code and the code of criminal procedure went into effect on the 24th of July last.

VERMONT.

Vermont has passed a law providing for taxing the deposits of savings banks, savings institutions, and trust companies. the tax is to be paid by the companies on account of the depositors.

Also, an Act approved January 1, 1879, providing for mortgages of personal property.

This is the first chattel mortgage law that ever existed in Vermont.

Provision has been made by law for the appointment of two commissioners to revise, redraft, compile, consolidate and arrange in methodical order, the public statutes of the state.

As to some of the states I have not been able to obtain access to the laws passed during the last year. In others, no laws have been passed which have been deemed worthy of special mention, and of the states which hold biennial sessions it so happens that in nearly all of them no session of the legislature was held during the last year.

ACTS OF CONGRESS.

An Act to establish a national board of health, to consist of seven members, to be appointed by the president, with the advice of the senate, and one medical officer of the army, one of the navy, one of the marine hospital service, and one officer from the department of justice, whose duty shall be to obtain information upon all matters affecting the public health; to advise the several departments of the government, the executives of the several states, and the commissioners of the District of Columbia, on all questions submitted to them, or whenever, in the opinion of the board, such advice may tend to the preservation and improvement of the public health.

The Academy of Science is requested to co-operate with them, and they are to report at the next session of Congress a plan for a national public health organization. Approved

March 3, 1879.

A joint resolution was passed appropriating $50,000 to pay expenses incurred in investigating the origin and causes of epidemic diseases, especially yellow fever and cholera, and the best method of preventing their introduction into the United States.

An appropriation was made of $250,000 to be set apart as a perpetual fund for the purpose of aiding the education of the blind in the United States, through the American Printing House for the Blind, by Act approved March 3, 1879.

Also an Act was passed at the late session admitting certain women to practise before the Supreme Court of the United States.

Also, an Act providing for taking criminal cases to the Circuit Court from the District Court, by writ of error, where the sentence is imprisonment, or fine and imprisonment, and the fine exceeds the sum of $300.

One of the provisions of the last census Act, enacted March 9, 1879, provides, that if any state or territory shall, by its officers, and according to the rules and forms prescribed by the Act of Congress, take a semi-decennial census, the United States government will pay fifty per cent. of the cost.

And, now, gentlemen of the association, having, in a very imperfect manner, completed the special task assigned me, I have only a few words to say in reference to the general objects of the association as indicated by the wisdom of those who formed it.

We have undertaken to advance the science of jurisprudence, promote the administration of justice and uniformity of legislation throughout the Union, uphold the honor of the profession

of the law, and encourage cordial intercourse among the members of the American bar.

If we shall prove ourselves equal to this undertaking, we will deserve the gratitude not only of the present but of the coming generations.

It has been said by an eminent English writer that "the "whole story of law-as the story of every other department of "human life-is the story of human error, but also the story of "truth and resistance to error, not to say of triumph over it. It "is by virtue of good laws and not of the bad, that states have progressed and nations continue to live; and it is because the vast bulk of the law in all countries, even the worst governed, "has done more to secure human freedom than to impair it, that "civilization has progressed as far as it has.”

In securing the adoption of good laws, the members of our profession, as long as they have maintained its honor, have always exercised a greater influence than all other classes in the community combined. Whilst not legislators themselves, they have much to do in directing the wheels of legislation.

From the nature of their calling it becomes their duty to watch the operation of all laws, whether they result from positive legislation or custom, and endeavor to improve them in the interest of humanity. Individual effort may accomplish much, but concerted action will accomplish more.

Public opinion is in this country the source of all laws, whether they appear in the form of customs which arise from the common consent of a people in a community--and which always exist before there is any written law on the subject to which they relate or from statutes which are enacted by their representatives who are authorized to make laws.

In no country where the English language is spoken can the supreme political authority long persist in counteracting the will of the bulk of the population, no matter what may be the form of government.

But public opinion is so often wrong-the turbulence of human passions and the promptings of individual interest so often urge men to violate the principles of right in the passage of unjust laws, even in the best regulated societies, that untiring effort and unceasing vigilance are necessary to maintain truth and establish justice on a firm foundation. Efforts at social reform, political convulsions and domestic insurrections agitate the sea of public sentiment until the tempestuous waves threaten to sweep away, and do often sweep away, the barriers which protect individual right.

John Stuart Mill has well said: "That in the world of law "no less than in the physical world every commotion and conflict "of the elements has left its mark behind in some breach or ir"regularity of the state; every struggle which ever rent the "bosom of society is apparent in the disjointed condition of the 'part of the field of law which covers the spot; nay the very traps and pit-falls which one contending party set for another "are still standing, and the teeth, not of hyenas only, but of "foxes and all cunning animals are imprinted on the curious "remains found in these antediluvian caves." (Essay on Bentham.)

It is the business of those who have studied the science of human rights, whether they be on the bench, at the bar, in the social circle, or in the halls of legislation, to see that public sentiment springs from a pure fountain and flows in an unobstructed channel, and that the laws adopted in pursuance of its mandates shall secure to each citizen the fulness of individual existence, and impose so much restraint only upon each as is necessary for the good of all.

PAPER

READ BY

CALVIN G. CHILD.

Shifting Uses, from the Stand-point of the Nineteenth Century.

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:-By the courtesy of the Executive Committee, the duty has been assigned me of reading an essay before you, upon a subject connected with the objects. of this Association: They are stated in the first article of the Constitution to be "the advancement of the science of jurisprudence; the promotion of the administration of justice and "uniformity of legislation throughout the Union; the uphold"ing the honor of the profession of the law; and encourage. "ment of cordial intercourse among the members of the "American Bar."

Within this by no means narrow range, I hope to confine myself in addressing you upon the subject of "Shifting Uses, "from the Stand-point of the Nineteenth Century."

Appreciating highly the favor of the committee, whose goodwill has manifested itself in so complimentary a manner, I am yet somewhat at a loss how to proceed, and feel that in limine I must bespeak your kind consideration and friendly criticism of this, the first essay before the American Bar Association—it is for me to show the way, to open a path, to lead out, as it were, the first company in the regiment on this our first dress parade, and were I not assured of your kindly greeting, that modesty, which is one of the graces of our profession, might well cause me to hesitate before advancing farther.