to you hereafter. In the meanwhile, I
recommend you to vote such a sum as, in your wisdom, you may
deem adequate for the expenses of that mission.

My Minister of Finance will submit, for your considerations,
certain important measures relating to the National finances;
and you cannot fail to be impressed with the necessity of
devising some means of enlarging them. Without more extended
means we must remain in the position of having the will,
without the power, to stimulate agriculture and commerce, and
to provide generally for the physical, mental and moral
improvement of the nation. As a preparatory step towards
increasing the sources of revenue, we must increase the
revenue to be drawn from such sources as already exist. But,
restricted as we are, by treaty, from exercising a right
common to all free communities, we are unable to impose
discriminating duties on foreign imports, which, whilst
supplying the Treasury with additional means, would enhance
the price of articles of luxury only. To regain the right of
which we have, for the present, divested ourselves, it may be
necessary that you reconsider the act by which the duty on
spirituous liquors is now regulated. The Minister of Finance
laid this subject before you last year in a clear and able
manner, and his views have been confirmed by the experience of
another year. Whether it would be wise to assist the revenue
by a tax on property, is for you to determine.

To foster education and widen every channel that leads to
knowledge, is one of our most imperative duties. It will be
for you to determine what obstacles, if any, exist, to the
general enlightenment of my people. On this subject there will
be submitted for your consideration, certain proposed changes
in the Department of Public Instruction. It is of the highest
importance, in my opinion, that education in the English
language should become more general, for it is my firm
conviction that unless my subjects become educated in this
tongue, their hope of intellectual progress, and of meeting
the foreigners on terms of equality, is a vain one.

It is a melancholy fact that agriculture, as now practiced, is
not a business of so prosperous and lucrative a nature as to
induce men of means to engage in it; and capital is ab