are, at the present period transported on the waters of the Hudson River, it is reasonable to suppose that the time is not distant, when the commodities conveyed on the canals will be equal in amount. A small transit duty will consequently produce an immense income, applicable to the speedy extinguishment of the debt contracted for the canals, and to the prosecution of other important improvements. In these works, then, we behold the operation of a powerful engine of finance, and of a prolific source of revenue.

It is certainly more important that the productive classes of society should have good markets out of the state, than that they should be exclusively confined to indifferent or fluctuating markets in it. In the former case, wealth is diffused over the whole country, while in the latter, it is limited to a few great towns. A wise government ought to encourage communications with those places, where the farmer and manufacturer can sell at the highest, and buy at the lowest price. And, as the acquisition of many markets increases the chance of good ones, and diminishes, in many instances, the expenses of transportation, and guards against the pernicious fluctuations of price, I look forward with pleasure to the speedy arrival of the time when the state will be able to improve the navigation of the Susquehannah, the Allegany, the Genesee and St. Lawrence,- to assist in connecting the waters of the great lakes and of the Mississippi; to form a junction between the Western Canal and lake Ontario by the Oswego river, and to promote the laudable intention of Pennsylvania to unite the Seneca lake with the head waters of the Susquehannah.

But there are other and more important considerations connected with this subject which enter into the very essence of our liberty and prosperity. The gloomy and comfortless doctrine, which supposes man incapable of free government, necessarily implies that he must be subject to a bad one, because it pre-supposes his utter incompetence to govern either others or himself. In hereditary and elect

ive monarchies, and indeed in all governments not founded on the broad basis of equal representation, the actual ruler is the prime minister of the day, elected by the prince from time to time to govern the country. Whether this right of choosing be vested in an hereditary elector, or, in an elector for life, appointed by a diet or conclave, or, in an elector chosen by an army of janisaries, it is clear that it is a faint recognition of the representative principle transferred from the body of the people to an irresponsible individual totally unfit from his situation and education, to exercise it with patriotism and intelligence. Who then can doubt the superior excellence of a free government, its entire accordance with the dignity of man, and its almost exclusive devotedness to his happiness? But in the United States our liberty and our union are inseparably connected. A dismemberment of the republic into separate confederacies would necessarily produce the jealous circumspection and hostile preparation of bordering states; large standing armies would immediately be raised; unceasing and vindictive wars would follow, and a military despotism would reign triumphant on the ruins of civil liberty. A dissolution of the union may therefore be considered the natural death of our free government. And to avert this awful calamity, all local prejudices and geographical distinctions should be discarded, the people should be habituated to frequent intercourse and beneficial inter-communication, and the whole republic ought to be bound together by the golden ties of commerce and the adamantine chains of interest. When the Western Canal is finished and a communication is formed between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River, or between the Ohio and the waters of lake Erie, the greater part of the United States will form one vast island, susceptible of circumnavigation to the extent of many thousand miles. The most distant parts of the confederacy will then be in a state of approximation, and the distinctions of eastern and western, of southern and northern interests,

will be entirely prostrated. To be instrumental in producing so much good, by increasing the stock of human happiness; by establishing the perpetuity of free government, and by extending the empire of improvement, of knowledge, of refinement and of religion, is an ambition worthy of a free people. The most exalted reputation is that which arises from the dispensation of happiness to our fellow creatures, and that conduct is most acceptable to God which is most beneficial to man. Character is as important to states as to individuals, and the glory of a republic founded on the promotion of the general good, is the common property of all its citizens.

Important, however, as these improvements are, yet they ought not to engross all our attention nor command all our resources. There are other objects of primary consequence which demand the munificence of the government, and I am happy to say that ample means are at our disposal.

The fund appropriated for the benefit of common schools, consists of a million of dollars, invested in bank stock, and in bonds and mortgages, and about 80,000 acres of land. Heretofore, $60,000 have been annually divided among the common schools, and at the present period $70,000 may be distributed; but it is supposed that this cannot be done with propriety, in consequence of the varying and increasing state of our population, until a new census is taken. There is also a considerable fund denominated the literature fund; and the Regents of the University distributed, during the last year, among several academies, the sum of $4000, which they will be able to continue.2

2 Chap. 161, passed April 12, created the office of superintendent of common schools, to be appointed by the Council of Appointment. The act also provided for the annual distribution of $70,000 from the common school fund, which might be increased to $80,000 if the income of the fund amounted to that sum. Commissioners and inspectors of schools were to be chosen in each town. The act was substantially a revision of all the laws relating to common schools.

Without adverting to a million of acres of unappropriated land, some of which is very valuable, and the whole of which is competent to the extinguishment of the public debt, it is sufficient to observe that the surplus of ordinary revenue beyond the current demands of government for the present year will be about $90,000, which will be augmented by the payment of the arrearages of taxes, $70,000, and also by the payment of the debt due from the United States; so that, without taking into view large sums of money which may come into the treasury from other sources, there will be in all probability, $300,000 applicable to objects of public utility.

The legislature having deemed it expedient to apply the avails of certain lotteries to the encouragement of education, and other beneficial purposes, it was not without extreme regret that I have observed the credit of those institutions seriously impaired. As the payment of prizes is guaranteed by the state, and is not limited as to time, it is hoped that the public confidence will be completely restored under the administration of the present managers. In order to promote this desirable end, and to mitigate, as far as possible, the demoralizing effects of lotteries, (which can only be accomplished by rapid drawing) and to guard against fraud and negligence, I have caused certain instructions to be communicated to the managers, a copy of which will be laid before you; and it will be expedient for you to protect the lotteries against the control of contractors, by means which will be suggested, and which will be efficacious.

Chap. 212, passed April 13, contained provisions intended to increase and strengthen the common school fund, and provision was made for a graduated increase in the distribution of the proceeds of the fund.

By chap. 222, passed April 13, one-half of the sums for quit rents or commutation of quit rents was appropriated to the literature fund, and onehalf to the common school fund, and such sums were to be invested in canal stock.

8 Chap. 206, passed April 13, declared an unauthorized lottery a common and public nuisance, and regulated the administration of public lotteries.

Having on a former occasion solicited the attention of the legislature to the encouragement of agriculture, I have to express my regret at the failure of a measure generally admitted to be proper and expedient, on account of a difference of opinion as to its modification. That this important pursuit is the foundation of wealth, power and prosperity; that it requires the energies of the mind as well as the labors of the body; that it demands the light of science to guide its progress, and the munificence of government to accelerate its movements, to extend its usefulness, and to diffuse its blessings, are positions which cannot be controverted.

Why should the countenance of the state be required for the encouragement of the arts and sciences in general, and agriculture, the most important of all arts, the most useful of all sciences, be alone proscribed from the participation in its bounty?

A spirit favorable to this great improvement is rising and spreading in all directions, and wherever it is experienced it carries in its train extensive and innumerable blessings. The societies already instituted have, by stimulating emulation and diffusing information, effected great good; and if they be assisted in their useful and honorable career, by pecuniary appropriations, and if a board of agriculture, connected with a course of appropriate studies, be instituted, we have every reason to believe that the most beneficial consequences will result in multiplying the products of the country; in increasing the value and ameliorating the quality of our commodities; in preventing the undue augmentation of the learned professions, and in maintaining the equilibrium of society, by restoring the most important interest and the most numerous calling to its merited Intellectual rank. The Board of Agriculture ought also to be invested with authority to make a statistical survey of the state, and to obtain periodical returns of births, marriages, and deaths. A knowledge of our re