Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1857-08-03
OBJ 9allg Sgg.
MONDAY, AUGUST 3, 1857.
The Late Legislative Acts.

For the convenience of our readers, as a mat
ter Of reference, we copy from the Boston Adver-
tiser the following summary of the legislative
acts, FIVE in number, passed at the scent special
session Of the General Court =
l. An act has been passed providing that
heneeiorth the people shall always vote in their
towns and cities, notwithstanding the provision
in the charters of some Of the new towns, that
their inhabitants should vote with the towns from
which they were set off, until 1860.
2. An act has passed GpportionlRg to the Il
counties of the State the 240 representatives
which are hereafter t. make up the House. The
representatives are apportioned in proportion to
the voters Of each county.
3. An act has passed dividing the State into 40
single districts for the choice of senator's This
is the matter which has excited most feeling, and
has chiefly occupied the time of the session The
exact average ratio for senator is 52S3 voters.
The final vote on the bill in the House was 1873
yeas TO 81 nays. In the Senate third OF the
senators objected TO its passage, and uttered
protest to that effect on the journal. The rumols
of gubernatorial veto proved entirely ground
No other plan could have been adopted fairer or
more generally satisfactory.
An act was passed arranging these same SEN
aterial districts into eight districts Tor the choice
OF the Executive Council. Suffolk makes Coun-
ell District No. l Essex, No. 2; five districts
Of Middlesex, No 8; three districts of Worces-
ter, one of Hampshire ard Franklin, and the
Franklin district No. 4 the Berkshire, Hamp-
den, and Hampshire districts, No 81 three DIS
tricts of Worcester, one of Middlesex, and one of
Norfolk, No. 6 /: two districts of Norfolk and
three OF Bristol No. Z; Plymouth Barnstable,
Dukes county, and Nantucket, No. g.
D. An act was passed prescribing in detail the
manner of calling elections aud counting the votes
for represt natives. 1t deyolves certain duties
upon the county commissioners for their meet
ings of Tuesday next.
The above summary completes the statement
of the business of the session. Two resolves
were passed to pay the clerks, &C., and the chap
lain. The pay of members was provided under
the resove passed at the last session. The aggre-
gate of the pay rolls of the two houses was $685.
753. The sum saUed to the State by this session,
says the Advertiser, is probably equal to the diff
ference between the cost of session next Winter
of 400 members for $50 days, and one of 24O mem
bers for about 100 days and is variously estima-
ted from $4,000 to 100000.
The constitutional amendment under which
the apportionment of representatives. was made,
provides that the county commissioners of the
several counties, and in the case of Suffolk
~ the mayor and aldermen of the city of Boston
shall meet on the first Tuesday in August Ito
morrow, August 10 divide their respective
counties into districts for the election of repre-
sentatives for the next ten years. This, we ap-
prehend will be difficult and delicate task, and
may be the source OF much heart-burning and con-
tention, similar to that created in the matter of
the senatorial apportionment by the Legislature.
The only restriction upon the action of the COM
missioners is, that in the formation of the repre-.
sentative districts no town or ward of city shall
be divided, and no district shall be made which
shall be entitled to more than three representa-
tives. Evidently, it should be the duty of the
commissioners to make single districts, as far as
practicable, make the ratio of voters to a repre-.
sentative nearly euqal in each district as pos
sible, and, in forming the country districts, to
connect together such towns only as have com.
munity Of feeling and interest,
We publish below, matter of interest in
this connection, the number Of representatives to
which each county is entitled, as follows -
Suffak..,...........2s Norfolk fexcluding Co