XXIII. MICHIGAN.

GOVERNMENT.

JOHN S. BARRY, of Constantine, Governor, (term expires

1st Monday of January, 1846,)

Origen D. Richardson, of Pontiac,

Lieut. Governor,

Robert P. Eldredge, of Macomb Co. Secretary of State,

Charles G. Hammond, of Branch Co. Auditor-General,

John J. Adam,
O. C. Comstock, Sen.
Douglass Houghton,
O. C. Comstock, Jr.,
Digby V. Bell,

Isaac E. Crary,
Ezra Williams,

Peter Morey,

do.
do.

Salary.

$1,500

Pay, $6 a day.

1,000

1,000

of Lenawee Co. Treasurer,

1,000

Superintend. Public Instruc.
State Geologist,

500

1,000

Com'r of Int. Improvement,

1,000

Com'r of the Land Office,

1,000

Jonas H. Titus,

of Jackson,

Agent of State Prison,

1,000

The Senate consists of 18 members, elected for two years; the House of Representatives, of 53 members, elected annually. Pay of each, $3 a day, during the session of the legislature. The seat of government is at Detroit, or wherever the legislature shall direct, till 1847, when it is to be permanently established.

Edwin M. Cust, of Livingston Co.,
Edwin H. Lothrop, of Kalamazoo Co.,

E. B. Harrington, of Detroit, Reporter of Supreme Court and Court

There are 5 Chancery Circuits. The terms of the 1st Circuit are held annually at the city of Detroit, on the 3d Tuesday in July, and the 1st Tuesday in February; of the 2d Circuit, at Ann Arbor, on the 2d Tuesday in January and July; of the 3d Circuit at Kalamazoo, on the 3d Tuesday in January, and the Thursday next after the 4th Tuesday in June; of the 4th Circuit at Pontiac, on the 1st Tuesday in May, and the Tuesday after the 2d Monday in November; of the 5th Circuit, at Adrian, on the 1st Tuesday in January, and the 3d Tuesday in June.

The Judges of the Supreme Court are appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate, for the period of 7 years. The terms of this court are held at Detroit, on the 1st Tuesday in January and June; at Ann Arbor, on the last Tuesday in December; at Kalamazoo, on the 1st Tuesday in July; and at Pontiac, on the 4th Tuesday in June.

Circuit Courts. There are 4 judicial circuits, in each of which one of the Judges of the Supreme Court sits as presiding Judge.

District Criminal Court, for Wayne, Washtenaw, Jackson, and Oakland.

B. F. H. Witherell, of Detroit,

Presiding Judge,

Salary, $1,000.

FINANCES.

1. General Fund. Estimated annual current expenses of State Gov.

Int. on $100,000, General Fund stock, and $60,000, Penitentiary do., 9,600

II. Internal Improvement Debt.— The State has received, or acknowledges due, on her five million loan debt, including interest from July 2d, 1841, to July 1st, 1845, funded or proposed to be funded, the sum of $2,987,000, or nearly $3,000,000; the annual interest of which, at 6 per cent., will be about $180,000. The annual receipts on the Central and Southern Railroads, on which the State relies for the payment of the above interest, are estimated, when the former shall be completed to Kalamazoo, at from $350,000 to $400,000, one half of which or more, when the roads are fully stocked with locomotives and cars, will be net profits, amounting to $175,000 or $200,000.

III. University Stock. The interest on this stock, $100,000 at 6 per cent, or $6,000 per annum, is met regularly from the income of the University Fund, which now averages about $8,000 a year.

IV. Loans to Railroad Companies. The only other stocks of this State, not enumerated above, were issued in pursuance of two loans to Railroad Companies, for which the State is contingently liable; one of $100,000 to the Detroit and Pontiac Railroad Company, and one of $20,000 to the Palmyra and Jackson Railroad Company. For the principal of the latter loan, and $6,300 of back interest, the State sold the road in June, 1844, and bid it in at $22,000. Fifteen miles of it, from Palmyra to Clinton, had been finished for two years or more, except ironing, and had been used some on the wooden superstructure. It is supposed, that that part of the road lying north of the southern railroad of the State will be ironed by the State, and converted into a branch of that road. On the loan of $100,000 to the Detroit and Pontiac Railroad Company, it is expected that the State will receive pay before the close of the year 1846; if not, the lien which the State has on the road is deemed ample security.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

Board of Commissioners.

O. C. Comstock, Jr. of Marshall, Acting Commissioner, salary, $1,000. The Secretary of State and State Treasurer are ex officio members. The Central Railroad, which was in operation during 1842 and 1843, from Detroit to Jackson, 80 miles, has been extended to Marshall, 112 miles from Detroit. Under the appropriation of 150,000 acres of State lands, for continuing the road beyond Marshall to the village of Kalainazoo, a distance of 32 miles further towards Lake Michigan, the grading has been mostly completed, and a large portion of the timber for the superstructure got out. An additional appropriation of 64,000 acres of land was made by the Legislature of 1844, which, it was estimated, would be sufficient to get that part of the road ready for iron by the summer or fall of 1845; and there was also appropriated $75,000 of the unpledged proceeds of the road for the purchase of the necessary iron. The Southern Railroad, which has been in operation from Monroe to Adrian, 36 miles, since 1841, was completed to Hillsdale, 68 miles from Monroe, in October, 1843. The proceeds of the Central and Southern Railroads, for the fiscal year ending November 30, 1843, and for the first seven months of that year, and of the year ending Nov. 30, 1844, have been as follows:

As the Central Railroad will extend to Marshall, 32 miles further than last year, for the last four or five months of the year ending Nov. 30, 1844, the proceeds of that road for 1844 are estimated at about $225,000; and the proceeds of the Southern Railroad for the year at $75,000, or upwards; or for both roads at $300,000.

The Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad is constructed by a private company, and is in operation from Toledo to Adrian, 30 miles. The Detroit and Pontiac Railroad, also constructed by a private company, is in operation from the former to the latter place, 25 miles. No statements of the proceeds of either of those roads are published. The former has never paid any dividend to its stockholders; and a large portion of its former business is being drawn off by the State Southern Railroad to Monroe. The road from Detroit to Pontiac is doing a respectable and increasing business.

COLLEGES. The only public and permanently organized literary institution in the State, which may be considered as fairly in operation, is the “ University of Michigan,” which was opened for the reception of students in the fall of 1842, since which time, the number of students has been gradually increasing. Last collegiate year, there were three classes,

a freshman, sophomore, and junior, consisting of about 60 students. Of the five professors appointed by the Board of Regents, and constituting the present Faculty, only two, the Professor of Ancient Languages, and the Professor of Mathematics, have been in actual service, and in receipt of salaries. During the last year, a tutor was added, to enable these gentlemen to perform, ad interim, the duties to some extent of the Professor of Moral and Mental Philosophy, and of a Professor of Natural Philosophy. It is expected, that the Professor of Moral Philosophy will enter upon the duties of his chair at the beginning of the next academic year. The University has a very valuable cabinet of natural history, (see Almanac, 1844,) and a well-selected library of about 4,000 volumes. There are now four preparatory schools, beside the one at Ann Arbor, the seat of the University, in operation, supported in part by the Board of Regents, as branches of the University; namely, at Kalamazoo, White Pigeon, Tecumseh, and Romeo, having in all, under their charge, at the last reports, about 150 students. In Detroit, as well as at some other points in the State, there are some well conducted and useful grammar or high schools, where the elements of a liberal English education are taught. In some of them are taught, also, some of the ancient and principal modern languages.

Charters have been granted for some three or four literary institutions, to be organized on private foundations, or connected more or less with some one of the leading Christian denominations. The "Wesleyan Seminary," at Albion, in Calhoun county, has its buildings partly up, and is getting under way with very fair prospects and very respectable means for an infant institution; the funds for its endowment having been mostly contributed by members of the Methodist persuasion. A charter for an institution to be called "Marshall College" was obtained by the Rev. John P. Cleveland, formerly a Presbyterian clergyman in Detroit, and latterly at Marshall, but who is now settled at Cincinnati, Ohio; and it is not supposed that the institution will soon, if ever, be organized, as originally contemplated. The Baptists have a "Literary Institute " chartered, which was at one time partially under way at Kalamazoo, but which is probably superseded at present by the branch of the University at that place. The Catholics have a charter for an institution called "St. Philip's College," located near Detroit, but which has not made much progress yet towards being opened as a collegiate institution.

STATE LAND OFFICE.

This office was opened in April, 1843, and has the general charge and disposition of the school, university, internal improvement, and other lands, belonging to the State. Part of the 500,000 acres granted by Congress to this State for purposes of internal improvement were adver tised for sale, and brought into market about the middle of July, 1843;