they have not lost every thing. Their enterprising spirit and irrepressible energies still remain; their business relations are suspended, but not dissolved; their character as honorable merchants, and their capacity for business, fortunately are possessions beyond the reach of the devouring element. With these possessions, aided by the advantages which it is reasonable to expect will be liberally offered to them, they will soon resume their wonted pursuits under favorable auspices, and in a short time, it is believed, repair their losses.

Notwithstanding the disaster which has befallen this portion of your constituents, you enter on your legislative duties when the general condition of the State is unusually prosperous; but these duties are not, in my opinion, thereby rendered less responsible or less difficult to be performed. A high state of prosperity is not generally less fruitful than a season of adversity, in developments which deserve the attention of the Legislature. Many defects in existing laws and institutions are then disclosed, which it requires the profoundest wisdom to correct. Such a conjuncture as the present seems to be a peculiarly appropriate time for reviewing the course of past legislation, and making needful reforms; for looking forward, and preparing our systems for the future exigencies of the State. Relieved, as you are, from the labour of guarding against external dangers, or repressing civil commotions, your minds are left free to mark the progress, and consider the tendency of our present establishments; to check the operation of evil principles before they have produced their bitter fruits, and to give a right direction and efficient action to principles of an opposite character.

It is to be feared that the constitutional provisions relative to our judiciary system, will not permit it to be so expanded as to meet the public wants. The vast increase of business in our higher courts has demonstrated their inadequacy, under their present organization, to discharge the onerous duties devolved on them; and something must therefore be done for the public relief. If this relief cannot be obtained by the modification of the existing courts, or an enlargement of the system on the present basis, then your attention should be directed towards procuring an amendment of the Constitution. The importance of providing for a speedy administration of the laws, and the urgent demands for a system every way competent to this object, will, I trust, ensure some

decided action on this subject at the present session of the Legislature.

In a government like ours, which emanates from the people, where the entire administration in all its various branches is conducted for their benefit and subject to their constant supervision and control, and where the safety and the perpetuity of all its political institutions depend upon their virtue and intelligence, no other subject can be equal in importance to that of public instruction, and none should so earnestly engage the attention of the Legislature. Ignorance, with all the moral evils of which it is the prolific source, brings with it also numerous political evils, dangerous to the welfare of the State. It should be the anxious care of the Legislature to eradicate these evils by removing the causes of them. This can be done effectually only by diffusing instruction generally among the people. Although much remains here to be done in this respect, the past efforts of legislation upon the subject merit high commendation. Much has been already accomplished for the cause of popular education. A large fund has been dedicated to this object, and our common school system is established on right principles. But this is one of those subjects for which all cannot be done that is required, without a powerful co-operation on the part of the people in their individual capacity. The providing of funds for education, is an indispensable means for attaining the end; but it is not education. The wisest system that can be devised cannot be executed without human agency. The difficulty in the case arises, I fear, from the fact that the benefits of general education can only be fully appreciated by those who are educated themselves. Those parents who are so unfortunate as not to be properly educated, and those whose condition requires them to employ their time and their efforts to gain the means of subsistance, do not, in many instances, sufficiently value the importance of education: Yet it is for their children, in common with all others, that the common school system is designed; and until its blessings are made to reach them, it will not be what it ought to be. If parents generally were sensible of the inestimable advantages they were procuring for their children by educating them, I am sure the efforts and contributions which are required to give full efficiency to our present system, would not be withheld. If I have rightly apprehended the indications of public opinion on this subject, a more auspicious season is approaching.

At this time, a much larger number of individuals than heretofore, are exerting their energies and contributing their means to impress the public mind with the importance of making our system of popular instruction effective in diffusing its benefits to all the children in the State. I anticipate much good from the prevalence of the sentiment that the efforts of individuals must co-operate with the public authorities to ensure success to any system of general education.

The Press, that powerful engine in moving and controlling public opinion, is at this time, and much more so than formerly, directed to this subject, and it will undoubtedly have a salutary influence in advancing the cause of popular instruction.

The difficulty of supplying the district schools with competent teachers, has presented the greatest obstacle to the complete success of our system. A beginning has been made with a view to the removal of this obstacle. A separate department for the instruction of common school teachers has been established in one of the principal academies in each of the eight senate districts of the State, and public funds have been appropriated towards the support of these departments. That this measure cannot be otherwise than highly beneficial to the common schools, may be confi dently anticipated.

The law of the last session of the Legislature authorizing the inhabitants of each school district to impose a very light tax upon themselves for the purpose of providing a district library, is a measure well calculated to aid the cause of public instruction. I have not the means of knowing to what extent the districts have acted under it, but I sincerely hope that they are generally disposed to avail themselves of its wholesome provisions, and to commence establishments from which it is reasonable to expect beneficial results. Although this matter is left at the option of the several districts, yet the usefulness of such libraries is sufficiently obvious to induce a belief that the law will have nearly the same effect as if it had been made obligatory on them to use the powers it confers.

Reports have been received for the year 1834, by the Superintendent of Common Schools, from all the towns and wards in the State. The number of school districts therein is ten thousand one

hundred and thirty-two, and the number of children five hundred and forty-three thousand and eighty-five, of whom five hundred and forty-one thousand four hundred and one have received instruction in the common schools. The public moneys distributed to these schools amount to three hundred and twelve thousand one hundred and eighty-one dollars and twenty cents, including the one hundred thousand dollars derived from the income of the Common School Fund, and eighteen thousand six hundred and twenty dollars and ninety-two cents from local funds belonging to particular towns. The residue was raised by taxation on the property of the several towns and cities. A further sum of about four hundred and twenty thousand dollars was also paid by the inhabitants of the several districts. The aggregate amount of these sums, seven hundred and thirty-two thousand one hundred and eightyone dollars and twenty cents, (except a few thousand dollars expended in the city of New-York upon school-houses,) was paid for teachers' wages. The whole amount of expenditures on account of common schools in this State, for the year 1834, was at least one million three hundred thousand dollars.

Our academies and seminaries of learning are objects of great public interest, and worthy of the fostering care of government; particularly so in regard to their agency in supplying to some extent, the demand for common school teachers. There are many of high character and of extensive usefulness, that are not under the supervision of the Regents of the University, and consequently receive no aid from the Literature fund. I have not the means of ascertaining their number or their particular condition. There are sixty-eight academies subject to the visitation of the Regents, and all but five of them made reports to the Regents last year. The whole number of students receiving instruction in them at the date of these reports, was five thousand two hundred and ninetysix; the amount of tuition paid by them in 1834, was seventythree thousand four hundred and seventy-two dollars; and the real and personal property owned by these academies, including philosophical apparatus and libraries, amounted to five hundred and seventy-one thousand four hundred and seventy-dollars.

There are seven colleges in this State, including the two medical institutions. Hamilton and Geneva colleges have had to struggle with difficulties for want of a more liberal endowment. The plan of the University of the city of New-York, is, in many re

spects, similar to that of the most extensive universities on the continent of Europe, and contains arrangements for imparting instruction on many other subjects than those usually embraced in the ordinary collegiate course. This institution is in its infancy, and many parts of its plan are not yet put in execution. It is, however, reasonable to hope that it will in due time fulfil the expectations of its founders. Columbia and Union college are both in a very flourishing condition.

Our penitentiaries continue to present very favorable results. The number of convicts in the Auburn prison is a very little larger than that of the last year. The number in the Mount-Pleasant prison has been very much reduced. On the thirtieth day of September last, it was forty-five less than on that day in the previous year, and the number received in 1835, from the counties that are required to send their convicts to this prison, was also forty-five less than was sent from the same counties in 1834. The whole number of convicts in both prisons on the first of December last, was one thousand four hundred and fifty-one.

The earnings and profits of the Auburn prison during the last fiscal year, exceed the expenses for general support and ordinary repairs, seven thousand three hundred and eighty-eight dollars and thirty-eight cents. Of this sum there have been expended on buildings and for machinery, in payment of fees to sheriffs for transporting convicts, under the act. in relation to the State Prisons, passed at the last session, and for expenditures on a few other unusual objects, five thousand six hundred and fifty-six dollars and ten cents. The officers of the Auburn prison estimate the sheriff's fees, which by that law are to be paid from the earnings of the convicts, at more than seven thousand dollars, and they are apprehensive that this additional charge upon, and the diminution of, the income, which will result from that law, will make an appropriation from the treasury to some extent necessary to defray its expenses.

Creditable as this statement is to those who have managed this institution, the prison at Mount-Pleasant presents still more successful results. The moneys received for the earnings of the convicts in this establishment, including ten thousand dollars for work done for the State, for which payment has not been required, amount to eighty-five thousand one hundred and sixty-four dollars and forty-two cents, and the expenses for general support have