216 



CONNECTICUT. 



For the protection of widows, orphans, and 

 other persons, whose estates are managed by 

 fiduciary trustees in which estates the Gov- 

 ernor avers that " robberies are becoming too 

 frequent and far too respectable" he urges 

 the necessity of further legislation, and "rec- 

 ommends the passage of a statute punishing 

 with exemplary penalties all acts of embezzle- 

 ment committed by executors, administrators, 

 guardians, conservators, or trustees, under any 

 testamentary or express trust." The existing 

 law, which requires testamentary trustees to 

 render annual accounts to the courts of pro- 

 bate, he avers to be little better than a dead 

 letter, and hints at the ways in which it is 

 usually violated or evaded. He recommends 

 the passage of an act enforcing the execution 

 of the said law, and ordaining that, if any 

 guardian, conservator, or testamentary trustee 

 fails to render to the Probate Court his annual 

 account justified with oath and vouchers, " it 

 be made the duty of the Court, of its own mo- 

 tion, and on reasonable notice given to the 

 parties in interest, to remove such delinquent, 

 with disallowance of compensation, and ap- 

 point a suitable person in his place." 



The present laws relating to manufacturing, 

 mechanical, mining, and other like corpora- 

 tions, the Governor characterizes as "discord- 

 ant and scandalously loose." He calls on the 

 Legislature " to reform them, reducing corpo- 

 rations of a common class to a common level, 

 more effectually securing the wages of opera- 

 tives in their service; and, above all, to ut- 

 terly extirpate certain corporations which have 

 grown up within a few years, and which are 

 gross frauds on the law and discreditable to the 

 State." An act to punish the dishonest han- 

 dling of property belonging to corporations, or 

 to estates in trust, mentioned above, was passed 

 by this Legislature, entitled " An act concern- 

 ing embezzlement," providing as follows : 



SECTION 1. Every officer or agent of any public, 

 municipal, or private corporation, every executor, 

 administrator, guardian, conservator, or any trustee 



estate, ward, trust, or other person, shall be guilty 

 of embezzlement, and shall be punished by a fine not 

 to exceed ten thousand dollars, or by imprisonment 

 not to exceed ten years, or by such fine and imprison- 

 ment both. 



There being some doubt whether the exist- 

 ing statute for the punishment of perjury was 

 applicable to the willful false swearing of offi- 

 cers of financial institutions who are by law 

 required to make returns to the various depart- 

 ments of the State government, the Governor 

 recommended the passage of a law removing 

 all possible doubt on the subject. An act 

 " relating to perjury " has been passed by this 

 Legislature, providing that " every person who 

 shall testify falsely to any material matter 

 where an oath or affirmation is required by 

 law, or procure another so to do, shall be im- 

 prisoned in a jail not more than six months, 



or in the State prison not more than five years ; 

 and when he shall so testify or affirm with in- 

 tent to take the life of another, he shall be im- 

 prisoned in the State prison during life." 



In order to prevent a recurrence of the la- 

 mentable disasters caused by the breaking away 

 of storage reservoirs, like those which occurred 

 at Mill River in Massachusetts in 1875, and at 

 Staffordville in Connecticut in the spring of 

 187T, resulting in great destruction of property 

 and loss of life, Governor Hubbard suggests 

 " the appointment of a board of civil engineers, 

 charged w T ith the supervision of reservoirs and 

 reservoir dams, and that no such structure be 

 built, enlarged, or materially altered without 

 the written sanction first obtained of such 

 board, nor until the plan and specifications 

 thereof shall have been approved by them, nor 

 be put to use until the work shall have been 

 completed to their acceptance ; and that it shall 

 be the duty of said board to examine any exist- 

 ing reservoir or dam, on written complaint by 

 any three persons claiming to be endangered 

 thereby, and to order such repairs or altera- 

 tions thereof as they shall find necessary for the 

 protection of life or property, with ample pow- 

 ers to enforce their orders." He gives some 

 details of the manner in which the building of 

 these reservoirs is usually contrived to profit 

 the builders at the peril of the people resid- 

 ing below them ; and reminds the Legislature 

 that "no man, or set of men, in corporate 

 bodies, or otherwise, should be allowed, of 

 their own mere will and motion, to pile up and 

 suspend great floods of water above the heads 

 of any community, and thus threaten their life 

 and property, and compel them to live in daily 

 and nightly fear of an avalanche." A bill was 

 passed by the House of Representatives on 

 March 16, 1878, creating a commission, com- 

 posed of the Surveyor-General and one civil 

 engineer from each Congressional district, to 

 supervise all reservoirs and dams in the State, 

 and defining their duties. 



At the same sitting the House passed in con- 

 currence a joint resolution " relieving the town 

 of Stafford from State tax for three years." 

 By another resolution the sum of $3,000 was 

 appropriated in aid to Stafford. 



Early in the session the Legislature deliber- 

 ated on the currency question, with reference 

 especially to the resumption act and the silver 

 bill, so called, which was then under considera- 

 tion in the Federal Congress. In the Connecti- 

 cut Legislature each side of the question was 

 favored by a number of members who advo- 

 cated opposite measures. After repeated de- 

 bates, and the rejection of amendments and 

 substitutes severally offered, the following 

 resolutions were finally adopted, on the seventh 

 day of the session : 



Resolved^ That we condemn any attempt to. post- 

 pone the time for the resumption of specie payment 

 now provided by the act of Congress. 



Resolved, That we disapprove of any legislation 

 which, shall in anyway tend to repudiate any por- 

 tion of the public debt; that we are opposed to 



