PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. We have reason to be proud of our public free schools and colleges. When oppressed with debt and destitute of many comforts of life, and just emerging from the desolation of a military district, the people determined that the children of the Commonwealth should be educated at the public expense. Our Constitution provided for a uniform system of free schools by the year 1876, but the legislature at its first session (1869-'70) passed a law inaugurating our present system, anticipating the time fixed by the Constitution. With increasing interest we have watched its growth from its inception to its present proportions. We have endeavored to foster and encourage public education, and in every feasible manner to enlarge the number and the efficiency of our public schools. The school work will be shown by the tabulated statement below, given the status of schools in 1893 as compared with the year 1889, the last year previous to the present administration: STATEMENT. Increase in the number of schools during the present year, Increase in the number of pupils enrolled, Increase in the number of teachers employed, Increase in value of school property, 492 11,523 509 295 $197,384 98 555,470 26 Our higher institutions of learning have been doing their usual good work, and have been more numerously attended than at any period since the war, and have kept pace with the advance in educational progress. THE VIRGINIA AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE. Because of the recent reorganization of this institution I must say a word with reference to it. It has not fulfilled the expecta tion of its friends. It has been beset with trouble from within. and without. The present board of visitors did not think the curriculum such as the act of Congress and the legislature of Virginia contemplated, and thought it best to reorganize the college and to change its course of studies, and its methods. About two years ago this was done. It caused comment at the time, but the trouble has passed, and the result has been a splendid success, and has justified the changes made. The college has more students than ever before, and it is believed there is no institution in the south where business men, farmers and mechan ics can secure such excellent instruction; where the hand and the mind are educated together, and where the young men of Virginia are prepared for the changed condition of affairs, and will awaken new life and progress in the old State. When this is accomplished, and we have educated mechanics and farmers, it will make people prosperous and the country bloom like the rose. I predict for this institution great success, and trust that the new board may sustain the work of the retiring one, and put an end to dissentions, which have marred its prosperity and checked its progress. THE STATE FEMALE NORMAL SCHOOL AND HIGHER EDUCATION. The Farmville Female School has been doing excellent work. Perhaps no institution, for the amount expended, results in more good to the people; its graduates readily secure positions, and its classes are not sufficient to furnish the number needed. They have proven to be most desirable teachers, in consequence of the thoroughness of their instruction, their knowledge of imparting information and their skill in the management of children. It is the only State female college, and the legislature should make a sufficient appropriation to enlarge and extend the course of instruction in this institution, so as to afford females such advantages in the higher branches as they can acquire by attending colleges in the north and west. You qualify them to teach in the public schools with the elementary studies, and they have shown themselves to be most efficient. Then why not prepare them for the advanced schools, for instruction in the higher branches, and not confine them to the elementary work? Let them have an opportunity, by extending their education, to fill positions of still greater importance, and not force them to seek schools beyond. the State for that instruction which should be given to them in our own institutions. There are as many females to be educated as males; they are bound to us by the same tender ties of love and affection, and are as much benefited by education as the males. If you desire to improve the minds of our children, you must educate their mothers, who are their first and best teachers. More than half of the teachers in the public schools are females. Why not afford them equal advantages of education? It is a reflection upon us not to have done so years ago. You give the Virginia Military Institute annually $30,000; the University of Virginia, $40,000; William and Mary College, $15,000, and the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College $40,000, while the only State female college receives but $12,000, against $125,000 appropriated to the education of the males. Let us increase the facilities for their improvement, and give them a fair chance to cultivate their minds, and you will do a work which will result in more good to all classes of Virginia than a like sum expended in any other manner. Give our girls an education which will enable them to be independent, and will elevate them above the low grade of work to which women have so often to resort. CONVENTION OF SOUTHERN GOVERNORS AND IMMIGRATION. At the suggestion of the governor of the State of Arkansas a convention of southern governors was called to meet at the city of Richmond, Va., on the 12th day of April, 1893, to consider matters of importance to the southern States, and especially the question of immigration. The convention was well attended, eight of the southern governors being present in person, and the other southern States were represented by delegates, the governors being unable to attend. An excellent address was prepared and issued to those who contemplate making investments in our country, and to those who desire to emigrate to the southern States in search of homes, which address met with the unanimous approval of the convention. The address showed, among other things, that the sole object of the convention was to advance, by co-operation and concert of action, the industrial interests and well-being of the southern States. The governors were requested to have a paper prepared, which they should endorse severally, giving facts showing the advantages offered to immigrants and to capital by their respective States, and they should be printed, bound together and distributed at the World's Fair. Twenty-five thousand of such documents were printed and sent for distribution by the governors of the States of Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama and Arkansas, as directed by the convention. We hope they will prove beneficial in awakening an interest in our southern States, and may serve to point the way for the introduction of capital, enterprise and desirable emigration to this section. SENATORS. On the 14th day of May, 1892, Hon. John S. Barbour, our junior senator in the congress of the United States, departed this life, and on the 28th day of May, 1892, I appointed Hon. Eppa Hunton, of the county of Fauquier, to supply the vacancy until it should be filled by the legislature. The act of congress requires that the election shall take place on the second Tuesday after the meeting and organization of the legislature. The senator elected to fill this unexpired term will hold his seat until the 4th day of March, 1895; at the same time, and in the same man ner, you are required by the act of congress to elect a senator for the full term, commencing on the 4th day of March, 1895, to succeed the senator who is to be elected to fill Mr. Barbour's unexpired term. (Vide page 3 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, sections 14 and 16.) THE ROANOKE RIOT. On the 20th day of last September there was a serious riot at Roanoke city. This unfortunate affair was entirely unexpected. amongst such an industrious and law-abiding people. I was in the city of Chicago at the time of the trouble, and did not hear of it until it was over and quiet had been restored. The facts are about as follows: An old lady from the country, who has come to market, is induced by false statements that she can sell her produce to accompany a negro man to an unoccupied house where she is brutally beaten, robbed and left for dead. She revives, covered with blood and bruised beyond recognition, and makes known her wrongs. Her assailant is pursued by an officer, is captured, and brought to the city and committed to jail. In The citizens of the city and county, aroused at the horrible deed, assemble on the streets and around the jail in large numbers and demand the surrender of the criminal. The crowd grows in numbers; the excitement increases, and the mayor calls out the military to aid in keeping the peace and to prevent the jail from being broken into and the culprit from being lynched. obedience to the orders of the mayor a portion of Company H, Second Regiment Virginia Volunteers, report for duty, commanded by its regular officers and properly uniformed and armed. The mayor of the city was present and ordered the crowd to disperse to their homes. He begged them earnestly to desist and not advance upon the military and the jail. The crowd was advised by the officers in command of the military that their guns were loaded and that if they persisted in the assault the troops would be ordered to fire. The warning was not heeded; stones were thrown through the windows of the jail, pistols were fired, the mayor was wounded, the door leading into the jail assaulted, and no one doubted but that it would have been broken in in a few moments in spite of the earnest protest of the civil and military authorities unless prevented by force. This was the situation. What was to be done? Would you have the civil authorities awed into submission and the military of the State throw down their arms at the bidding of a mob and the latter be allowed to break open the jail and lynch a man in the custody of the law? Would you have a mob become the masters of the city and the custodians of the rights of the people with power to break open houses, to hang and to burn? When a mob takes possession of a community and rioters are assembled, are the civil authorities to retire and the lawless be allowed to control? Will the mob be left to dispense justice instead of the courts of the State? If this is to be the law in Roanoke why not in every part of the State? Equal and exact justice must be meted out to every county and to each individual, and if this be not done then anarchy will rule, the courts of justice be closed, and the bully and ruffian will take the place of law and order. Who desires such a condition of things? Who doubts that in this case the law would have been promptly enforced and the criminal have received the punishment due for his crime? See what the recklessness and folly of an hour has wrought. Sadness and sorrow sit brooding at the hearthstones of numerous homes in Virginia, mourning for loved ones who will return no more, because of the midnight madness of those thoughtless people. Time and again during this administration has the military been called to support the civil authority; they were uniformed and armed, just as were the Roanoke volunteers, and the offences committed were equally as heinous as the one committed at Roanoke, yet no hand was ever before raised to resist that authority. The law was obeyed, the dignity of the State vindicated, and the culprits paid the debt due to their crimes, and no reproach was brought upon the State, no harm to innocent and unoffending citizens. Which is best? Can any good man hesitate under such circumstances to speak for law and order? Let no one be deceived. The law in the State of Virginia will be enforced. If the civil authorities are not sufficient, the military forces of the State will, whenever necessary, be sent to their assistance, armed and ready to support the majesty of the law. Let us profit by this terrible lesson, and learn in all cases to respect the authorities and obey the laws. In Virginia mobs can only rule for a few hours. Good men will rise up and crush them, and all offenders will be punished in the end. The military, when ordered out, will carry loaded rifles, and will use them when ordered to do so by the officers in command, and the consequences must rest on the heads of those who make it necessary. LYNCH LAW. After the close of the war our State courts were superseded by the military, and our regular officers were removed, and there was great looseness in the enforcement of the penal laws. A large proportion of our population were suddenly made citizens, and |