The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-05-08

wealth known in the history of man kind to have been founded on a social compact expressed in the form of written Constitution.
 Here, is her original capital In 1889, that great charter of liberty was presented and deliberately ac- Cepted in a free assembly of those whom 1t was thereafter to govern. Two hundred and eighty years have passed since the freemeu of Con uecucut took this great step of form ally constituting themselves public corporation for the purpose Of self government. For that they solemnly declared. we do therefore associate and conjoin ourselves to be as one Public State or Commonwealth
 What right had they to assume to exercise a power so great?
 Every advance in the law changes the law. It makes something uu- lawful that before was lawful The Fundamental Orders of 1889 pur- ported to create an independent gov erument in and for Connecticut. She needed something better than she had 10 guard her liberties. and under eX- isunE circumstances she must herself supply the want. For ten long years there had been no power of Parlia- IItlL by WHICH SuCn a government | could have been created. The eleven years from 1929 10 1640 are known in the history of England as the Tyranny. During the whole period no pariamcnts were called. The King could have granted no charter which would have been likely to satisfy the wants of an English colony. What was needed was. in the phrase of our times, the setting mp of a 'self-gov- erning dominion That which Con reChCut created for herself, if events were propitious, might stand alone and unaided. If the fast-comirg civil war went against the King, it might aud a sanction in Parliament. If the monarchy weathered the storm, tho new King might recognize and con- firm 1t.
 Constitutional Proportion.
 '"The men from whom the Fund amentaI Orders" came were of the class of Englishmen of which John Pyn was the great leader It was he who originated what Green, 1n ms short History of the English People. calls the doctrine of Constitutional proportton.' To him the main organ of political power was the House of Commons. The House of Lords could not be suffered to claim an equal right in legislation. The King could not be permitted to override it's will. The House of Legislation composed of representatives of the people. must have the power of the people; and the people had all power.
 Under the influence of such the ories of government the Fundamental Orders were framed and adopted.
 They provided that the supreme Q DF t, pT7, be in the General Assembly,. which might pass laws touching any matter that concerned the good of the Com 1nouwealth, except election of mag lstrates which was to be done by the whole body of F'reemen.
 For a hundred and eighty years this continued to be the policy of Connecticut. She wished, and she had, a Governor with little power; a legislature of immense power. The courts were creations of the legis- lature, and by the legislature their judgments could be set aside.
 We did indeed possess, from as early a date as 1850 our Magma Charts. T. is placed at the beginning of the Ludlow code. adopted in that year, and was long one of the found alton stones of our legislative struc- ture.
 Rights Expressed.
 "As originally drawn, this guaranty of the rights of the individual agains. the State was thus expressed:
 ''ForasmuCh as the free fruition ot such liberties, immunites, privileges ae humanity, civlity and christianity call for, as due to every man in his place and proportion, without i'm. poachment and infringement hatF ever been and ever will be the tran. quiHty and stability of churches .ani conmonweaIths, and the denial ol deprival thereof, the disturbance if no, ruin of both:
 Tt is therefore ordered bv thi. Courte and authority thereof, that nc mans life shall be taken away. n, mans honor or good name shall b, stained, no mans person shall be ar rested, restrained, banished, dismem bered nor any way punished; no maj shall be deprived of his wife or chil dren, no mans goods or estate shal be taken away from him, nor an ways indamaged. under colour of Iav or COunteuance of authority, unless be by the virtue of equity of some ex T.ress law of the country warrantint the same. established by d General Courte, and sufficiently published, O III case or the QelCCL or a Law Tn an particular case, by the word of God.
 Colonial Records of Connection 1636-1665, p. 5O9.)
 These. stately and sonorous decla TatiOns fulfilling the office of Bi of Rights, were substantially copie from the laws of Massachusett, known as the Body of Liberties The came at the beginning of their frs code, adopted nine years before. Ma thaniel Ward of that Colony wa their author, a minister who had bee bred originally to the law.
 But the authority which set u these guarantees could alter or repes them. Without any formal repeal, could practically disregard them repeatedly did. How far it could 2 in such directions was a matter res ing in it's own discretion.
 Laws of Connecticut
 "Chief Justice Swift published i 17a5 a general statement of the law of Connecticut He regarded tE Fundamental orders of 1899 as oc cupying, when originally adoptedy th H position of Constitution, and as bt