Mr, Butler's Discours 



the remarkable and interesting contrast between the provis- 

 ions of the law of 1827 — the last relative to general education 

 enacted in this state— and those of the colonial act of 1702— 

 the first on that subject. We have seen that the law of 1702 

 was expressly confined to male children, and that the teacher 

 was to be licensed by the bishop of London or the governor of 

 the province ; that of 1827 is not only free from sectarianism, 

 and governmental control, but it embraces within its range 

 both sexes of our youth. These laws are in strict accordance 

 with the spirit of the eras to which they severally belong — I 

 doubt, indeed, whether a more faithful or impressive exhibi- 

 tion of the character of those eras is any where to be met with. 

 It is proper to add, that among the most flourishing institutions 

 now under the care of the regents, are the academies exclu- 

 sively devoted to the education of young ladies ; and that the 

 pupils of two of them compose a large and most interesting 

 portion of my present auditors. 



Impressed, equally with the legislature, with a sense of the 

 importance of the great objects intended to be promoted by the 

 act of 1827, the regents of the university have zealously sec- 

 onded its benevolent designs. By an ordinance passed on the 

 18th of March, 1828, they prescribed the studies to be pur- 

 sued and the conditions to be complied with, to entitle an 

 academy to a share of the public monies ; and as the terms of 

 this ordinance were considerably in advance of the general 

 course of instruction bafore in use, its operation was hiirblv 

 beneficial. This, however, is but a collateral advantage— 

 the more direct results of the law of 1827 are to be found in 

 the incorporation of several academies since its passage, and 

 in the great increase in the number of students in classical lit- 

 erature and in the higher branches of English learning, now 

 instructed in the academies. (6) 



The Common School fund, received no considerable acces- 

 sion until 1805, although the duty of establishing and fostering 

 common schools in every part of the state, was frequently en- 

 forced in the speeches of the executive. In April, 1805, an 

 act was passed, " to raise a fund for the encouragement of 

 common schools," by which the net proceeds of 500,000 acres 



