Litchfield enquirer., 1878-02-21

oI convenience O1 access IS worth to towns not expecting the honor and profit of becoming county seats?
 As we shall show, hereafter, the proposed movement, if successful, will inevitably throw at least eight of the towns and one third of the taxable property of the present county into a new county with Waterbury as its center. The remaining eighteen towns will then be compel led to maintain two court houses and two iails. No doubt Winchester and New Milford will not only promise liberally, but perform iber- ally, at the outset but how will it be thereaf- ter Would not another act like that of '75 speedily make it's appearance on the statute book, throwing all subsequent expense of the two iails and two court-houses upon the muti- lated remnant of the old county; and how would the over-burdened inhabitants of it's towns then escape taxation for the glory and profit of Winsted and of New Milford? Would the convenience of court business, rated at it's highest value, be worth to any of the towns less directly interested what extra expense it would cost them, not taking into account the large increase of State judicial expenses?
 TWISTED McoNvENIENT OF ACCESS BY NAUG-
 ATUCK RAILROAD.
 The special convenience of access relied up- on for division of the present county has ref erence entirely to travel by rail and it 50 hap pens that this very argument weighs against travel up the Naugatuck railroad to Winsted. That railroad must of necessity arrange it's time tables with special reference to travel South - towards Waterbury, New Haven, Bridgeport and New York. So long as those are the special points to which travel tends, the Naugatuck railroad must give the prefer ence to southern over northern travel. No change of county seat would make any appre- ciable difference in this current of travel. Take our own case, for instance: we can reach Wa terbury early any morning, returning either at noon or at night we cannot get to Winsted by rail much before noon, and must return by four in the afternoon. From Litchfield, Bridge port is much more convenient of access by rail than Winsted. Hence, also, Winsted can reach us much more conveniently than we can reach them. In case of any division of the county, and east of us, would inevitably prefer Water bury to Winsted as county seat. Even Tor rington or Goshen might choose to belong to strong county, with county seat of respecta- bic size, more convenient by rail, and with but one court house and one jail to support, to the prospect of heavy taxation in the Winsted and New Milford combination.
 THE STATE MAY LEAVE US NO COUNTY SEATS; 1T
 WILL NEVER GIVE US TWO.
 We have thus far referred only to local in- terests and to local increase of taxation as an objection to the proposed change of county seat. Viewing the matter from the larger point of view of State interest, we readily see grave objections to any such change of county lines as is advocated at Wlnsted and New Mil state expenses. If the value of the District Court to towns outside those in which its ses- sions are held is less than fourth of its cost, will the state be likely to consider it worth
 
 seats to be set up within the limits of that Ju- dicial District The Commission on public expenditures, which reported to the present legislature, have announced that the most startling increase in our public expenses occurs in the administration of justice. The expense of criminal trials of support of, ,prisonersin jals and of attendance on courts by sheriffs, juries &c., has increased from $4S,371 in 1850 to SPA, 9S0 in 1870, and to $222, 822 in 1877 Among other reforms proposed, therefore, the Commissioners recommend the abolition of the it be economy for the state to establish new county with a population less than that oi Windham or of Middlesex and with two coun. ty seats-one of them within nine miles of Danbury and within ten miles of the state line? Double county seats have always been found the occasion of largely increased pub lie expenses, of poor lawyers work, of useless terms of court, and of retarded business. We doubt whether, if the legislature were now organizing the counties of Middlesex, Fairfield and New London anew, they would permit the establishment of double county seats ir either Still less is it likely to allow double county seats in new county with less thar the population of Middlesex, with little more than half the population of New London, ane with less than third of the population of Fair field.
 The constitutional provision regarding tho apportionment of Senators offers another seri ous obstacle to the division of this county and an insuperable one to the proposed forma tion of new county out of Waterbury and four or five towns from New Haver joined to eight towns from Litchfeld county The constitution gives each county not les than two Senators, and the population entitled to Senator by the census of 1870 is abou %, ,500. Neither the eighteen northern and west ern towns of Litchfeld county, nor the thir. teen or fourteen proposedtowns of Waterbury county, would have the population tha would entltle them to two Senator each. Litchfeld county, indeed, nov has three Senators, though entitled by population to but two; but from wha county could the fourth Senator be stolen tt fill up the constitutional number for the tw' new counties? New Haven county, with its remaining population of over an hundred thousand could not be expected to give up eith CT of the three it now sends New London tn, smallest of those now having three Senator (next to Litchfeld) has a larger population than both the proposed new counties. Indeed as Waterbury discovered in 1870, nothing short of constitutional amendment increas ing the number of Senators will allow of tn formation of a new county of Waterbury, ant another of the remnant of eighteen town left to Litchield county.
 Looking therefore, at the motives of econo
 my that must and will govern the action of tn
 state at large, and at the difficulty of ayangin
 the proposed new counties in accordance wit the provisions of the constitution regardin,