to practice law in the several courts in this State,

Was read a second time, and ordered to be engrossed for a third reading.

The House Preamble and Resolution relative to the armed occupation law, &c., was read a second time and ordered for a third reading.

The House bill to be entitled, An Act making provisions for the establishmeut of Ferries and Bridges, was read a second time, and on motion of Mr. Haughton, referred to a Select Committee appointed on yesterday on the petition praying the establishment of a ferry over the Weetaluxee Creek.

The bill to be entitled, An Act to amend an act regulating Judicial proceedings, was read a second time, and on motion of Mr. Forward, referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

The bill to be entitled, An Act to fix the boundary of Franklin county and to organize a county to be called the county of Clay, was read a second time.

The Senate resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on said bill, Mr. Carter in the chair, and after some time spent therein rose and reported the bill with amendments.

Which were concurred in by the House.

Mr. Haughton then offered the following as a 13th section to the bill, being the section stricken out in Committee of the Whole:

Sec. 13. Until said county shall be organized by the election and appointment of county officers, it shall be attached to Gadsden county for all civil and military purposes.

On the adoption of which the yeas and nays were called for by Messrs. Haughton and Mays, and were:

Yeas-Messrs. Bell, Haughton, Kain, Lorimer, McLean and White-6.

Nays Mr. President, Messrs. Bellamy, Broward, Carter, Forward, Goodbread, Mays, Mitchell, Priest and Wall-10.

So the amendment was rejected.

The bill was then ordered to be engrossed for a third reading. On motion of Mr. Broward, the Senate took a recess until 3 o'clock, P. M.

3 O'CLOCK, P. M.

The Senate resumed the consideration of the Orders of the Day. The bill to be entitled, An Act to organize the Militia of this State, came up on a second reading.

The Senate resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on said bill, Mr. McLean in the Chair; and after some time spent therein, rose and reported progress, and asked leave to sit again. Which report was concurred in.

The Senate adjourned until to-morrow, 10 o'clock A. M.

SATURDAY, December 13, 1845.

The Senate met pursuant to adjournment, and a quorum being present the proceedings of yesterday were read and approved. Mr. Mays gave notice that he will on some future day, ask leave to introduce a bill in relation to collectors and assessors of taxes. On motion of Mr. Carter, the bill to be entitled An Act to apportion the representation of this State,

Was taken from the table and placed among the orders of the day.

On motion of Mr. Carter, the bill to be entitled An Act to define more particularly the duties and powers of courts of Probate in the State of Florida, and to amend the several acts concerning Wills, Letters Testamentary, &c.,

Was taken from the table and placed among the orders of the day. Mr. Forward gave notice that he will at an early day, ask leave to introduce a bill to be entitled An Act to amend an act to establish a tariff of feees-also a bill authorizing the appointment of Masters in Chancery, and defining their duties.

Mr. Bell gave notice that he will on some future day, introduce a bill more fully to obtain the sense of the people of this State on all amendments or alterations proposed by the General Assembly to the Constitution of the State of Florida.

On motion of Mr. Haughton the resolution to adjourn on the 22d inst., was taken from the table and placed among the orders of the day.

On motion of Mr. Haughton, the bill to be entitled An Act so amending the Constitution of this State as to make the sessions of the Legislature biennial instead of annual, was taken from the table and placed among the orders of the day.

On motion of Mr. Carter, the committee on public accounts was excused from attendance in the Senate on Monday next.

On motion Messrs. Mitchell and McLean were appointed a joint select committee to wait on his Excellency and request him to return to the General Assembly the enrolled bill to be entitled An Act for the protection of logs and lumber afloat on the rivers or the water courses in this State, who retired, and after a short time returned with said bill.

Mr. Kain presented a petition from J. C. Smith, praying that the Comptroller be instructed to audit his accounts; which was referred to a select committee, consisting of Messrs. Kain, McLean and Mitchell. Also a petition from W. Blount, praying payment for the arrest of a criminal; which was referred to the committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. Haughton offered the following resolution:

Resolved, That after this week, no new bill will be entertained, unless reported by a committee.

Which was read a first time, and ordered for a second reading. Mr. Haughton from the committee on Schools and Colleges made the following report:

The Committee on Schools and Colleges have given to the subject placed under their charge, the most earnest and careful consideration, which other and pressing demands upon their time would authorize. They would have been gratified if they could have bestowed upon it a degree of attention fully commensurate with its vast importance and the interest it is so well calculated to excite; for in these respects it is certainly not exceeded by any other which has been or can be presented to the consideration of the General Assembly. They have therefore purposely delayed their report to this period of the session in order that they might avail themselves of all the light which could be thrown upon it, and thus be enabled to mature and recommend a system of action which might best subserve the great and patriotic object we all have in view. And for the purpose of promoting concert of action between the two Houses of the General Assembly, we have sought the cooperation of a similar committee in the other end of the Capitol, and after a free and frank interchange of sentiments with each other, we have been so fortunate as to arrive at the same conclusions.― In considering the interests of education in Florida, the first subject which claimed our attention was the condition of the munificent fund which had been appropriated for that object. In relation to this, we found that much confusion and misapprehension had existed, not only as to the quantity of land which had been loeated, but also as to the place of its location, and the authority of the General Assembly immediately to apply it to the purposes of its donation. It appears that in regard to many of the locations which from the books of the Register seem to have been made by a former agent of the Territory, there is no evidence of their approval and confirmation by the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, without which they are of no effect; and but for the impression, derived from common report, that these lands had been located according to law, they would long since have been entered by private individuals. Some of these have recently been relocated, and measures have been taken to secure their confirmation by the proper authority. The whole quantity of seminary lands se lected and approved up to the present time, are 27,920 48 acres, leaving to be selected and approved, in order to complete the township west of the Apalachicola river, 3,766 70 acres, and for the township east of that river, 14,389 92 acres. Congress, by an act of the 3d of March, 1845, granted to the State two additional townships of land for the use of seminaries of learning, one to be located east and the other west of the Suwannee, thus making in the aggregate, 64,240 52 acres of seminary lands yet to be located.The committee are of opinion that the first consideration, and one which for the present, rises superior to every other, is to secure, as speedily as possible, the location of these lands; and in order to effect this on the most advantageous terms, it is desirable that the agents of the State should be allowed to make the locations in any

of the subdivisions known to surveys of the public lands, even as low as quarter sections, and not be restricted in their selections to one continuous township: as without this privilege the value of the grant would be greatly impaired. The committee are of opinion, therefore, that the General Assembly should make application to Congress for that purpose, without delay. It would also be desirable whenever it shall be ascertained that locations have heretofore been made upon land which is comparatively valueless, that the State should be allowed to relinquish such locations and relocate upon other lands. By reference to the laws of Congress, it will be seen that both these privileges have been allowed to other States of the Union, and there is certainly no good reason why Florida should be less favored than those which have preceded her.

As to the agent for the location of this grant, we are of opinion that ample powers for that purpose should be vested in an officer to be styled the Commissioner of Public Lands, who shall be a man of intelligence, of high public spirit and acknowledged integrity, as well as thoroughly acquainted with the business and duties pertaining to his appointment, and who shall also be empowered and required to locate the unlocated 16th sections granted for the use of common schools, the land appropriated for fixing the seat of Government, that appropriated for internal improvements, and all future grants which may be made in advancement of these or any other objects. The location of these extensive grants, amounting in the aggregate to 642,960,52 acres, will necessarily be a work of time, and will involve the services of several active agents; and it is certainly the dictate of sound policy to select some competent person as the direct and responsible representative of the State, who shall make and enforce contracts for that purpose, instruct, supervise and control those in his employment, and keep a steady and watchful eye to the interests of the respective funds. By uniting the location of these various grants in the same responsible head, there would be none of that collision which might reasonably be expected, if the service were performed by agents representing the dif ferent funds, from which, all must perceive, the utmost confusion and inconvenience would arise. The expense, too, would be greatly diminished by the plan proposed-for the same agent who makes selections for the seminary fund, having in the execution of that trust, to pass through a vast extent of country, thus affording him an opportunity of acquainting himself with all the lands within the field of his operations, can at the same time, make locations for the other funds also, and by keeping them classified and arranged under their appropriate heads, may thus proceed with the whole work together, without delay, embarrassment or detriment to either. For the more complete furtherance of this design, the committee are of opinion that the commissioner himself should be a member of the Board of Seminary Lands now organized by law, as well as of the Board of Internal Improvement, thus identifying him with the suc

exerting his influence From the report of the Seminary Lands, it ap

cess of both these important enterprises, and in each sphere to harmonize their interests. President of the Board of Trustees of the pears that there are now in the hands of its Treasurer, between 2 and 3000 dollars of available funds, which may be drawn upon to defray the necessary expense of locating the remaining lands belonging to that department; and your committee recommend that if more be wanting for that purpose, the commissioner, under the direction of the Board of Trustees, be authorized to dispose of any lands belonging to the Seminary Grant, in order to raise the requisite amount. The committee are clearly of the opinion that each of the grants which have been mentioned, should be made to bear all the expenses attendant upon their respective location, and hence they would also recommend the propriety of authorizing so much of said grants to be sold, from time to time, as wili be necessary to effect that object.

As to. the manner of disposing of the lands belonging to the Seminary and Common School Funds, the committee do not hesitate in expressing their belief, the result of careful and deliberate reflection, that to sell them is incomparably the best and safest mode. The interest for a single year, upon the sale of one or two valuable sections, would amount to a larger sum than the nett aggregate of all the proceeds which have been realized from their rents and leases, since the organization of the Territorial Government:-and if any additional argument were wanting to determine the propriety of this course, the paltry sum which will accrue from the system of rents and leases for the present year, and that too, under the management of the most faithful agents which have ever been connected with it, ought to be regarded as sufficient. It appears from the report of the President of the Board, that in Gadsden county, for the year 1845, only $572, and in Jackson for the years 1844 and '5, only $112 will be realized from this source, and in the other counties, no disposition of these lands has even been attempted. But the views of the Board of Trustees in relation to this point are so striking and apposite, and at the same time so forcibly expressed, that the Committee cannot forbear introducing them into this report:

"This Board, it is true, have but a limited experience on the "subject of leasing, but their opinion is decidedly and unanimously "opposed to the system, both for general expediency, and for the preservation and increase of the fund. If lands are leased from

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year to year, or even for four or five years at a time, no permanent "or valuable improvements can be expected in such short periods; "while the mode of culture, consumption of timber, &c., will all be "on the most wasteful and extravagant scale. We have too many "examples of this, in the unprincipled destruction of many of the "finest school sections. Long leases, on the other hand, are un"suited to the genius of our people, and often result in a state of