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290

[Governors Message]

The situation of this State requires that such conviction be brought home to offenders. From our contiguity to foreign provinces; our extensive coast and numerous ports, we may expect that no inconsiderable number of those who have felt or escaped punishment in other countries, will be directing their course hither. There is reason to believe that few people in the ordinary pursuits of life, make more exact calculations of consequence than those who prey upon the honest industry of society; and who have justly been denominated the community of felons. - The certainty of success the danger of detection, the severity of punishment and the probability of escape, are considerations by which old offenders are not unfrequently influenced in selecting the place of their depredations. It must be desirable therefore that the reputation of our criminal code and the character of our prisons and their discipline, should be such as not to invite emigrants from so dangerous a community. -

The costs for the prosecution of criminals have become so great as to require some more effectual measures to secure the Treasury against unnecessary and improper charges. The Legislature will decide in what manner this can be accomplished so as to relieve the people from a portion of these expenses, already burdensome, and annually increasing -

The law of the fourth of February last establishing a Court of Common Pleas, having been carried into effect in the early part of the season the public are enabled to judge of the utility of the system by its practical operation. With the manner in which the business of this Court has been transacted in the several Counties the members of