108 The Financial History of Connecticut. 



force for two years, but for the year ending March 31, 1850, this 

 expense was doubled. The comptroller gave as the cause of this 

 increase, the increasing immigration and the influx of laborers to 

 aid in the construction of public works,^ who, after their immediate 

 job was done, frequently became public charges and not being 

 inhabitants of this state their support fell upon the state. The 

 contractors, for their own protection, were forced to demand more 

 compensation. With the exception of the year 1853, when the 

 expense was only seventeen hundred eighty-five dollars, the annual 

 expense from 1850 until 1856 was twenty-two hundred dollars. 

 For the remaining five years of the period, the annual expense was 

 reduced to eighteen hundred dollars. 



8. Humane Institutions and Public Buildings. 



No change was made in the annual appropriation of three thousand 

 a year allowed at the close of the last period, until 1856. The legis- 

 lature in this year raised the amount to four thou- 

 Asyliim for sand dollars and made it cumulative, thereby allow- 

 Dumb i"g ^^ unexpended balance of one year to be added 



to the annual appropriation for the next year. No 

 further change was made in the appropriation. From April 1, 

 1846, until March 31, 1861, the actual amount granted to the asylum 

 by the state was fifty thousand two hundred fifty-two dollars, an 

 average of thirty-three hundred fifty dollars a year. In 1851 the 

 legislature incorporated the Bank of North America in Seymour, 

 stipulating that it pay to the state a bonus equal to one per cent 

 of its paid-in capital stock. This sum was to be appropriated to 

 the education of the deaf and dumb of the state. ^ The amount 

 given to the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb as a result of this act 

 was one thousand dollars. 



There was not always a demand for aid to the blind and conse- 

 quently in the years 1850, 1852 and 1857 no expense was in- 

 curred by the state in connection with this institu- 

 Perkins In- ^jqj-, jyiq annual appropriation of a sum not to 

 the Blind exceed one thousand dollars was renewed for another 

 period of five years ^ and in 1853 the appropriation was 

 raised to fifteen hundred dollars a year for another five-year period. 

 This act also removed any restriction as to the age of the bene- 



^ Compt. Report, 1850, p. 5. 



2 Private Acts, 1851, p. 37. 



3 Private Acts, 1848, p. 29. 



