questions arising, of especial interest to them, in which the people of other counties have no interest whatever. Each has, to some extent, its own judiciary; takes care of its own poor; has charge of its roads, and it has been usual to leave them some legislative and taxing power. In a community like this, it is natural and laudable for them to desire a representative in the law-making body of the State, chosen by themselves without the interference of others, representing their views and giving that protection to their interest as only interested men will. The number of counties in this State is such as to prevent them from having a Senator each; and your committee, not deeming it material in which body of the General Assembly the county organizations were represented, have based the Senate entirely on numbers and the House of Delegates on a compromise between population and counties. The method adopted in alloting the members of the House of Delegates, was to give one delegate to every eighteen hundred voters; and where the fraction over in a county exceeded nine hundred voters, give another delegate; and to every county in which the number of voters was between nine and eighteen hundred, a delegate each. After making this allotment, it was found that nine counties, having less than nine hundred, were so situated that they could not be formed into suitable districts, and it was thought best to give each a delegate. By doing this all the counties except four will elect a delegate without connection with the citizens of any other counties—an arrangement your committee deem of very great importance. By adopting this system, the subject is taken out of the list of partisan questions, (the result being made to depend on population and county lines)—a result that we hope will be mutually satisfactory to all. The senatorial districts are so formed as to contain, as near as may be, fiftyfour hundred voters. This apportionment makes the House of Delegates consist of one hundred and thirty-eight members, and the Senate of forty-two. It will be seen that the House of Delegates is less by twenty-four and the Senate by ten than under the Constitution of 1852. While the State has lost in extent of territory since that time, the number of voters has been increased; besides, the plan of giving all the counties a delegate cannot be maintained, if the number is decreased, without depriving the larger counties of their proper weight and influence, and the size becomes almost a necessity in a State composed of so large a number of counties as this. To the objection that these bodies are so large that they will be unwieldy and expensive, we would say that the experience in this country does not sustain it. The House of Delegates will be less than half the number of the United States House of Representatives and less than the average of such bodies, taking all the States together. To those who dislike popular government and want the celerity and dispatch obtainable through a government lodged in the hands of a few, a smaller Legislature may be desirable; but old-fashioned republicans will be slow to depart from the practice of the fathers of republican institutions, who thought it necessary, to the safety of their freedom and protection to rights, to keep their legislative bodies sufficiently large to hold in check ambitious and designing spirits, while the expense is but a trifling item, not worthy of consideration in matters like this, as we all know it would be cheaper to pay a few law-makers than many, yet that plan has never been acceptable in this country, and we hope it never will. District No. 1-Accomac shall have two delegates. 2-Albemarle shall have three delegates. 4-Alexandria shall have two delegates. 6-Appomattox shall have one delegate. 7-Alleghany and Craig shall have one delegate. 8-Augusta shall have three delegates. 9-Bath and Highland shall have one delegate. 10-Bedford shall have three delegates. 11-Bland shall have one delegate. 12-Botetourt shall have one delegate. 13-Brunswick shall have one delegate. 14-Buckingham shall have two delegates. 15-Buchanan and Wise shall have one delegate. 17-Caroline shall have two delegates. 5--Amherst shall have two delegates. 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 19-Charles City shall have one delegate. 25-Dinwiddie shall have one delegate. (6 27-Essex shall have one delegate. 28-Fauquier shall have two delegates. 66 37-Greene shall have one delegate. 46 66 66 44-Isle of Wight shall have one delegate. District No. 48-King George shall have one delegate. 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 60-New Kent shall have one delegate. 61-Norfolk county and the city of Portsmouth shall have three delegates. 62-Norfolk city shall have two delegates. 63-Nelson shall have one delegate. 64-Nottoway shall have one delegate. 65-Northampton shall have one delegate. 66-Northumberland shall have one delegate. 70-Pittsylvania shall have four delegates. 66 73-Prince Edward shall have one delegate. 66 75-Prince William shall have one delegate. 66 (6 77-Princess Anne shall have one delegate. 66 66 66 3 85-Shenandoah shall have one delegate. 66 91-Sussex shall have one delegate. The following shall constitute the senatorial districts: Alexandria, Fairfax and Loudoun shall form the first district, and be entitled to two senators. Fauquier, Rappahannock and Prince William shall form the second district, and be entitled to one senator. Culpeper, Orange and Madison shall form the third district, and be entitled to one senator. Stafford, Spotsylvania and Louisa shall form the fourth district, and be entitled to one senator. Fluvanna, Goochland and Powhatan shall form the fifth district, and be entitled to one senator. Albemarle and Greene shall form the sixth district, and be entitled to one senator. Buckingham and Appomattox shall form the seventh district, and be entitled to one senator. Nelson and Amherst shall form the eighth district, and be entitled to one senator. Franklin and Henry shall form the ninth district, and be entitled to one senator. Pittsylvania shall form the tenth district, and be entitled to one senator. Campbell shall form the eleventh district, and be entitled to one senator. Bedford shall form the twelfth district, and be entitled to one senator. Halifax shall form the thirteenth district, and be entitled to one senator. Charlotte and Prince Edward shall form the fourteenth district, and be entitled to one senator. Mecklenburg shall form the fifteenth district, and be entitled to one senator. King George, Westmoreland, Richmond, Northumberland and Lancaster shall form the sixteenth district, and be entitled to one senator. Caroline, Essex and King William shall form the seventeenth district, and be entitled to one senator. Gloucester, Middlesex, Mathews and King and Queen shall form the eighteenth district, and be entitled to one senator. Richmond city and Henrico county shall form the nineteenth district, and be entitled to three senators. Norfolk city and Princess Anne county shall form the twentieth district, and be entitled to one senator. Norfolk county and the city of Portsmouth shall form the twenty-first district, and be entitled to one senator. Nansemond, Southampton and Isle of Wight shall form the twenty-second district, and be entitled to one senator. Greensville, Dinwiddie and Sussex shall form the twenty-third district, and be entitled to one senator. Surry, York, Warwick and Elizabeth City shall form the twenty-fourth district, and be entitled to one senator. Brunswick and Lunenburg shall form the twenty-fifth district, and be entitled to one senator. Chesterfield and Prince George shall form the twenty-sixth district, and be entitled to one senator. Accomac and Northampton shall form the twenty-seventh district, and be entitled to one senator. Hanover, New Kent, Charles City and James City shall form the twentyeighth district, and be entitled to one senator. Cumberland, Amelia and Nottoway shall form the twenty-ninth district, and be entitled to one senator. Frederick, Clarke and Shenandoah shall form the thirtieth district, and be entitled to one senator. Page, Warren and Rockingham shall form the thirty-first district, and be entitled to one senator. Highland and Augusta shall form the thirty-second district, and be entitled to one senator. Rockbridge, Bath and Alleghany shall form the thirty-third district, and be entitled to one senator. Botetourt, Roanoke, Craig and Giles shall form the thirty-fourth district, and be entitled to one senator. Montgomery, Floyd and Patrick shall form the thirty-fifth district, and be entitled to one senator. Grayson, Carroll and Wythe shall form the thirty-sixth district, and be entitled to one senator. Pulaski, Bland, Tazewell and Russell shall form the thirty-seventh district, and be entitled to one senator. Lee, Scott, Wise and Buchanan shall form the thirty-eighth district, and be entitled to one senator. Washington and Smythe shall form the thirty-ninth district, and be entitled to one senator. All of which is respectfully submitted. JNO. HAWXHURST, J. McK. KENNERLY. |