part of it in which I,
and many, if not all of you, will take no share. Gentlemen,
the child is yours as well as mine; the circumstances that
attend his birth deprive me of an undivided interest in him,
for if such be the will of Divine Providence, he will one day
be to your sons what I am to their fathers. Destined as he is
to exercise a paramount influence in years to come, I
consecrate him to my people, and with God's help, I will leave
unused no faculty with which I am indued to make him worthy of
your love and loyalty, and an ornament to the Throne of his
great Predecessor who only did battle to establish peace and
lay the foundations of order.

I have called you together according to the requirements of
the Constitution. Having thus fulfilled the duty imposed upon
me, I would suggest to you, Nobles and Representatives, the
propriety, under existing circumstances, of confining the
business of the present session to providing, by a Joint
Resolution, or otherwise, for the financial necessities of the
Government, and appointing a Joint Committee to report after
an adjournment and as soon as practicable, to their respective
Houses, upon the New Code, or such portions of it as may be
ready for presentation by the Commission appointed by the
Legislature of 1856 to prepare it.

The reasons for such a course will appear in the fact that the
Commissioners selected to revise, codify and amend the laws
now in force, partly on account of the ill health of one of
the members, now deceased, and partly from the laborious
nature of the task imposed upon persons whose time was already
occupied by the duties of office, have been unable to perfect
their work within the time, which before the undertaking was
commenced, was deemed sufficient. The Joint Committee could
only receive and proceed to review such portions of the
Revision as are already prepared, and receive more as the
Commissioners progressed. By means of a little inquiry, the
time when their report upon the whole would probably be
forthcoming might be ascertained, when the two Houses could
meet again to review the Report and proceed with the general
business of the country.

The suggestion I have made demands further consideration from
the fact that a new Treaty, negotiated be