which the Commonwealth's moiety is thirty-eight thousand six hundred and ninety-nine dollars and ten cents. Sales have also been made of sundry small tracts and detached parcels of land, remaining from former large divisions between the States, and Permits granted, on highly advantageous terms, for cutting timber, where the fee of the land is still retained in the Government. By all these proceedings of the Agent, within the year, not less than one hundred and eighty thousand dollars, will probably be realized to the Treasury, while, from the effect upon the remaining lands, of the increase of business and of settlement, induced by the opening of the Country for occupation and improvement, it may well be doubted, if the amount of the continuing interest of the State in this property is, in any degree, diminished. When it is recollected, that, soon after the Act of Separation, a proposition was seriously debated in the Legislature, to dispose of all the right of the Commonwealth in the Public Lands, for a sum, less, even, than a few Townships, comprising hardly one twentieth part of the extent of the Commonwealth's title, have been sold for, in a single year, the immense value of this territory, and its future importance to the State as a resource for revenue, or a means of constituting a fund for the promotion of interesting objects, and permanent improvements at home, will be more justly estimated.

With the sales which have been made, the authority of the Agent, under former Resolves, has been exhausted. I now recommend an extension of his powers to the disposal of other tracts, which are favorably situated, and may be in immediate demand for their timber, or for settlement.

In addition to the sales which have been made, Bounty Deeds, conveying, each, two hundred acres, have

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been executed to seventy-three soldiers of the Army of the Revolution, or their legal representatives.

Such farther progress has been made in the construction of the Aroostook Road, that thirty-seven miles of the route are now completed. When it shall be carried through to the River, which the Agent anticipates may be by the close of another year, a region of great fertility, and abounding in the most valuable timber, hitherto excluded from approach, will be open to easy communication, and to the certainty of demand in the market, both for the lumber dealer and the settler.

In accordance with an arrangement authorized by a Resolve of the Legislature of the 23d of March last, the Trustees of the Charity of Edward Hopkins have satisfactorily executed and delivered, in the manner required, a full and complete release of all claims and demands in law and equity, upon the Commonwealth, and of all claims and demands against the tenants of lands in the towns of Hopkinton and Upton, of which the Trustees claimed to be lessors, or successors of lessors, and have been paid from the Treasury, in consideration thereof, the sum of eight thousand dollars. An occasion of controversy, which has long vexed a portion of our fellow citizens, and often been found troublesome and perplexing to the Government, is thus, at length, happily put at

rest.

The Trigonometrical Survey ordered by the Government, for the purpose of obtaining an accurate map of the State, has been prosecuted, through the past season, and is still in progress, under the direction, and by the personal labors of the Civil Engineer to whom the service was originally given in charge. From the monthly reports which have been required of this Officer, there is continued reason to be satisfied with his industry, faith

fulness, and skill, in the performance of this arduous and difficult task. The perfect exactitude which is to be had in the observations and mensurations necessary to the triangulation, renders the process exceedingly slow, and, it is to be feared, will occasion greater delay in the completion of the work than was at first anticipated. No map of like description has, as yet, been executed in any of the States; nor is it known, that any such survey has before been attempted in the country, except in the commencement of a design by the General Government, some years since, and now recently resumed, to procure, in like manner, a Chart of the sea coast of the United States. Since the undertaking here, the Legislature, for the time being, has been kept advised of its management and progress. All the All the reports of the Engineer, general and special, up to the close of the last session, have been communicated by the Executive, and remain on the public files; and to these, are now to be added the special reports for the past season, which will be transmitted. It has not been thought expedient to withdraw the Engineer from the country, while the weather remained open, for the purpose of preparing, for the present occasion, a more precise and connected account of his operations. This is a labor of time, and may be performed after the severity of the season shall have driven him from the field, and in sufficient opportunity to be presented to your notice during the session. It is confidently believed, that another year will complete the survey. But whatever may be the delay, this great work, when well accomplished, in connexion with the Map, and the Geological Survey and Reports embraced in the plan of the Government, will constitute an invaluable. acquisition to the means of improvement, applicable alike to the uses of the State, and the business of the

citizens, and become a noble contribution to the promotion of the interests and cause of science.

The distinguished Professor to whom was assigned the service of making the Geological Survey, and who, the last year, presented the first part of his Report, which has been given to the public, has now brought his interesting labors nearly to a close, and promises the result of his researches and observations, in the remaining parts of the Report, accompanied by numerous specimens of rocks, ores, and minerals, which have been collected and scientifically arranged and described, for the use of the Government, before the termination of your session.

A Commission, authorized by a Resolve of the 24th of February last, to revise, collate, and arrange the Colonial and Provincial Statutes, and the General Statutes of the Commonwealth, has been constituted, with an anxious regard to the character and importance of the service to be performed, by the appointment of gentlemen eminent as Jurists and Counsellors at law, who were conveniently situated for necessary, frequent, and free intercourse and co-operation with each other, and who have consented to enter upon this arduous and responsible trust. The Commissioners being required by the further provisions of the Resolve "to suggest such contradictions, omissions, or imperfections as may appear in the laws to be revised, and the mode in which the same may be reconciled, supplied, or amended,” have not had opportunity to make such progress in this extended work, as will enable them to report to the present General Court.

The provisions of a Statute of the last Legislature, for enlarging the jurisdiction of the Court of Common Pleas, and regulating the appointment and duties of

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prosecuting officers, have been carried into full effect, since the recess. As the law proposed an essential change in the administration of the criminal jurisprudence, and was considered, to some extent, an experiment, it is gratifying to learn, that it has proved, in a high degree, beneficial and satisfactory. Under the management of able and efficient prosecuting officers, the business of the Commonwealth has been disposed of in the Common Pleas, with great expedition, and but little if any interruption to the despatch of the civil docket, beyond what had been usual under the previous limited cognizance of criminal matters by this Court, while the Supreme Court, overburdened and oppressed as it still is, has been relieved from a portion of duty, which greatly interfered with the more important functions of a tribunal of appellate and final jurisdiction. Much loss of valuable time to the citizens, in their necessary attendance in the capacity of jurors, upon the Supreme Court, especially at the law sittings, is now prevented, and, from this cause, and also the shorter periods of the confinement of arrested persons, by the opportunity offered for their trials in the more frequent terms of the lower Courts, a large aggregate of annual expense will, henceforth, be saved to the Treasury. Besides, as the administration of justice is prompt, the detection and punishment of offenders will be more certain, and crimes become less frequent.

In regarding the unquestioned advantages to the community, which have resulted from the operation of the recent law, I cannot but feel warranted in recommending to your consideration the expediency of modifying, still further, the distributive assignment of judicial duties, by enlarging the final jurisdiction of the Common Pleas, in civil cases, subject to the right of appeal on