payment of the interest would be established; the commonwealth has ever since been enabled to borrow all such sums as her exigencies from time to time required, upon terms highly advantageous to her financial operations and flattering to the state of her credit, and the sum of three hundred and eighty-six thousand nine hundred and eighty-nine dollars and seventy-one cents has since been paid into the treasury in the shape of premiums upon loans.

To this prosperous condition, in which the credit of the state has been placed, is to be ascribed the delay for the necessity of calling upon the people for their contributions to supply the interest fund, the premiums paid upon loans having, until the last semi-annual payment of interest, which became due on the 1st of August last, so far aided in replenishing that fund as to enable it to meet the entire payment of the interest as it became due. On the day last mentioned, however, a deficiency in that fund amounting to the sum of twenty-six thousand two hundred and seventy-six dollars and ten cents occurred, for which sum it became necessary to resort to the general appropriations for the construction of canals and railroads as authorized by the act of the 30th of March last. As, however, this mode of supplying the interest fund by premiums to be paid upon loans cannot be expected to continue, and would, under any circumstances, be too capricious and unsafe to be relied upon; and as there is reason to believe that increasing deficiencies will occur in the interest fund for a time, until the tolls arising from the public works shall be sufficient to supply them (for information in relation to which the general assembly is referred to the report of the commissioners of the internal improvement fund), it will become necessary to supply those deficiencies by a resort to the revenues authorized to be collected by the several acts of assembly, entitled, " An Act assessing a tax on personal property, to be collected with the county-rates and levies, for the use of the Commonwealth," and "An Act to increase the county-rates and levies for the use of the Commonwealth," passed respectively the 25th day of March last.

This sum of twelve millions three hundred and thirty-four thousand four hundred and eighty-eight dollars and sixty-two cents, with the additions that will be required to finish the several works, may seem large to most of my fellow-citizens, and to constitute a debt that neither we nor our posterity will be able to discharge. I am not one of those who believe a public debt to be a public blessing, nor would I willingly lend my aid as a public functionary to involve the commonwealth in a visionary scheme of imaginary improvement, the success or practicability of which would be entirely of doubtful experiment, and the utility or public advantage of which would be altogether problematical or uncertain.

Neither of these is, in my opinion, the case with the plan of improvements now prosecuting in this state; but if it were otherwise, there has been no period within the last two years when the progress of the system could have been arrested without producing consequences not only involving in inextricable ruin and destruction individuals, contractors, and others, largely engaged in the construction of the works, but the state itself in difficulties of the most disastrous character, from which it could not have been extricated without incurring the imputation of pursuing a vacillating course of policy, and of a want of good faith in its transactions with individuals; besides being justly chargeable with a want of that

bold and magnanimous spirit of enterprize which her abundant resources, and the wealth, and prosperity she enjoys in such profusion would justly entitle her to entertain and to indulge, the loss of from ten to twelve millions of dollars, and the abandonment to ruin and entire destruction of works, when finished, would be considered proud monuments of Pennsylvania's wisdom and greatness, but, if abandoned, must, and inevitably would be, considered the degrading monuments of her imbecility and folly-would, I should suppose, satisfy the most sceptical of the consummate disgrace and ignominy to which such a course of policy must necessarily have subjected her. Besides, without in that case possessing a single work of valuable improvement within the State, her debt, with all the interest accumulating thereon, would, without any aid to be derived from any other source, be drawn from the pockets of the people by a heavy and burdensome taxation.

Governor Wolf's Message, December 6th, 1832.

THE Bank of Pennsylvania, however, offered one hundred and fourteen dollars and eight cents in money for every one hundred dollars in stock bearing an interest of five per cent. per annum, and that being the highest offer for the whole loan, the same was accepted, and the loan awarded to that institution.

The same course of proceeding was adopted in relation to the loan of 300,000 dollars authorised by act of 5th of April last. Offers at an advanced premium were made by the persons composing the same firms in the cities of New York and Philadelphia, and also by the bank of Pennsylvania; the latter having made the most advantageous offer, being no less than 115 dollars and 9 cents in money for every 100 dollars in stock bearing an interest at five per cent. the same was accepted, and the sum thus borrowed has been placed to the credit of the commonwealth, and applied to the several objects contemplated by the act. Copies of the correspondence, in reference to the loans, will be laid before you. It may not be improper here to remark, that in negociating the several loans above mentioned, there will have been a clear gain to the commonwealth, after the remaining instalments shall have been paid over, of 375,964 dollars and 14 cents in premiums or bounties, paid for no other consideration than the privilege of receiving the loan.

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And here permit me to remark, that so far from this administration being obnoxious to the ungenerous charge of having involved the State in inextricable ruin, by plunging it into an onerous and overwhelming debt, for the payment of which the hard earnings of its citizens of every grade and condition will, from time to time, be filched from them, it will soon be made manifest that a fund has been secured to the commonwealth, proceeding from the very improvements for which the debt was contracted, which will not only relieve the citizens from future taxation, as well for payment of interest as for other state purposes, but will enable the government at no distant day to establish a sinking fund for the liquidation of the debt itself, which, if faithfully and steadily applied to that object, will at no very remote period place the state in the enviable condition of possessing an annual revenue of several millions of dollars, at the same time that it will have been entirely exonerated and discharged from all its debts contracted for the purposes of internal improvements.

Governor Wolf's Message, December 2nd, 1835.

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THE loan last mentioned was negociated in the usual manner, under the usual notice, and was awarded to the Bank of Pennsylvania at a premium of 12 dollars and 2 cents upon every 100 dollars of stock bearing an interest of five per cent. per annum; in other words, the bank pays to the State 115,343 dollars and 92 cents for the privilege of loaning her 959,600 dollars for thirty years, at the rate of interest just mentioned. The correspondence in relation to this loan will be laid before

you.

Since the commencement of the internal improvement policy adopted by the State in 1826, to the present period, we have expended, in the construction of canals and railroads, 22,420,003 dollars and 32 cents. The whole of this sum has been borrowed at an interest of five per cent. per annum; and has yielded to the Treasury in premiums upon the respective loans an aggregate of 1,356,653 dollars and 36 cents. Of this sum, 1,298,278 dollars and 36 cents were received upon loans negociated since the 18th day of December, 1829, and regularly applied in aid of other funds appropriated to the same object, to the payment of interest accruing upon the public debt.

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* The premiums upon loans, should it be deemed expedient to borrow money for further extensions of the public works, will be sufficient to liquidate all the claims for interest and the ordinary expenses of the government, without the necessity of having recourse to other means to meet those objects.

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An evil, in my apprehension, of no ordinary magnitude, has been introduced into our legislation, against the pernicious tendency of which, and its further progress, I would beg leave most earnestly to remonstrate-I mean the practice of guaranteeing by legislative enactment the payment of the interest upon the capital employed by companies incorporated for accomplishing some alleged object of improvement, in which the state has no direct or immediate interest : thus placing the commonwealth in the attitude of an underwriter, insuring to the corporators an interest of five per cent. upon the capital invested in a project which, when completed, may never yield three or even one per cent.: in short, it is insuring that against all risk which was undertaken as a speculation at a risk; so far at least, as the usual rates of interest now paid for loans is concerned: a perseverance in this course of legislation will, before long, operate like a canker upon the public purse, and reduce your treasury to a state of financial embarrassment, from which it will require no ordinary skill as well as means to relieve it.

The prosperity of our country throughout its whole extent is great beyond all former example, but it is to be lamented that whilst our hearts should be filled with gratitude and humble devotion for the bounties of Providence to Him who bestows them, there should have been manifested in some portions of the Union a spirit of wantonness and insubordination, which have set aside the ordinary forms of law, and executed summary vengeance upon the devoted heads of whosoever might fall within its power, according to its own undefined, illicit code of criminal justice.

Message of the Governor, on returning the Bill making appropriations to the Improvement System: giving his reasons for refusing his sig

nature thereto.

April 5th, 1837.

I CANNOT sign this bill for the following reasons: because,

Ist. Its main feature is the distribution of a great portion of the present resources of the commonwealth among works not owned by the State, and its consequent withdrawal from the future prosecution of the public works, and from the present decrease of the State debt.

2nd. It bestows on capitalists and speculators the money which is the property of the whole people, thereby enriching individuals and sections, to the injury of the rest of the community.

3d. It not only thus fritters away the means which should now otherwise be applied, but, by enabling the companies who are the recipients of its liberality to commence and prosecute works which they will not be able to complete, it embarks the State so far in those works, that she will, at no distant day, be compelled to increase her present debt for the purpose of finishing them, or lose what is now proposed to be given.

4th. It will inevitably increase the State debt in four years to 45,000,000 dollars, as will appear by the following short statement.

The Company works commenced by this bill will cost as follows:Freeport and Newcastle Railroad

Pittsburgh and Laughlinstown Railroad

Chambersburg and Laughlinstown Railroad (which must be constructed to complete the connexion)

Lewisburg, Penn's Valley, and Hollidaysburg Railroad
Beaver and Coneaut Railroad

Total to complete Company works

1,000,000

1,500,000

3,000,000

Of this last sum, before the different works are completed,
the State will, beyond a doubt, be compelled to advance
not less than one-half, or else lose the whole, say
To which add the above cost of State works

Making of debt which this bill will produce
To which add the present State debt

4,530,000

. 16,200,000

20,790,000

. 24,330,000

Total debt which will exist when the system contem-
plated by this bill is completed

45,120,000

It is presumed that the above estimates, if they should vary from the actual cost of the works, will be found to fall below, rather than exceed it. They are all derived from the reports of engineers, which are found in most cases to be far short of the ultimate expense, or from a comparison with the known cost of similar works.

If it should be objected to this calculation, that part of the above cost of State works has either been already incurred, or is provided for in this bill, and therefore should not be included-the reply is, that the portion already laid out will not, in all probability, be equal to one-fourth of the amount which their actual expense will exceed their estimated cost; and that the proportion provided for by this bill is borrowed money-or at least such as the State may before long be called on to repay. It may therefore be fairly assumed, as a calculation within bounds, that the passage of this bill will cause an addition of 21,000,000 dollars to our present debt of about 24,000,000—making a gross debt, at a date no more remote than 1841, of 45,000,000. I am not prepared to sanction this, nor to become an agent in saddling such an incumbrance upon the farms and industry of Pennsylvanians.

5th. If this bill and the other proposed measures of the legislature become laws, the State will be left without a single dollar of unappropriated money in her treasury at the commencement of the next session. Though the last legislature replenished the public coffers with near 4,000,000, and the present has received a like sum, your successors will, nevertheless, be compelled either to abandon the prosecution of the public works, or to borrow money to carry them on, and pay interest on the debt. No aid is to be calculated on from the national treasury. On the contrary, care should be taken to keep the State in a condition to meet any demands for repayment which may be made on her from that

quarter.

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8th. Not only will its consequences be injurious to the finances, but to the morals of the State. The bare probability of the passage of the bill has already unsettled the condition of whole sections of the State, and has given a new stimulus to the over-excited spirit of speculation. If this state of things be fomented and continued, there is no limit to the injury which may result. While the gambling spirit of speculation is confined to the large towns, society may bear it without material detriment; but if it once infect and derange the productive industry of the country, the public prosperity will be shattered in its very elements. If the mania, which now rages among those who speculate in the surplus property of the country, once seize those who alone render property valuable, there is an end to all hope of continued prosperity.

From the New York Courier-1838.

COMMONWEALTH BANK OF BOSTON.

WITH reference to this institution, its failure creates no surprise; the only wonder is that it did not explode months ago. Nothing but the universal suspension of specie payments prevented it from being blown "sky-high, sir-sky-high"-as John Randolph would have said-in May last. It was one of the original pet banks, and acted from the first moment of receiving the public money on the express injunctions of Pre