Conservators of the peace of other states, railway special agents and persons carrying weapons as a reasonable precaution against apprehended danger, are exempted from the law in reference to concealed weapons.

The malicious and wrongful tapping of water mains has been added to the long category of statutory offenses.

Trading stamps, unless redeemable in money, were so offensive to the legislative conscience as to receive the condemnation of two acts of assembly.

The brighter side of penal legislation is presented by the emendation of the law concerning the juvenile court.

Jurisdiction is ceded to the United States over territory which has been heretofore or may be hereafter acquired by the government for public purposes, but civil process may be served by state officers in such territory.

After June 1, 1904, leases for terms not exceeding seven years will terminate whenever the improvements on the premises become untenantable by reason of fire or unavoidable accident, and all liability for rent thereunder will cease upon payment of apportioned rent.

Impediments of coverture and imprisonment have been removed from limitations on bonds, and the payment of interest upon a single bill or other specialty now suspends the period of limitation for three years thereafter.

The mortgage tax has been repealed as to Baltimore city and fourteen counties of the state. Elsewhere it will be hereafter collected for the benefit of the counties themselves, and not for that of the state.

The collateral inheritance tax is not enforceable for an indefinite period. The security of titles and the peace of mind of conveyancers are increased by the establishment of a limitation of four years for its collection.

A notable change has been effected in the publication of the Maryland reports and the codification of the general statutes of the state. The new law creates a salaried office of State Reporter and Codifier, provides for advertisement for the pub

lication of the reports and the award thereof to the most responsible bidder furnishing the best terms to the public. The publisher must agree to sell the advance sheets at a price fifty cents less per volume than the price exacted for the bound volume itself. The copyright in the volumes subsequent to 97 Md. will belong to the state. In consequence of this change. the price of the future bound volumes of the Maryland reports will be $1.75 instead of $4.00.

Immediately after the session of the general assembly of 1910, and decennially thereafter, the Reporter and Codifier is to prepare a code of public general laws, which is to be submitted to a commission of three persons to be appointed by the Court of Appeals, and the Reporter and Codifier is also, from time to time in the future, to codify the public local laws of the state.

A "Jim Crow" law was enacted applying to steam railroads and steamboats. For the benefit for those not familiar with the legislative lingo, I would say that the name of "Jim Crow," the hero of an old negro song very popular in the days before the war, has been applied to the legislation of recent years separating the whites and negroes in railroad trains.

An act of practical and personal interest to lawyers and judges was passed, providing for the pensioning of judges. It reads as follows:

"Every judge of the Circuit Courts of the counties, Supreme Bench of Baltimore city, or the Court of Appeals, who shall attain the age of seventy years while in office, after having served the ten preceding consecutive years, and every judge of any of said courts who shall have served upon the bench fifteen consecutive years, whether such service be before or after the passage of this act, and who shall have reached the age of seventy years, and every person who has heretofore been elected, and has served as judge of any of said courts, and is now no longer in office, and has attained the age of seventy years, or if not now seventy years of age, when he shall attain said age, shall be entitled to a salary of $2400 per annum, payable in quarterly installments as other judges' salaries are now paid."

This measure emanated from the Maryland State Bar Association, through whose influence and efforts it became a law. Mr. George Whitelock, President of the Maryland State Bar Association, in his address to that association this year, stated that a similar pension bill had just failed in the New York legislature, but regulations resembling those of Maryland are now effective in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In Connecticut the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court is $6500 per annum; at the age of seventy these judges retire, but they are appointed state referees, with an allowance of $2000 per annum. In Massachusetts a judge of the Supreme Court receives $9000 per annum. Resigning at seventy, he is paid three-fourths of his former salary, or say, $6750 per annum. The Supreme Court judges of Rhode Island receive each $5500 per annum. They are entitled to the same allowance after their retirement. Of course, we are all familiar with the federal law continuing the salaries of judges, where they have served ten years and reached the age of seventy, during the residue of their natural lives.

Two constitutional amendments passed both houses of the General Assembly by the requisite majority of three-fifths, but the governor refused to sign either of them, and the question exists whether his approval is essential. One of the amendments deals with the suffrage question. The qualifications of voters are ability to read any section of the state constitution, or to understand the same when read and give a reasonable explanation of it; or the right under the law of any state in the union to vote on January 1, 1869, or prior thereto, or lineal descent from any person so entitled to vote. The other amendment authorizes the expenditure of not more than $200,000 annually in the construction and maintenance of public highways, and shows that Maryland is in line with other progressive states upon the question of good roads.

MASSACHUSETTS.

Massachusetts, as usual, has been conservative in her legislation, but has dealt with many minute things, among others: The keeping of bloodhounds is prohibited, except an English bloodhound of pure blood whose pedigree is recorded or would be entitled to record in the English bloodhound herd book, unless such dog is kept solely for exhibition, in which case he shall be kept securely enclosed or chained, and not allowed at large unless securely muzzled.

Cities and towns are authorized to contribute money, material or labor toward the cost of state highways within.

their limits.

Towns may appropriate not more than $500 for band

concerts.

The evening law school of the Boston Young Men's Christian Association is incorporated, and authorized to grant the degree of bachelor of law upon completion of four years. course. Among the incorporators are Dean Ames, of Harvard Law School; Samuel C. Bennett, formerly Dean of Boston University Law School, and ex-Judge Dunbar, all of whom are members of the American Bar Association. The personnel of these incorporators would seem to settle the question, about which there has been some difference of opinion, that night law schools are a necessity of the times.

Hospital ambulances are given the same right of way as that of fire engines and police wagons in cities and towns.

The public performance or representation of an unpublished or undedicated dramatic or musical composition, without the consent of the proprietor and with notice that such composition is unpublished and undedicated, is made a misdemeanor punishable by fine or imprisonment or both.

It is exacted that in all trials in inferior courts male and female prisoners shall not be placed at the same time in the same dock, unless they are complained of jointly; and persons committed to any workhouse or almshouse for vagrancy,

drunkenness, petit larceny or as night walkers shall be confined in separate quarters, apart from the pauper inmates.

The word "noon" occurring in the Massachusetts standard fire insurance policy shall be construed to be the noon of standard time of the place where the insured property is situated.

The Bertillon system of measurements of criminals for purposes of identification is extended to prisoners who are under sentence as tramps or vagrants.

In cities of over 50,000 inhabitants cheap lodging houses (twenty-five cents or less per day) accommodating ten or more persons are declared public lodging houses, requiring a license from the police department and subject to rigid inspection by the building, health and police departments. Every such place must keep a registry of patrons with time of arrival and departure.

The authority of the railroad commissioners is extended to embrace steamship companies serving as common carriers between two or more parts of the commonwealth throughout the year.

The act of 1902 relative to the powers of the board of conciliation and arbitration is amended.

This state guards her own by requiring that in the employment of mechanics and laborers in the construction of public works by the commonwealth or counties or cities or towns preference shall be given to citizens of the commonwealth, and if they cannot be had in sufficient numbers to citizens of the United States.

Selectmen of towns which accept the act by two-thirds vote are authorized to retire and pension certain members of the police and fire departments. Such persons shall receive onehalf pay and be subject to temporary duty in emergency, when they shall have full pay.

It is provided that employees of manufacturing, mercantile and mechanical establishments entitled to vote shall not be employed on election days during the period of two hours after the opening of the polls.