CONNECTICUT. 



245 



Wednesday of May, A. D. 1875, be held at Hartford, 

 but the person administering the office of governor 

 may, in case of special emergency, convene said 

 Assembly at any other place in the State. 



In the Lower House the vote stood: For the 

 resolution, 186, against the resolution, 52 ; the 

 whole number of votes being 238. The pro- 

 portion of the population represented by the 

 affirmative and negative votes in either House, 

 according to the number of inhabitants in the 

 respective localities, as set down in the United 

 States census of 1870, was as follows: In the 

 House, for the resolution, 354,804 ; against the 

 resolution, 170,021 ; absent, 18,173. Popular 

 majority for the resolution, 174,610. In the 

 Senate, the popular majority was 146,878. 



At the general election of October 7, 1873, 

 the popular vote resulted in the adoption of 

 the constitutional amendment, establishing 

 the city of Hartford the sole capital of Connect- 

 icut, by a majority of 6,107; the votes having 

 been for the amendment, 36,861, against the 

 amendment, 80,754. Of the negative votes, 

 12.290 belonged to New Haven County alone; 

 12,964 to the other seven counties reckoned 

 together. The whole number of votes cast in 

 the State at this election, as officially an- 

 nounced by the Board of Canvassers on "Octo- 

 ber 20th, was 67,615, or nearly 20,000 less 

 than the number polled at the election held in 

 the preceding April for State officers. 



On the 12th of July, as previously agreed 

 upon by both Houses, the General Assembly 

 closed its session of 1873 by final adjournment. 



Among the most important public acts 

 passed at this session besides those already no- 

 ticed, the following seem worthy of mention : 

 Reducing the State tax from two mills to one 

 mill on a dollar; extending the exemption 

 from taxation of all soldiers and sailors who 

 served during the late civil war, relieving them 

 of nil poll and commutation taxes; placing 

 private banking institutions nnder the same 

 supervision as savings-banks; establishing a 

 Board of State Charities, composed of three 

 gentlemen and two ladies, who are to visit and 

 inspect all institutions both public and private, 

 in the State, where persons are detained by 

 compulsion, for purposes either of punishment, 

 or reform, or medical treatment; furnishing 

 relief for defendants whose cases in court have 



1 n defaulted by accident, or other cause not 



imputable to them ; punishing the placing of 

 obstructions on railroad-tracks with imprison- 

 ment for thirty years, and providing heavy 

 penalties for throwing stones at railroad- 

 trains; guarding ngainst the erection of unsafe 

 buildings ; providing for the establishment of 

 a Bureau of Labor Statistics. 



Numerous changes were made this year in 

 the State judiciary. Judge Origen S. Seymour 

 was elected Chief-Jnstice, in place of the late 

 Judge Butler, resigned ; and Judge Park was 

 elected as the successor of Judge Seymour, 

 whose term will expire, by reason of his age, 

 in February, 1874. Judge Carpenter was re- 



elected to the Supreme bench; and Judges 

 Phelps and Pardee were promoted from the 

 Superior to the Supreme Court. 



The population of Connecticut, which ex- 

 ceeds half a million, is very unequally dis- 

 tributed into 166 towns, the number of their 

 respective inhabitants ranging from 500 to 

 50,000, without any proportion between them. 

 New Haven (with more than 50,000), Hartford, 

 and Bridgeport, contain alone about one-fifth 

 of the whole. 



The natural increase of population in 1872 

 amounted to 3,835, this having been the ex- 

 cess of births over deaths in the State during 

 that year. The births numbered 13,805, or 

 691 more than in 1871, and 2,002 over those re- 

 corded in 1862. Of that nun.ber. 7,164 were 

 males, 6,527 females ; of 114 the sex was not 

 stated. The town of Bridgeport, with scarce- 

 ly one-half the population of Hartford, re- 

 turned a larger number of births than the lat- 

 ter ; which was the case in 1871 also. Among 

 the births returned from Middlesex County one 

 was characterized as a monster. The births 

 reported illegitimate were 129. 



Of the whole number of births, 273 were 

 colored children, males 143, females 127; the 

 sex of three was not stated. 



The total number of deaths during the 

 same year was 9,970, males 5,095, females 

 4,735; the sex of 140 not stated. The excess 

 over the deaths in 1871 was 1,804. The largest 

 proportion of this increase of mortality is made 

 up of the deaths of children; there having 

 been 1,275 more children of ten years of age 

 and under who died in 1872 than in 1871. 



The deaths among the colored population 

 were 183, males 96, females 83 ; the sex of 

 four having not been stated. 



The marriages contracted in the State during 

 1872 numbered 5,203, or 141 more than in 

 1871. Of the marriages in which both parties 

 were American born, there were 2,939 ; where 

 both were foreigners, 1,324; and where one 

 party was native and the other foreign, 674. 



There we^re 121 marriages among the colored 

 population, including one mixed marriage in 

 Hartford County, and two in New London 

 County. 



The divorces granted within the same year 

 were 464, a greater number than in 1871 or 

 1870; it being in the ratio of little less than 

 one divorce in ten marriages. The complain- 

 ing party, on whose petition the divorce was 

 respectively granted, was, in 323 cases, the 

 wife, in 141 the husband. 



The artificial propagation of fish in the ex- 

 isting varieties and the introduction of new 

 ones in the waters of Connecticut are success- 

 fully progressing. The last report of the 

 State commissioner, to whom this interest is 

 intrusted, shows that there are now thirty- 

 seven lakes and ponds which they have 

 stocked with black bass; so that almost every 

 town in Connecticut has near it a supply of 

 this wholesome fish. The law protects it for 



