Summary. 125 



the foreign element of the population gave an impulse to the feeling 

 that there was a need for a well-organized and efficient state militia, 

 which culminated in a new militia law and greatly increased this 

 branch of the state expenditures. More legislation than formerly 

 became necessary, causing the sessions of the legislature to be length- 

 ened. The compensation of the members of the general assembly 

 was still on a per diem basis and the inevitable effect of the length- 

 ening of the legislative sessions was increased expense of legis- 

 lation. Other expenses incidental to legislation, and proportioned 

 to the length of time spent in effecting it, contributed to this increase. 

 Thus the cause of the larger part of the increased expenditures can 

 be traced, as stated at the beginning of this paragraph, to the growth 

 of corporations and to the increased population. On the other 

 hand, these same corporations, which were in a large measure re- 

 sponsible for the presence of the foreigner and the growing concen- 

 tration of the population as well as for much of the increased liti- 

 gation, became the source of a large part of the revenue needed to 

 meet the increased expenditures. This will be more fully shown 

 in a subsequent paragraph.^ 



During this period there was an awakening by the state to the 

 necessity of providing a better system of education than existed. 

 The increase in the school population without a corre- 

 AvvakenTiia- sponding enlargement of the school fund reduced the 

 per capita dividend for the education of the children. 

 This fact together with the failure of the municipalities to volun- 

 tarily tax themselves sufficiently to provide good schools led the 

 legislature to impose again upon the towns the duty of laying a 

 specified tax for the support of schools. Provision was also made 

 for the supervision of schools by a state superintendent and in 1849 

 a normal school was established. 



The state also awoke to its duty of providing for the poor un- 

 fortunates in its midst who were unable to better their con- 

 Aid for dition. A beginning in this direction was made in 

 tlie Unfor- the last half of the second period, but the work 

 tiinate ^^^g considerably extended in this period. 



In addition to providing for the deaf and dumb, the blind and the 

 insane, for whom the state was regularly making provision at the 

 beginning of the period, the legislature in the last year of the period 

 made appropriations for the General Hospital Society, the Hart- 

 ford Hospital, and for the education of idiotic children. The appro- 



1 Cf. p. 126. 



