It is obvious at a glance, that the legislation of the present year, however extensive its scope or important in its design, has not as yet produced very considerable results. Few of the Acts about to be noticed were passed until late in the session. These, of course, did not legally take effect until the year which this Report covers was more than half elapsed; and, in many instances, it happens that the practical working of a law does not begin until long after it is nominally in force. Little of our legislation is self-acting; the great body of it needs to be carried into effect by officers and citizens who only gradually become apprised of its tenor and obligations; and many laws, in point of fact, do sleep in the Statute Book for years, till some contingency, in view of which they may or may not have been framed, calls them into action. This is not generally the case with laws that involve the expenditure of money, for there self-interest comes in to prompt the speedy execution; nor does it happen often where private interests are concerned in other ways. But if a law be mainly for the public good, looking towards the amelioration of some evil, or the gradual improvement of the mass of the community, there comes in the old saw, "What is everybody's business is nobody's," and the enforcement of such a law is left to time and chance too frequently; or, when this is not so, the preliminary work necessary to fit the new law into the grooves and channels of public opinion must first be done, the right men must be found to act under

THE LAWS DO NOT EXECUTE THEMSELVES.

it, and all those steps must be taken, without which cautious men will not venture to start up the rumbling machinery of legal enforcement. Hence the effect of new laws may often be seen in a gradual preparation of the popular mind for their execution, long before they are in actual operation; and it may even happen (and this year has furnished a notable instance,) that before a Statute is enacted, its results, as the street phrase goes, "have been discounted," and it has already begun to take effect from the known purpose of the legislature and the drift of public sentiment. In other words, the same things take place that we notice in gunnery-the cannon has been discharged and the shot has hit the mark, or done some accidental damage; nay, the piece itself may have exploded and killed the gunner, before the noise of the explosion reaches the ears of those that saw the event.

In regard to the legislation of previous years, however, there are better data for calculating and recording its effects; though these, again, cannot be taken as positively ascertained in all cases; the consequences of legislation being often mixed with the result of influences purely private, or pertaining to that course of things with which law-making has little or nothing to do. With these observations, which must needs appear trite, I will pass to the matter in hand.

1.-The New Law of Settlement.

Under the existing provisions of our Settlement Laws, up to last June, at least half of our people had no legal settlement in any city or town; and at the same time, by reason of the stringency of those laws, and the changing circumstances of our industrious classes, the unsettled persons were constantly increasing in number, and threatening to swell the number of our State Pauper establishments. I am happy to report, however, that in response to the urgent recommendations of His Excellency the Governor, supported by the authority of his predecessor, and fortified by the repeated suggestions of this Board, the Legislature took up the matter and made the first movement towards a salutary and much needed reform. The true policy of this Commonwealth, which has been set forth in the opinions of law

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officers, and repeatedly declared by your Board, to decentralize so far as possible our pauper support, and give local relief the amplest extension consistent with humanity and economy, has been recognized in the Act of June 9, 1868.

A wise measure of humanity, as well as of justice, has thus been enacted into law. This Act is as follows:

[CHAP. 328.]

AN ACT in relation to the Settlement of Paupers.

Be it enacted, &c., as follows:

SECT. 1. Hereafter, any person of the age of twenty-one years, having the other qualifications mentioned in the fourth, fifth, ninth and twelfth clauses of the first section of chapter sixty-nine of the General Statutes, shall be deemed to have thereby gained a settlement as therein provided, although not a citizen of this or any other of the United States.

SECT. 2. If any person, actually become chargeable as a pauper to any city or town in which he has a settlement, has a settlement subsequently acquired in any place without this Commonwealth, the overseers of the poor of such city or town may cause him to be removed to said place of subsequent settlement, by a written order directed to any person therein designated, who may execute the

same.

SECT. 3. Section one of chapter two hundred and thirty of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and sixty-five, is hereby amended, by striking from the end thereof the words "and had resided therein for six months next previous to the time of his being mustered into said service," and by inserting the word "and" before the words "an inhabitant," in the last clause left remaining in said section. [Approved June 9, 1868.

Narrow, indeed, under the legislation of the eighteenth contury, were the legal gateways to Settlement in this Commonwealth; but even these were open only to citizens and barred to aliens, who now make up a large part of our population. The ready sympathy, no less than the sense of justice, of Governor Andrew, revolted at this distinction, and he declared himself unable to see "why any man who has borne his share of public burdens should be deprived of the rights that accompany them," and recommended "that aliens, having fulfilled

SETTLEMENTS OUTSIDE THE STATE.

all the conditions of settlement, except the oath of naturalization, should enjoy the same privileges in this regard as the native born." It was largely in consequence, and wholly in consonance, with this characteristic suggestion that the new law expunges the restraining word "citizen;" and the effect of this provision will be, if maintained in its spirit, and followed up with further legislation, greatly to relieve the Commonwealth, as well as the numerous class thus provided with local support instead of being congregated in the State Almshouses.

The second section of the Act renders the State a scarcely less important service. As early as 1814, Chief Justice Parker, of our Supreme Court, in deciding the celebrated case of Canton vs. Bentley, (11 Mass. 441,) observed that "a case like this may suggest to the Legislature some remedy against the action of paupers from another State, after they have by the laws of such State acquired a lawful settlement there." It is true that the Legislature has been a long time in acting upon the moderate counsel of one of the ablest judges we have ever had, but at last it has done so, in conformity with urgent recommendations in the last annual address of Governor Bullock, and the repeated suggestions of your late General Agent. The words of the Governor, though often cited, deserve to be again quoted here. "While our settled residents," he says, "number only a few hundred thousand, we are yet, by our own laws, responsible for the support of all the descendants of every man and woman who has ever gained or ever derived a settlement within our limits, who must surely be counted by thousands."

The new law gives the authority necessary for placing this responsibility where it properly belongs. That the needy and helpless should be cared for by the locality of actual and present settlement, rather than that of the merely technical one, oftentimes distant and among strangers, would hardly admit of question. Our neighboring States have long acted upon the principle here laid down, and have often carried it too far. May we not hope for some uniform and equitable legislation on their part and on ours, which will secure the ends of humanity and justice?

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If the general principle is correct, that a pauper cannot have two settlements at one and the same time, it would seem reasonable that the latest settlement should extinguish or "defeat" the preceding one, though that should be in another State.

There is some ground for the belief of many, that our laws of pauper settlement ought either to be cut up, root and branch, or to be much simplified, both for the sake of the pauper, and the public, who often quarrel over him in an expensive game of legal battledore and shuttlecock. And one important step towards simplification, is to harmonize the laws of neighboring States. There is no substantial reason why the whole of New England, if not the whole country, should not maintain the same legal provisions in regard to pauper settlement. The interest of each State, is the interest of all, and the duty which we owe and perform towards the poor, should not be modified or restricted by State lines. An effort has been made by the Secretary and General Agent of your Board, to bring about this co-operation of States, but thus far with little practical result. But the section under consideration, when practically enforced, will do much to promote a better understanding between the States.

A question of much importance may arise in regard to the interpretation of the first section of the new law, namely, whether the word "hereafter" therein contained, shall be construed so as to make the qualifications in respect to time date back, or begin to take effect at the date of the law. It is plain to me, and such is believed to have been the intention of the Committee reporting the bill, and of the Legislature in passing it, that the words "shall be deemed to have thereby gained a settlement," imply that any person hereafter found to have the "other qualifications," shall be entitled to reckon back beyond the month of June, 1868, in computing the time of residence, tax-paying, etc. Any other construction than this, would leave the present class of unsettled persons without local relief for a period of years, whereas it was plainly the wish of the Legislature, to place them within the scope of that relief, provided they had fulfilled the reasonable conditions.