such teachers as he deems worthy: reports annually to the legislature respecting the condition, prospects and resources of the Common Schools, and the management of the School fund, together with such suggestions for the improvement of the system as may occur to him; and vigilantly watches over, encourages, sustains, and expands to its utmost practicable limit, the vast system of common school education throughout the state.

Such is a condensed view of our present system of COMMON SCHOOL EDUCATION;-a system elaborated and matured to its present state, by the exertions of the highest minds among us, during a period of forty years; a system comprehending the best and dearest interests present and prospective of an enlightened and free people-full of promise for the future, and containing within itself, the germs of the most extended individual, social and national prosperity; a system identified with the highest hopes and interests of all classes of the community, and from which are destined to flow those streams of intelligence and of public and private virtue which alone can enable us worthily to fulfil the noble destinies involved in our free institutions.

But in this country, no systems, however perfect, no enactments, however enlightened, and no authority, however constituted, can attain to the full accomplishment of their object, however praiseworthy and laudable, without the hearty and efficient co-operation of public sentiment. Aided by this co-operation, the most important results may be anticipated from the most simple organization. The repeated and solemn recognition by the representatives of the people, of the interests of popular education and public instruction; the nearly unanimous adoption of a system, commended to the public favor as well by practical experience, as by the concurring testimony of the most enlightened minds of our own and other countries; and the simplification of much of the complicated machinery which served only to encumber and impede the operation of that system; these indications afford the most conclusive evidence not only of the importance which the great mass of our fellow citizens attach to the promotion of sound intellectual and moral instruction, but of their determination to place our common schools, where this instruction is chiefly dispensed to the children of the state, upon a footing which shall enable them most effectually to accomplish the great objects of their institution.

It is upon the extent and permanency of this feeling, that the friends of education rely; and this spirit to which they appeal, in looking forward to the just appreciation and judicious improvement of those means of moral and mental enlightenment which the beneficent policy of the state has placed at the disposal of the inhabitants of the several districts. The renovation of our common schools, distributed as they are, over every section of our entire territory, their elevation and expansion to meet the constantly increasing requirements of science and mental progress, and their capability of laying broad and deep the foundations of character and usefulness, must depend upon the intelligent and fostering culture which they shall receive at the hands of those to whose immediate charge they are committed. There is no institution within the range of civilization, upon which so much, for good or for evil depends-upon which hang so many and such important issues to the future well being of individuals and communities, as the common district school. It is through that alembic that the lessons of the nursery and the family fire-side, the earliest instructions in pure morality, and the precepts and examples of the social circle are distilled; and from it those lessons are destined to assume that tinge and hue which are permanently to be incorporated into the character and the life. Is it too much then, to ask or to expect of parents, that laying aside all minor considerations, abandoning all controversies and dissentions among themselves in reference to local, partisan and purely selfish objects, or postponing them at least, until the interests of their children are placed beyond the influence of these irritating topics, they will consecrate their undivided energies to the advancement and improvement of these beneficent institutions. Resting as

1

it does upon their support, indebted to them for all its means of usefulness,
and dependent for its continued existence upon their discriminating favor
and efficient sanction, the practical superiority of the existing system of
public instruction, its comprehensiveness and simplicity-its abundant and
unfailing resources-and its adaptation to the educational wants of every
class of community, will prove of little avail without the invigorating
influences of a sound and enlightened public sentiment, emanating from,
and pervading the entire social system. The district school must become
the central interest of the citizen and the parent, the clergyman, the lawyer,
the physician, the merchant, the manufacturer and the agriculturist. Each
must realise that there, under more or less favoring auspices, as they them-
selves shall determine, developments are in progress which are destined, at
no distant day to exert a controlling influence over the institutions, habits,
modes of thought and action of society in all its complicated phases; and
that the primary responsibility for the results which may be thus worked
out, for good or for evil, rests with them. By the removal of every obstacle
to the progressive and harmonious action of the system of popular education,
so carefully organized and amply endowed by the state, by a constant, and
methodical and intelligent co-operation with its authorized agents, in the
elevation and advancement of that system in all its parts, and especially by
an infusion into its entire course of discipline and instruction of that high
moral culture which can alone adequately realize the idea of sound educa-
tion, results of inconceivable magnitude and importance to individual, social,
and moral well being may confidently be anticipated. These results can only
be attained by an enlightened appreciation and judicious cultivation of the
means of elementary instruction. They demand and will amply repay the
consecration of the highest intellectual and moral energies, the most compre-
hensive benevolence, and the best affections of our common nature.

1.

COMPARATIVE STATEMENT

Of the condition of the Common Schools, from 1815, the period of the first Statistical Report, to 1850.

1840 10,769

10,397 572,995 592,564 *275,000 633,685 94

476,443 27

<< 1841 10,886 10,588 603,583 583,347 *275,000 658,954 70 "< 1842 10,893 10,645 598,749 601,765 *285,000 676,086 07

483,479 54

468,688 22

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1843 10,875 10,656 667,782 677,995 *275,000 660,727 41 1844 10,990 10,357 709,156 696,548 « 1845 11,018 10,812 736,045 690,914 66 1846 11,008 10,796 742,423 703,399 1847 11,052 10,859 748,387 700,443 1848 10,621 10,494 475,723 718,123 1849 11,191 10,928 778,309 739,655 1850 11,397 11,173 794,506 735,188

509,376 97

*Including revenue from United States Deposit Fund.

447,565 97
458,127 78
460,764 78
462,840 44
466,674 44
489,696 63
508,724 56

275,000 639,606 60

275,000 725,066 19
275,000 772,578 02
275,000 829,802 83
275,826 858,594 84
284,902 846,710 45
285,000 767,389 20

AN ACT TO ESTABLISH FREE SCHOOLS THROUGHOUT

THE STATE.

Passed April 12, 1851. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

§ 1. Common schools in the several school districts in this State shall be free to all persons residing in the district, over five and under twenty-one years of age, as hereinafter provided. Persons not resident of a district may be admitted into the schools kept therein, with the approbation, in writing, of the trustees thereof, or a majority of them.

§ 2. There shall hereafter be raised by tax, in each and every year, upon the real and personal estate within this state, the sum of eight hundred thousand dollars, which shall be levied, assessed and collected in the mode prescribed by chapter thirteen, part first of the revised statutes, relating to the assessment and collection of taxes, and when collected shall be paid over to the respective county treasurers, subject to the order of the state superintendent of common schools.

§3. The state superintendent of common schools shall ascertain the portion of said sum of eight hundred thousand dollars to be assessed and collected in each of the several counties of this state, by dividing the said sum among the several counties, according to the valuation of real and personal estate therein, as it shall appear by the assessment of the year next preceding the one in which said sum is to be raised, and shall certify to the clerk of each county, before the tenth day of July in each year, the amount to be raised by tax in such county; and it shall be the duty of the several county clerks of this state to deliver to the board of supervisors of their respective counties, a copy of such certificate, on the first day of their annual session, and the board of supervisors of each county shall assess such amount upon the real and personal estate of such county, in the manner provided by law for the assessment and collection of taxes.

§ 4. The state superintendent of common schools shall, on or before the first day of January in every year, apportion and divide, or cause to be apportioned and divided, one third of the sum so raised by general tax, and one third of all other moneys appropriated to the support of common schools, among the several school districts, parts of districts, and separate neighborhoods in this state, from which reports shall have been received in accordance with law in the following manner, viz: to each separate neighborhood belonging to a school district in some adjoining state, there shall be apportioned and paid a sum of money equal to thirty-three cents for each child in such neighborhood (between the ages of four and twenty-one); but the sum so to be apportioned and paid to any such neighborhood, shall in no case exceed the sum of twenty-four dollars, and the remainder of such one-third shall be apportioned and divided equally among the several districts; and the state superintendent of common schools shall, by proper regulations and instructions to be prescribed by him, provide for the payment of such moneys to the trustees of such separate neighborhoods and school districts.

§ 5. It shall be the duty of the state superintendent of common schools, on or before the first day of January in every year, to apportion and divide the remaining two-thirds of the said amount of eight hundred thousand dollars, together with the remaining two-thirds of all other moneys appropriated by the state for the support of common schools among the several counties, cities and towns of the state, in the mode now prescribed by law for the division and apportionment of the income of the common school fund; and the share of the several towns and wards so apportioned and divided shall be paid over on and after the first Tuesday in February, in each year, to the several town superintendents of common schools, and ward or city officers, entitled by law to receive the same, and shall be apportioned by them among the several school districts and parts of districts in their several towns and wards, according to the number of children between the ages of four and

twenty-one years, residing in said districts and parts of districts, as the same shall have appeared from the last annual report of the trustees; but no moneys shall be apportioned and paid to any district or part of a district, unless it shall appear from the last annual report of the trustees, that a school has been kept therein for at least six months during the year ending with the date of such report, by a duly qualified teacher, unless by special permission of the state superintendent of common schools; excepting, also, that the first apportionment of money under this act shall be made to all school districts which were entitled to an apportionment of public money in the year eighteen hundred and forty-nine.

§6. Any balance required to be raised in any school district for the payment of teachers' wages, beyond the amount apportioned to such district by the previous provisions of this act, and other public moneys belonging to the district applicable to the payment of teachers' wages, shall be raised by rate-bill, to be made out by the trustees against those sending to school, in proportion to the number of days and of children sent, to be ascertained by the teacher's list; and in making out such rate bill, it shall be the duty of the trustees to exempt, either wholly or in part, as they may deem expedient, such indigent inhabitants as may in their judgment be entitled to such exen ption; and the amount of such exemption shall be added to the first tax list thereafter to be made out by the trustees for district purposes, or shall be ɛeparately levied by them, as they shall deem most expedient.

§ 7. The same property which is exempt by section twenty-two, of article two, title five, chapter six. part three of the revised statutes, from levy and sale under execution, shall be exempt from levy and sale under any warrant to collect any rate-bill for wages of teachers of common schools.

§ 8. Nothing in this act shall be so construed as to repeal or alter the provisions of any special act relating to schools in any of the incorporated cities or villages of this state, except so far as they are inconsistent with the provisions contained in the first, second, third and fourth sections of

this act.

§ 9. Chapter one hundred and forty of the session laws of one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, entitled "An act establishing free schools throughout the state," and chapter four hundred and four of the session laws of one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, entitled An act to amend an act establishing free schools throughout the state," and sections sixteen, seventeen and eighteen of the revised statutes relating to common schools, requiring the several boards of supervisors to raise by tax, on each of the towns of their respective counties, a sum equal to the school moneys apportioned to such towns, and providing for its collection and payment, and all other provisions of law incompatible with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed.

§10. The state superintendent of common schools shall cause to be prepared, published and distributed among the several school districts and school officers of the state, a copy of the several acts now in force relating to common schools, with such instructions, digest and expositions as he may deem expedient; and the expense incurred by him therefor shall be audited by the comptroller and paid by the treasurer.

8. All the moneys received or appropriated by the provisions of this act shall be applied to the payment of teachers' wages exclusively.

§ 12. It shall be the duty of the trustees of the several school districts in this state, to make out and transmit to the town superintendent of the town in which their respective school houses shall be located, on or before the first day of September next, a correct statement of the whole number of children residing in their di-trict on the first day of August preceding the date of such report, between the ages of four and twenty one; and such town superintendent shall embody such statement in a tabular form, and transmit the same to the county clerk in sufficient season to enable the latter to incorporate the information thus obtained in the annual report required by him to be made to the state superintendent of common schools for the present year.