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16 a law requiring them in the first instance to be presented to the Treasurer, to be by him examined and allowed and afterward reported to the Legislature, would facilitate the dispatch of business and ensure a more careful examining than could be conveniently given to them by a Committee whose time is often necessarily taken up with the more important concerns of the State. I am not aware of many subjects to which it is necessary at this time particularly to invite your attention. There is reason to believe, therefore, that your present session will be remarkable for shortness of its duration, as for the wisdom and patriotism which under the invoked blessing and guidance of Divine Providence will I am confident, continue to prevail in your deliberations, and characterize all your measures. The noble building in which you are all for the first time assembled, is the result of the wisdom of previous Legislatures and all that was confided to the Government of the past year was to complete the work which has been so ably commenced. Though it has often been suggested that some improvements might originally have been made in the plan, yet it was impossible to adopt them after the building had far advanced. As it is, however, we have reason to congratulate our fellow citizens upon the possession of a Capitol, which is an ornament to the State and in beauty of materials and style of execution, inferior to no building of a similar purpose among our sister States. Of the faithfulness and diligence with which the Commissioner has performed the laborious duties of his appointment in superintending the completion and furnishing of this edifice, the work around you affords the most satisfactory evidence. Though the cost of this House has been great yet it is not equal to the amount which has been usually expended in erecting public buildings of a similar kind. The expense perhaps will not be regretted when we consider that it is intended not