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 between 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._