Litchfield enquirer., 1878-03-21

which at first rejected it. In long and impor
 tant cases great saving of time may be thu effected
 The aid finally given the town of Stafford came in the form of the remission of state taxes for three years, instead of the gift oi $5, 1000, as at first proposed.
 On representation of Senator Huntington, and others, that the people ofNew Milford op posed his release, the Senate rejected the res olution pardoning Charles J. Allen, the New Milford fratricide, out of State Prison.
 Representatives are to draW for seats in their chamber in the new capitol, next Tuesday. The grab system is to be given up, and fair and regular allotment of seats is to be made under new rule adopted last week.
 A bill has passed allowing appeals from the action of boards of relief to the Superior Court. When then will it be known what the amount of the town grand list is to be, for State taxa tion?
 The bill providing for board O. health f. nally passed both Houses, the lower branch concurring with the upper in its favor. A year or two will show whether it will be worth the money it will cost.
 The State tax was fixed at one and half mills, and the savings bank tax bill passed without serious alteration.
 The family of Shipman the murdered State Prison keeper are. given the same annual pen sion granted the families of soldiers killed in the late war, which is little enough
 On what principle of justice or economy is it that the widow of member elect of the House who died before the session began, is given the full pay. her late husband would have earned had he attended at Hartford throughout the entire session. The widow of member who died early in the session re- ceives the same amount
 The law regarding divorce has been changed by striking out the omnibus" clause, so-call- ed-allowing separation for 'such misconduct as permanently destroys the happiness of the petitioner and defeats the purposes of the mar riage relation."- This general clause was orig inally introduced into the statute to meet cer- tain cases of gross misconduct on the part of husbands which yet did not come under any of the other specified causes. We do not inn agine that its repeal will greatly lessen the number of divorces, but it will probably oblige complainants to prove hegraver causes of sep and publicity by offering evidence only of misconduct of less aggravated nature.
 The legislature exempt Common Pleas judges from the ten per cent reduction, but did not extend the same favor to the District Court of this county. Another curious feature of this reduction is that the Senators from odd districts receive but $27O salary, while the Sen- ators from the even districts receive the full $500. The occasion of this difference is that members of legislature are forbidden by the constitution from changing their own pay dur ing their term of office. The reduction was made last year and the Senators from even districts held over, while there were new elect ions in the odd districts The reduction was noHn 1ocf 6n nf Snn0fnr Bishop who is one of those not affected by it. The Senate is now in favor of repeating this reduction, but the House refuses to consent. The salaries of State officers are, however, ex- empted from its provisions.
 This years Senate is death on women and temperance. Not only did they refuse to al- low taXpaying women to vote at town cleo tions or to extend the last years married wo- mems property law to property hereafter ac- quired by women married under the old law; but they would not even allow them to list in their own names, property over which their husbands have no sort of control The Senate also resolutely refused to allow any improve ment of our existing license law. So deter mined was the majority on this point that Sem ator Hoyt remarked in Saturday mornings de- bate that ''he thought if the Almighty should commission an archangel to come here and of fer bill for the correction of the license law there would be objections raised" Undoubt- edly the questions of women Suffrage and temperance reform are pretty closely linked together.
 The legislature is after the dog in dead ear nest the following is the Courant abstract of the bill which passed both houses
 That every owner on or before May 1st, in each year shall have his dog or dogs registered, numbered and licensed in the town clerks office, and said dog shall have kept around his neck collar marked with owners name and registered number, the tax to be $3, 15 for each male dog and $6 15 for females. Any dog not licensed may be killed by any person, and bounty of $1 shall be paid. Persons failing to conform to the law shall be guilty of misdemeanor and fined not more than $7 and be imprisoned in jail not more than thirty days. Damage to sheep, cattle, and lambs is to be paid out of the towu treasury, and towns may bring suits against other towns. Every owner shall kill or muzzle his dog on order of the selectmen, Any person killing registered dog shall be liable for damages and also to prosecution by grand juror and fined not ex- ceeding thirty days
 It will be seen that dogs are all to be regis tered to wear collars with their registered. numbers and their owners names thereon; and persons not registering their dogs are made liable to fine and imprisonment.
 Gov. Wade Hampton has finally kept the legislature of South Carolina to the honest pol- icy of paying their honest debts A sufficient tax is to be levied to pay the. interest on the whole debt, and that on the portion universal ly recognized as valid is to be promptly paid, while the validity of the disputed portion is to be decided by judicial tribunal specially es- tablished for the purpose, with the right of ap- peal to the supreme conrt.
 There is another lively row in Princeton,