tween me and the
Emperor of the French, has lately been returned from Paris,
accompanied by the formal ratification of the Emperor. It now
awaits a similar concurrence, on my part, to render it
effective. In accordance with the provision of our
Constitution, this Treaty is now under consideration by me, in
my Privy Council of State. The provisional Act, therefore,
which a former Legislature passed, will become operative or
otherwise, according to the result of those deliberations I
refer to, and until that result becomes known the Minister of
Finance cannot make to you a satisfactory showing of the
probable receipts of the Government for this and the next
fiscal year; and without such data to go by you will hardly
be able to dispose of the strictly financial business of the
country.

So, too, in regard to the Civil Acts, the passage of which
draws so largely upon the time of your two Houses. It would be
nothing less than a waste of labor to alter, by separate
enactments, those laws which the Revised Code will amend, or
to sanction new provisions, in that Compendium already
provided for, and which temporary enactments would, therefore,
become valueless almost as soon as they should have been
promulgated.

Believing, gentlemen, that you will coincide with me in seeing
the necessity for a speedy adjournment, after having made the
provisions I have pointed out, I forbear to call your
attention to the general business and details to which I
should otherwise direct your notice.

MARCH 31, 1859.

_Special Message of His Majesty sent to the Legislature of 1859._

NOBLES AND REPRESENTATIVES:--I deem it my duty, as Chief
Magistrate of the Kingdom, to submit to the Legislature
certain points in regard to which the organic law seems to
require revision.

Experience has conclusively shown that the Constitution of
1852 does not, in many important respects, meet the
expectations of its framers, or of my Predecessor, by whom it
was voluntarily conceded.

It is the part of wisdom to derive lessons from experience,
and to regulate our future policy in conformity with its
suggestions.

The 105th Article of the Constitution prescribes the ordinary
mode of amendment. Without ref