Litchfield enquirer., 1874-05-14

ana thus 0OeS not include the large amoutS collected by the districts and towns for the state school system, amounting to considerably over another million of dollars. Indeed if the School Fund should now be dropped from the educa- tlounal system of the state, it's loss. in merely financial view, would be hardly noticed, since it supplies but about ten per cent. of what sis required, annually. tor the support of the system-the total public expenditures, for educational pur- poses alone, being, annually, about one million and half of dollars, against less than two hundred. thousand dollars in 1855. A natural deduction from this con- trast IS, that easy taxation generates large expenditures. And certainly no higher duty can devolve on you, than an inGuirv into the necessity of such large expendi- lures, and the practicability of reducing them. But It is, to my mind, a still more suggestive fact, that this so largIy in- creased revenue of the state has been. and IS now, collected through the same official agencies employed twenty years ago, with no special tax-collecting service for the purpose, and without subjecting the busi- ness of the citizen to any unusual govern ment .exaction or interference. Outside the ordinary state tax, (amounting the last year to less than quarter of the total revenue), which is collected through the towns, the bulk of the state revenue IS derived from very few sources, and collected through the ordinary services of it's Treasury department.
 This is not the occasion for a discus. sion of the details of the revenue system of the United States. but certain results of its operation, under similar circum- R5 Fs so sppaFsns as fesd to bring that system, snd especially it's modes to, administration, into general comparison with the exhibit just referred to of our local government-with man. fest advantage to the latter Public in- dignatlon has been very justly excited by recent disclosures of the corrupting manners in which the collecting service of the general government has been ad- ministered, but 1t will, in my judgment, fan in it's object of reform, if it's force spent in denunciations of individuals, while the system, in which the corrupt ing influence inheres, isK allowed to re- main. That system, growing up, as it has, under the sudden necessities of a state of war, and shaped in such large de- gree, as the circumstances under which it grew up favored it's being, for other purposes than the simple one of obtain ing revenue, has become so complicated and intricate in the ramifcations of it's powers, as to make essential to it's execu- tion multitude of officials, extending through all the always unpopular and frequently disreputable grades of a de- tective system; with power most arbitrary in character and demoralizing in tendency. It IS, doubt not, prolific source of that demoralization so generally deplored in the official service of the government, and should be most worthy object of that administrative reform now so engaging the attention of the country
 But 1t would not be just, in noting the comparison just indicated, to overlook the powerful influence of that great under lElR5gi digtjRGftHi9ae between the l0aal and md one to 8 close popular scrutiny that in the case of the other, can rarely, and only un- der exceptional circumstances, be had. 1t IS hardly possible for any serious off cial abuse to exist in Connecticut, with out being very soon made known to and clearly understood by it's people, And Tn this rests the security of our instit1- tions. Indeed as We recede from that period of extraordinary emergency, when the government of the Union felt itself bound to use all power needful for it's one defence, without scrutinlzing their relation to a condition of peace, the strength of our state governments, and their admirable adaptability to the ad- mlnlstratlon of those powers of govern ment most closely affecting the great mass of society, becomes more clear. The ten dency of all governments is towards cen tralization or an aggrandizement of it's own power. The jealousy which resists that force in Q government which, like that of our Union, comprehends within it's sphere of action, a territory almost con tinental, embracing every diversity of cIi- mate and corresponding diversity of social organization and interests, however liable to abuse it may be, is necessary to the harmony of the entire system. And though the future historian of our times may not wonder that the passions, aroused by the mighty struggle through which we have passed, did not at once allow free scope to the healing influence of this principle, in the rehabilitation of our disorganlzed states, he will, think, nev- ertheless, admit that by ignoring that influence, a condition of affairs resulted, of which the pitiable degradation of South Carolina and the shameless usurpatinn which holds sway in Louisiana, remain as monuments to-day.
 Relying upon your lndulgent support and invoking the divine favor upon our actions, I am now ready to cooperate with you in the duties of the session.
 CHARLES R. INGERSOLL.
 NEW HAVEN, May 6, 1874.
 At Heathcote, Victoria, there has lately been tried case where. suffrage, consti- tutional bubbles, and like matters aside,- there was given very peculiar manifesto tlon Of the injustice towards women in the matter of wages, to say nothing of dress. A Miss Johnson was arrested for wearing mans clothes. Her story was that she first worked as woman, but the pay was so small that she decided to try mans work, and fitting herself out, she secured place where she soon was acknowledged willing and smart hand. She was final ly suspected and arrested. She pleaded that she preferred mems clothes and mems pay; she had shown her capacity for them all, having even served time in the army: and she could not in woman's attire get work as man, or at mans wages. The court, however, decided that, unless she would promise to wear dresses hereafter, she must be locked up; so she promised. And now the captive Miss Johnson sweeps, dusts, and manufactures pies amid the trammeis of her toilet, pining the while for shovel or an ax, and a broader field of usefulness, and men laborers all over the world are protesting dissatisfaction with the lot she envies.-C C0urant.
 4 Negro at Minden, La., stole quanti- ty of meat out of smokehouse lately. He was tried by jury of negroes, and be- cause he confessed the theft he was &C., quilted on the ground of insanity
 A correspondent asks us the following question: What would be the effect pro- duced if Ben Butler were launched upon some other planet?- Brooklyn Argus. Bad for the planet t-Boston Post.
 Doctor" said conceited literary man to Holmes on the streets of Boston, "I am uoipo fo 6oIivnr nv InctT1Po in Lowell f0-