idential election; expenses of the General Assembly, trustees
of benevolent institutions, care of state-house, gas for
state-house, expenses of legislative committees, binding for the
State, and the new idiotic asylum.

In pursuance of an act passed March 18, 1867, a board of
commissioners, consisting of Aaron F. Perry, of Hamilton county,
Charles E. Glidden, of Mahoning county, and James H. Godman,
auditor of State, was appointed by my predecessor, Governor Cox,
whose duty it was "to revise all the laws of this State relating to
the assessment and taxation of property, the collection,
safe-keeping, and disbursement of the revenues, and all the laws
constituting the financial system of the State," and to report
their proceedings to the next session of the General Assembly. The
report of the commission was laid before you at your last session.
It disclosed many imperfections and inconsistencies in the existing
legislation touching the finances and the urgent necessity for an
elaborate revision of that legislation. Their report was
accompanied by eight separate bills, consolidating the present
laws, removing contradictions, and supplying defects, but
introducing no radical change in the general principles of our
financial system. These bills have already been somewhat considered
by both branches of the General Assembly, but no definite action
upon them has yet been had. I respectfully recommend an early
consideration of the bills, and their adoption, with such
amendments as, in your judgment, the public interests may require.

The destruction of the central lunatic asylum by fire, during the
night of the 18th inst., causing the death, by suffocation, of six
of the patients, and incalculable distress and suffering to the
remainder, will require investigation and prompt action on your
part. In rebuilding the asylum, the erection of a fire-proof
building will occur to you as alike the suggestion of prudence and
humanity.

This calamity also suggests the propriety of examining the
condition of the other institutions of the State, with a view to
providing them with every proper means of security against a
similar disaster.

The interests of common school education, in my opinion, will be
promoted by the early adoption of county superintenden