{"newspaper_name": "Litchfield enquirer.", "edition": "01", "page": "p2", "byline": ""}
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n. ..I sccconss from New. York repre- sent the loss by the great fire of Saturday lsskss having destroyed property of tSkieaOity displayed I;""- I.xa lhirds in increasing tie amount which they draw from the Treasury, in cOmpensa' ton of their valuable services. Most ot the ways' in which the government is cheated by our digni- fed legislators at Washington, have become through constant repetition too stale to excite interest," but thls getting eight dollars per day, by stretching out the session on an excuse of sickness IS some- thing out of the common run-an original inven- tion first discovered in 1s43-comparatively new and worth telling. The writer gives the follow ing as his authority:-

 On page 6s of document No. 54 of the 2d Ses- sion, 2Oth Congress Contingent Expenses of the House of Repr presentatives) is the following item charged :- ~

 ls43, Dec. 1. Nathan Clifford, to IT days per diem as a member of Congress from the Sd day of March, 1S43, to the 2Oth day of the same month, at Ss per day, while confined at Washington by bodily ndispostion, and unable to leave for home, $139.

 Hon. MT. Cliford's tern, as a member of Con- gress espired on the Sd March, 1S43, and he ceas- ed on that day .o be a Representative, yet here we find him allowed $139 for per diem, after he

  what law, or resolution, or foundation, this al- lowance is based, am at a loss to conceive lbe- leye it to be an abuse-an abuse which will grow and expand rapidly into full and deadly maturity, if it be not checked by the influence of public opinion. Again, on page IA of the same docu' ment, find the following entry = 1914, April. J. J. Roane, For 30 days detention by sickness in Washington City, after the adjourn ment of Congress in July, 1892, at $sSs per day, $24O %

 Now this is legitimate consequence se;s of the 1 And here is a man going back over period o f,relve years to recover per diem on the same principle. And am informed, that during the past session of Congress, claim has been made and recovered, and paid, by the Clerk of the House out of the Contingent Fund, Qhe accounts o which, will not be published until next session o Congress,) for per dsem to Barker Burneil, mem Der of Congress from Massachusetts' who died in this city after the expiration of has term cf ser. vice on the Sd of March, 1s43 Yes, per diem on just the same circumstances as MT. Cliford's except that he is still alive, and Burne,l is dead and his executors have claimed and received this l money.