Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 1.djvu/74

 THE LEGISLATURE,

���STATE CAPITOL.

��days, in 1795, and at Hopkinton in 1798, 1801, 1806 and 1807.

NUMBER OF MEMBERS.

The Senate has always, from 1792, con- sisted of twelve, and the House, from early times, has heen an assembly in which the people were fully represented. But it is not possible to determine, from the printed Journals of the early years in this century, of precisely how many Vie popular branch consisted, and utterly so to designate the towns members whose names appear in the yeas and nays represented, for the towns were not given, as is now the invariable practice. The Journal of the House for the June session of 1802 commences as follows:

��"Upwards of one hundred and fifty mem- bers met agreeably^to the Constitution," etc. In 1803, the yeas and nays on a certain question were declared to be 70 to 68. In 1808, 87 to 75. In another case, the same session, 95 to 64. The House Journal of 1809 contains the names of members and the towns they repre- sented, and the six counties into which the State was then divided were repre- sented as follows : Rockingham, 43 mem- bers; Strafford, 29; Hillsborough, 37; Cheshire. 33 ; Grafton, 26, and Coos 4. In all, 172.

REPRESENT ATIOX OP TOWNS.

In 1812, Portsmouth had three Repre- sentatives, and Dover, Gilmanton and Concord, two each; all other towns, one

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