[131a-029]

[mainly in copyist’s hand]

1818 Dec r 20

Parl. Reform Bill

Reasons

Annuality

1

1

From Smith’s Comparative View A o 1796

To J.C. Copy this Note +

Tab. F. Legislature

(d) p.10. Note to Tab[?] I[?] United States, under Mode of Election. Representatives 2 Years

+ “This frequent recurrence to the people, which is attended with some good effects, is thought by many to make the Representatives too local in their policy, and to induce them rather to aim at pleasing their Constituents than to advance the general good, which frequently requires an apparent sacrifice of local interest. A triennial Election would have been better suited to a Government for so extensive a Country. –

Copy this Note ||

Tab. I Connecticut “Term of Duration.” “The Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Council of Assistants, annually; Representatives Semi-annually.”

|| Note (k) p “This frequency of Election is peculiar to this state, and to Rhode Island; in no other is there a shorter period for election than a whole year. It is however attended, in Connecticut, with no considerable inconvenience, the orderly and enlightened habits of the people generally counteracting the mischievous tendency of their policy in this, as in many other exceptionable parts of their constitution, which is nothing but the old charter, unaltered, except so far as to make it consistent with our independence. There have been indeed lately, some marks of instability in their legislative conduct, in the case of their western lands, in which contending interests, and too frequent changes in their legislature, have occasioned fluctuations in their proceedings, which were not to have been expected from a people, heretofore distinguished for their peculiar steadiness.