State, and the energy and enterprise of the people. It would be useful to our citizens at home, and do credit to the State abroad. It would invite capital hither for permanent investment, from which far greater advantages would be reaped than from foreign capital loaned at twelve per cent. COMMON SCHOOLS. The number of persons of school age-that is, between four and twenty years of age-as returned for 1859, is 278,871. The average length of time schools have to be taught is five and one-half months. Total number of School Districts in the State, 4,331. Valuation of School House property,... The average wages paid to male Teachers per month has been.. $1,185,181 00 22 93 14 29 536,860 00 The amount paid for Teachers' wages during the last year is.. That sum is an increase of over $200,000 above the aggregate amount paid for the same purpose the previous year. According to the figures of the Secretary of State, as I have before stated, the amount to be apportioned for the support of schools, next March would be $245,272, if the interest due the School Fund should be promptly paid; but the experience of the past year showed a deficit of about $70,000, owing to the failure to pay interest, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction estimates for a considerable, but not so large, deficit the present year. The School Fund is less by about $60,000, than last year, owing to the failure to pay for, and the consequent forfeiture of lands heretofore sold. The policy that has been so long pursued of selling the school lands, either in large or small quantities, with so small a portion of the purchase money paid down at the time of the sale, has been most mischievous. The evils of that system now begin to be realized. The entry of large quantities of the best agricultural lands belonging to that fund by speculators, to be put into the market at speculating prices, has retarded the settlement and cultivation of the lands, and financial reverses have returned them, by thousands of acres, upon the fund. Lands, valuable chiefly for timber, have been held until their value has been destroyed by exhaustion of the forests growing upon them, and then forfeited. The school lands still in the hands of the State unsold, are every year deteriorating in value for want of adequate legal means to prevent trespasses. The Commissioners should be armed with the necessary legal processes by the Legislature, and ample means furnished them to pay the expenses incident to prosecutions and protecting agencies. The Board of Regents of Normal Schools, composed of educated and discreet men, has been an excellent auxiliary to our school system. The Teachers' Institutes, under the direction and supervision of Chancellor Barnard, an accomplished scholar and teacher, are giving new life and vigor to education in the State. They are making teaching a pleasant and a profitable duty, rather than a task, and the children in the schools are reaping rich harvests of knowledge and thought from the intellectual soil well prepared, and the seed well sown. BANKS AND BANKING. On the first Monday of January, 1859, the whole number of Banking Associations, doing business under the laws of the State, was ninety-nine, with an aggregate capital of $8,045,000. During the pear 1859, fifteen new banks have been organized, with an aggregate capital of $575,000. $ 260,000 8,880,000 Five Banks have increased their capital,. . $570,000 550,000 1,120,000 7,760,000 285,000 The whole number of banks in operation on the first Mon- The decrease of banking capital for the year is,.... Banks winding up,. .4,476,231 133,201 4,609,432 These notes are secured by the deposit of specie and public stocks, as follows: Racine & Mississippi Railroad Company Bonds 8 per cent... Total..... $78,000 31,000 20,000 555,020 10 000 60,000 11,000 10,000 143,500 2,049,000 188.000 403,500 228,000 750.000 57.600 183,000 100,000 20,000 27.000 50,000 $4,975,120 Specie of organized Banks.... Specie of Banks winding up.. $26,244 50 132,201 00 -$158,445 50 5,133,565 50 Total securities on deposit... The amount of the Bank Tax during the past year was.... 118,806 85 The present Comptroller suggests that it is evident the original Banking Law of this State intended to provide only for the establishment of business Banks, and not of Banks of circulation merely, and that Banks of the latter class were always evasions of the law. To make this clearer, the act of May 15, 1858, was passed, directing the Bank Comptroller to "refuse to issue any circulating notes to any Banking Association, unless he shall have satisfactory evidence that such banking association had not been, or is not to be organized for the purpose of issuing circulating notes merely, but was, or is to be, organized for the purpose of doing a banking business by discounting bills, notes, and other evidences of debt; by receiving deposits; buying and selling gold and silver bullion, foreign and inland bills of exchange; by loaning money on real and personal security, and by exercising such incidental powers as may be necessary to carry on such business, at the place where such bank purports to he located." After the passage of that act it was the practice of his predecessor to require from such new Banking Associations as were organized, the affidavit of some officer or stockholder that the association was formed for the purposes indicated by this law, and such affidavits were taken as "satisfactory evidence." It is plain, that notwithstanding these precautions, some Banking Associations are kept up for the purpose of circulation merely, and without doing or intending to do a banking business, and without keeping an office, as required, for the redemption of their circulating notes. The evidences of these facts existing in the Ban Department are as follows: First, the semi-annual Reports of a number of banks show conclusively that they are engaged in no banking business whatever, except the issuing of circulating notes. Second, in several cases, protests of circulating notes have been filed in that office, showing the presentation of such notes at the pretended place of business of the bank purporting to issue them, and the non-existence, there, of any office for the redemption of the notes. The Comptroller suggests that he will unhesitatingly refuse to issue further circulating notes to banks of this class, when they are known; but action in regard to such as have escaped, or may hereafter escape, the vigilance of his office, seems to pertain to some other Department of the Government. A case is referred to where the "period of the termination. of the association" has passed and no new certificate of association filed. The Bank is in operation without authority of law, and there is no power in that department to efficiently interfere. In all such cases the Comptroller should be clothed with power to close up the business of the association, and the attention of the Legislature is invited to the subject. I have no doubt that the Legislature has power to amend the banking law of this State without submitting the amendments to a vote of the people, in all cases where the amendments do not change the principle of the banking law, but merely aid in carrying out its true intent and meaning, and tend to perfect the system and protect the public. CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS-THE STATE HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE. The buildings of this institution will not be prepared for the reception of patients before next spring. The reports of the Building Commissioners and of the Trustees, explain their present condition and future necessities. Institutions of the kind are everywhere more expensive than those of any other public character. Whether it was wise to let the contract in the first instance to erect so much of the proposed buildings at so early a day, may be a question of doubt. But if there was any error in it, it is now too late to avoid it. All that has been done would at some time, have been necessary. The money expended is not lost. The buildings, when completed according to the present plan, will be less expensive than those of almost every other State. The want of facilities for safe keeping and successfully treating insane persons in this State is keenly felt. The institution should be prepared for the reception of patients immediately. The Trustees estimate the amount of money required for the use of the Hospital for the year 1860, at $28,096 and for the extension of buildings $20,000. A careful examination of the reports and of the buildings themselves by committees of the Legislature, will show the necessities of the institution, pecuniarily, in its own behalf, and as a public charity, in behalf of the unfortunate class it is designed to relieve. STATE REFORM SCHOOL. At the last session of the Legislature, $10,000 dollars were appropriated to enable the Commissioners to prosecute the work upon the buildings of this institution. There was a clause in the law requiring from the Secretary of State a certificate that the title of lands belonging to the State upon which the buildings were located was perfect, before the Treasurer was authorized to pay the appropriation. The title to the lands upon which the buildings were erected was certified to be perfect. There were about ten acres of the lands connected with the institution, which were incumbered in such a manner that they could not be cleared, so that the money could not be paid, if a technical construction was given to the law. Nearly sixty acres of the land are entirely unincumbered. The condition of the buildings was such that if the work had been stopped, the State must have suffered great loss. It was advised as a matter of public necessity, that such a construction be given to the law, as that the money might be drawn and expended, upon such a certificate of title as the Secretary was able to give. This course was very properly pursued, and the money drawn and expended in other respects as the law required. The appropriation last year ought to have been $20,000. The amount required this year, according to the estimates of the Commissioners, is $15,029 84. The building is not yet completed. Most advantageous contracts have been made to complete it, with the advice and approval of the Executive, as the law provided. The whole amount required to complete the buildings ready for inmates, will come within the first estimates of their expense. The plan is the most perfect one for the purposes intended of any institution of the kind in the country; and the money appropriated has been more directly and economically expended, than has been usual in public improvements of the kind. The reports of the Commissioners of the past two years, and of the present year, give full information upon the subject. DEAF AND DUMB ASYLUM. The buildings of this institution, so far as any will be required for some years, are nearly completed. The main build. ing, with the exception of the front porch, has been finished during the past year, under a very favorable contract, and the work has been well done. The appropriation of last year was short of what was a ked for by the Trustees, and less than was necessary for the requirements of the institution; a debt has, therefore, been contracted of $6,750, which is to be provided for by this Legislature. I am satisfied from my examination, that the public money has been well and economically expended. If the appropriations asked for this year, are made, |