The sessions of the Legislature are limited in effect, by the Constitution, to a period of forty days, once in two years.

A considerable portion of the time of your last session was necessarily devoted to a disposition of the grants of land made by Congress to aid in the construction of Rail Roads, and there was scarcely time left to. perfect other measures of legislation that were indispensable.

It would have been much more in consonance with my feelings, if the expense which must necessarily be incurred by an Extra Session could have been avoided, but it has seemed to me that public interests of great magnitude imperativelyrequire it.

One of the most important measures of the last session, that of re-districting the State, for the Circuit Courts, was passed by the House of Representatives but was not reached in the Senate for the want of time and consequently in the counties of Gratiot, Mason, Menistee, Manitou, Emmett, Occana, and several other unorganized counties, no provision was made for holding Courts. Civil contracts for the payment of debts cannot be enforced, nor is there any mode by which the guilty violators of the law can be brought to justice.

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The imminent peril in which a large portion of our constituents are thus placed, would of itself be a justification for calling you together; and I trust that your immediate action will provide for their necessities. The amount of labor and travel imposed upon the Judges, under the present arrangement of Circuits, is very unequal-and it is submitted to your judgment, whether the present Judicial Districts can be so modified and arranged as to cqualize the duties and labors of the Judges, and include the whole State within the eight Judicial Circuits. Or if this cannot be done, whether a new Circuit ought to be created.

I invite your attention to the Report of the Commissioner of the Land Office, and especially to that part in which he has as- signed his reasons for withholding the Swamp Lands granted to the State by Congress from sale, under the Act of 14th of Febuary last. The third section of the Act, required the Commissioner to advertise in every county in the State, in which a newspaper is published, all the lands offered for sale by their legal sub-divisions. This was undoubtedly an oversight of the Legislature, for after a careful computation by the Commissioner, he ascertained, that the expense of advertising would exceed by far the cash receipts for the land.

I feel confident, therefore, that you will concur with me in the opinion, that the Commissioner assumed a proper responsibility in withholding the lands from sale. My opinions of the duties and responsibilities of the Legislature in assuming and controlling this grant of lands by Congress, are fully expressed in my messages of 1855, and 1857, to which I respectfully ask your attention.

The great object of the grant was to secure the drainage, cultivation and occupancy of a large quantity of land which found no purchaser from the General Government.

Our experience in the disposal of lands granted by Congress for internal improvement, should warn us that it is not the true policy of the State, in assuming the control of this grant, to create offices, and employ engineers and laborers for the purpose of draining the lands, or a fund, out of the proceeds of their sale, to be expended under the direction of the State, in their drainage; but rather to dispose of them in all the districts where there are settlements, at such a low price as would justify the purchaser in making the necessary provision for their drainage and improvement.

If in so disposing of them we shall confine their sale to actual settlers, we shall have a guarantee that the purchaser would be prompted by self interest to make such improvements as would render his lands productive and valuable. The depression in the price of land, and all other articles, caused by the great reduction in the amount of Bank circulation, upon which we are unfortunately compelled to rely mainly for currency, renders it improbable that any considerable quantity of lands would bring the minimum price established by law of five dollars per acre. I therefore respectfully recommend such a modification of the Act, as will reduce the minimum to one dollar or one dollar twenty five cents per acre, and that the expense such advertising and selling be reduced to the lowest practicable amount, with such other modifications as your wisdom shall suggest.

My opinions are unchanged, that the net proceeds of these lands, after the payment of our public debt, should be sacredly devoted to an educational fund, and I submit to your judgment whether the Agricultural College, now in successful operation, should not have some endowment to secure its permancy and usefulness.

The financial embarrassment and distress which has overspread the country, and which has so sensibly affected the receipts into the National Treasury, has also seriously diminished the revenues upon which reliance had been placed to replenish the State Treasury. The State levied a direct tax in 1856 of about sixty-five thousand dollars, and in 1857 of about eighty thousand dollars. This tax is levied and collected in the several counties at the same time that the township and county tax is collected, and the county Treasurers are required to make their returns and settle with the Auditor General and State Treasurer. A much larger proportion of tax than is generally supposed is levied upon unimproved and non-resident lands. The County Treasurers, therefore, instead of paying the moneys collected into the State Treasury, return to the Auditor General, for the State tax, the delinquent tax on the non-resident lands, which in a majority of the counties is fully equal or more than sufficient to pay their proportion of State tax It will thus be perceived that very little money comes directly into the State Treasury. If the taxes on these non-resident lands are not paid, they are returned to the several counties to be sold, and if not redeemed by the owner within one year after being sold,

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they become forfeited to the purchaser; or if no purchaser is found, they are forfeited to the State.

The amount of lands returned and forfeited to the State has been greatly enhanced the present year, not only on account of the great scarcity of money, but because an impression has been industriously circulated that the titles to the lands sold for taxes were invalid; that the State did not mean to preserve her faith with the purchasers; and that by some technical quibble, the original owners could dispossess the purchasers, and avoid the payment of a tax altogether.

Such an opinion, if well founded, besides its manifest injustice, would deprive us of one of the principal sources of State revenue. Very considerable receipts were also anticipated, when you were last in session, from the sale of Swamp Lands, which has been entirely cut off by the judicious action of the Commissioner, in withholding the, lands from sale, to which I have referred.

Through the operation of these causes, unforeseen and temporary in their character and duration, you will perceive by reference to the Report of the State Treasurer, that he will be unable to redeem the two hundred and sixteen thousand dollars of our bonds that fall due on or before the first of January next, and meet the appropriations for our various State Institutions, and for the current State expenses, which were made at your last session.

In this exigency, it devolves upon you, as the Representatives of the people, to determine the proper course to be pursued.

The resources of our State, are undiminished-the specific tax upon railroads is more than sufficient to pay the entire interest upon our funded debt, which is very small, amounting to only two million two hundred and sixty-nine thousand four hundred and sixty seven dollars. We have about six million acres of Swamp Land, a large portion of which is valuable.

We have an industrious, enterprising and productive population, who, notwithstanding they feel the effects of the commercial revulsion which is spreading over the civilized world, are curtailing their expenses, practising the most rigid economy, and by their unflagging labors, in our rich mines-in our vast forests-in our productive fisheries-and in the cultivation of our exuberant soil, are annually adding millions to the wealth of the State.