THE NEW STATE HOUSE.
The progress of the work upon the new State House since the General Assembly last met has, on the whole, been satisfactory. While in 1881 the work did not proceed quite as actively as had been anticipated, it has during the year just closed been prosecuted as diligently as the most sanguine could well have hoped. Under the careful and vigilant supervision of the Commissioners, it is believed that it has been thoroughly well executed, and will bear the sternest tests. It is a subject of great regret that the execution of the remainder of the work is liable to be retarded by a dissatisfaction on the part of the contractors, arising from losses said by them to have been necessarily incurred while they have been engaged in a diligent and faithful performance of their contract. The cost of materials and the prices of labor have risen, as they claim, altogether above what they expected, or what might reasonably have been expected, when they entered upon their undertaking. If they should decline to proceed further under existing circumstances, grave duty will be devolved upon you in determining what curse will be the wisest to secure an early and satisfactory execution of the unfinished part of the work.
Provision was made in the contract that changes directed by the Commissioners, with the consent of the contractors, during the progress of the work, should not operate to discharge the liability of the sureties upon the contractors' band, and in every instance where changes have been made they have been made with the consent of the contractors, and in conformity to an opinion of the Attorney General that the change would not release the sureties.
