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well as for highways, are neither uniform nor equal, and in some instances have been most highly unreasonable. The legislature has prescribed no uniform standard by which assessments are made; the same species of property, and of the same estimated value, may be taxed a hundred fold more in one district than in another bordering upon it; and every little neighborhood may be erected into a separate school or road district, with power to tax almost at pleasure. But the power of taxation is one of the highest attributes of sovereignty. It should never be exercised but with much caution-the most mature consideration, and the most scrupulous regard to justice, uniformity and equality. If otherwise exercised, it becomes unjust and oppressive. No tax, I am persuaded, would be paid by the people of Michigan, with more cheerfulness, if it be just, equal and uniform, than a tax for the hallowed purposes of education. But it deeply concerns the honor and good faith of the state, that the practical injustice of our present system should be avoided, and the evils I have alluded to, promptly corrected.

The remaining source of revenue, applicable to the support of our common schools, consists in the annual interest accruing upon the purchase money, for which sales of school lands may have been, or may be effected; and the rest reserved for the use and occupation of such as may be leased.

This resource, upon which so much expectation was founded, seems too likely, for present purposes, in a great measure, to fail us. The overthrow of the general currency of the nation, which has produced so much distress, and the continuing process by which, what little remains available, seems rapidly passing out of the state, have already prostrated all uniform standard of value; and the ruinous diminution in the prices of agricultural products, have rendered all real estate of little present worth. School lands, therefore, are no longer sought after by purchasers; and, hitherto, in times of so great pressure and general distress, the legislature have found it difficult to resist applications for relief, and delay of payment on the part of those who have heretofore purchased these lands.

From this source, therefore, little, comparatively, has been realized, and the sanguine hopes of the friends of education have been thus far disappointed. The same general cause, very materially affects also the present condition, and, for a time, the future capacities of the university. What great interest of the country, indeed, has not felt its blighting influences? Aided most materially by the loan which it was heretofore authorized by the state to negotiate, the principal buildings necessary for its accommodation, have been steadily progressing, and with a solidity of workmanship and material, and an architectural taste, worthy of its high destination, and of the state.

The four buildings for the professors, commenced last year, are finished; the university grounds are handsomely inclosed; commodious apartments for sixty-four students will have been finished in June next, and a valuable library, consisting of three thousand, seven hundred and seven volumes, have been received. There are seven branches of the university in operation, viz: at Detroit, Pontiac, Monroe, Tecumseh, White Pigeon, Niles and Kalamazoo. Thirteen teachers are in employ, and the number of pupils is two hundred and forty-seven. The disbursements of the university have been great; and I fear that the original calculations of the board of regents, under whose direction and control the work has proceeded, were founded upon presumed resources, which the universal depreciation of property, may prove to have been in some degree fallacious. The last legislature, by resolution, required of the board that they should cause a report to be made to you during your present session; the pecuniary affairs of the institution will then probably be fully exhibited to you. The reputation of the state certainly, if not the public faith, requires the most strict and punctual performance of all its pecuniary responsibilities. I would recommend that by a special committee, to that end appointed, a critical investigation be made of its financial concerns, with a view to such ulterior legislation as the exigency may require.

The commissioners appointed according to the provisions of the "Act to provide for the sale of certain lands to the settlers thereon, and for other purposes," have performed the laborious and very highly responsible duties devolved upon them, in a manner creditable, I think, to themselves, just to the public, and I have reason to hope, satisfactory to the community. Their report to me of their proceedings, I herewith lay before you. It exhibits briefly, but very clearly, the scope of their operations and the principles of their action. While you will equally with myself, feel deep regret and disappointment that the university and state lands should, in point of quality and value, fall so greatly below our previous expectations, yet I also persuade myself, that you will not feel the less disposed to approve and sanction the justice of their decisions. That portion of the report which treats of the expediency of further legisla tion in the matter, is in strictness, extra official. It can be considered, I apprehend, only in the light of a gratuitous expression of opinion; but it is the opinion, I have no doubt, of just and honorable men, particularly conversant with the subject; and results from their sense of what justice may seem to require; as such, I would respectfully commend it to your favorable, but cautious consideration. The general result of the minute inspection which the commissioners have taken of the university and other lands, has given occasion to the belief, on the

part of some of our fellow citizens, that the minimum prices established for all the lands over which the state has control, are, perhaps, too high, and should be reduced. Abstractly from ulterior consequences, there is, I think, some ground for such opinion; but, on the other hand, the influences which such a measure muy exert, upon the pecuniary undertakings of the university, and especially upon the loan the institution, under the sanction of law, has negotiated upon the credit, (or hypothecation,) of these lands, or of their product in money, at certain legally ascertained prices, cannot, in the consideration of such a measure, be overlooked. And I submit it to you, that it is better the university should be deprived, for a time, of any productive revenue from these unsold lands, than that, in this crisis of commercial instability, a course should be adopted of doubtful tendencies, or which might bring into question the good faith of the institution.

I am not at all satisfied, gentlemen, of the soundness of the principle said to have been assumed by the treasury department of the United States, in the assignment to this state, of the lands to which we are entitled for the erection and endowment of a university. By the propositions which accompanied the admission of this state into the Union, the state became entitled to a quantity equal to two entire townships of land for those purposes. This quantity of the public domain had, indeed, been secured by acts of congress to the people of Michigan, many years before our recognition as a state. While yet under a colonial government, this grant had been holden out, not merely as a munificent donation, but as an inducement as a lure to incite and encourage purchasers of the public lands. The strongest motives of good policy, forbade its location in a body. It was to be taken dispersed over the state in so small quantities, as that no strong local interest should be embodied and built up, peculiar to itself, and adverse, perhaps, to the general interests of the state. But the quantity of acres was not intended thereby to be diminished. The principle excepted to is this: that every fractional part of an entire tract, assigned to the state, is charged as an entire tract. Thus, if there be, among the tracts assigned, a fractional section, containing three hundred and twenty-one acres, it comes charged to the fund as six hundred and forty acres-that being the contents of a full section and an entire tract. If, on the contrary, we be entitled to claim, as a part of the university fund, a number of acres equal to the contents of two entire surveyed townships, then there remains, not yet assigned to us, a very considerable quantity; in respect to which, I hold it to be our duty to claim it as accruing, by every fair construction of the grant and propositions. And to this branch of the subject, I ask leave to invite your special attention. I must also ask your conside

ration of the fact, gentlemen, that the legislature, under whose sanction the commissioners performed the duties above mentioned, and executed the important trust confided to them, made no provision for their compensation. They incurred expenses, devoted their valuable time, and performed labor, for which they should be justly and fully remunerated. Without assuming it upon myself to judge of the extent of what that compensation should be, I deemed it necessary that advances should be made to them; and I accordingly remitted to each of them, at Niles, out of the contingent fund placed at my disposal, such sum as I felt assured would be indispensable, and which they will severally account for when their compensation shall be determined on.

The annual report of the superintendent of public instruction, not yet exhibited to me, will, no doubt, in convenient season, be laid before you. I commend it, and the whole of this interesting subject, to your deliberation.

The administration of justice through our judicial courts, next merits our special regard. It is to that department of government we look for the protection of all our individual and natural rights. It is that department whose province it is to bring home, to the cottage and to the palace, alike, all the benefits of wise and salutary laws. A prompt, able and impartial administration of justice, by the courts, most essentially concerns the honor and the well being of our country.

It is not in my power to lay before you, satisfactorily, the condition of the business now pending before those tribunals. It would be very desirable, if it were made the duty of the clerks of the several courts of record and chancery, to make periodical returns to the department of state, with proper classification of the number of suits and prosecutions commenced, or pending, at each term within the year; the number of jury trials; the number of judgments rendered; the gross amount of debts reduced to judgment, with such further particulars as the governor, for the time being, may require. The legislature would not only thus be enabled the more satisfactorily to define the times, and limit the duration of the terms of the courts respectively, but through such a medium, much statistical information would be collected, of lasting and great usefulness. And I respectfully renew my former recommendation, that some appropriate legislative enactment to that effect, be provi.ded.

The law to establish two additional chancery circuits, has gone into operation since the last session of the legislature. Doubts were entertained by some as to the policy of that law, in view of the existing organization of that branch of the judiciary. There being but one judge, having original chancery jurisdiction, fears were entertained, lest the increase of duties,

thus devolved upon the chancelor, might become oppressively burdensome. The experience of another year, will test the soundness of such doubts; and by the aid of such a requisition upon the clerks of courts, as I have suggested, sufficient evidence may be embodied to enable the legislature to determine upon the expediency of any further modification of the sys

tem.

The act to provide for the organization of courts of special sessions, &c., passed by the last legislature, has had, I believe, the most salutary influence in the administration of the criminal law throughout the state; and the establishment of the district court for the county of Wayne, has been attended by very beneficial effects. The criminal justice has been administered more promptly, more satisfactorily to the public, and at far less expense. In the county of Wayne alone, the judicious officers who have had the control of the fiscal affairs of the county, estimate the saving to the county, by the erection of those two tribunals, in point of expense, at near $5,000 per

annum.

But in all our courts of civil jurisdiction, it is too obviously true to need formal proof to establish the fact, that within a few years past, the number of suits has increased to an extraordinary extent; and the crowded and diffused operations of our courts, are looked to with a far more general and absorbing interest than in ordinary times.

That unhappy policy of the national government, which has resulted in the confusion and almost the annihilation of the general currency of the Union; drawing after it the most fatal embarrassments in all the great interests of the country, has filled our habitations with distress, and our courts with suits. It has not accorded with the policy of the nation, for some years past, to foster our own domestic manufactures. We are still beholden to the "work shops of Europe," for most of those articles which are used among us; which true economy. demands, or habit and comfort have made necessary; and which a broad and far-reaching political economy would admonish us, that we ought rather to fabricate ourselves. For articles such as these, the people of our state are in debt. The farmer, trusting to his own labor and to the smiles of Providence, for the means to meet his engagements, unhesitatingly purchases of the merchant, stores for his family, clothing for his children, and many of the utensils of his agriculture and of his household. The merchant of whom he buys, is essentially, but the factor of the wholesale dealer in the Atlantic cities; and he again owes for the same articles to his European correspondent. It is very manifest, that indirectly, the ultimate payment of the debt must here be sought for in the avails of the agricultural industry of the people; and until the general cur