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of land were appropriated as a permanent fund for the support 

 of common schools, such proceeds to be accumulated until the 

 annual interest should amount to $50,000, after which that 

 interest was to be distributed in such manner as the legislature 

 should direct. Further additions were made to the fund in 

 1807, 1810, and 1812, in the last of which years an act was 

 passed "for the establishment of common schools." The 

 first apportionment of $50,000 was made in 1814, since which 

 period the inviolability of the fund has been secured by the 

 amended constitution, and its amount so much augmented that 

 its annual income is now about $95,000, to which is annually 

 added from the general fund so much as may be requisite to 

 make $100,000, the amount directed by law to be annually 

 apportioned among the towns. In addition to this sum, a like 

 amount is required to be raised in the several towns, winch 

 being added to, the moneys received from the state, the whole 

 is distributed amongst the school districts.* This large sum 

 is disbursed amongst more than 8,600 schools, upon a plan so 

 simple and secure, that for several years past, not an instance 

 has occurred, in which the money allotted to a single school 

 district has failed to reach its proper destination. (7) 



Besides the institutions which are thus connected with our 

 general system of public instruction, there are in the cities of 

 New-York and Albany, and in almost every other considera- 

 ble town in the state, Lancasterian and other schools, which, 

 though generally regulated by the municipal authorities of the 

 the places in which they are situated, or by acts of incorpora- 

 tion or other special laws, are, to a greater or less extent, sup- 

 ported by public moneys. In some cases the pupils are taught 

 gratuitously ; and in most of them the charges are so mod- 

 erate, that even the poorest inhabitants may procure for their 

 children the means of education. (8) 



This brief review of the history of public instruction in this 

 state, ought not to be closed without a tribute of gratitude to 

 those wise and patriotic public servants, who at the very be- 



