Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/80

 72 of rulers, as of electors. In the bleak regions of Lapland, and the farther north, and in the sultry and protracted heats of the south, a due regard must be had to the health of the inhabitants, and to the ordinary means of travelling. If the territory be large, the representatives must come from great distances, and are liable to be retarded by all the varieties of climate, and geological features of the country; by drifts of impassable snows; by sudden inundations; by chains of mountains; by extensive prairies; by numerous streams; by sandy deserts.

§ 590. The task of legislation, too, is exceedingly different in a small state, from what it is in a large one; in a state engaged in a single pursuit, or living in pastoral simplicity, from what it is in a state engaged in the infinitely varied employments of agriculture, manufacture, and commerce, where enterprise and capital rapidly circulate; and new legislation is constantly required by the new fortunes of society. A single week might suffice for the ordinary legislation of a state of the territorial extent of Rhode-Island; while several months would scarcely suffice for that of New-York. In Great-Britain a half year is consumed in legislation for its diversified interests and occupations; while a week would accomplish all, that belongs to that of Lapland or Greenland, of the narrow republic of Geneva, or of the subordinate principalities of Germany. Athens might legislate, without obstructing the daily course of common business, for her own meagre territory; but when Rome had become the mistress of the world, the year seemed too short for all the exigencies of her sovereignty. When she deliberated for a world, she