The New England magazine . ssages of Governor Woodruff — or ofany other Governor who might be chosenunder existing conditions. It might not be correct to describe as a benevolent despot. He is, how-ever, as shrewdly respectful of the appear-ance of popular sovereignty as any man canbe who holds his autocratic authority over aStates government. It is not in humannature for any man long to exercise auto-cratic authority without to some extent ac-quiring the autocratic manner. The prescribed government of Connecti-cut comprises a governor, a lieutenant-gov-ernor, a secretary, a treasure


The New England magazine . ssages of Governor Woodruff — or ofany other Governor who might be chosenunder existing conditions. It might not be correct to describe as a benevolent despot. He is, how-ever, as shrewdly respectful of the appear-ance of popular sovereignty as any man canbe who holds his autocratic authority over aStates government. It is not in humannature for any man long to exercise auto-cratic authority without to some extent ac-quiring the autocratic manner. The prescribed government of Connecti-cut comprises a governor, a lieutenant-gov-ernor, a secretary, a treasurer, a comptroller,an attorney-general, a militia, and numer-ous boards and commissions in its ExecutiveDepartment; supreme, superior, district,city, borough, and town courts in its JudicialDepartment; and a Senate and a House ofRepresentatives in its Legislative Depart-ment. The Senate, of thirty-five members,represents an attempt -to apportion legisla-tive representation on a basis of population. 272 NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE. Birthplace of John Brown, near Winsted, Conn. The lower house represents Connecticutspolitical inertia. To be more specific: thelower house includes 255 members. Eachtown, however small its population, has onerepresentative. Towns and cities with morethan five thousand inhabitants are entitledto two members — no more, however muchtheir population may exceed five that at any time in the past had twomembers have them still, however muchtheir population may have declined. Forexample, the town of Ashford, which had1,245 inhabitants in 1756 and only 757 in1900, has two representatives, as againstthe two representatives from New Haven,with more than 125,000 inhabitants. In the most progressive Western States ithas been found safe and desirable to appor-tion representation in both houses of theLegislature on a basis of small towns are grouped in an as-sembly district, and all their rights in theState government seem to be as well


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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidnewenglandma, bookyear1887