708 



VERMONT. 



aged by its trustees, who keep the expenses 

 within the income. They aver in their report 

 that its condition and usefulness are, for want 

 of means, much below the plane on which it 

 might and ought to stand, saying, among other 

 things, "The satisfactory balance-sheet must 

 not be suffered to disguise the fact that the 

 higher education in Vermont is suffering, be- 

 cause the State University has not sufficient 

 means to do its work as that work is done in 

 other States.' 1 This is believed to be the chief 

 reason why a large number among the studious 

 youth of Vermont go away from home to seek 

 elsewhere that instruction in various branches 

 of knowledge which they can not receive in 

 their own State. During the academical year 

 1877-78 there were in Dartmouth College 

 98 students from Vermont GO academical, 14 

 scientific, and 24 medical students. 



The charitable, reformatory, and penal insti- 

 tutions of the State are under good manage- 

 ment generally, and accomplish their special 

 objects. The blind, deaf-mutes, and feeble- 

 minded children are kept in neighboring States 

 where institutions for their instruction have 

 been established the Perkins Institution for 

 the Blind, the American Asylum and Clarke 

 Institute for Deaf - Mutes, the Massachusetts 

 School for Idiotic and Feeble-minded Youth. 

 For their support and education, the annual 

 sums of $4,000, $5,000, and $2,000 are respec- 

 tively appropriated. The officers of the above- 

 mentioned institutions give satisfactory reports 

 on the conduct and proficiency of the Vermont 

 children under their care, and testify that some 

 among them are considerably above the aver- 

 age in comparison with their fellow-pupils. 



In the State Reform School for the correc- 

 tion of youth the number of inmates on July 

 31, 1880, was 122 boys 103, girls 19. At the 

 same date in 1878 they were 122 and 33 re- 

 spectively, or in all 33 more than in 1880. The 

 commitments during the year were boys 22, 

 girls 3 ; and all the commitments since the es- 

 tablishment of the school have been 619 the 

 age of the offenders committed ranging from 

 six to nineteen years. The expenses of the 

 school for the two years ended July 31, 1880, 

 amounted to $39,384.25. The net earnings 

 were $4,953.32 ; the total receipts, $13,647.11 ; 

 leaving to the State's charge a deficiency of 

 $25,737.14, which is $9,262.86 less than the 

 sum appropriated for the school. 



The State Prison was personally inspected 

 by Governor Proctor, soon after entering office 

 in October, 1878, and from what he 8aw, as 

 well as on other evidence, he found it in a very 

 unsatisfactory condition, for lack of discipline, 

 and of system in its management under the 

 superintendent who had it in charge. Seeing 

 the necessity of appointing a new superintend- 

 ent, possessed of rare experience in such mat- 

 ters, and of other uncommon qualifications in 

 regard to personal character, and finding no 

 such man in Vermont, he appointed one from 

 a neighboring State. The number of convicts 



therein detained at the beginning of October, 

 1880, was 142. 



Governor Farnham ascribes the decrease in 

 the number of convicts partly to a proportion 

 of them being received in the House of Cor- 

 rection, " but principally to a great decrease 

 in high crime in the State " ; although, while 

 speaking in the same message on the subject of 

 public education, and its necessity as a means 

 of diminishing the number of criminals, he 

 avers that the State does not do her whole duty 

 in that regard, and acknowledges that crime 

 is of native growth in Vermont, and net im- 

 ported, saying: "In 1878 there were sixty- 

 eight commitments to the State Prison; of 

 these, thirty-one were natives of Vermont, and 

 only thirteen foreigners. I use the statistics 

 of 1878, because I have not those of 1880 at 

 hand. In 1878 there were one hundred and 

 eighty-six convicts in the State Prison ; of these, 

 seventy-two were natives of Vermont, and only 

 thirty-nine of foreign birth. Surely, we can 

 not charge the crimes of our State upon the 

 uneducated foreigners who come to our shores." 



The militia of Vermont is apparently a small 

 force, consisting of one regiment and a portion 

 of one battery, but in excellent condition as to 

 discipline and presumable efficiency if called 

 upon for active service, while it costs very lit- 

 tle to the State. 



The number of divorces granted in Vermont 

 during the year 1879 was one hundred and 

 twenty-six, or in the proportion of one to 

 twenty-one marriages, which is less than in 

 any year since 1865, and one third less than in 

 1878, when they numbered one hundred and 

 ninety-two, in the proportion of one divorce 

 to fourteen marriages. This desirable decrease 

 in the number of divorces is ascribed to the 

 operation of the law enacted at the session of 

 1878 "in restraint of divorces." 



The aggregate population of Vermont in 

 1880, as appears from the census, is 332,648, 

 showing an increase of 2,097 during the ten 

 previous years, her population in 1870 having 

 been 330,551. 



A most noteworthy event of the year for 

 Vermont seems to be the completion of the 

 "Revision of the State Laws," enjoined by an 

 act of the Legislature passed for that purpose 

 at the session of 1878, the mode and objects of 

 the revision being accurately expressed in the 

 first section of the act, as follows : 



SECTION 1. The Governor is hereby authorized and 

 directed to appoint two commissioners, whose duty it 

 shall be to revise, redraught, compile, consolidate, and 

 arrange in methodical order, in plain and simple lan- 

 guage, the public statutes of this State, upon the basis, 

 plan, and general form of the general statutes, with 

 authority to omit redundant enactments, reject super- 

 fluous words, circuitous and ambiguous phraseology, 

 recommend amendments, and condense the whole into 

 as concise and comprehensive form as is consistent 

 with a full and clear expression of the will of the Leg- 

 islature, and report the same to the General Assembly 

 at its next biennial session. 



Governor Proctor appointed, as such Com- 

 missioners, Charles W. Willard and Wheelock 



