198 



CONNECTICUT. 



school in tho 11 years of its existence is reck- 

 oned at 430. Of the girls sent out from it, 

 three fourths are stated to have given evi- 

 dence of permanent reformation. An <Mi- 

 tional building is now in process of erection 

 for the older inmates. 



In the State Prison there were 261 convicts 

 in confinement on December 1, 1880. At the 

 same date in 1879 they numbered 251 ; com- 

 mitted during the year, 134; released, 124. 

 Eight among the prisoners were sent from the 

 Penitentiary to the Hospital for the Insane. 

 The prison's management has been for some 

 time progressing from good to better, especial- 

 ly in regard to discipline among the convicts. 



The militia of Connecticut, under the name 

 of " National Guard," consists of 2,731 enlisted 

 men and 183 commissioned officers, making a 

 total of 2,914 as the active military force of 

 the State. Last year's expenditures for this 

 force amounted to $88,609.67. There are also 

 some independent companies, and the Govern- 

 or's Guard ; for both of which a further sum 

 of $15,021.28 was expended, the aggregate 

 military expenses for the year having been 

 $103,630.75. 



The First Regiment of the Connecticut Na- 

 tional Guard, under the lead of its colonel, and 

 the second company of the Governor's Foot 

 Guard, with a military band attached, wero 

 detailed to take part at the celebration of tho 

 centennial anniversary of the surrender of tho 

 English army at Yorktown, Virginia, on Octo- 

 ber 19th. The Governor himself, accompanied 

 by his staff and the principal military and civic 

 officers of the State, besides other prominent 

 men of Connecticut, attended the ceremonies 

 of the occasion. The Legislature appropriated 

 $7,000 to meet the expensas of the excursion. 



The Legislature was urged to reapportion 

 the senatorial districts of the State without 

 further delay, if the people of Connecticut are 

 to live under what is more than a semblance 

 of a representative form of government. The 

 argument presented to the Legislature was as 

 follows: These districts remain now the same- 

 as they were when first formed fifty years 

 ago, although the changes in their respective 

 populations during the lapse of this half cen- 

 tury have been so numerous, and so remark- 

 ably great, as to render the continuance of the 

 old districts not only unjust, but manifestly 

 contrary to the intention expressed and em- 

 bodied in their original formation. Among 

 the reasons set forth to evince the imperative 

 necessity of a new apportionment, and some 

 practical instances snowing the injustice of 

 the division then existing, were the following : 

 '' In the plan of government designed by the 

 Constitution the Senate was intended to be the 

 body of popular representation. The lower 

 and larger House was, for historical reasons, 

 founded upon the existence of townships. It 

 was provided that the basis of representation 

 in the Senate should be adjusted from time to 

 time, as the .population of the State changed, 



tho times for such, adjustment being made to 

 correspond with those times when a new cen- 

 sus should be taken. Fifty years aL'<> tin- tir>t 

 apportionment was made under this arrange- 

 ment, but, notwithstanding the very grout e-t 

 changes have since taken place, not only in tho 

 aggregate population of the State, but espe- 

 cially in the distribution of that population. MM 

 Legislature has, at any of the decennial peril .d-; 

 intervening, seen fit to change the basis of rep- 

 resentation. . . . 



" The'population of tho State by the census of 

 1880 is 622,683, as against 287,675 in 1830, the 

 census on which the present apportionment is 

 based. . . . The whole character of the popu- 

 lation, and of the occupations in which they 

 are engaged, has during this time undergone 

 an entire revolution. Consequently, the cen- 

 ters of population have shifted, and the density 

 of population has altogether changed. Dis- 

 tricts which were substantially equal fifty 

 years ago, to-day show a difference of 4 to 1 ; 

 others have grown so as to present differences 

 of a less degree, yet quite enough to make 

 equality of representation absurd. Six dis- 

 tricts, with a combined population of 83,000, 

 balance in the present Senate six other dis- 

 tricts having a population of 281,800 ; while 

 ten districts with a population of 411,700 can 

 be outvoted by eleven districts which have a 

 population of 199,000." 



The Legislature subsequently passed an act 

 reapportioning these senatorial districts, and 

 defining their respective limits. The provisions 

 of this act have also been carried into practical 

 execution, the districts numbering now twen- 

 ty-four, instead of twenty-one, as heretofore. 

 The Democratic papers in the State denounce 

 the manner and character of the new appor- 

 tionment in the strongest terms, noting it " as 

 the most glaringly dishonest partisan work 

 ever attempted in the United States " ; and to 

 make this partisan injustice more clearly ap- 

 parent, they have published a map of Connec- 

 ticut representing the dividing lines as well as 

 the different configurations and sizes of the 

 several districts. The Republican papers seem 

 to admit that by the new arrangement of the 

 districts their party secures seventeen, and 

 may possibly get two or three more, out of the 

 twenty-four Senators. The relative popula- 

 tions of the new districts vary from 12,098 

 the least in the twenty-third to 62,882 the 

 largest in the eighth. Ten among the districts 

 have populations ranging between twenty and 

 thirty thousand. 



The January session of the Connecticut Leg- 

 islature in 1881 was closed in its fifty-second 

 day, April 14th, when the Governor adjourned 

 the General Assembly sine die with the usual 

 formalities. Among the more important acts 

 passed at this session are the following: A 

 new law relating to elections ; it is intended 

 for the principal cities in the State, to prevent 

 fraudulent registration. An act reducing the 

 tax on mutual life insurance companies ; this 



