.MTUyOA.MTI0NDg

515

[opinion of S.J. Court]

the public burthens than is borne by the more recently settled and thinly inhabited parts. And, as in regulating, equalizing and determining the valuation of the State, in pursuance of Article 9th, Sec. 7th of the Constitution, no regard is to be had to the relative increase of polls and estates; so in apportioning the Senators, no regard is to be had to the relative increase of population. For, however, between the periods of enumeration or valuation, the polls and estates may have relatively increased, the apportionment of taxation, continues unaltered & the same. But we advert to this provision of the Constitution, respecting the apportionment of the Senate, merely with a view of establishing and illustrating this position, that as the words "having regard to the relative increase of population" are omitted, when speaking of the apportionment of the House, they must, where inserted, have been inserted with design. It is also an established rule of construction, that all the words used in any instrument, and especially in so important an instrument as a Constitution, should be considered as inserted for some good purpose - as intended to have some legal and sensible operation: of course, words or sentences are not to be rejected as surplusage or of no importance, if any sensible meaning to them can be discovered. If we now turn our attention to the provisions of the section from which it was taken, the design in inserting the words "having regards to the relative increase of population" and the meaning intended to be conveyed by that expression, will we apprehend, become apparent. It was unquestionably the intention of the framers of our constitution, that each of the Counties should be fairly and equally represented according to its population: but it must have