88 The Financial History of Connecticut. 



was in lowering the compensation of the members of the general 

 assembly.^ A saving of forty-two hundred dollars a year was effect- 

 ed b}^ reducing the number of superior court judges from nine to 

 five. 2 By this action the court was restored to its original size be- 

 fore enlargement by the Federalists in 1806.^ The salary of the 

 commissioner of the school fund was considered too high and in 

 1818 the Republicans reduced it five hundred dollars.^ Throughout 

 this period no changes except those noted were made in the salaries 

 here given. 



5. MiHtary Department. 

 From May 1, 1816, to April 9, 1819, when the military expenses 

 were on a peace footing under the Federalist laws, the average annual 

 expense for this object had been eleven hundred forty-five dollars. 

 In 1819 the Republicans applied the policy of retrenchment to the 

 military department by amending the act relating to the militia.^ 

 The result was that from April 10, 1819, to March 31, 1830, the 

 total mihtary expense was only seven thousand two hundred twenty- 

 four dollars, a yearly average of only six hundred fifty-seven dollars. 

 This shows a saving of nearly fifty per cent. In the year ending 

 March 31, 1831, an arsenal was built at an expense of two thousand 

 dollars and the expense of maintaining it increased the military 

 expenditures. Including the expense of building the arsenal, the 

 mihtary expenditures from April 1, 1830, to March 31, 1846, were 

 eighteen thousand three hundred eighty-seven dollars, an average 

 of eleven hundred forty-nine dollars a year, which is about the same 

 as under the Federalist regime. The total military expense for this 

 entire period (April 10, 1818, to March 31, 1846) was twenty-six 

 thousand seven hundred seventy-eight dollars. 



6. State Prison. 

 The state prison became self-supporting before the close of this 

 period. For the last year of the preceding period the expense of the 

 prison to the state treasury was nearly thirteen thousand dollars. 

 From that time the yearly expense to the state treasury was so dimin- 

 ished that in the eight years ending March 31, 1826, only fifty-nine 

 thousand four hundred twenty-nine dollars was taken from the state 



1 Cf. pp. 51, 52. 



2 Public Statute Laws, Oct. 1818, chap. 1, sec. 1. 



3 Conn. Laws, May 1806, p. 713. 

 ^ Cf. p. 51. 



5 Public Statute Laws, 1819,- chap. 4. 



