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 CONNECTICUT

256

CONNECTICUT

successors. In that year an act was passed by the legislature providing for the organization of a corpora- tion in connexion with any C!atholic church or congro- gation. Such corporation consists of the bishop and vicar-general of the diocese, the pastor and two lay- men of the congregation. The lay members are ap- pointed annually by the ex-officio or clerical members. Such corporation is empowered to hold all property conveyed to it for the purpose of maintaining religious worship according to the doctrine, discipline, and ritual of the C'atholic Church, and for the support of the educational or charitable institutions of that church. A restriction exists to the effect that no one incorporated church or congregation may possess an amount of property, except church buildings, parson- ages, school-houses, asylums and cemeteries, the annual income of which exceeds three thousand dollars. Such corporation shall at all times be sub- ject to the general laws and discipline of the Catholic Church, and shall hold and enjoy its franchise solely for the purposes above mentioned. Upon a forfeiture of its franchise or surrender of its charter its property vests in the bishop and his successors, in trust for such congregation. This law has in the main worked with entire satisfaction. Property of various religious orders is usually legally vested in a corporation either specially chartered or organized under the general laws of the State where the mother-house of the com- munity is located.

Tax Exemption. — In the general statute providing for exemption from taxation are included buildings exclusively occupied as colleges, academies, churches, public school-houses, or infirmaries, and parsonages of any ecclesiastical society to the value of five thou- sand dollars, while used solely as such. So also are buildings belonging to and used exclusively for scien- tific, literary, benevolent or ecclesiastical societies. Clergymen are not exempt under the law from lia- bility to perform jury duty or rendering military service. They are, however, rarely if ever found in a jury panel, for the reason that it is not customary to place their names on the lists from which jurors are drawn.

Marriage and Divorce. — The laws relating to marriage require that no persons shall be married imtil one of them under oath shall inform the registrar of the town in which the marriage is to be celebrated of the name, age, colour, occupation, birthplace, resi- dence and condition (whether single, widowed, or divorced) of each. The registrar thereupon issues a certificate that the parties have complied with the provisions of law, which certificate is a license to any person authorized to celebrate marriage, to join them in marriage in that town. No such certificate shall be issued if either party is a minor without the writ- ten consent of the parent or guardian of such minor. The person celebrating the marriage is required to certify that fact upon the license, stating the time and place of such marriage, and return the same to the registrar before or during the first week of the month following the marriage. If he fails to do so he is liable to a fine of ten dollars. All judges and justices of the peace and ordained or licensed clergymen belonging to the State or any other State, so long as they continue in the work of the ministry, may join persons in marriage. A clergyman in w)lc?nni/,in£; marriage is regarded in the law as a public oflicir, and his acts in that capacity are prima facie evidence of his character. Any person who attempts to join persons in marriage, knowing that he is not authorized so to do, may be fined not more than $500 or im- prisoned.! not more than one year, or both.

Divorces are granted by the superior court on any of the following grtnuids: adultery; fraudulent con- tract; wilful desertion for three years with tot.al neglect of duty; seven years' absence, whereabouts unknown- habitual intemperance; intolerable cruelty;

sentence to imprisomnent for life, or for any infamous crime involving a violation of conjugal duty punish- able by imprisonment in the State's prison. The Gen- eral Assembly may pass an act dissolving a marriage so far as its civic relation is concerned, but in recent years applications to that body have been regarded with disfavom- and are very exceptional. Notwith- standing the fact that the judges have in recent years been increasingly vigilant in requiring strict proof of the facts upon which, imder the law, a divorce may be adjudged, the number of divorces has alarmingly increased.

Charities and Excise. — The State is well supplied with hospitals and orphan asylimis. The former, located in all of the principal cities, are, most of them, controlled by secular corporations, but in Hartford, Bridgeport, and New Haven, Catholic hospitals have been establishetl in recent years. All hospitals, secu- lar and Catholic, receive liberal annual grants from the State. Several orphan asylums are supported by the charity of non-Catholics, while the St. Francis Asylum, located in New Haven, provides for the needs of the Catholic population. County houses for dependent children who would otherwise have to be committed to the town poorhouses are established by law in each county and supported by public grants. For many years the sale of spirituous and intoxi- cating liquors has been regulated by a law which secures local option to each city and town. On petition of twenty-five legal voters of any town a secret ballot must be held at the next annual election on the question of licence or no licence. Unless the vote is in the affirmative the sale of liquor in that town is absolutely prohibited, except by a public agent for limited purposes of necessity. Licences are granted by the county commissioners. The licence fee in towns of over 3000 inhabitants is $450, and in other towms $250. The business of the licencees is very strictly regulated by law, and their places must be closed from twelve o'clock at night until five the next morning, and on Sundays and all days on which any public election is held.

There is one State prison, located at Wethersfield, a reformatory for boys at Meriden, and an industrial school for girls at Middletown. No reformatory for adult convicts has yet been established in the State, though the matter has received legislative sanction, and the establishment of such a reformatory will doubtless be accomplished.

The statute of wills has been in force from the establishment of the colony. All persons of sound mind above eighteen years of age may dispose of their estate by will. A will must be in writing, sub- scribed by the testator, and attested by three wit- nesses, each of them subscribing in his presence.

The common law of public and charitable uses has always been m force in Connecticut. Grants for the "maintenance of the ministry of the Gospel", of schools of learning, the relief of the poor, the main- tenance of any cemetery or lot therein, or monuments thereon, are especially declared to be within the law of charitable uses.

Educational Facilities. — New Haven, the prin- cipal city, having a population in 1900 of 108,027, and in 1908 estimated to be upwards of 125,000, is chiefly noted as being the seat of Yale University. The col- lege from which this university has grown was char- tered as a collegiate school by the Colonial Assembly in 1701, and first opened at Saybrook, a town at the mouth of the Connecticut River. Its promoters were the leading Congregational ministers of the colony, nearly all of whom had been graduated at Harvard College which had been founded at Cambridge by the General Court of the Colonv of Massachusetts Bay in 1636. In 1718 the college was transferred to New Haven where the first building was erected, and where it took the name of Yale College on account of a dona-