the excess
of one-half of the annual income over the current educational expenses.
The increase for the year 1856-7 was $4,142.90; and for the year 1857-8,
$1,843.68. With this resource only, and at this rate of increase, about
one hundred and sixty years will be required for the augmentation of the
capital to the maximum contemplated by existing laws. But the
educational wants of the state are such that even this scanty supply
must soon cease. It is then due to the magnitude of the proposition for
the considerable and speedy increase of the school fund, that its
necessity, if possible, or its utility, at least, should be
satisfactorily demonstrated; and it is for this purpose that I have
already presented a brief sketch of its history in connection with the
legislation of the commonwealth, and that I now proceed to set forth its
relations to the practical work of public instruction.

When the fund was instituted, public sentiment in regard to education
was lethargic, if not retrograding. The mere fact of the action of the
Legislature lent new importance to the cause of learning, inspired its
advocates with additional zeal, gave efficiency to previous and
subsequent legislation, and, as though there had been a new creation,
evoked order out of chaos.

Previous to 1834 there was no trustworthy information concerning the
schools of the state. The law of 1826, chapter 143, section 8, required
each town to make a report to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, of the
amount of money paid, the number of schools, the aggregate number of
months that the schools of each city and town were kept, the number of
male and female teachers, the whole number of pupils, the number of
private schools and academies and the number of pupils therein, the
amount of compensation paid to the instructors of private schools and
academies, and the number of persons between the ages of fourteen and
twenty-one years who were unable to read and write. The Legislature did
not provide a penalty for neglect of this provision, nor does there seem
to have been any just method of compelling obedience. The Secretary of
the Commonwealth sent out blank forms of returns, and replies were
received from two hundred and fourteen towns, while eighty-eight were
entirely silent.

The returns received furnish a series of interesting facts for the year
1826. There were one thousand seven hundred and twenty-six district
schools, supported at an expense of two hundred