In the guidance of those who are not quite au fait at the details
of American government, I will here in a few words describe the
outlines of State government as it is arranged in New Hampshire.
The States, in this respect, are not all alike, the modes of
election of their officers, and periods of service, being
different. Even the franchise is different in different States.
Universal suffrage is not the rule throughout the United States,
though it is, I believe, very generally thought in England that
such is the fact. I need hardly say that the laws in the different
States may be as various as the different legislatures may choose
to make them.

In New Hampshire universal suffrage does prevail, which means that
any man may vote who lives in the State, supports himself, and
assists to support the poor by means of poor rates. A governor of
the State is elected for one year only; but it is customary, or at
any rate not uncustomary, to re-elect him for a second year. His
salary is a thousand dollars a year, or two hundred pounds. It
must be presumed, therefore, that glory, and not money, is his
object. To him is appended a Council, by whose opinions he must in
a great degree be guided. His functions are to the State what
those of the President are to the country; and, for the short
period of his reign, he is as it were a Prime Minister of the
State, with certain very limited regal attributes. He, however, by
no means enjoys the regal attribute of doing no wrong. In every
State there is an Assembly, consisting of two houses of elected
representatives--the Senate, or upper house, and the House of
Representatives so called. In New Hampshire, this Assembly or
Parliament is styled The General Court of New Hampshire. It sits
annually, whereas the legislature in many States sits only every