.MTc4NA.MjIwMDE

XII

the State. The Executive of the last year declined paying the balance of the appropriation claimed by the contractor, in order that the subject might be referred to the consideration of the Legislature. In the erection of the State House at Augusta, much progress has been made. The exterior walls and colonade are completed. The finishing of the interior is the principal work that remains to be done, and will require an additional appropriation to be made by the Legislature. This building, constructed of the most beautiful and durable materials, on a plan combining architectural symmetry and elegence [elegance] with utility, I have reason to expect may be put in readiness to accommodate the Legislature by the time contemplated by law for the removal of the Government to that future capitol of the State. The States' prison at Thomaston has received a large share of the careful attention of the government, and under its general superintendance [superintendence] seems to be attaining a salutary condition for the economical punishment of convicts, and the gradual reform of its unhappy, because vicious occupants. That this penitentiary is capable of being improved, and its affairs conducted with more skill and economy than heretofore, is possible, and perhaps probable. But when we consider that it is a recent institution, that the Agents entrusted with its control have had but little opportunity of becomeing practically acquainted with the best and most economical mode of manageing its concerns, and regulating its manufactures, the results are as favourable upon the whole as could have been reasonably anticipated. The provision for the establishment of a sunday school, and for Literary and religious instruction within the prison, will it is beleived [believed] be attended with salutary effects in conducing to a reformation in the character of the convicts, a subject