resolution of the Legislature seems to me to assume, and from contributing in any way to perpetuate the inequalities of political condition, from which results a large portion of the evils of human life.

The Senate and Assembly will therefore excuse me from assuming the duty which an assent to their request would impose, and will, if it be proper, select some other organ of communication with the Executive and authorities of our sister Commonwealth.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD."

April 12. To the Assembly: Return of a bill without action.

"The bill entitled 'An act to provide for the collection of taxes in certain cases,' which has been received in the closing hour of the session, seems not to contain all the necessary safeguards against abuse of its provisions. Unable to examine it with care, I do not think it prudent to approve the same, or return it with objections."

The Legislature adjourned the same day, and took no further action on this bill.

April 12. To the Assembly: Return of a bill without action.

"I have received among many other bills, in the very closing hour of the session, a very voluminous bill, entitled 'An act for the licensing and government of the pilots of the port of New York, by way of Sandy Hook.'

The lateness of the time at which the bill was received, will not permit me to examine its provisions with care, and to compare them with the existing laws of this State and those of the United States. Upon such a hasty examination as it has been in my power to bestow, the bill seems to me calculated unnecessarily to divest the House of Refuge, one of our most beneficent and useful institutions, of three thousand dollars-to create a monopoly injurious to commerce, and likely to corrupt the persons in whom the

control of pilots of the port of New York is proposed to be vested; and finally, to bring this State into conflict with the laws of Congress.

Nevertheless, I cannot at this moment say that these objections are well taken, or that they are all the objections to which the bill is open. Under these circumstances, I cannot properly either approve the bill, or return it with objections."

The Legislature adjourned the same day, and took no further action on this bill.

April 12. The Legislature adjourned until the 16th of August.

AUGUST 16. 1842.

1

SECOND MEETING.

The Legislature met pursuant to adjournment, and the Governor sent to both Houses the following

MESSAGE.

FELLOW CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND ASSEMBLY.-I transmit a law of Congress which reduces the House of Representatives to two hundred and twenty-three members, and the number of representatives from this State to thirtyfour. Regret for the reduction of the ratio of representation will be relieved by the more perfect expression of the popular voice which will be obtained by elections in uniform single districts. [See note 9.]

I tender you congratulations on the general prevalence of health and the abundant harvests of the year.

The edifice of the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, a flourishing institution which has been favored with aid from the treasury, has been destroyed by fire, but private liberality, encouraged by forbearance on the part of the

State, promises a speedy renewal of the usefulness of the institution.

The administration of justice has become more efficient; but I hope the importance of preventing abuses of the writ of habeas corpus and of the privilege of bail may not be overlooked, as well as the manifest necessity for more effectually securing the attendance of grand and petit jurors in courts having jurisdiction in criminal cases.

The discipline in the State prisons now blends kindness and religious instruction with regular but not oppressive labor, and is producing results propitious to morality and consoling to virtuous sympathy; but I deeply regret the failure of all my efforts to induce the Legislature to prevent the growth of crime by reform in the construction of houses of detention and correction, and in the government of such institutions.

An agent has been appointed to explore the mineral districts and inquire into the expediency of substituting labor in mines for the present mode of employing convicts.

A recent election in the city of New York was attended by a turbulent outbreak, in which officers engaged in canvassing votes were compelled to leave the ballot boxes, and the outrage was followed by an attack upon a Christian church and the dwelling of its ministers. The interruption of the canvass resulted in a suspension of the functions of the common council during nearly two months. The principle of universal suffrage was nevertheless vindicated by the tranquillity with which the people awaited and obeyed decisions on the questions in issue by the judicial tribunals.

A spacious aqueduct has been constructed, by which the Croton river, having been raised to the height of one hundred and sixty-six feet above tide, is diverted from its natural channel in Westchester county, conveyed nearly forty miles over formidable inequalities of surface, and across the Harlem River, and discharged into capacious reser-.

voirs, from which the waters are dispensed throughout the city of New York. This new and successful achievement in the march of internal improvement, provides the metropolis with an element indispensable to wealth, comfort and security, exceeding in volume the supply of the city of London, and fully anticipates the wants of the vast population which must eventually be concentrated in our commercial capital. The cost of the work exceeds twelve millions of dollars, and I deem it a subject of just pride, that the credit. of a mere municipality has proved adequate to an enterprise which in any other age could have been attempted only by the strong arm of an imperial or despotic government. The structures, not less enduring than useful, will remain a perpetual monument, not only of the forecast and public spirit of the municipal council, but also of the advanced state of science in our country.

The remainder of the journals of the Revolutionary Legislature and Convention, containing the correspondence of those bodies with Congress, with other States, with citizens in arms and in the public councils, and with friends of liberty in America and Europe, has been printed, and will vindicate the memories of our ancestors from contemporaneous suspicions of disloyalty to their country, and enhance our already high veneration by making us more fully acquainted with their trials and virtues.

Aided by the liberal interposition of the President of the United States and the efficient assistance of the American Ministers in London and Paris, our agent has obtained access to the public archives in those capitals; and the documents which he is transcribing, together with those he has procured in Holland, will furnish complete transatlantic annals of the colony of New York from its foundation until its independence. We were before indebted to the government of Great Britain for very munificent contributions to our library. I ask your permission to mark our appreciation of the high national courtesies we have received from'

European states, by transmitting to them copies of the forthcoming reports on the natural history of our commonwealth. [See note 3.]

I have great pleasure in informing you that the publication of those reports is in such rapid progress that portions will be submitted at the present session. A suite of the specimens which have been collected has been partially arranged in the Geological Museum, and the seven other collections intended for the seminaries of learning will soon be ready for their destination. The enterprise thus consummated, originated in a merely economical desire to explore our mountains in search of coal. All that has been gained in that view, is, a certain knowledge that this important mineral does not exist within our borders, and that its ample supply can only be introduced by improving and extending the channels of our trade with other communities. But the absence of coal is bountifully compensated by saline springs, and rich accumulations of lime, gypsum, marble and hydraulic cement in the Silurian formations; by marl and peat in the quaternary regions; by plumbago; and also by deposits of iron, lead, zinc and copper in the granite districts, in the vicinity of almost inexhaustible forests furnishing the fuel indispensable for the reduction of these minerals. Our lyceums, moreover, will be enriched with specimens of all the animals and plants, and every soil, rock, mineral and fossil as yet discovered within our territory. The field within which medicinal science, agricultural chemistry, mineralogy and economical geology have hitherto pursued their beneficent investigations, is thus broadly enlarged; and such are the regularity of our rock strata and their exposure, and such the variety and perfection of organic remains, that the survey, although its results are as yet but partially disclosed, is regarded in the European schools as affording a contribution of great value to the cause of science, with data for a more philosophical classification of facts and important guidance in reading