an amendment was offered to § 13, reducing the official term of the judges included therein from fourteen years to six years. Possibly this was intended to affect the pension amendment of 1880, which continued the salary after ten years' service.

SALT SPRINGS.

Amendments authorizing the sale of the salt springs were introduced in 1878, 1883, 1888, and 1889. In 1891 the legislature passed the following amendment:

"The legislature may provide by law for the sale and disposition of the salt springs and the lands adjacent thereto belonging to this state, making just compensation to all persons having any rights therein."

This amendment was passed again in 1892, but was rejected by the people at the November election by the narrow margin of 677 votes.

CANALS.

In 1879 the legislature passed amendments abrogating §§ 1 and 2 of article 7, making the existing § 6 a new § 1, and amending it by including the Black River canal among the canals which could not be sold, also by providing that the "rates of toll on persons and property transported on the canals shall not be reduced below those for the year 1852, except by the canal board, with the concurrence of the legislature," omitting the middle sentence relating to canal expenditures, and adding the last two sentences of the existing § 3, relating to contracts and extra compensation. The existing § 3 was stricken out, and the middle sentence of the existing § 6 was substituted in its place. A new § 4 was proposed, providing for

a deficiency canal fund, to be composed of moneys derived from the disposition of the lateral canals, the net annual canal receipts, and of $400,000 already raised for canal improvement. The legislature might, in emergencies, draw on this fund for canal expenses, and might also, by a vote of two thirds of each house, appropriate $500,000 in any one year for the same purpose. These amendments abrogated § 4, relating to the claims against corporations, and § 5, relating to sinking funds. A new § II was proposed changing the "canal funded debt" to the "general fund debt," and providing for its payment by taxation. These amendments, which made a new article 7, will be found in the volume of the session laws of 1879; they were introduced again in 1880.

The legislature of 1880 passed several canal amendments. After reciting that the debts mentioned in the first and second sections of the article had been fully paid or provided for, "and no longer liens on the revenues of the canals," the net surplus revenues were to be credited to a "reserve fund" provided by § 6 and used as therein provided. Tolls established in 1880 could not be altered except by the canal board with the concurrence of the legislature. The provisions relating to extra compensation, and the letting and cancelation of contracts were continued. The Black River canal was included in the prohibition against the sale, providing for an annual tax for the payment of the canal debt, creating "a canal repair trust fund" composed of unexpended moneys remaining in the treasury applicable to extraordinary canal repairs, the enlargement of the Champlain canal, the reconstruction of the Oneida Lake canal, and the net annual surplus revenues of the canals, which trust fund was to be used "to make good any failure in the revenues to meet the appropriations for the ordinary expenditures, or for the permanent improvement of the canals."

VOL. II. CONST. HIST.-38.

The canal amendments passed in 1880 were introduced again in 1881 with the following addition to the proposed § 3:

"The legislature may authorize the sale or lease to the government of the United States in perpetuity only, the Erie, the Oswego, the Champlain, the Cayuga and Seneca, and the Black River canals, or either of them, upon such conditions and for such consideration, either nominal or otherwise, as may be agreed upon; providing that the government of the United States shall enlarge such canal or canals by deepening, widening, and maintaining the same forever as free canals, of the same capacity as the Welland canal in Canada."

In 1884 an amendment was proposed to § 6 by adding the following:

"Nothing herein shall prohibit the legislature from selling or leasing all or any of the canals of this state to the government of the United States upon condition that said canal or canals so sold or leased shall be maintained by the United States government during its control of said canal or canals so leased or sold."

In 1885 an amendment was proposed to the same section by adding the following:

"The legislature may, however, in such manner as it deems expedient, authorize a contract to be made with the government of the United States of America, permitting such government to use and control such canals or either of them for the purpose of national defense in times of war, invasion, or insurrection, provided the national government shall furnish means suitably to increase the capacity of such canals."

Superintendent of Public Works.

This subject has already been fully considered in previous chapters, and the history of the movement which led to the creation of this office need not be repeated here, except to say that the recommendation of the Commission of 1872 was approved by the legislature of 1873, but the whole of the proposed article 5, which included the office of superintendent of public works, was omitted by the legislature of 1874. An amendment creating this office was introduced and unanimously passed by the legislature in 1875. Governor Tilden, in his annual message of 1876, recommended the early consideration of the amendment by the legislature. Commenting on the importance and significance of the proposed reform, he said there should be "a radical change in the system of administration. The present machinery is chaotic, and, except with something of the unity which existed in practice in the. canal board under the old Constitution, is incapable of acting with efficiency or economy, The abuses, perversions of law and morals, improvidence and waste which cling around it are the growth of years. When a man of average well-meaning and average ability comes singly into one of these administrative offices, the graft develops, not its own nature, but the nature of the parent stem. It is difficult to carry out reform by instruments that are incurably averse to reform, whose indolence, comfort, associations, habits, assistants, and advisers are all naturally opposed to what they are expected to do. Every step of progress is not only through an enemy's country, but beset by unexpected betrayals."

The amendment was passed again in 1876, and adopted by the people at the November election by a majority of 451,321. Governor Robinson, in his annual message of 1877, reminded the legislature that laws would be needed to carry the amendment into effect; observing that a

radical change had been made in the management of the canals, with the hope of better results by avoiding "wasteful and extravagant expenditures" often incident to public business conducted by "irresponsible boards," and that "all power and responsibility are placed in the hands of one controlling executive officer."

The legislature did not pass the required act until March 30th; and the Governor, in his message of 1878, said this was too late "to permit a superintendent to adopt a new plan and perfect a new organization before the opening of navigation," and therefore the administration for that season was continued under the old system. The first superintendent was appointed January 30, 1878, and entered on the duties of his office on the 8th of February. Governor Robinson, in his annual message of 1879, referring to the change, said "the legislature will be gratified to learn that the new system of canal administration has fully met the most sanguine expectations of its friends. The efficiency, economy, and integrity of one responsible executive head have been amply illustrated in the first year of the experiment."

Free Canals.

We now come to a new stage in canal history. In former chapters we have studied the rise and development of the canal enterprise, from its beginning, far back in colonial history, to the act of 1816, by which the state formally committed itself to the construction of the great internal water ways, and have noted the progress of the work which was begun on the 4th of July, 1817, and which was carried forward with such persistent enthusiasm during the next eight years until the completion of the Erie canal in October, 1825, when the first boat passed from Buffalo to Albany, and thence down the Hudson to New York, where its advent was marked