate, and no corporation, other than railway, canal or turnpike corporations, is allowed to acquire more than five thousand acres of land; railway, canal or turnpike corporations, may hold lands necessary to the accomplishment of the objects of their creation, and such lands as Congress may graut to them, but the act is not to affect lauds acquired prior to its passage.

Several of the north-western States have adopted the policy of Congress in regard to the acquisition of lands by aliens, and have supplemented federal legislation by passing laws similar in principle. Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Nebraska have im

itated the example of Congress. The Colorado prohibition applies only to the acquisition of agricultural, arid or range lands, and does not affect the holding of any land the assessed value of which does not exceed $5,000.

The prohibition in Nebraska does not apply to lands necessary for the construction and operation of railroads; nor in Minnesota does it apply to actual settlers on farms of more than one hundred and sixty acres; in Wisconsin however an alien may hold three hundred and twenty acres of land.

Illinois has added to the severity of congressional legislation by a provision that no lease of any land for the purpose of farming and raising crops thereon, made by an alien laudland, snall contain any provision requiring the tenant to pay taxes, and if any thing is received in advance from the tenant in lieu of taxes, he may recover it back.

Alabama: This State is only exceeded by North Carolina in the bulk of its legislation. The acts of North Carolina make a book of eleven hundred pages, while those of Alabama are compressed in a volume of one thousand and thirty-eight pages. This extraordinary legislative activity is due in both States to the vicious system of enacting local and special laws, and to a wonderful development which calls into existence Dumberless private corporations. As a sample of the intensity of local legislation of North Carolina, I mention an act to restrict the catching of fish in Bynum's mill pond, in Edgecombe county, in any manner or way, except with hook and line, or by drawing off the water and taking out the large fish, for the purpose of improving the fish in the pond.

A partial correction of the evil in Alabama may be found in the proposed amendment to the Constitution of that State, which is to be submitted to the people at the next general election. It provides "that no bill which does not apply to the whole State (except bills creating and regulating municipal corporations, and bills fixing the time of holding the courts, and prescribing rules of procedure therein) shall be introduced into either house of the Legislature after the twentieth legislative day of the session, nor shall any such bill be considered or passed after the thirty-fifth legislative day of the session; nor shall any bill which applies to the whole State be amended by either house after the twentieth legislative day of the session, so as to confine its operation to a part of the State."

The State of Alabama seems to ignore the maxim, that it is the interest of the republic to end litigation, if its policy is expressed in the act which requires the Supreme Court in deciding each case, when there is a conflict between its existing opinion and any former ruling in the case, to be governed by what in its opinion at that time is law, without regard to such former ruling of the law by it, but the right of third persons acquired on the faith of the former ruling is not to be defeated or interfered with by or on account of the subsequent ruling.

Women may be appointed notaries public, but not with the power and authority of justices of the peace; Alabama hesitated to intrust the judicial scales to feminine hands. I suppose the legislators thought women's eyes were never blind. The common law as to the effect of marriage on the rights and liabilities of husband and wife has been superseded by an act which declares that all the property of the wife, held by her at the time of her marriage, or which she may in any mauner acquire after her marriage, is her separate property, and is not subject to the liabilities of her husband; that her earnings are her separate property, also all damages she may be entitled to recover for injuries to her person or property; that the husband is not liable for the ante-nuptial debts of the wife, nor for her post-nuptial contracts or torts; that the wife

may sue and be sued as if she were sole; she has capacity to contract with the assent of her husband in writing; she may with similar consent, recorded in the Probate Court, pursue any trade or business as if she were sole; and obliterating the last vestige of man and wife, the statute, with revolutionary disregard of the doctrine taught by the year books, "eadem coro vir et uxor," proceeds to authorize the husband and the wife to contract with each other; but all contracts into which they enter are subject to the rules of law as to contracts between persous standing in confidential relations. The only contract she is forbidden to make is that of surety for her husband.

Among other statutes of interest, is an act limiting the duration of lien on lands, resulting from the registry of a judgment or decree, to ten years from the date of registry; also an act which declares void as to third persons having no notice, all absolute conveyances as well as all mortgages of real estate to secure debts created at the date thereof, unless recorded within thirty days from their date; also an act to authorize the acceptance of a certain class of corporations as surety on official bonds; also an act which requires the court in cases of larceny, embezzlement and other like offenses, where the defendant is found guilty, to assess the value of the article stolen or embezzled as part of the costs, and when the costs including such value are paid or worked out at hard labor, the County Court is to pay the owner such value out of the fund arising from the proceeds of such labor; also an act for the recusation of judges on account of interest or relationship to the parties by consanguinity or affinity in the fourth degree, or on account of having been of counsel, or having prepared or signed any instrument the construction or validity of which is involved in the cause; also an act to prevent extortionate charges for the trespassing of cattle on the lands of another; the owner of the cattle by tendering what he considers the amount of damages done, can subject the complainant to all costs of suit, in case the amount tendered turns out to have been adequate compensation for the damage; also an act which provides that in all contracts for the sale of commercial fertilizers in which an excessive price is put on the article sold, with a stipulation that if paid for on or before a certain date, it may be paid in a smaller sum than the price fixed in the contract; the difference between the excessive price fixed in the contract and the real market value shall be deemed a penalty and only the real market value can be recovered.

Railroad companies are required to provide for the comfort and accommodation of passengers at each station, and to keep a register of the animals injured or killed by their trains at the station nearest to the accident; they are forbidden to employ any person in a position which requires the use of discernment of form or color signals, unless he possess a certificate from the State board of health of his fitness therefor, in so far as color blindness and visual powers are concerned; nor can any locomotive engineer be employed, unless licensed after examination by a State board of examiners, composed of five skilled mechanics appointed by the governor.

It is made a penal offense to compel a child under eighteen years of age, or a woman, to labor in a mechanical or manufacturing business more than eight hours a day, to permit a child under fourteen years of age to work therein longer than eight hours a day, and the employment of children under fifteen years of age in coal or iron mines is prohibited.

The sale of adulterated sugar, lard, molasses, butter or other articles of food, unless branded as such is punished by fine and imprisonment. This State has adopted a revision and codification of its public stat

utes, both civil and criminal, which is to go into operation thirty days after the proclamation of the governor announcing its publication.

Arkansas: This State has enacted that an assignment for the benefit of creditors may be attacked for fraud by any creditor, and proof of fraud on the part of the assignor shall be sufficient to invalidate the assignment, whether the assignee knew of it or not. An action to enforce a mortgage or deed of trust is barred, if not brought within the period of limitation prescribed for suit on the debt or liability secured. In suits to set aside fraudulent conveyances, and to obtain equitable garnishment, is it not necessary that the plaintiff should recover a judgment at law to prove insolvency, that fact may be proved by any competent testimony, so that only one suit is necessary. Judgment rendered on constructive service of process may be reopened at any time within two years and a new trial had, and upon the new trial, the court may confirm its judgment, or order the plaintiff to restore what he has received under it. The law which authorizes a mortgagor to waive the right of appraisement, sale, or redemption of the property mortgaged has been repealed.

A contract for a greater rate of interest than ten per cent per annum is declared usurious and absolutely void; and every lien or mortgage securing the same; and every conveyance in furtherance of such lien, may be annulled at the suit of the borrower or his vendees, assigns, or creditors, even as against a bona fide purchaser for value without notice, and no tender of payment of any part of the usurious debt need be made. All persons claiming under the lender, whether the evidence of debt be negotiable or not, and whether they have notice or not, stand on the same footing as the lender.

Another statute provides that the Probate Court of each county shall once every year examine the bonds of all executors, administrators, guardians, and curators on file in the county, and if for any cause any bond is insufficient the court shall make an ex parte order, that a new bond be furnished; failure to comply with the order to the satisfaction of the court within ten days after notice thereof, operates ipso facto a revocation of the letters issued to the fiduciary.

The noteworthy penal legislation of Arkansas is embraced in an act abolishing the public execution of persons condemned to death.

An act making it unlawful for railroad or transportation companies to grant free passes, to any officer of the State, legislative, executive or judicial, the company granting any such pass is subjected to a fine of not less than $200 nor more than $2,000 and the officer accepting the pass is declared guilty of a misdemeanor, the consequences of conviction being removal from office, and a fine not less than $25 nor more than $200. An act punishing the keepers and employees of any dram-shop or saloon, who permit minors to play in such shops or saloon, any game of cards, billiards, pool or any other game; and an act to punish any person who by false pretenses shall obtain a certificate of registration in the herd register of any association for the improvement of the breed of cattle and other animals, and any person who shall knowingly give a false pedigree of any animal.

Similar laws in regard to the registration and pedigree of animals have been enacted this year in Tennessee, New Jersey, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, Alabama, Minnesota, Nevada, Rhode Island, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Michigan.

The severity of the punishment which may be inflicted in Arkansas, Tennessee, and New Jersey indicates a high appreciation in those States of blue blooded horses and cattle, and the importance at

tached to the preservation of the family history of aristocratic sheep and swine. It seems rather harsh, to imprison one in the penitentiary for manufacturing the pedigree of a pig, when he may forge with impunity the family tree of a mau.

The railroad legislation of Arkansas is peculiar. An act has been passed which makes it unlawful for any citizens or corporation of any other State or country to build, lease, maintain or operate a railroad in the State; any person or corporation of any other State or country operating a railroad within the State, is required within thirty days from the passage of the act, to organize a corporation under the State laws, and to transfer the title to so much of the railroad as is in the State, to this State corporation. If the company fails to comply with the law, the attorney-general is required to file a bill in the Chancery Court of Pulaski county, against the company, and the court is directed to issue an order restraining all persons named or unnamed from further building or operating the road; service of such order on any person subjects him in case of disobedience to a fine of $10,000 and to imprisonment until the fino is paid; if within thirty days after the service of the restraining order the railroad company does not comply with the law, the governor is directed to take possession of the road, and after twenty day's notice, to lease it for five years to the highest bidder who is a citizen or corporation of the State, to be operated as an independent road. Consolidation with a railroad in an adjoining State is allowed, but the consolidated corporation shall become a corporation of the State. Consolidation is only permitted between corporations, the union of whose roads will make a continuous line; consolidation with parallel or competing lines is prohibited.

Another act regulates railroads on principles similar to those, which form the basis of the inter-State commerce act, passed by Congress; no director, officer, agent or employee of a railroad is allowed to be interested in any contract with the company, for furnishing supplies or material to it, or for the transportation of freight or passengers on better terms than those accorded to the public. Another act regulates the rate of charges for the carriage of passengers; the rate on a line of railroad fifteen miles or less in length is eight cents per mile; on a line over fifteen and less than seventy-five miles in length it is five cents per mile; on lines over seventy-five miles in length it is three cents per mile, and half price for children under twelve and over five years of age. Another act gives a lien on the railroad its equipments, income and franchises superior to all mortgages, to any person who shall perform work upon the road, or furnish materials or machinery to it, and to all persons who shall sustain loss to person or property for which a legal liability may exist; to make the lien effectual, suit must be brought on the claim within one year after it accrued.

California: In California there are two acts levelled at the Chinese, one to prevent the use of a stamp or label on goods manufactured by Chinese labor, designating them as the product of other labor; the other making it unlawful for State, city or county officials in charge of any public institution to purchase for the use of such institution, supplies manufactured or grown in the State, which are in whole or in part the product of Mongolian labor.

An effort has been made to maintain the purity of California wine; by enacting regulations for its manufacture, and forbidding the sale of spurious mixtures as pure California wine.

The most noteworthy act is that which authorizes executors and administrators with the approval of the court, after notice to all parties having an interest, to mortgage or lease the real estate of the deceased, the term of the lease not to exceed five years.

Connecticut: This State recognizing the correct principle, that a mortgage is but a pledge, passed an act to authorize a decree of sale at the direction of the court, instead of the old-fashioned strict foreclosure. It has authorized the mortgagee of real property, upon which there is insurance made by the policy payable in case of loss to him, to make proof of the loss in case the mortgagor fails to do so within three months after the fire. The substituted proof of loss is made under judicial supervision after due notice to the mortgagor. A singular act has been passed, which forbids any life insurance company doing business in the State, to make any distinction or discrimination between white persons and colored persons, as to the premiums or rates charged for policies upon the lives of such persons. Statistics establish the fact, that the death rate among colored persons in the United States is much higher than that of the white race, hence the risk is greater on the life of a colored than on that of a white person. The death rate of the white people in the United States is about fourteen per thousand, while that of the colored population is about seventeen per thousand. There is no appreciable difference in this respect between the northern and the southern States. The white population of the southern States east of the Mississippi river, including the District of Columbia, is about 8,000,000, the number of deaths in those States, recorded in the year 1886, is about 113,000, or about fourteen per thousand, the colored population of the same States is about 5,000,000, the number of deaths in the same year is about 91,000, giving a death rate of about seventeen per thousand; nevertheless so prolific are the colored people, that notwithstanding this excessive mortality, they increase in the southern States nine per cent faster than the white race. The greatest disparity in the death rates of the two races in the south is in the number of the deaths under five years of age, and the mortality of the negro children is more than double that of the white. The diseases which cause the excess of mortality among the colored adults are consumption, pneumonia, heart disease, dropsy, scrofula and small-pox. If the superior sanitary condition of the colored population in Connecticut does not justify this law, perhaps the paucity of that population may prevent insurance companies there from feeling the effects of its operation.

Connecticut has also passed laws for the inspection of factories and for the protection of life and health in the same; to subject to inspection boarding-houses for infants under ten years of age; to compel the attendance of children at school, and if they attend a private school to require the teacher having control of the school, to keep a register of attendance, which shall be opened to the inspection of the State board of education; to regulate the sale of poison; to prohibit the sale of imitation butter, unless branded as such; to prohibit the sale of molasses adulterated with glucose, starch or any preparation of starch; to provide for the weekly payment of wages to the employees of corporations; to limit the labor of women or minors under sixteen years of age to ten hours a day, or sixty hours a week; to punish black mail by imprisonment in the penitentiary or jail, for a term not exceeding ten years, or by a fine not exceeding $5,000.

I must not omit the act for the punishment of incorrigible criminals; a person tried, convicted, sentenced and imprisoned in the State prison for any crime, for which the minimum punishment is two years imprisonment in the State prison, who shall thereafter be convicted, sentenced and imprisoned in the State prison for any crime, for which the minimum punishment is two years imprisonment in the State prison, is to be deemed incorrigible, and at the expiration of his sentence shall be detained in the State

prison for the further term of twenty-five years, unless pardoned or allowed to go at large on parol. After the expiration of the third sentence, the board of directors of the State prison may allow him to go at large on parol, and while so at large, he is in the legal custody of said board, subject at any time to be taken back to prison. The written order of the board is sufficient warrant to authorize a police officer to return the incorrigible to actual custody.

I rather fear that the locomotive whistle which the recent Sunday act allows to be sounded on Sunday trains will make the forefathers of Connecticut turn in their graves. Sunday trains, it is true, are prohibited between sunrise and sunset except when run from necessity or mercy, but the proviso says, it is necessary to run Sunday mail trains, at any time before half past ten in the morning and after three o'clock in the afternoon, and that the railroad commissioners may allow freight trains to run when required by public necessity, or for the preservation of freight.

As compensation for this enormity however, I find on the next page a statute which imprisons every man who shall willfully abandon and neglect or refuse to support his wife, and cohabit and live with another woman. The term of imprisonment is not more than three years, and it may be in the State prison or in the common jail. A wide latitude of discretion; perhaps the youth and beauty of the deserted wife were intended to be taken into account in fixing the punishment; perhaps the legislators thought that a gay Lothario who abandons a wife old enough to be his mother should be sent to jail for a short period, while the inexcusable desertion of a young and lovely spouse by an old bachelor, who has postponed marriage until his heart has become dessicated, could only be atoned for by imprisonment for three years at hard labor in the penitentiary.

Connecticut has also adopted a revision of its general statutes, which was reported to the General Assembly by a commission appointed for that purpose, and I am informed it was enacted by a confiding Legislature without examination.

Colorado: This State has adopted a Code of Procedure containing four hundred and forty-five sections: it abolishes the distinction between actions at law and suits in equity, and from the similarity of the provisions to those found in the codes of other States, I presume it was derived from them. The chattel mortgage law has been amended, so as to require the mortgagee, when the amount of his debt exceeds $2,500, to record every year a sworn statement, that the mortgage was given in good faith to secure the sum of money therein mentioned, and that it remains unpaid in whole or in part as the case may be; if the mortgagor conceals or disposes of the property mortgaged without the consent of the mortgagee, he is declared guilty of larceny. Children under fourteen years of age cannot be employed in any underground works or mines, or in any smelter, mill or factory; the blacklisting of employees for the purpose of preventing them from engaging in or securing employment, similar to that from which they have been discharged, is prohibited; the sale of dynamite and other high explosives has been regulated; the fair and orderly conduct of primary elections or of nominating conventions is secured by proper penalties; and incorporated employers of help are fined for any attempt to influence or control the votes of their employees.

The private detective business cannot be carried on without a license, the licensee being required to give bond in such amount as the governor may fix, not less than $3,000 nor more than $20,000, conditioned that the principal will honestly, lawfully and faithfully, without oppression and without compounding any

criminal offense, carry on the detective business; the same act makes it a penal offense for a licensed detective, or his employee, to induce the confession of crime by threats, torture or promise of immunity.

Every foreign corporation engaged in selling news items or press reports is required to appoint an agent in the State, on whom process can be served; the act obliges such corporation or its agent to file with the secretary of State every six months a schedule of prices, and to supply news items and press reports to any applicant at the schedule prices, and forbids discrimination in price or celerity of delivery.

Another act commands the children of the public schools to be taught the nature of alcoholic drinks and narcotics and their effects upon the human system, while the amended liquor law prohibits the sale of whiskey for drinking purposes unless it is two years and nine months old.

Another act provides for the commutation of life sentences, the same as if sentenced for the term of the expectation of life of such convict, based on the Carlisle mortality table, less the allowance for good time, and at the expiration of such period he is to be discharged, but the expectation of life in no case is to be estimated at less than ten, nor more than twentyfive years.

The last act to which I shall call your attention, declares that any person who shall be a party to a fraudulent sale or conveyance of any lands, goods or chattels or any interest therein, or who shall conceal, or remove, or dispose of any personal property, or shall be a party to any bond, suit, contract or judgment, execution or conveyance, had, made or contrived with intent on the part of said parties to defraud, or to hinder and delay creditors, shall on conviction be imprisoned in the penitentiary for not more than three years.

Delaware: Forty-four divorce acts have been passed by the Legislature of Delaware. This activity in divorcing married persons should induce the people of that State to withdraw the marriage dissolving power from the legislative, and intrust it to the judicial department of the government, where it properly belongs. As some compensation for the evil inflicted on society, by the liberal exercise of the divorce power, an act has been passed to prevent the desertion and to secure the maintenance of married women aud of minor children. Upon proper complaint the court may order the deserting husband or father to pay not exceeding $100 per month for the support of wife or children as the case may be, and to give security therefor, and be committed to the county jail until the order is complied with, or until his discharge by the court.

States have adopted a similar law, most of them have included dentistry, and some have extended the principle to veterinary surgeons. Indeed some States have created the office of State veterinary surgeon to aid the enforcement of their legislation to prevent the spread of contagious disease among animals.

Georgia: The Legislature of Georgia assembled on the first Monday in November, 1886, and on the twentysecond of December took a recess until the first Wednesday in July. It is now in session.

Two noteworthy acts were passed, one which prohibits marriages within the levitical degrees of consanguinity or between a man and his step-daughter, or mother-in-law, or daughter-in-law, or step-mother, or grand-daughter of his wife, or a marriage by a woman with her corresponding relatives. Such marriages are declared void aud the parties to them are subject to prosecution. The other act provides that a will executed by a person competent under the lawS of Georgia to make a will, who is a resident and citizen of any of the United States other than the State of Georgia, shall be admitted to probate as a valid will of real and personal estate, provided the will be executed in conformity to the laws of the State where the testator resided at the time of its execution, and provided it be admitted to probate according to the laws of such State. The act is imperfect, inasmuch as it omits the Territories of the United States, and it only applies to citizens, and therefore excludes domiciled foreigners. Besides the act does not go far enough; why not adopt the principle expressed in article 1596 of the Civil Code of Louisiana, which declares that "testaments made in foreign countries, or in the States and Territories of the Union, shall take effect in this State, if they be clothed with all the formalities prescribed for the validity of wills in the place where they have been respectively made?" This provision is universal, it includes even citizens of Louisiana while on a visit abroad. Why should not the principles applicable to contracts govern the execution of wills?

Illinois: I know of no other State which has so thoroughly accepted the belief, that a cross in the blood is necessary to. the improvement and development of the race, for Illinois has prohibited marriage between first cousins, and denounced it as incestuous and void; the prohibition even extends to illegitimate relations.

In the classification of claims against the estate of a deceased person, the wages due a servant or laborer for labor performed for the deceased within six months previous to death are placed in the same class with trust moneys, to which a preference is given over general debts and demands. In case the property of any corporation, firm or person is seized under judicial

of a receiver, debts due to laborers and servants which have accrued by reason of their labor and employment, to an amount not exceeding $50, for labor performed within six months next preceding the seizure or suspension, are treated as preferred debts to be paid in full.

The Legislature has increased the salary of all the judges of the State; it has passed an act to prevent fraud at primary elections; an act to punish by severe penalty the sending of threatening letters, or the use of other blackmailing devices; also an act to prohibit the playing of games of chance in houses kept therefor in the presence of minor under eighteen years of age; also an act to prevent the adulteration of dairy products and fraud in the sale thereof; and an act which makes it unlawful to practice medicine or pharmacy without registry or license; nearly all the

a surety business, and to become sureties on bonds, to provide for the incorporation of co-operation associations for the prosecution of any branch of industry, and to regulate the administration of trusts by trust companies.

This State has also endeavored by legislation to prevent the spread of contagious disease among animals, and to extirpate pleuro-pneumonia, and its officers are required to co-operate with the authorities of the United States, to enforce the provisions of the act of Congress on the same subject. I notice the pleuropneumonia act became a law without the approval of