their publication is hereinbefore provided for, unless otherwise provided for by the Association.

X.-NOMINATIONS AND ELECTIONS.

Nominations of candidates to fill the respective offices may be made at the time of election by any member, and as many candidates may be nominated for each office as members may wish to name, but all elections, whether to office or membership, must be by ballot. A majority of the votes cast shall be sufficient to elect to office; but five negative votes shall be sufficient to defeat an election to membership.

XI. SUPPLYING VACANCIES.

All vacancies in any office or committee of this Association shall be filled by appointment of the President, and the persons thus appointed shall hold for the unexpired term of his predecessor; but if a vacancy occur in the office of President, it shall be filled by the Association at its first stated meeting occurring more than ten days after the happening of such vacancy, and the person elected shall hold for the unexpired term of his predecessor.

XII. ANNUAL DUES.

All annual dues to this Association shall be paid on or before the first day of March in each year, and any member failing to pay his annual dues by that time shall be in default, and upon the order of the President the Secretary shall strike the name of such member from the roll of membership, unless for good cause shown the President shall excuse such default, in which last event the name of such member shall, upon the order of the President, be restored by the Secretary to the roll of membership.

XIII. AMENDMENT OF BY-LAWS.

These By-laws may be amended at any stated, adjourned, or annual meeting of the Association by a majority of those present.

XIV. RESIGNATION OF OFFICERS AND MEMBERS.

Any officer may resign at any time upon settling his accounts with the Association. A member may resign at any time upon the payment of all dues to the Association; and from the date of the receipt by the Secretary of a notice of resignation, with an indorsement thereon by the Treasurer that all dues have been paid as above provided, the person giving such notice shal. cease to be a member of the Association.

XV.-SALARY OF SECRETARY AND TREASURER.

The annual salary of the Secretary and Treasurer shall be two hundred dollars, one-half of which shall be due on the first day of May and the other half on the first day of November in each year, but may be paid earlier, or at other times, if the Central Council shall, in writing, so direct; but this shall be in full of all compensation to him. No other officer of the Association shall receive any salary or compensation.

XVI. SPECIAL MEETINGS.

If the President and Central Council shall determine that it is necessary for the Association to hold any other meetings during any year than the regular annual meeting, the same shall be held at such time and place as the President and Central Council may fix, upon twenty days' notice of such time and place, to be given by the Secretary by publication in a newspaper; and the Secretary shall give this notice upon the order of the President.

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.

J. M. DICKINSON.

Gentlemen of the Bar Association of Tennessee:

All of my predecessors have construed Article XIII. of our Constitution, which says that "the President shall open each annual meeting with an address," to be mandatory and not directory. I shall not presume to depart from their interpretation.

Happily, in imposing the duty, the Constitution at the same time, in specifying that the address shall communicate the most. noteworthy changes in statute law, State and congressional, solves the usual perplexity of choosing a subject.

CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION.

The protracted session of Congress has made it impracticable to examine the statutes, as no publication has been made. From the public prints it does not appear that any laws of general interest have been made outside of the creation of new States and the enlargement of the pension lists. This field of comment will therefore be left for next year, as res integra to my successor.

While Congress has passed but few laws, it has, in the rulings of its Speaker, brought about some startling changes in the methods of making laws. Some have decried them as revolutionary and without precedent. Whether they are revolutionary or not would be out of order for me to discuss from this chair, but that they are not without precedent, I may, without impropriety, show by an appeal to profane history.

Lucian tells us that, in a legitimately convoked assembly of the Gods, when Momus presented a decree devising a scheme by which some of the gods, charged with being illegally regis

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tered, might be disfranchised and evicted, Zeus, the President, who seemed to be a master of parliamentary tactics, looked over the assembly, and with imperturbable gravity declared: Very just, Momus, and every one who is in favor of it hold up his hand; or, rather, so let it take effect at once, for I know that the dissentients will be in the majority. The assembly is now dismissed."

TENNESSEE LEGISLATION.

Since our last meeting our Legislature has met in two extra sessions.

FIRST SESSION.

Chapter 4 defines the occupation of ticket speculator and imposes a license. If enforced, it will rid the public of a great imposition and will relieve the minds of our bachelor members, who heretofore have dreaded making engagements for star performances for fear that some enterprising gamins will, beleaguering the ticket office, sit up all night, like old Rip, so as to be up early in the morning, thus capturing all the choice seats, for which they levy a heavy tribute.

Chapter 13 may not be of general interest to the absent members of the profession, but it nearly concerns those present, inasmuch as it incorporates Lookout Mountain, thus suspending the operation of the four-mile law, which otherwise would have made the toasts at our approaching banquet exceedingly dry.

Chapter 17 was passed to overcome the decision of the Supreme Court which held charters obtained upon applications acknowledged before notaries public void, and to make all such valid.

Chapter 24 is one of the most important acts passed in recent years. It embodies a scheme of voting which is an outgrowth of the Australian ballot system. A demand for purer suffrage has gone up from all nations, and this system, which secures an official ballot, secrecy of voting, and non-interference with the voter, has produced the best results of any yet devised. It has thwarted bribery, the dictation of landlords, and domination of trades unions. It has, with various modifications, been adopted by Great Britain, Canada, Belgium, and Norway. In our own

country, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, Indiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Connecticut, Montana, and Minnesota, in the order named, have adopted the general system, varying the details and the application to specified classes of election. On this subject, in New York, Dakota, Colorado, Oregon, Kansas, and Texas, there has been favorable but incomplete action, for various causes, by the law-making power. Nebraska, Arkansas, California, Maine, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Hampshire have in various degrees opposed the system. In the other States no action seems to have been taken. It is one of the growing questions of the age. As our law is untried, it may not be inappropriate to point out some of its principal features. It is framed upon and largely copied from the Massachusetts statute. For the information obtained on this subject outside of our statute, I am mainly indebted to the very thorough treatise of Mr. Wigmore on the "Australian Ballot System," and in referring to the features of the bill I shall follow the general subdivisions used by him.

1. Presence of the Public at the Polls.-None other than the election officers and voters are permitted within the rail or room when the voting is done, except by the authority of the officer holding the election, for the purpose of keeping order and enforcing the law.

No person, except those ready and qualified to vote, shall come nearer than fifty feet to the rail guard.

These provisions are stricter than the Massachusetts law, which only excludes the public from the railed space within the voting-room, and than the laws of South Australia, Queensland, Kentucky, Great Britain, and Belgium, which merely exclude the public from the polling-room. The Tennessee plan of excluding the public entirely from the polling-room, puts the whole election within the control of the officers conducting it, and makes them independent of the sharp surveillance of the people. The main objects of the system-viz., secrecy of ballot and non-interference with the voter-could be attained as in the law passed by the Legislature, but vetoed by the Governor of New York, by excluding the public from the railing where the voting is done and prohibiting solicitation