Richmond Dispatch

SALE OF OYSTER BEDS.

It is said that a syndicate is being formed to buy the oyster-beds of the Commonwealth, and that a tremendous effort will be made at the next session of the Legislature to have that body take the preliminary steps looking to an amendment to the State Constitution, so as to permit the sale to be made. At present we are not advised of the personnel of this syndicate, nor of the exact proposition which it purposes making, but doubtless we shall have much information upon the subject before the bargain is clinched! The constitutional amendment proposed by the last Legislature, and now being officially advertised in type which Virginia thought too tiny for insurance companies to use in printing the conditions upon their policies, will come before the Legislature at the next session. Then, if agreed to, it will have to be submitted to the people. Then if adopted by popular vote, the next Legislature may pass acts thereunder. So, at last two legislatures must be chosen before any act can be passed which is now obnoxious to Article X., section 1, of the State Constitution.

That there was a scheme on foot to induce the State to part with her property in the natural oyster-beds--the oyster rocks--we now hear for the first time. We have heard often, though, of propositions looking to allowing non-residents to take up planting grounds where no applications are on file for the same from citizens of Virginia.

Syndicate, or no syndicate, we foresee that the oyster question will be a very live question in the next Legislature. If the members from the oyster country come here fairly unanimous as to the policy they will pursue, their voice will be very influential--but if they are not united, why, then they need expect to make little impression upon their up-country friends.

It is to the interest of the oyster-men, also, to see that the existing law is enforced, and that the State gets her dues. The best appeal that possibly could be made for the maintenance of the status quo would be to show that the present law is proving more and more acceptable and successful, and that it is really not to the interest of Virginia to make any change.