the school during the past year. Thirty-four counties were represented by the graduating class.

In view of the acknowledged deficiency in the supply of competent teachers, and of the annually increasing revenue of the Common School Fund, it will be for you to decide what additional aid shall be given to this branch of the public instruction, whether by multiplying Normal schools or by such other expedients as may be devised for effecting so great a good.

I should do injustice to my estimate of the value of agricultural education, and of the college for that purpose endowed under the laws of this State, as well as to my own connection with that institution, if I failed at the earliest moment to invite your attention to its present condition. The first successful movement in this behalf was by the late John Delafield, of Seneca county, through whose enlightened zeal and perseverance, an act of incorporation was obtained from the Legislature in April, 1853. Encouraged by this success, Mr. Delafield was earnest in securing friends and subscriptions to the enterprise, until suddenly arrested by the hand of death; not, however, before the trustees of the college had manifested their estimate of his services, character and ability by choosing him president of the college. The loan to this college of $40,000, authorized by the last Legislature, on condition that a like sum be obtained from other sources, enabled the trustees to secure that private aid, and to proceed at once to the organization of the college. They have purchased a farm of 670 acres in Seneca County, on a part of which, extending from Seneca Lake to the village of Ovid, they design to erect the necessary buildings. They have elected Samuel Cheever, of Saratoga County, president of the college; are taking measures to provide competent instructors; and hope to have the institution sufficiently advanced to receive students before the close of the present year. Among the many grants for education most worthily and liberally bestowed

by the Legislature on different institutions in this State. this loan is the first specific aid towards the instruction of youth in the science and practice of agriculture, the greatest interest in this great State. I am quite confident, as it was liberally bestowed, so it will be wisely used; and I will not doubt that the plant thus set out, and already springing into hopeful promise, will receive, as it may need, all seasonable nurture at the hands of future legislatures.

In the month of August last the Dudley Observatory of the city of Albany was inaugurated, in the presence of a large concourse of the scientific men of the country, with the most auspicious promise of usefulness and honor; and we shall henceforth possess an astronomical observatory which, for the completeness of equipment, and the number, delicacy and power of its instruments, will equal, if not surpass, any similar institution in the old world.

While it is gratifying to see the munificence of individuals flowing in so noble a channel, the State itself cannot be indifferent to the progress of true science, inseparably connected as all its achievements are with the material prosperity of the country. You will receive, as usual, reports from the various public institutions of the State for the suppression, the restraint and punishment of crime, and from the eleemosynary institutions for the relief and care of the deaf and dumb, the blind, the imbecile and the insane, and from the dispensaries in the city of New York, which so faithfully provide medical aid for the sick poor.

It is the province of the Legislature to look into the workings of all these, and to afford to them all proper and reasonable assistance, for they are specially the creatures and the concern of Christian civilization.

Reports of the State prisons and of their management, results and pecuniary condition will be made to you as usual by the Comptroller of the State and by the inspectors of the respective prisons - and to these reports I must reVOL. V.-2.

fer you. Respecting the houses of refuge at Rochester and at Randall's Island, I am enabled by information communicated to me by the managers to speak with some knowledge, and with great satisfaction as to the results there attained. It is no longer a doubtful experiment but a well ascertained result of the working of these two establishments that youthful delinquents arrested at the outset of evil courses and subjected to the mild yet vigilant discipline and discriminating control of these institutions—may be rescued in large proportion from vice, and trained to be useful citizens.

In the Western House of Refuge since its opening in 1849, there have been received altogether 769. The belief is expressed to me by the managers that "the benign objects of the Legislature in establishing this institution have been, and are being, attained and realized in an eminent degree."

The older house of refuge at Randall's Island, opened in 1825, has received up to the close of last year 6,880 children. The managers, in a recent communication to me say: "We have every reason to think that the results of our reformatory system have been as satisfactory as at any former period of its history. Of the whole number received up to this time we judge that 70 per cent or nearly three fourths are saved." With such hopeful and unexpectedly encouraging results, I may not withhold my earnest recommendation that such truly benevolent and beneficent institutions should not be left straitened in their means of doing good.

The State Lunatic Asylum at Utica, and the Asylum in New York, under the charge of the governors of the New York Hospital, as well as that hospital itself, the institutions for the deaf and dumb and for the blind in New York, the Asylum for idiots or imbeciles, in like manner demand your care and your bounty, if that can indeed be called bounty, which is simply the fulfillment of a clear duty of

humanity and true citizenship, not less than of considerate economy.

All these institutions are managed, and so far as I have the means of knowing, well and efficiently and conscientiously managed, by disinterested and self-sacrificing individuals, who receive no pecuniary compensation whatever, for their services, but are actuated solely by the higher motive of caring for their afflicted and helpless neighbors.

When, then, institutions, thus beneficent and thus managed, appeal to the Legislature for aid commensurate with the wider field which each succeeding year opens in their operations, they may justly claim to be listened to, with the presumption in their favor, that investigation — without which no legislative aid should ever be granted-will, in their cases, make good the reasonableness of such appeal.

The committee of the Senate appointed to visit, during the recess of the Legislature, the several charitable institutions receiving aid from the State, also the jails and poor houses in every county, having discharged their duty, will, I am informed, lay the result of their labors before the Legislature at an early day.

The excise laws which are co-eval with our existence as a State, and the proper regulation and enforcement of which have ever been deemed essential alike to the morals and well-being of the people, would seem to require, thorough revision. The judicial decision against the act of 1854 (5) for the suppression of intemperance, pauperism and crime, as unconstitutional, has left the sale of intoxicating liquors free from the wholesome restraints of law.* However opinions may differ as to the right or expediency of attempting by compulsory legislation to prohibit entirely the sale as a beverage of such liquors, none will doubt that it is both a clear right and an absolute duty so to regulate their sale, as to diminish as far as practicable the risk of

*See Wynehamer v. People, 13 N. Y. 378.

their abuse if we may not entirely prohibit their use; for of the frightful evils of drunkenness, no exaggeration is possible, and no remedy that law will permit and opinion will sustain to check or eradicate so foul an evil, should be left untried.3

The Superintendent of the Onondaga Salt Springs, reports the quantity of salt inspected during the year 1856, to be 5,965,842 bushels. The revenues have been $59,936.85. The inspection for 1856 is about 117,000 less than for the year 1855, but exceeds that of any previous year.

The year 1856 cannot be said to have been one of prosperity with the manufacturers. The market opened in the beginning of summer unfavorably and scarcely recovered its tone during the whole season. The present languor cannot be permanent, as the increasing wants of the western States must continue to be supplied mainly from this source. New York salt has literally penetrated to the Mississippi river, and will undoubtedly be furnished hereafter to all parts of the northwest above the Missouri line. The reputation of our staple appears to be well established in all the markets to which it has access, and wherever it can be had for the same price, receives the preference over like products from any other quarter.

The public works are generally in good order, but need some extensions. The erection of private works especially

3 Chapter 628, passed April 16, "to suppress intemperance and to regulate the sale of intoxicating liquors," contained general regulations on this subject. This continued to be the general excise law until superseded by the revised excise law of 1892, chapter 401, which was repealed by the liquor tax law of 1896, chapter 112.

Parts of the act of 1857, chapter 628, were sustained as follows: Section 11 (restriction in license), Board of Excise v. Merchant (1886), 103 N. Y. 143; sec. 17, as amended by Laws 1869, chapter 856 (arrest of intoxicated person), People v. Burleigh (1883), 1 N. Y. Crim. Rep. 522. Section 12, relating to the effect of evidence of drinking on licensed premises was held unconstitutional in People v. Lyon (1882), 27 Hun, 180, as to rule of evidence. See also B'd of Excise v. Merchant (1886), 103 N. Y. 143.