738 



VERMONT. 



ARTICLE IV. See. 1. The Judges of the Supreme 

 Court shall be appointed by the Governor, by and 

 with the advice and consent of the Senate. 



Sec. 2. The term of office of the Judges of the 

 Supreme Court shall be six years ; provided that, 

 under the first appointment made in pursuance 

 of this section, one-third of the judges first ap- 

 pointed shall hold their office for a period of six 

 years, and one-third thereof, last in the order of ap- 

 pointment, shall hold their offices for a period of 

 two years. 



Sec. 3. The Judges of the Supreme Court shall at 

 stated times receive a reasonable compensation for 

 their services, which shall not be diminished during 

 the terms of their office. 



ARTICLE (Proposed for adoption if Article II. is 

 adopted and Article IV. is rejected). The Judges of 

 the Supreme Court shall be elected biennially, and 

 their term of office shall be two years. 



ARTICLE V. Hereafter women shall be entitled to 

 vote, and with no other restrictions than the law 

 shall impose on men. 



ARTICLE VI. Sec. I. At the session of the General 

 Assembly of this State, A. D. 1870, and at the session 

 thereof every tenth year thereafter, the Senate may, 

 by a vote of two-thirds of its members, make pro- 

 posals of amendment to the constitution of the State, 

 which proposals of amendment, if concurred in by 

 a majority of the members of the House of Kepre- 

 sentatives, shall be entered on the journals of the 

 two Houses and referred to the General Assembly 

 then next to be chosen, and be published in the 

 principal newspapers of the State: and, if a majority 

 of the members of the Senate and of the House of 

 Eepresentatives of the next following General As- 

 sembly shall,'respectively, concur in the same pro- 

 posals of amendment, or any of them, it shall be the 

 duty of the General Assembly to submit the pro- 

 posals of amendment so concurred in to a direct vote 

 of the freemen of the State ; and such of said pro- 

 posals of amendment as shall receive a maiority of 

 the votes of the freemen voting thereon shall become 

 a part of the constitution of the State. 



Sec. 2. The General Assembly shall direct the 

 manner of voting by the people upon, the proposed 

 amendments, but enact ail such laws as shall be ne- 

 cessary to procure a free and fair vote upon each 

 amendment proposed, and to carry into effect all the 

 provisions or the preceding section. 



Sec. 3. The House of Eepresentatives shall have 

 all the new powers now possessed by_ the Council of 

 Censors, to order impeachments, which shall in all 

 cases be by a vote of two-thirds of its members. 



Sec. 4. The forty-third section of the second part 

 of the constitution of this State is hereby abrogated. 



Of the proposed amendments Articles II. and 

 YI. were adopted in all their sections, and are 

 now a part of the constitution, and also an 

 additional article providing that the judges of 

 the Supreme Court shall be elected biennially, 

 and their term of office shall be two years. 

 The remainder of the amendments were re- 

 jected. 



The first meeting of the Legislature under 

 the new ordinance providing for biennial ses- 

 sions was watched with more than ordinary 

 interest, especially as both Houses were com- 

 posed of an unusual number of new members. 



Of things done, perhaps the most important 

 were the changes in the school laws. These 

 permit the towns to abolish school districts 

 and substitute the town system ; provide for the 

 uniform examination of teachers; remove the 

 restriction forbidding the employment of teach- 

 ers after November, 1871, unless they are pro- 



vided with a State certificate or normal-school 

 diploma; raise the lower limit of the school 

 age of children from four years to five ; in- 

 crease the time for which schools must be 

 maintained, in order to draw public money, 

 frem sixteen to twenty weeks ; require a more 

 detailed school census ; make it the duty of 

 district committees and town boards to supply 

 school-books to children whose parents can- 

 not or will not supply them ; and provide 

 means for repressing truancy. The term of 

 existence of the three normal schools was ex- 

 tended for three years, and the appropriations 

 for them increased to $1,000 apiece. 



Among other important acts passed was one 

 changing the forum for divorce trials from the 

 Supreme to the County Courts, and another 

 relating to alimony, custody of children, etc., 

 in divorce cases. 



A simplified general law for the forming of 

 private corporations by voluntary association 

 was passed. 



The next election of congressmen was post- 

 poned to November, 1872. A reapportion- 

 ment of State senators was made, giving four 

 to Eutland County and reducing Washington 

 County to two. 



A State tax of five mills on the dollar was 

 laid, and appropriations of $30,000 for the Ee- 

 form School ($25,000 of it for a new building), 

 for paying oif the maturing bonds, and for 

 State expenses, were made. 



Of some 540 bills introduced, 300 became 

 laws. 



Two interesting acts relating to the inheri- 

 tance of property were also passed. One, 

 providing that, when an intestate leaves no 

 children, his widow shall take the whole of 

 the estate, if it amounts to no more than 

 $2,000, and, if it amounts to more, that she 

 shall take $2,000, and half the remainder ; and 

 another, decreeing that, when any married 

 woman shall die, leaving no children, all her 

 present estate not disposed of by will shall go 

 to her husband. 



The evils of the law of summary attachment 

 have been long felt and acknowledged. The 

 Governor thus speaks of its operations : 



A perfectly solvent business man is liable to a sum- 

 mary attachment of all his property upon a claim 

 which may prove wholly groundless or even fictitious ; 

 his credit may be thereby seriously impaired, and 

 perhaps his business broken up and destroyed. On 

 the other hand, if a debtor be really insolvent, the 

 first attaching creditor may absorb all his assets, 

 leaving without satisfaction or redress all other cred- 

 itors, frequently comprising widows and minors, 

 who cannot exercise the sharp diligence the law re- 

 quires. 



A law which not only permits but encourages the 

 application of all the property of an insolvent debtor 

 to the payment of one greedy creditor, to the exclu- 

 sion of all others, is so manifestly unjust that com- 

 ment is unnecessary. 



The returns of the recent census show a 

 small increase of population during the last 

 decade; it was thought probable, however, 

 that, under the new apportionment of repre- 



