Virginia Argus

Extract from the Speech of Governor Lewis to the Legislature of New York, delivered on the 6th instant.

"I cannot conclude, gentlemen, without calling your attention to a subject which my worthy and highly respected predecessor in office had much at heart, and frequently I believe presented to your view, the encouragement of literature. In a government resting on public opinion, and deriving its chief support from the affections of a people, religion and morality cannot be too sedulously inculcated. To them science is a hand maid; ignorance the worst of enemies; literary information should then be placed within the reach of every description of citizens, and poverty should not be permitted to obstruct the path to the fame of knowledge. Common schools under the guidance of respectable teachers should be established in every village, and the indigent be educated at the public expense. The higher seminaries also should receive every patronage and support within the means of enlightened legislators. Learning would thus flourish, and vice be more effectually restrained than by volumes of penal statutes."