MESSAGE.

Gentlemen of the Senate,

and House of Representatives:

In looking back upon the year, which is now added to the records of the past, the mind turns, with painful regret, to the melancholy event which has suddenly deprived Maine of one of her representatives in the councils of the Nation. In Governor Fairfield an honest man has fallen a discreet and patriotic statesman has been withdrawn from his earthly field of labor and transferred to a more elevated sphere of action and expansion. No citizen of the state has shared more largely in the confidence of the people, or been longer continued in their most important public trusts.

The vacancy, occasioned by his death, I have filled by the appointment of Hon. Wyman B. S. Moor. The constitution imposes upon you the election of his successor.

During the year just closed $169,600 of the funded debt of the state has been paid. To provide means for the payment of this debt, it was necessary for the last legislature to authorize the sale of the United States stock in the treasury, or a requisition upon the banks for a temporary loan. The latter alternative was adopted. Under the authority granted, and with my approval, the

treasurer has made a requisition upon the several banks in the state for an amount equal to four per cent. of their capital stock-about $110,000. This requisition has been promptly met. The interests of the state and of the business community will both be promoted by the early payment of this loan. The right reserved by the state to require a loan from banks, was only intended to be exercised in an emergency and for temporary purposes, and should not be regarded as a permanent aid to the operations of the treasury. Nearly one half of our funded debt falls due in 1851. If we can pass that point without resorting to increased taxation, or being forced again into the market as a borrower, our remaining debt can be paid with comparative ease, as it comes to maturity. To provide for the debt of 1851, the usual annual tax of $200,000 will be necessary. I have reason to believe that, under a system of strict economy in expenditures, the avails of an annual tax of $200,000, and the receipts of the land office, if successful in its operations, added to our United States stock, will be sufficient to defray, until that time, the ordinary expenses of the government, reimburse the recent loan from the banks, and redeem the funded debt due that year. The United States stock should be set apart as a fund for the payment of that debt. Perhaps you may deem it judicious to authorize the treasurer to exchange it for that debt, if a favorable opportunity offers.

As the state tax payable this year is but $100,000, probably the receipts of the treasury will not exceed the immediate wants of the government until January, 1849, when a tax of $200,000 will be payable. After that time

a surplus may be anticipated, and should be applied, as it shall accrue, to the payment of the debt to the banks.

For a more full exposition of our monetary affairs, 1 refer you to the annual report of the treasurer.

The report of the land agent, which I herewith transmit, will present to you the operations of that department for the year ending December 31, 1847. The amount paid by him, during that time, into the treasury, is $115,000. You will undoubtedly deem it expedient to authorize further expenditures upon roads, located upon the public lands, with a view to opening them to settlement; especially upon those which are necessary for communication, between the inhabitants of the territory bordering upon the St. John, and other portions of the state. Allusion is made in the report to the limited sale of settling lands and to the depressed condition of the agricultural interests upon the St. John and its tributaries. This state of things undoubtedly results from the want of the market, which lumbering operations have usually afforded, for the agricultural products of that region.

The great depression in the price of timber in Great Britain, rendered it judicious for the state to withold permits, and a resolve was passed to that effect in 1846. Whenever business in that country shall have resumed its accustomed activity, this necessary article will command a remunerating price; and I recommend such a modification of that restriction as will authorize the land agent to renew operations gradually, as the demand for timber may justify, without reviving the former auction system,

which in a measure, induced the recent too extensive and speculative transactions, so injurious to the state and ruinous to purchasers. Under such a discretionary power, our timber may be sold for its full value, the payments more amply secured, and our lumbering operations made to facilitate and prosper settlements upon the public lands, instead of resulting chiefly to the benefit of foreigners.

In presenting to you the report of the board of education and of their secretary, I cannot but congratulate you upon their apparent success in awakening an interest in the subject to which their labors are devoted.

This organization was intended, and its efforts are directed to fix public attention upon the importance of a high standard of universal education; and to collect and diffuse the results of diversified experience, in adapting means to the great end. When the end becomes fully appreciated and the means apparent, success is sure, and philanthropy may, in a great measure, cease her mourning over ignorance, vice, and crime.

The manifest interest and favor with which every portion of the state regards the asylum for the insane, will, without any solicitation on my part, prompt your attention to its affairs, and a favorable consideration of its wants, as exhibited in the accompanying reports of the trustees and superintendent.

The amount appropriated by the last legislature for the benefit of the deaf, dumb, and blind, was far less than usual, and insufficient to carry out the benevolent policy