Litchfield enquirer., 1878-01-17
GOV. HUBBARD's MESSAGE.

eAio SAAoA gu oS eAC CACFTCcCHtad'Oo SA eAAS N0AAA l mOnwealth. sa
 The vital rights and liberties of the citizen depend, for the most part, under our system of government, upon State -legislatio tion-Very
 few upon national legislation. Il hope 1t may not be thought unduiy censorious if venture to suggest that we have come as lawmakers, to concern ourselves too much with the dreary routine of party appointments, release from
 State prison, restoration to forfeited rights, private acts of incorporation, and class legisla- tion in it's varied disguises, and too little with needed betterments in the system of laws which govern us in the prompt administra- tion of justice between man and man; in the economies of public expenditure; in the inter ests of popular education in the reformation of suffrage; in the regulation ofcoFporate fran chises. and in the protection of the savings of the poor against fraud and embezzleinent. If all of us, who have to do-with the making of the laws, would conscientiously give as much time and study to needed reforms in the body I polite, as we give to- partisan politics, or a tithe of that which the artisan or manufactur- CT gives to improvements in machinery and the economies of production, civil government
 would no longer be the very last of all human institutions in the race of progress.
 To some suggestions in some of the direc- tions above indicated, beg now te ask your attention.
 LEGISLATIVE PROCEDURE.
 And, in the first place, there seems to me to be radical vice in our present methods of enacting laws. The first half of each session, owing, must think, to unnecessary and vol untary delays, is substantially wasted, and it's real work crowded into the last two or three weeks, often into the last two or three days, or still worse, forced into the last two or three hours, under total suspension of rules at the very time when the figof of the rules -is most needed Haste does not repair waste, nor ex- cuse it. .s.-.-.,.
 For example: The last Assembly, and se lect that body, and not because it is sinner above all it's fellow, but because the instance l is recent-was in session for three months, ha1- ing passed 313 acts. Of these, only one, and that of inconsiderable importance, was passed i in the first three weeks only twenty-nine in the first six sixty-fve in the last, and fifty l three in the last three days Of this latter number, several were drafted, and passed through both houses on the same day, without reference or printing, and some in the sanfe l hour. The number of bills the present Executive was obliged to pass upon in the last three, or practically the last two days, under the pres sure of multitude of other duties, was fifty
 nine, and by far the greater part of them the most important-and, add also, the most i'm perfect-bills of the session. do not need to l say that anything like scrutiny or deliberate 1 judgment upon such a mass of matter is, un- 1 der such circumstances, utterly impossible.
 It has been the custom of the Legislature to 1 fix, in advance, a positive day of adjournment 1 and of the Executive to accommodate himself 1 to this custom, by taking action upon all the bills thus thrown upon him before the day SO fixed May 1 be allowed to suggest that, as this practice deprives the Executive of his con stitutionaf allowance of time for the consider ation of bills, shall hereafter regard the GUS I tom as more itonored in the breach than in the 1 observance.
 i But this is not the only evil A public stat ute of the State requires, or rather, until the last session of the Legislature did require, that all bllls as soon as passed, should be engrossed without erasure or interlineation, be examined | by the joint standing committee on engrossed i bills, and if found correct be presented to the presiding officers of the two houses to be sign ed in the presence of their respective houses, and then to the Governor for approval This statute was enacted in 1859. It has not been observed ny single Legislature since it's pas sage. The earlier bills of the session have usu- ally been engrosstd; the later, and by far the larger part, have been passed. under annual resolutions dispensing with the statute just when the statute was necessary, and presented to the Governor, not only without engrossment but without the inspection of any examining committee, sometimes inpencil, often disfgur- ed by ensures and interlineations in different handwrtings loaded with amending tags and riders not identified by the signatures of the clerks nor attached to the file, and endorsed with clerical entries sometimes erroneous, and sometimes difficult to decipher, and, when de- ciphered, impossible to comprehend. This practice IS siovenly and dangerous to the last degree. As the result of it, the Secretary of State after the close ofthe last session, finding himself unable to understand some Of the file entries, was obliged, in order to interpret them to ascertain the action of the Assembly by in- 1 quiry of it's members responsibility too ditfi- cult and dangerous to be imposed on any off, fcer of the State, whoever he may be; and in one instance, at least, bill bearing the entries of having passed both houses and the attesta- tiop of the presiding officer of each, was pre- sented to the governor on the last day of the session, approved by him, and is published by the Secretary of State among the laws of the State when, in fact, the bill never passed the Assembly. X public statute was enacted by the last Assembly providing that hereafter all acts and resolutions, not engrOssed during the session, may be signed and approved without engrossment, and be. examined and engrossed after adjournment. Under this act no less than 175 bills of the last session were enacted into laws without being engrossed, and without having been examined at all by the expressing l committee. recommend the total repeal of this act. also advise the passage of a statute providing that the Legislature shall, at each session, af- ter having disposed of the business of the ses- sion, except as hereafter mentioned provision ally adjourn for not less than three nor more than twelve days and that after said provision 1 al adjournment no business whatever be enter tained except the reconsideration of such bills as the Governor may return without approval, or such other matter as he shall, by special communication, lay before the Assembly.
 This will enable the Secretary of State to | complete the engrOssment of bills, and-what 1 is perhaps of not less importance-will give the Governor his constitutional allowance of time to examine the bills presented to him on the last three days of the session.
 press these recommendations with urgency in the interest of better methods of legislation, and because had in more than one instance, l serious cause to regret the nasty and incOnsid- ! crate approval of, or rather assent to, bills which were huddled upon me in the last hours l of the session.
 Having now called the attention of the Leg islature to some reforms in our methods of enacting laws, beg next to suggest some re- forms in the laws themselves.
 ADMINISTRATION OF JUsT1CE
 1 The delays ln the administration Of justice in this State are crying and scandalous. It is safe to say that in our larger counties trials in the Superior Court are not reached in less than two years. A man can circumnavigate the globe over and over again in half the time re- quired for the collection of a promissory note of few hundred dollars, where only the sem blance of defense is interposed. The old barons of England, arms in hand, extorted from their king chartered guaranty against the laws delay. Our own bill of rights pro- vides in almost the same terms, that justice shall be administered. without s'denial or de- lay" The people of this State are to-day de- nied their plain constitutional right, not only in the delays of justice but in delays that often amount to denial. The Judicial force of the State is abundantly sufficient to clear the dockets of the courts with dispatch, and if business were only furnished by parties and counsel, more than sufficient. Of this have
 no manner of doubt. The number of judges