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VERMONT 



office for a year ; their duty is to inquire whether the constitution has been preserved inviokte 

 during the period preceding their appointment, and whether the legislative and executive 

 branches have done their duty, and to suggest alterations in the constitution. The legislature 

 meet at Montpelier, in October. Vermont sends 5 representatives to Congress. The reve- 

 nue of the State is derived chiefly from direct taxation. The expenditures amount to about 

 60,000 dollars. 



8. Religion. The Congregationalisis have 203 churches and 110 ministers ; the Baptists, 

 105 churches and 56 ministers ; the Methodists have 44 ministers ; the Episcopalians have 11 

 churches. There are two Unitarian churches, one at Burlington and one at Brattleboro'. 



9. Education. Vermont has two colleges. Burlington College., which bears the title of 

 the University of Vermont, was incorporated in 1791. This institution is finely situated on the 

 east side of the village of Burlington, one mile from Lake Champlain, 245 feet above the sur- 

 face of the water. The buildings are spacious brick edifices, containing a chapel, lecture 

 rooms for public uses and for students, &c. The officers are a president and 6 professors. 

 JSIiddlebury College was incorporated in 1800. The buildings are two ; one of wood, con- 

 taining a chapel and 20 rooms for students ; the other is a spacious and elegant stone edifice, 

 ISO feet by 40, four stories high, having 48 rooms for students. The officers are a president, 

 five professors, and two tutors. At Norwich, on the Connecticut, is an institution called the 

 Jforwich University. Academies and schools are numerous in this State, as in other parts of 

 New England. Each town is obliged by law to support public schools ; the number of school- 

 districts is 3,800, with 5,100 teachers. 



10. History. Vermont was first explored by the French settlers of Canada, but the earliest 

 settlement within the territory was made by the English of Massachusetts, who, in 1724, more 

 than 100 years after the discoveries in the northern parts by Champlain, established themselves 

 at Fort Dummer, on the Connecticut. Six years after this, the French advanced from Cana- 

 da, up Lake Champlain, and settled at Crown Point, and on the eastern shore of the lake. 

 The claim to the country was afterwards disputed by New Hampshire and New York ; and the 

 country was known as the New Hampshire Grants. The British Parliament decided in favor 

 of the latter State, but much confusion and altercation were caused by the conflicting grants of 

 land made by the New Hampshire and New York governments. The disputes thus occasioned, 

 remained unsettled during the revolutionary war ; after which. New York compounded for her 

 claim, and Vermont became an independent State. She was received into the Union in 

 March, J 791. 



