their memorial, would show that if the said James Davis had not been permitted and allowed to draw any more lands and warrants than he was legally entitled to draw under and by virtue of the law and estimates made, there would now remain of lands and warrants, subject 'to be applied to completion of said canal, dam and locks, computed at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, the sum of fifteen thousand one hundred and eighty-four dollars and sixty-one cents, or upwards. Your petitioners, in view of the premises and of the facts relating to the matter of the construction of the canal, locks and dam aforesaid, from its start to the present time, considering themselves unjustly and wrongfully aggrieved by the many illegal and unautherized proceedings which mark the history of nearly every step of the matter, whereby the lands, which should now be under the control of the State, applicable to the completion of the work aforesaid, have been very greatly diminished, and the liability of your petitioners upon the said bond unjustly increased, do respectfully ask from your honorable body relief in the premises, as follows: 1. That the time for the construction of said canal, locks and dam, may be extended two years. 2. That the right of way across the lands over which said canal passes and must (if ever completed) pass, and the right of abatal for said dam, may be secured to the State as fully and amply as the laws, authorizing and regulating the construction of said canal, require and contemplate that said right of way should have been secured before any contract in reference to the construction of the same was made. 3. That so much of the appropriation for the construction of said canal, locks and dam, as has been illegally obtained from the State, may be made good to your petitioners, upon condition that they complete the work in the manner required by the contract of James Davis, above alluded to, executed under and by virtue of act No. 36 of session laws of 1850; (your petitioners considering that not to exceed one-half of the necessary labor and expense to complete the work has been met by said James Davis.) 4. That a law may be passed authorizing your petitioners to draw drawn had he complied with his contract, upon condition that your petitioners go on and complete said canal, locks and dam, as required by the contract aforesaid. In case relief in the particulars aforesaid is granted to your petitioners, so that they may be placed in the same condition they would be in had the laws relating to said canal, locks and dam been faithfully carried out; your petioners, in such case, would and do propose to go on and complete said work as required by the aforesaid contract with said James Davis, within two years from the first day of February, 1851. And your petitioners further ask, that if relief cannot be granted them as above prayed, they may be discharged from all liabilities as sureties of the said James Davis upon the bond aforesaid. And your petioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray. S. O. KINGSBURY, W. D. FOSTER, JOHN M. FOX, Z. G. WINSOR, No. 4. 1851. [No. 4.] COMMUNICATION from the Attorney General, relative to the compensation of Members and Officers of the Legislature. OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, To the Hon. the House of Representatives: S I have received from the Clerk of the House of Representatives, a resolution, requesting the Attorney General to give a construction to the revised constitution, relative to the compensation of the officers and members of the present Legislature. By the provisions contained in section fifteen of the fourth article of the constitution, the compensation of members is fixed at three dollars a day for actual attendance, for the first sixty days of the session of the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, and for the first forty days of every subsequent session, and nothing thereafter. It is also provided in the same section, that they shall be entitled to ten cents and no more for every mile actually traveled, going and to returning from the place of meeting, on the usually traveled route. There can be no doubt, that the general law providing for the pay ment of the officers and members of Legislatures, approved January 16, 1850, is repugnant to these provisions, so far as it relates to the per diem allowance of members. The members of the present Legislature, it will be seen at a glance, are, in direct terms, embraced in the first clause of the constitutional provision. The subsequent clause, regulating the mileage of members, is no less unequivocally expressed. They shall be entitled to ten cents and no more for every mile actually traveled. This refers as pointedly to the Legislature of eighteen hundred and fifty-one, as the preceding clause. Both provisions, are, in fact, too plain to leave room for any other construction, than that the compensation of the members of this Legislature, is fixed by the constitution, at three dollars a day for atten |