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offer some sentiments as to the relations of debtor & creditor, and as to our penal code. Regarding the former subject in a young State, credit is its capital; but credit must depend there on the laws which bind its pledges, on the stern justice which, being superadded to the influence of honor, is the barrier to temptation and the terror of fraud. Omitting therefore the cases of misfortune, which the conservative moral sentiment, & rescuing sympathies of society usually provide for, it may be feared that the practice of easy, manageable compositions with creditors may be indulged to a degree to impair the character of our State. It is especially to be so apprehended when we reflect that the wary & prudent do not usually belong to the losing party, but that the benevolent & confiding, the good and generous, are commonly there engaged & there devoted. If you can present the long distress and dreadful sacrifice of families who fall a prey to the adventurous and the rash, if you can save the kind, the unsuspecting and the ignorant, from the cunning, the dishonest or careless, surely you will be disposed to do it. In that view and none other is the present doctrine & practice as to assignments to creditors, submitted to your correction as being substantially what is called an insolvent law, which might be improved or abolished with advantage. In connection with this is the latter subject, our penal code and all that relates to the penitential establishment at Thomaston. I have feared that the executive department may be considered as not having done enough under the special authority with which it has been invested. The facts however will be fully exhibited and it is now committed to your wisdom to regulate the future proceedings, as well as to determine on the past. It is believed that your attention to the subject is required by the facts, the development of which may probably be most advantageously dispensed with on this occasion. The documents which have been obtained will be left on the table. There are several other subjects, requiring in some mode executive explanations, because they have been submitted to executive direction such for example as the