public complaints; but under the hope and expectation that some oth. er expedient might in time be devised, and, in the changes of public opinion, successfully offered as a substitute. Indeed, the inadequate supply of public stocks being apparent, and the future diminution of their amount certain, stocks of municipal and other corporations have already been recommended, from high sources, to be substituted in their place as a proper and sufficient security for the redemption of paper money. 'The immense losses heretofore sustained from failure of banks and depreciation of their paper, far exceeding all benefits derived from those institutions, afford us sufficient admonition to admit of no security of fluctuating or uncertain value, and which is not, at all times, cenvertible into money without loss. The insufficiency of the security proposed is so manifest that reasons hardly need be adduced to show it. The stock of one incorporation furnishing the capital and security for another, would afford ample provision for the multiplication of banks and the increase of a paper circulating medium, as worthless as it would probably be plentiful. Should the efforts made to substitute securities, other than those designated in the constitution, fail to afford a prospect of success, any plan, in the financial affairs of the State, likely to prolong the redemption of the public debt, will be acceptable to those interested in the establishment of banks, and receive their united support. Happily for the State no further public debt can be contracted, except under circumstances not likely to occur; and though attempts may be made to divert, under various pretexts, to other uses, funds designed to cancel existing obligations, yet with faithful agents in charge of public affairs, and none others should be selected, such attempts must ever fail of success. The true interests of the State require the early payment of its debt; and we may dismiss banks and bankers, to seek their capital and securities wherever else they can find them. The substitution of other securities cannot be effected except by a direct vote of the people, and, therefore, need not be apprehended. The great anxiety of bankers to furnish a paper currency, is not the result of a desire to confer a benefit upon the public, but to secure advantages for themselves. Wealth is the product of labor; but wealth has always had, and perhaps will always have, an influence upon legislation greater than labor. Of all schemes devised to secure wealth without labor, the issue of paper money is best calcu ated to produce that effect; and it is for this reason that so much anxiety has always been manifested for the establishment of banks. If corporations under general laws are likely to be numerous, especially those of a local character, it will but be doing justice to the localities in which they are situated to impose upon them, as well as upon existing corporations, the obligation of paying local as well as specific State taxes, taking care that, in the aggregate, the amount paid does not exceed that levied upon other property of like valu ation. It is worthy of inquiry whether foreign corporations, transacting business in this State, should not also be made subject to taxation for the exercise of their franchises within our limits. A similar tax has long been imposed in other States, and sufficient reasons exist for imposing it here. Individual liability is a well known principle of law, applicable to all associations of partnership without corporate sanction; and I see no reason why it should not also be made applicable to all corporate associations. If the State is to be considered responsible for the safe keeping of the public stocks deposited by banks, the amount of bonds required of the State Treasurer, having them in charge, is in no degree commensurate to the trust imposed. Though Michigan, as has been stated, possesses immense mineral wealth, and advantages unrivalled for manufactures and commerce, its citizens, for a long time to come, must depend, in the main, upon the cultivation of its soil. In the development of the resources of a new State, agriculture, affording as it does the means of immediate subsistence, will always take precedence of other interests; commerce and Iranufactures will follow; and all combined, in due course of time, secure to a free people prosperity and happiness. An agricultural people isolated, whose territory, however rich, affords no advantages to commerce and manufactures, while they may obtain a comfortable subsistence, must yet be comparatively poor. In a State like Michigan, where these advantages abound, when agriculture has arrived at a prosperous condition, all other elements of wealth spring up as a necessary result. In view of the paramount interest of agriculture, the framers of the constitution, while they did not fail to provide for intellectual and scientific instruction, at the same time enjoined upon the Legislature the duty of promoting agricultural improvement, and the establishment of an agricultural school. Opinions will be, perhaps, in some degree divided, whether the school contemplated shall be one of manual labor with farm attached, or one in which the theory and science of agriculture alone shall be taught. It will be the province of the Legislature to determine its character in this regard; but the object to be effected should be kept in view, and the best method of inculcating agricultural improvement adopted. Of the salt spring lands, the Legislature is authorized to appropriate to this purpose twenty-two sections; but of these lands less than fifteen sections remain unappropriated, exclusive of the twelve sections mentioned in another part of this communication, erroneously confirmed to the State, after their sale, by the general government. The appropriation, therefere, must be limited to the sections on hand, at least until the action of Congress be obtained upon our claim for the remainder. It may not be fruitless of results to inquire whether, by some ap propriate legislation, with small expenditures, you may not put within reach of the husbandman a knowledge of the improvements made in the implements of agriculture, and also communicate to him the discoveries made by the application of science to this pursuit. Universal education of the masses is the only sure guarantee of the permanency of a republican government. Without general intelligence, a people can neither know nor appreciate the benign influence of free institutions. If ignorance and consequent degrada. tion characterize the mass of a nation, the despotism of a tyrant, or the worst despotism of anarchy, characterize its government. history, whether ancient or modern, affords abundant and satisfacto ry evidence of this. Common schools are designed for the education of the masses, and so beneficial is their influence that their discontinuance would not on ly work a great evil to society, but endanger even the permanence of our political institutions. In a government so complex, and embracing relations so delicate as ours, greater intelligence and consequent moral power is required for its maintenance than in govern ments otherwise constituted; and these alone will secure, if any thing can secure, its indestructible perpetuity. Few new states have exceeded Michigan in providing for the education of youth. The grant of every sixteenth section, as far as possible, in the settled portions of the State, has been made available, and further means have been provided by taxation, so that the whole amount expended for the promotion of common schools, including voluntary contributions, will favorably compare with the expenditures of other and older States for the same purpose. One step more is required to secure to all the children of the State the benefits of a common school education, and that step is the establishment of free schools. Though hitherto the charge of tuition has always been remitted to those not able to pay, yet, from a sentiment of delicacy or pride, the poor have not, in all cases, sent their children to school. By provision of the revised constitution it is made the duty of the Legislature, within five years, to provide for and establish a system of primary schools, to be kept in each district of the State, at least three months in the year without charge of tuition. A provision of this kind cannot but meet the cordial approbation of every patriotic individual and well wisher of his country. The taxation necessary to carry this into effect, will hardly exceed that of the last and previous years collected for the purpose of education; and the common schools will, in name and in fact, be free to all. Complaint of taxation, for the purpose of education, has scarcely ever been made; for the proprietors of estates, though without children to educate, have property to protect, and the tax paid is but a small premi um advanced for insurance of its safety. The number of children in the State reported between the ages of four and eighteen years is 132,234, and the whole number that have attended school the year past is 110,478. The expenditures from the primary school interest fund are as follows: School moneys apportioned, Expenses Superintendent Public Instruction, Over paid interest refunded, Total, 842,794 44 263 09 372 65 488 29 3 00 $43,921 47 The moneys here mentioned as apportioned to schools are derived solely from the primary school interest fund, and, of course, do not include any sums raised by taxes or otherwise contributed. After the liquidation of the public debt, the primary school interest fund will be greatly increased by the addition thereto of all specific taxes collected in the State. The number of students in the department of arts and sciences in the University, is 64; and the number in the medical department exceeds S0. The whole amount paid last year to the treasurer of the university, from the university interest fund, is $9,644 70. The organic law of the university makes it the duty of the regents to establish and maintain branches; but, from the insufficiency of the funds placed under their control, they have not been able fully to comply with this requirement. The consequence has been that, from the want of sufficient institutions to prepare young men to enter the university, the number of its students, in the department of the arts and sciences, has been limited. Other causes have, doubtless, contributed to this result; but the main reason, I doubt not, may be found in the want of preparatory schools, constituting an intermediate grade between primary schools and the university. The means at the disposal of the regents not being adequate, we must look for their establishment to some other source; as their existence, beyond doubt, is indispensible to the prosperity of the university, and the promotion of intellectual and scientific improvement made imperative on the legislature. The Superintendent of Public Instruction suggests, as worthy of consideration, whether, in the absence of sufficient means to sustain the branches, we may not, with advantage, extend assistance to existing incorporated institutions of learning, on equivalent terms, and in such manner, as, working no detriment to the university, will make them tributary to that institution, |