schools the sum of one dollar
and twenty-five cents for each person between the ages of four and
sixteen years; and, by the law of 1849, chapter 117, the income was to
be apportioned among those towns which had raised by taxation the sum of
one dollar and fifty cents for the education of each person between the
ages of five and fifteen years. This provision is now in force. By an
act of the Legislature, passed April 15th, 1846, it was provided that
all sums of money which should thereafter be drawn from the treasury,
for educational purposes, should be considered as a charge upon the
moiety of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands set apart for
the purpose of constituting a school fund. This provision continued in
force until the reoerganization of the fund, in 1854. By the law of that
year (chap. 300), it was provided that one half of the annual income of
the fund should be apportioned and distributed among the towns according
to the then existing provisions of law, and that the educational
expenses before referred to should be chargeable to and paid from the
other half of the income of said fund. These provisions are now in
force.

The limitation of the act of 1834, establishing the fund, and of the
Revised Statutes, was removed by the law of 1851, chapter 112, and the
amount of the fund was then fixed at one million and five hundred
thousand dollars. By the act of 1854 the principal was limited to two
millions of dollars. The Constitutional Convention of 1853 had, with
great unanimity, declared it to be the duty of the Legislature to
provide for the increase of the school fund to the sum of two millions
of dollars; and, though the proposed constitution was rejected by the
people, the provision concerning the fund was generally, if not
universally, acceptable. Under these circumstances, the legislature of
1854 may be said to have acted in conformity to the known opinion and
purpose of the state.

On the 1st of June, 1858, the principal of the fund was $1,522,898.41,
including the sum of $1,843.68, added during the year preceding that
date. In this statement no notice is taken of the rights of the school
fund in the Western Railroad Loan Sinking Fund.

It may be observed that the committee of 1833 contemplated the
establishment of a fund, with a capital of $1,634,418.32, and yet, after
twenty-five years, the Massachusetts School Fund amounts to only
$1,522,898.41. Its present means of increase are limited to