munity-with them, Giles Jacob, the pest of grammar and the blunderbuss of law, is superior to Blackstone or Kent; and the works of Buchanan or Thompson, to the lucubrations of the great medical men that adorn our country; but, above all things, that the true statesman ought to be like the genuine empiric, and rely exclusively upon his own experience and observation for his chart and compass; that he ought to be preferred if his name is "nulla cognicione rerum, nulla scientia ornatus ;" and that a liberal education will be a stumbling-block in the way of his progress, by diverting his attention from the weighty concerns of the republic, to the pursuits of scientific investigation. For the honor of the country the advocates of these heresies are diminishing in number, and insignificant in influence; and as our country advances in her career of light, they will be extinguished by the lustre of her radiated and reflected glory. The benefits of education have been gradually rising in human estimation, from those dark days when kings could not write their names, to the present time. There was a period when writing was confined exclusively to the clergy, and when the man who could write his name was exempted from the punishment of death; and the value attached to this acquisition is well illustrated in the Arabian tale, which elevates an unfortunate Prince enchanted into an ape, to the office of a Grand Vizier of an Asiatic Sultan, on account of his chirography.

That knowledge is power-that education is the citadel of liberty-that national glory and prosperity consist in the cultivation of the sciences, in the elevation of the liberal arts, in the extension of the powers of productive industry, are now considered as admitted truths and ac

knowledged axioms. Those vampyres of the mind who derive their aliment from human ignorance, are viewed in their true colors; and as a refulgent light maintains the same splendor when it illumes a wider space, so does intellectual improvement, the fountain of national greatness, enlarge and extend itself, without being displaced; and contrary to the general laws of nature, the wider it spreads the stronger it grows.

The days of delight which sprung from our academic lives, and which may be considered as intercalations of felicity in our varied being of good and evil, have passed away never to return. But they have left us important duties to perform-duties of indispensable obligation and fertile with momentous results. Let us, then, marshal ourselves, like a Macedonian phalanx, in favor of our schools of instruction, from the highest to the lowest. The smallest effort may produce good; and, like the seed mentioned in Holy Writ, although the least of all seeds, may grow up among the greatest of herbs and become a tree, so that the birds of the air may lodge in its branches.

Internal Improvements.

On the 5th of January, 1791, Gov. GEORGE CLINTON, in his Annual Message, thus first broaches the subject of INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS by the State :

"Our frontier settlements, freed from apprehensions of danger, are rapidly increasing and must soon yield extensive resources for profitable commerce; this consideration forcibly recommends the policy of continuing to facilitate the means of communication with them, as well to strengthen the bands of society as to prevent the produce of those fertile districts from being diverted to other markets."

On the 5th of January, 1792, Gov. Clinton, in his Annual Message for that year, thus refers to this subject:

"The Legislature, at their last meeting, impressed with the importance of improving the means of communication, not only to the agriculture and commerce of the State, but even to the influence of the laws, directed the Commissioners of the Land Office to cause the ground between the Mohawk river and the Wood creek in the county of Herkimer, also between the Hudson river and the Wood creek, in the county of Washington, to be explored and surveyed, and estimates to be formed of the expense of joining those waters by canals. I now submit to you their report which ascertains the practicability of effecting this object at a very moderate expense, and I trust that a mea

sure so interesting to the community, will continue to command the attention due to its importance, and especially, as the resources of the State will prove adequate to these and other useful improvements without the aid of taxes." On the 7th of January, 1794, Gov. Clinton again recurs to this subject:

"The northern and western companies of inland lock navigation, having, agreeably to law, produced authentic accounts of their expenditures, I have given the necessary certificate to entitle them to receive from the Treasury the sum of ten thousand pounds, as a free gift on the part of this State towards the prosecution of those interesting objects. Although the care of improving and opening these navigations be committed to private companies, they will require, and no doubt from time to .ne receive, from the Legislature, every fostering aid a patronage commensurate to the great public advantages which must result from the improvement of the means of intercourse."

Thus was foreshadowed by that sturdy old patriot, the first Governor of our State, and the man who, perhaps, more than any other, exerted the greatest influence upon her then future destiny, that system of improvements successfully carried out under the administration of his illustrious nephew.

It will be remembered that in 1789, that nephew, De Witt Clinton, was appointed the private Secretary of the Governor, and continued to hold that close and confidential relation down to 1795, and du three annual meetings of the Legis Messages were addressed, from whi tracts are taken. That the thoughts language of an eloquent divine of our State, "was able

he period of the ure to whom the

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