volved does not exceed one hundred dollars. It is gratifying to notice the progress of these domestic tribunals in the favor and confidence of the people. Their jurisdiction was originally limited to demands not exceeding five pounds, or twelve dollars and a half. By other laws, the legislature reduced the fees of many other officers, and diminished the average cost of foreclosure of mortgages to a sum two thirds less than under the former system, that of collecting debts in actions not litigated to a sum three fourths less and the costs in litigated suits to an amount one third less. While there can be no doubt that these measures were in principle just, and that the reform which has been accomplished was necessary, it is complained by many who are conversant with the practice of the courts, that some of the laws which have been passed are imperfect, liable to be evaded, and in some respects unequal in their operation. Such a result is by no means improbable. There are few of the works of man which are not susceptible of improvement; and certainly all experience has shown, that laws seldom form an exception. If the system

which has been substituted in the place of one that had long prevailed, is in any material respect defective, or unjust, I doubt not that it will afford you much pleasure to make the necessary amendments.

In regard to our penitentiaries, I have urged that discipline ought to be tempered with kindness, and that moral influences should be employed to secure the submission and promote the reformation of convicts. Although some improvement has been made in this respect, more can yet be accomplished. It is too often forgotten, that the object chiefly contemplated in the adoption of our penitentiary system, was the reformation of offenders. This object derives its importance from considerations of prudence, as well as of philanthropy. The unreformed convict, after being released, spends a brief period in committing depredations upon society, and in corrupting youth, and then returns to the prison to exercise a vicious influence upon his fellow-prisoners there. Reformation can seldom be expected, without addressing the mind. I would have the school-room in the prison fitted as carefully as the solitary cell and workshop; and although attendance there can not be so frequent, I would have it quite as regular. The recent establishment of a separate institution for

female-prisoners, under the management of one of their own sex reflects much honor upon the state; and I am happy to add that it has realized the expectations of the legislature. Females convicted within the district from which criminals are received at the Auburn prison, are now sent to that penitentiary, where they remain until an executive order is made for conveying them to Mount Pleasant, and such an order can not be made for less than ten convicts. This temporary imprisonment of females in the prison at Auburn operates harshly toward them, and is inconvenient in regard to the management of that institution. I respectfully recommend that the law be modified, so that females be directly conveyed to their proper penitentiary. The chief obstacle to a reformation of this class of offenders is the inflexibility with which society rejects them after their season of penance is past. While the cause of public morals requires their exclusion, at least until they have given satisfactory evidence of reformation, humanity and expediency unite in recommending proper efforts to sustain those who are truly reformed. It has been suggested that a retreat might be provided for them at Mount Pleasant, where, under the care of benevolent females, they might maintain themselves by labor, until by good conduct they should become entitled to employment elsewhere. Such a plan must necessarily be left to private liberality; and I am informed that such liberality is awakened to the undertaking, and ready to engage in it, if a proper edifice can be obtained. A building which belongs to the state, situated near the prison, and now of very little use, might be devoted to this humane purpose, at least until the experiment could be tested.* The whole number of male convicts in the stateprisons is fourteen hundred and twenty-three, of whom eleven hundred and fifty-three are white, and two hundred and seventy are colored persons. The number of female convicts is seventy-four, of whom forty are white and thirty-four are colored. The sex has a just claim to extraordinary effort for the reformation of the small number of persons it furnishes to our prisons.

The success which has crowned the benevolent efforts of the founders of the House of Refuge has induced an opinion that it would be profitable to establish a similar institution in the west

*The senate journals show that this is only a continuation of earlier efforts made by Governor Seward for the same object.-Ed.

ern part of the state, where the subjects of its discipline could be maintained at much less expense than in the city of New York.

The law which authorized the imprisonment of non-resident debtors, against whom no fraud was alleged, was repealed at the last session upon the ground that the practice operated injuriously to trade, and was inconsistent with the benign spirit of our code. There remains now only one relic of that usage in this state. Imprisonment for debt is allowed in actions brought in the federal courts; and by the laws of this state, our jails, designed only for the custody of criminals, are permitted to be used as prisons for the confinement of debtors, under process issued by the authority of the United States. If you shall be of opinion that no principle of the federal Union. requires us to extend our courtesy so far, we shall no longer witness the imprisonment of honest but unfortunate debtors, with the sanction of this state.*

The legislature at its last session communicated to our representatives the opinion that Congress was imperatively required to exercise its constitutional power of passing uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcy. I beg leave to refer you to the views of that interesting subject which were submitted to your predecessors, and to suggest a renewal of instructions during the present session of Congress.

Our currency was sustained in 1839 and 1840, during a period of suspension in most other states. For this advantage we were indebted to a supervision of the banks, to the establishment of a free banking system, to the repeal of the act prohibiting the circulation of small bills, and to the law of the last legislature regulating the redemption of bank-notes. The policy found most conducive to the public welfare, has been to desist equally from increasing the number of chartered banks, and from legislation hostile to those in existence; to correct defects in the new system of free banking, and to give it a fair trial; to require of all banking institutions and associations, not only a prompt redemption of their circulating notes, but also that such notes shall be at all

* A law was passed by Congress in 1842, abolishing imprisonment in proceedings in the federal courts, in states where imprisonment was forbidden in like cases.-Ed.

times kept in good credit throughout the state. These views having prevailed in the legislature during the last two years, the public inconveniences which heretofore existed, have ceased; and it has happened for the first time within thirty years, that the legislature is relieved alike from applications for banking privileges, and from complaints against those by whom such privileges are held.

While the most careless observer can scarcely fail to perceive that political power in this country, resides chiefly with that portion of the people which is engaged in agriculture, he who studies the operation of our system will find in the influence of the agricul tural classes, a guaranty of peace, of good order and of the stability of our institutions. It might therefore be expected, that the policy of our government would be such as to favor the first and most important department of national industry. But no such favor has been extended, at least to the agriculture which employs free labor. Our workshops are chiefly in Europe; and yet the productions of the grain-growing states are virtually excluded from European markets by the operation of corn laws. Nor is this all. We import productions similar to those of our own soil; hemp from Russia, wine and silks from France, wool from Spain, and linen from Great Britain. The attention of the legislature has been called to the subject of agriculture, less from a hope that direct relief could be afforded, than under a belief that our fellowcitizens engaged in its pursuits, might be assisted in gaining the attention of the federal government. Two plans for promoting agricultural improvement have engaged public attention. One contemplated the foundation of agricultural societies, upon the model of that established in Berkshire county in Massachusetts. Associations of this kind have been heretofore formed in this and many other states, and have been productive of very beneficial results. The other plan proposed the establishment of a board of agriculture, and was advocated by an eminent citizen, now deceased, who adorned his life and enriched the state by studies exclusively practical and eminently useful.*

We have many earnest admonitions against a state debt, and against a national debt, from those to whom this generation is indebted for all its experience of either. But I confess that the

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* Jesse Buel.

debt which it seems to me ought most carefully to be avoided, is that which results from an unrestricted importation of foreign luxuries, without an equivalent exportation of agricultural productions in exchange. The inhabitants of this state alone pay annually for foreign wines more than the interest upon the cost of all its canals and railroads; and for foreign silks an amount not less than the original cost of the Erie canal. Two provinces in Italy, with a population less than that of this state, and a climate represented as less genial to the mulberry and the silkworm, export silk of the value annually of twenty-five millions of dollars. I can not believe that our country, and especially this state, will always be content to retain its tributary condition. I have observed with pleasure that the School District Library, now in the course of publication by the enterprising Harpers, contains several interesting and instructive treatises upon political economy and agriculture, which can not be without their just influence. The fruits of the seed thus scattered are sure to be gathered. It is only to be regretted that this generation should not allow itself to anticipate them.

It was submitted to your predecessors, that while we were obliged, by the laws of the United States, to preserve an extended and inconvenient organization of the militia, it would be just and consonant with the spirit of our institutions, that the taxes and burdens of the service should be reduced and equalized. Our fellow-citizens are enjoying the fruits of such a reform in the reduction of military fines, which was effected by a law passed at the last session. The rank and file of the militia are mustered twice in each year, once by regiments and once by companies, for the purposes of inspection, review, and martial exercise. These parades would perhaps be less inconvenient, if they were ordered on consecutive days. Experience, however, has proved that they are entirely insufficient for instruction in military science. The number of days assigned for such duty will certainly not be increased. The law of Congress could be complied with by an annual muster for inspection on one day only; and for this inspection a parade by companies would be more convenient than one by regiments. Uniformed volunteer companies might be safely relied upon for police; and the formation of such companies would be encouraged, by abridging their term of service