d to $234,418.32, and three and a half millions of
acres of land unsold amounted, at the estimated price of forty cents per
acre, to $1,400,000 more; making together a fund with a capital of
$1,634,418.32. The income was estimated at $98,065.09. It was also
stated that there were 140,000 children in the state between the ages of
five and fifteen years, and it was therefore expected that the income of
the fund would permit a distribution to the towns of seventy cents for
each child between the afore-named ages. This certainly was a liberal
expectation, compared with the results that have been attained. The
distributive share of each child has amounted to only about one-third of
the sum then contemplated. The committee were careful to say, "It is not
intended, in establishing a school fund, to relieve towns and parents
from the principal expense of education; but to manifest our interest
in, and to give direction, energy, and stability to, institutions
essential to individual happiness and the public welfare." In
conclusion, the committee make the following inquiries and suggestions:

"Should not our common schools be brought nearer to their constitutional
guardians? Shall we not adopt measures which shall bind, in grateful
alliance, the youth to the governors of the commonwealth? We consider
the application, annually, of the interest of the proposed fund, as the
establishment of a direct communication betwixt the Legislature and the
schools; as each representative can carry home the bounty of the
government, and bring back from the schools returns of gratitude and
proficiency. They will then cheerfully render all such information as
the Legislature may desire. A new spirit would animate the community,
from which we might hope the most happy results. This endowment would
give the schools consequence and character, and would correct and
elevate the standard of education.

"Therefore, to preserve the purity, extend the usefulness, and
perpetuate the benefits of intelligence, we recommend that a fund be
constituted, and the distribution of the income so ordered as to open a
direct and more certain intercourse with the schools; believing that by
this measure their wants would be better understood and supplied, the
advantages of education more highly appreciated and improved, and the
blessings of wisdom, virtue, and knowledge, carried home to the fireside
of every family, to the bosom of every child." The bill reported by this